From that day on, they became best friends. Until Dana got herself hooked up with the stick-up kid. And now, according to Officer Roberts, Dana was responsible for all the horrible things Lisa had been enduring. And after all the years she spent praying for that girl . . . Just went to show, some people never change. Dana went to prison for stealing, and now she had stolen from Lisa as well.

  Chapter 27

  When Dana got out of prison, she was determined to get her life back on track. But even though she put in applications every day, she received only a few callbacks. Once the background check came back and they discovered she was a felon . . . deal breaker. Heartbroken by a society that gladly imprisoned her for wrongdoings but refused to give her a second chance once she was released from prison, Dana was ready to give up.

  Her roommate, Yolanda, was working at a hair salon. She suggested Dana go to hair school. But Dana didn’t know where the money would come from.

  She went into her bedroom, sat on her bed with her back against the wall, brought her knees against her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Rocking back and forth, Dana cried for the little girl who’d once believed she could become somebody in this world. Cried for all the nights the lights were turned off on her and she was forced to go to bed whether she wanted to or not. Cried for the girl who got out of prison thinking she could make a new start.

  After hours of crying, Dana took a few napkins off her dresser, wiped her face, and blew her nose. She then noticed the envelope containing her photos sticking out of her purse. The store had been able to develop the film after all, even though it had been four years since the pictures were taken.

  She grabbed the envelope. Sitting back on her bed, Dana began to thumb through memories of the people she hung out with on Lewis and Halsey. She smiled as she saw the pictures of Shayla, Jasmine, and Lisa. Those had been her girls a few years back.

  But Lisa had been the one shining light in her life. The one person who tried to steer her in the right direction. She missed that girl . . . wondered what Lisa was up to now . . . wondered why she never wrote to her while she was in prison. She was sure Lisa had graduated from college by now.

  Lisa had a bright life ahead of her. That girl was lucky. She had good parents. Had been raised right and set up for success while Dana had been left to raise herself. But Dana obviously didn’t know what she was doing since she couldn’t even get a job.

  She continued flipping through her photos, even smiling at the pictures of her and Derrick. She had once tried to capture the beauty in life with her camera, but now the world was like a dark, dark canvas with no love, no light . . . no beauty.

  When she reached the last two photos, Dana sat up in bed, absolutely stunned as she gawked at pictures of Lisa’s state ID and Social Security card. What in the world? She didn’t take pictures of Lisa’s documents. How did they get there?

  Tapping her fingers on her comforter, her mind drifted back to one hot summer day when Mr. Adams unscrewed the fire hydrant and let them jump in the water to cool off. With the commotion from Vida overdosing, no one noticed Jasmine stealing her camera and Lisa’s purse. But Dana knew Jasmine had done it. She went to her apartment to get her and Lisa’s stuff back.

  Dana had returned Lisa’s purse to her, but she never imagined Jasmine had thought to take photos of Lisa’s personal information—personal information that was needed when applying for a job or a loan.

  Her fingers tapped against the comforter again. Dana was sure Lisa wouldn’t have a problem getting a job. Her background check wouldn’t come back showing a prison record. Her old friend had gotten a scholarship to college, so financial aid for hair school shouldn’t be a problem.

  Maybe the world wasn’t as dark as she thought. Maybe she would have to find beauty in her own way, and once she did, she would make this world glow for her.

  “And that’s when I knew what I was going to do. I was going to become Lisa Whitaker and get some respect in this world.” Dana sat on the sofa next to Jeff. She finally opened up and told him why she decided to steal Lisa’s identity. He deserved the truth.

  Jeff was pacing the floor as she recounted events from her past. “I don’t get it.” He rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. “I mean, I get things were bad for you, especially since you had been in prison.”

  He stopped pacing, turned to her with an accusatory finger wagging in her face. “Another thing you didn’t tell me about.”

  “I’m sorry, Jeff. I know I should have told you.” She lifted her hands, then let them drop to her sides as her head dipped in shame. “I couldn’t.”

  “I married you, Dana. I’m building a life with you. How could you not tell me about your past?”

  She didn’t like the way he was looking at her. It reminded her of the way he looked at Jasmine when she asked them for money. Dana’s heart constricted as tears rolled down her face. “This is why I couldn’t tell you about my past!” she yelled at him. “I knew you would think the worst of me.” She got up and stormed out of the living room. Slammed the bedroom door and locked it.

  Jeff followed her. He turned the doorknob. “We’re not finished talking about this. Be an adult and come back out here.”

  “No!” she yelled. “I’m not going to work today, and you can sleep on the sofa when you get back home.”

  * * *

  Dana meant what she said. She wasn’t planning to speak to Jeff for at least a week. But when he didn’t come home after work, she got worried and started blowing up his cell phone. He didn’t answer. Dana called his parents’ home.

  Patricia answered. Dana was a little embarrassed, but she hadn’t heard from Jeff all day, and it was almost nine o’clock at night. She didn’t know if he had left the house and gotten hit by a bus . . . a car . . . a train . . . She didn’t know, so she said, “Hey, Patricia, I hate to bother you this late at night, but I haven’t heard from Jeff, and—”

  “Are you telling me Jeff didn’t let you know he was over here?” Patricia tsk-tsked. “Jeffrey wasn’t feeling well, so Junior picked up his medicine at the pharmacy and has been sitting with him since he got off work.”

  “Does he need to go to the hospital, or is he doing better?” Dana didn’t think she could take any more bad news. She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer. Please let him be okay.

  “He’s doing better. It’s a flu bug. Let me get Junior for you.”

  Dana didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she opened her mouth to say thank you and a whoosh of air escaped.

  Jeff came to the phone. “Hey.”

  He sounded dry, like he thought he was picking up a telemarketer call. “Jeff, it’s me. Why are you sounding like that?”

  “Did you need something?”

  She took the phone away from her ear and looked at it. He had never been so dismissive of her. When she put the phone back to her ear she said, “I was worried. I hadn’t heard from you.” When he didn’t respond, she said, “Come home, Jeff. I need you.”

  He whispered into the phone, “Are you ready to talk, or do you have the sofa made up for me?”

  The way he had looked at her made her feel like nothing. So, she’d told him to sleep on the sofa. It reminded her of the way she felt when she was younger. “I know you’re upset, but this isn’t easy for me.”

  “It’s not easy for me either. Remember, we promised to tell each other everything. But now it seems like I don’t really know you at all.”

  Her heart hurt so bad she wanted to scream. Dana’s life had finally started going in the right direction, and she had Jeff to thank for that. She couldn’t face what was to come without him. “No more secrets, Jeff. I promise I’ll tell you everything. Come home.”

  * * *

  It was almost midnight when Jeff made it home. They sat on the sofa staring at each other, saying nothing for long stretches. Jeff scratched his forehead, then told her, “I guess I’m having trouble with this. I’ve told you everything about my past . . . but I didn’t even know you had been in prison. I think that’s something I should have known.”

  Deep, heavy sigh. “I should have told you about my past, but I was so terrified, thinking you might not see me the same way.”

  “You never gave me the chance.” Jeff put his hands to his face and rubbed the line of his chin. “I don’t know you.”

  Fighting back tears, Dana’s hand went to her chest. “I’m the same person you fell in love with. I haven’t changed.”

  His eyes bored into her. His lips twisted like he wasn’t so sure.

  She held up her hand. “Okay, I told you about the day I watched the guy I was dating die, but what I didn’t tell you was that he was a thief. And one day he decided to rob a pizza parlor. He asked me to be his lookout. Honestly, I didn’t want to do it, but I was a stupid eighteen-year-old kid.”

  “So he died, and you got arrested?” Jeff said.

  She nodded. “Exactly what happened. I didn’t rob anyone, but the courts didn’t care. They knew I was with Derrick, and I paid for it.”

  “So you’re telling me you went to prison for four years for someone else’s crime and then when you got out, you decided to steal Lisa’s identity?” He shook his head. “I guess I don’t understand.”

  Dana’s lips tightened. She felt completely out of her league with this husband of hers who never knew what it was like to be so low you’d do anything to get back up. “I was frantic. I’m sure you’ve always known where you were going to lay your head at night and how you were going to pay the rent, but I didn’t. I got desperate and did a stupid thing.”

  Jeff put a hand on Dana’s arm. “I’m not trying to judge you. I know your life wasn’t any kind of fairy tale growing up, but this is not going away, babe. Your friend was on the news for several days about debts they thought she owed. The reporters will come after you when the truth comes out.”

  Dana didn’t want to cry anymore. To her, it seemed she had been crying about her lot in life since she was a child. But a tear rolled down her face despite her protest. “I paid off everything I put on Lisa’s credit. I should have done it when I started making money, but everything has been moving so fast, I let it slip.”

  Jeff wiped the tear away. “One of the elders at the church I grew up attending is a criminal attorney. I’m going to call him in the morning to see if we can put him on retainer in case we need him.”

  Dana didn’t want to think about attorneys or police. What she wanted to do was stick her head in the sand and pretend like everything was still okay, even if it wasn’t.

  “Babe, the police aren’t going to give up. From the way Officer Roberts was talking, it sounds like he knows you did it. We need to get in front of this.”

  Dana wasn’t the same broke kid who grew up in Bed-Stuy needing someone to share their sandwich with her. She had money now. Life should be better, but it felt like she kept coming up on the losing end. “Give me a couple of days. I need to think about this.”

  Jeff agreed, but unfortunately for Dana, time had run out.

  * * *

  The next day, while she was in the office conducting a meeting about adding more employees in the manufacturing department, Officer Roberts entered the room.

  Dana turned to look at him. “I’m in a meeting. If you have any more questions for me, it will have to wait.”

  Officer Roberts took out his handcuffs. “This can’t wait,” he told Dana as he walked over to her. “Stand up, please.”

  Flashes of iron bars, dirty cots, and deep, deep darkness burst inside her head. Kim came running into the room. “I tried to stop him, Dana. He wouldn’t wait.”

  “What are you doing?” Dana touched her protruding belly, blinked a couple of times as she focused on the handcuffs he was holding.

  “I’m not going to ask you to stand up again.”

  Dana stood, the size of her belly causing her to lean backward a bit. “I don’t understand. My husband told you to speak with our attorney.” They hadn’t actually hired an attorney yet, but that was the last thing they had said to Officer Roberts.

  Dana faced the officer, the same way she had stood in front of corrections officers as they patted her down and caused her to feel more animal than human. He turned her around and put the cuffs on her wrists. “Dana Williams, you are being charged with identity theft.”

  Collective gasps were heard around the table.

  “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law . . .”

  Dana scanned the room. Her employees averted their eyes or raised their eyebrows as they sat around the conference room table watching as she was walked out. She started trembling.

  Kim seemed frantic as they passed by her. “This is crazy. You can’t come in here and arrest Mrs. Williams.”

  Correct, Dana thought. She wasn’t the same eighteen-year-old, know-nothing girl. She couldn’t let the police and the court system do whatever they wanted to her. Not this time. Her eyes met Kim’s, and she said, “Call my husband. Tell him to bring our attorney to the precinct.”

  She wouldn’t throw herself on the mercy of the court this time. Dana had learned the hard way that the court system didn’t care about the circumstances leading up to her crime. They would judge her only by what she had done in her past. But she wasn’t going to go down in flames without a fight. Not this time.

  Chapter 28

  Jeff hired an attorney and bailed her out of jail. “I need you to stay calm,” Jeff told her. “I’m going to get you home so you can rest.”

  After being booked and then put inside a room with iron bars, Dana needed more than rest. She wanted a drink—anything to numb her mind. The baby was still inside her, so she couldn’t do anything like that. But every day she grew more stressed until one night she got up from bed to use the bathroom and the floodgates opened. She turned to her husband with fear in her eyes. “I think my water broke.”

  “What? No way. You’re only eight months.” He walked around to the side of the bed where she was standing, saw the puddle on the floor, and his mouth gaped. “This can’t be happening.”

  Dana sat back on the bed. “Call my doctor, and get my hospital bag.”

  Jeff ran around the apartment. He called the doctor, called a cab, then put a few extra items Dana requested in her suitcase. He then helped her off the bed, held on to her arm, and walked her to the front door.

  Dana sucked in a breath. “This is going to be good, right? We’re ready for this.”

  “Yes, baby, this is better than good.”

  “And we’re going to be good parents. Our child will not want for anything.”

  “Nothing,” Jeff agreed.

  They got in the cab and headed to the hospital. She was a month early, but the baby was coming. She was going to love this child in all the ways she’d never been loved. She was going to be there for her child and never, never let her baby down. She could do this with Jeff by her side. She wouldn’t fail her child.

  * * *

  “Push! Push!”

  Jeff was in her ear telling her to push, but she was tired and wanted to sleep. But the pain was so severe, she couldn’t close her eyes for more than a second before she would feel another jolt. It left her whole body reeling in pain. “I’m trying,” she cried.

  She’d been in labor for twelve hours. This felt more like torture than what she imagined labor would be like. Why wouldn’t her baby come on out? “Argh!” she screamed as another pain hit her. Panting several times, she positioned her body so she could give one more push.

  “I see the head. Keep pushing,” Dr. Lark instructed.

  “It hurts,” Dana cried out.

  Jeff wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I know it hurts, baby, but give us one more big push. Try, okay?” He kissed her forehead.

  She blew out hot air and then grunted as she pushed. She was about to pass out—no, not pass out. She was about to die. She wouldn’t be here to greet her baby. She was going to die right on this bed.

  “Got him,” Dr. Lark said as the baby slid out.

  Dana flopped, totally drained. She looked at Jeff. “Did he say ‘him’?”

  The baby started crying as the nurse cleaned him up. Jeff was beaming. “He sure did. We have ourselves a baby boy!”

  “Are you serious? Bring him here. I want to see him.” In a matter of moments, Dana went from the kind of excruciating pain where she thought she was about to die to being overjoyed at her child was now in the world.

  “I’ll bring him to you,” the nurse said. “Give me a few more minutes to clean him up.”

  Jeff held her hand. “You did it, honey.” He bent down to kiss her. “I love you so much. Thank you.”

  “I love you too.” Her eyes were drooping. Sleep was finally taking over, but she didn’t want to sleep now, not before she saw her baby. “I’m falling asleep, Jeff. Wake me when they bring the baby.”

  “I will, don’t you worry.”

  She yawned. “Are we naming him Jeffrey?”

  Jeff shook his head. “Our little boy is a gift from God. I want to name him Judah.”

  Dana didn’t know what the name Judah had to do with God, but she liked the sound of it. As she closed her eyes she said, “Judah.”

  * * *

  She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping, but Jeff nudged her. “Wake up. Judah wants to see you.” He nudged her again. “Dana.”

  Her eyes fluttered open. Jeff was holding the baby. He was wrapped tight in blankets. Jeff laid him on her chest. She looked down at her newborn baby and saw him as the best part of her—something good she had created. She started crying. “He’s beautiful!”

  Later in the day Jeff Senior and Patricia came to see the baby. They sat in Dana’s hospital room oohing and aahing over Judah.

  “He’s so precious,” Patricia said.

  Jeff’s dad nodded in agreement. “Our first grandbaby. And they named him Judah. Well, I’ll be.”

  Dana turned to Jeff, who was sitting next to her bed holding her hand. “What is so special about the name Judah?” Her eyebrow lifted. “I don’t get it.”