Page 5

“Thank God and good riddance. He was not the man for you,” her father said after Myla mentioned that her former fiancé was now a married man.

Whether she was hurt or not, her father refused to do the customary, “I’m sorry to hear that. It’ll be OK,” line. He was too old school for that. Dr. Pleasant did not believe in mincing words. He said what he meant and meant what he said.

“Daddy, I can’t believe you said that. We were together for three years and engaged to be married. How are you just going to say good riddance?” Myla asked.

“Sweetheart, you know me. I might tell a joke; I’ll never tell a lie. I meant every bit of that good riddance. That man was no good for you. He had a sneaky demeanor, like he had something to hide. He never made eye contact; it was as if he was ashamed of something. You can’t trust a person like that. I’m glad he’s out of your life. Best of luck to him and his wife,” he said nonchalantly.

Myla shook her head. There was no need to look for sympathy from her father because she knew she’d never find it.

“I can always count on you and your honesty, Daddy.”

“Sweetheart, you are my only child. My pride and joy, and I love you very much. Your true happiness is all that will ever matter to me. The day you introduced your mother and me to that knucklehead, I knew he was not the man to receive your I Do. I know you may not believe me, but God removed him from your life before he could do anything detrimental.

“He cleared the riffraff on New Year’s Eve, so you won’t go into the new year with any baggage or bullshit. The Bible says: Touch not my anointed ones. It was talking about you. Anything that was set to do you harm, known or unknown, God removed it,” her father admitted.

Myla blushed. Her father always knew the right things to say. Truthfully, she wasn’t hurt by the breakup. She had experienced breakups before. It was a part of dating that she could accept. But in this situation, her pride had been broken.

“You’re right, Dad. I’m going with Miranda to a NYE party tonight. Do you have any plans?” Myla asked as she strolled through her Instagram, unfollowing people and businesses that she didn’t regularly interact with.

“Yes, I do. Your mother and I will carry on the tradition of…well, look at this beautiful face. Myla, Sweetheart, I’ll call you back. The apple of my eye just walked into my office,” he said happily.

Myla smiled because she could hear the smile in his voice. She loved how after forty years of marriage, her parents still used pet names for each other. She knew the years hadn’t been easy, but her parents made the forty years look like a cakewalk.

“I pray me and my next man can get it right.” Myla laughed.

The laughter died when she saw her parents’ home number flash across her phone screen a mere two hours after talking to her dad. In the past, anytime her mom left her father’s office, she’d go on spa days and mini shopping sprees. Those trips normally took four or five hours, minimum. So, the fact that her mom had cut her spa day short had Myla alarmed.

Sliding the green phone icon to the right to answer, Myla was caught off guard by the loud wails that came from her cell. Her heart dropped, and her nerves were instantly rattled because she had no idea what was going on.

“Ma, what’s wrong?”

“I need you to come home now!” Linda cried. She was hysterical.

Her words came out so jerky that if Myla hadn’t known any better, she’d assume her mother was hyperventilating.

“Come home? Mommy, what’s wrong?” Myla asked as she muted the television and sat straight up.

She had never heard her mother sound this way. She refused to ask if everything was OK because she could tell that things weren’t. Linda was from the old school. Showing this type of emotion publicly was not something she’d ever do. She believed in being modest and proper, even if the emotions were attributed to heartbreak and pain.

“Ma, what’s—”

“I need you to come home. It’s…it’s your father, baby.”

Time felt as though it had stopped when she heard the phrase, it’s your father. Hearing her mother’s apparent distress, Myla knew the news was not good.

“What do you mean it’s Daddy? I just spoke with him two hours ago. Did something happen when you were in the office?” Myla asked as she tried to calm herself down.

She didn’t want to overthink or overreact, but she didn’t believe anything serious could happen in two hours. Linda was distraught, but that question instantly made the tears stop flowing.

“What are you talking about, Piggy?”

Ice water ran down Myla’s back when she heard her childhood nickname. As a child, when her mother called her "Piggy," it indicated she had done or said something she shouldn’t have. It meant a meeting with a belt was soon to follow. Hearing Piggy still made her proceed with caution.

Though her years of getting spanked were over, the mental scars had never escaped her. Shaking the thought of yesteryear from her head, Myla proceeded to answer her mother’s question.

“When I was on the phone with Daddy, he said he’d call me back because the apple of his eye had just walked in the office. What happened when you were there?” Myla asked, oblivious to the anger that had replaced the grief in Linda’s cracked heart.

“It’s Thursday, Myla. I’m homeschooling the third graders as I’ve done for the past thirty years,” Linda’s voice shook from both betrayal and anger.