Page 50 of Double

“Double,” Mama Passion began softly.

“Nah. I’m not lettin’ my wife go back to Iredia.”

“Letting me?”

He turned to face me, his hand still resting on my leg. “I didn’t mean it like that, Sweetheart. I didn’t mean that it’s my decision, and my choice is no.”

I was pretty confident that he hadn’t meant it the way it came out. Still, after having been controlled by a man who thought he knew better than I did what was best for my life, I had to have clarification.

“What I meant,” he continued, “is that I don’t like the idea of you going back there. It ain’t safe for you, which means it ain’t safe for nobody that tries you on that island.” He looked across the table at his grandfather. “If something happens to my wife, somebody’s dyin’.”

“Please. Nobody should be dying,” I told him.

He didn’t respond, but the look he gave me said everything that needed to be said.

I looked at Mr. Hill and switched the subject. “Would Judge Bosco be willing to forward the paperwork here?”

“Right,” Mama Passion seconded. “Maybe she can have it notarized up here and send it back.”

Mr. Hill shook his head. “He’s demanding to see her in person . . . with her Iredian-issued identification in hand. That’s the only way he’ll agree to release the funds.”

“So, if I don’t go back, then what? The money just . . . sits there? I don’t understand.”

“If you don’t go back, Granddaughter, the money will sit there for a period of twenty years. After that, it will become the property of the island of Iredia.”

“How much is the inheritance? I’ll drop that money in your bank account tomorrow morning after I move some stuff around.” Double’s light-brown eyes blazed with something I’d never seen in them.

Shortly after I’d arrived in America, he had presented me with the debit card to a bank account he’d had set up for me and funded. He had also given me several credit cards attached to his accounts for my use.

“Fuck that inheritance.”

“Double!” Mama Passion seemed surprised by his words.

He stood from the table. “Gimme a second.” He paused, seeming to remember that this was supposed to be like a dry run of the upcoming event. “Excuse me.” He walked away from the table.

Mr. Hill watched him go silently.

Mr. Waters took his napkin from his lap, sighed, and started to stand. “Let me talk to him.”

“No.” I quickly stood from my chair. “No. Let me talk to him.”

Mr. Waters looked dubious.

“Let his woman talk to him, Jinx. Sometimes, only your woman has the words you need to hear.”

Mr. Waters retook his seat while I moved away from mine. I didn’t know Mr. Hill and Lynne’s house at all. Still, when I landed in the kitchen, the chef gestured toward a door that looked like it led to a patio. I stepped out onto an oversized deck. Double stood at the railing, looking out at a pond in the distance.

“Double.”

When he heard my voice, he turned toward me and motioned for me to come to him. I did, and he caught me in his arms, placing a kiss on the top of my head. “I know,” he said before I even had a chance to speak. “That’s your money, and you gotta go get it. Me replacing your money with my money probably ain’t what you want.”

“Honestly, that’s not even what I care about. I don’t want you having to come out of pocket to replace money that my father died making.” I looked up at him.

“I don’t care about comin’ outta pocket. What I care about is you going back to Iredia. Until that Gillespie nigga is dead, you aren’t safe on that island.”

I shook my head, getting pissed off at the thoughts in my mind. “That island. My damn island,” I said. “I was born and raised on that island. I played on that island, . . . swam, laughed, and learned there. I graduated university on that island and even started a business on that island with my best friend. Now, I can’t contact her, because she’s under surveillance. I can’t go see a lawyer about my own inheritance on my own home island. How can I not be safe there? Why would my own aunt put me in this position?” I started to cry. It was the first time I’d cried since my first week in America. I was wrapped up in an embrace before the first tear made it down my face.

“Let me take you back to the house, Sweetheart.” Double’s voice was soft and soothing. More often than not, the husband I married to avoid the husband I was supposed to marry knew exactly the right thing to say to me.