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  “Ahh, this is a huge bottle! I needed more! Thank you so much, Ken and Travis.”

  “Last but not least,” I smiled and passed her the box from Samuel and me.

  She took the box and tore into it. She pulled out the new Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote.

  “Oh my goodness! Is this real?”

  “Yes,” I chuckled.

  “Look inside,” Samuel said.

  Mommy opened the bag and pulled out a small picture frame.

  “What is…” Mommy gasped then looked at me. “Is this…?”

  She turned the frame around to show the family. I’d gotten my ultrasound picture framed for her.

  “You’re having a baby?” Mommy said.

  “You’re pregnant? Keeva asked.

  “What the…” Kenzie said as they all came towards me.

  I nodded my head.

  “Oh my goodness,” Mommy said as she pulled me up and looked at my stomach which was starting to show a little pudge, but it was barely noticeable. “Vee! How far along are you? When are you due? How do you feel?”

  “I just finished my first trimester. We just found out a couple weeks ago. I would have told you sooner, but I wanted to save it for your birthday. I’m due in six more months, and I feel good now. I went through hell with the morning sickness, but that has passed.”

  “Wow, I never figured you would be the one to get knocked up first. Or wait…” Keeva looked up in thought, “Maybe I did.”

  Kenzie laughed then whispered, “Fass ass.”

  We laughed.

  “Congrats Key, we are about to be some bomb as…” Kenzie paused remembering where we were. “I mean really great aunties!”

  “We are! I am going to hold a spot in the baby room at the daycare right now for our little bundle of joy!” Keeva said.

  “Daddy, you’re quiet,” I said after realizing he hadn’t said anything.

  “I don’t know what to say. My baby is having a baby. It feels like I just brought you home from the hospital and now you are going to be a mom. I’m blown away.”

  He stood and pulled me into his arms and hugged me.

  “Samuel,” Daddy said extending his hand. “Congratulations, your life is about to change in ways you never imagined.”

  “Thank you, Wendell. I’m looking forward to it. There is one more thing we would like to share with you.”

  Samuel must have been reading my mind because I was figuring we might as well tell them everything.

  “Averie and I, because I insisted…”

  “And I wanted to,” I added.

  “…got married,” Samuel finished.

  Everyone in the room made some type of gasping noise.

  “What? When? Why?” Mommy rambled.

  “I love Averie more than anything. I wanted to get married soon after I asked her but she was insistent that we wait so that we would not interfere with Ken and Travis. I agreed even though marrying her was one of the reasons I fought to wake back up. Then she told me that we were having a little king or queen, I couldn’t wait. I want my child born to my wife and me. And God forbid something else were to happen, I needed to make sure she was taken care of. So, I’m sorry Wendell that I went around you on this. Ms. Estelle, we will have a ceremony after the baby is born and you can have an unlimited budget for planning, but right now, I needed my wife.”

  “I understand, Samuel. You make sure you take care of my baby. My hands are older, but you still don’t want them,” Daddy said.

  “I plan on making sure she is well taken care of. Thank you for understanding,” Samuel said as he and my dad embraced.

  “I’m so happy,” Mommy wiped her tears.

  “Mommy are you happy for Vee or for that unlimited budget you’ve just been given?” Keeva asked.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Also, we are going to take a girls trip to New York to look for Keeva’s dress and do some shopping. I’ve already planned it and invited Vivian, Torrey, and Coco.”

  “Yasss, dress shopping in New York!” Kenzie shimmied.

  Samuel

  “Hey Momma,” I said as I entered her house.

  “Hey baby. Hey Averie,” Mom said, “I was surprised to get a call from you. I was just rearranging some of these old photo albums. Some of the pages are wearing out, and the pictures are falling out. Come on and have a seat. Do you want something to drink or eat?”

  “No thank you, we just ate over at Estelle’s. It was her birthday dinner.”

  “Oh right. She and I planned a dinner date when she and Wendell return from their trip. I will take her to my favorite boutique and let them pick out something fabulous for her.”

  “She is going to love that,” Averie said. “Who is this on this picture? She looks just like you?”

  “That’s my Aunt Cloris, my mother’s oldest sister. People always told me I was her spitting image. She was mean! Do you remember her at all Samuel?”

  “A little. I remember that we never wanted to go to her house because we couldn’t do anything except sit and watch the news,” I recalled.

  “Yeah, she loved having you and Torrey over though. She never had grandkids, so she always claimed you both as her own.”

  “She passed?” Averie asked.

  “She did. She was over one hundred. They say the mean ones live forever. She almost proved them right!” Mom chuckled, “So, what brings you both by? Are you finally going to tell me about my grandbaby that’s coming?”

  Averie and I looked at each other.

  “Did my mother call you?” Averie asked.

  “No, we haven’t spoken today,” Mom answered.

  “Then how did you know that’s what we were about to say?”

  “I dreamt about fish and knew that it wasn’t Torrey or me, so it had to be you.”

  “Momma, fish? For real?”

  “For real. That’s how I knew both times I was pregnant. Aunt Cloris dreamt about fish too and confirmed it. It’s just something that runs in the family.”

  “When did you have the dream?”

  “About six weeks ago.”

  “And you didn’t say anything?”

  “I wanted to wait for you to tell me. Congratulations. I am so happy!”

  She hugged Averie then hugged me.

  “Now you have so I can show you what I got.”

  She jumped up from her chair and went into the other room. She came back into the room with a bassinet on wheels filled with yellow and white clothes, and she carried a diaper bag on her arm.

  “Vivian!”

  “Mom!”

  Both Averie and I spoke at the same time.

  “What! I need to get my stuff early. I’m fixing up the room next to mine for my grandbaby because I plan on having frequent sleepovers. That’s why I asked Estelle to dinner because we will have to work out a schedule.”

  Both Averie and I laughed.

  “This poor kid and his grammies!”

  Averie

  “What the heck!” I yelled.

  I stared at the list of emails I’d received.

  “What’s wrong?” Liddy ran into the office.

  “I’ve got all these declined transactions on the business account. Something is going on, and I can’t get in touch with Freda.”

  “Here, let me try and call her secretary,” Liddy said rushing out the office.

  She returned a few minutes later.

  “Vee, no one has seen Freda.”

  “What do you mean no one has seen Freda?”

  “Like they are looking for her too. It is complete chaos in her office, and more than one account is having the same problem.”

  My email alerts were ringing so often that I had to mute my computer, so I could think.

  I logged into my bank account to see exactly what was happening. I typed in my username and password. Big red words flashed on the screen: Access Denied.

  “What in the entire hell!”

  I tried the password again. Same result.

&
nbsp; I dialed the bank’s number and answered all the stupid voice prompts before I was finally connected to a real person.

  I gave her all the same information that I gave the voice prompts before she politely said, “How may I help you, Ms. Patterson?”

  “I’ve received several emails stating that there are insufficient funds in my business account to cover the transactions then when I tried to get to my account online, it said my access was denied.”

  “Okay, ma’am let me check and see what is happening.”

  She kept me on hold for several minutes before she came back on the phone and informed me that she would have to transfer me to someone else. The next person came on the line, and I had to go through all the verification questions before I went through the process of telling him the exact same story I told the other person. He put me on hold for several minutes. I wanted to jump through the phone and slap every employee of the bank. I knew that it wasn’t their fault, but they were not making this any easier.

  “Ms. Patterson?”

  “Yes?”

  “You don’t have enough money in your account to cover the transactions that tried to come through.”

  “I know that! That is the reason for my call. I am trying to find out what is going on. I have several deposits that hit that account at the beginning of each month that more than covers the automatic transactions that come out the account. Also, my payroll has to come from that account tomorrow. Are you telling me that it won’t be covered?”

  “Right now, your account is negative ninety thousand dollars. That does not include the fees that will be attached to each transaction that was declined. You don’t have access to your account because it looks like some fraudulent behavior is happening and it’s been forwarded to our fraud department. They will contact you within five business days to discuss your account. Would you like to make a deposit to bring your account back into good standing?”

  I hung up the phone. He was about to get the tongue lashing of his life, and all he was doing was his job. I was glad that I stopped myself because I was about to call him every name in the book.

  “LIDDY!”

  “Yes?” she said as she ran back into my office.

  “Any word on Freda?”

  “Nope. I will keep trying though.”

  “You know what? Get me Countee on the phone and ask Laila to come here please.”

  A few minutes later Laila walked into my office. She’d been at lunch.

  “I’m sorry to pull you from lunch but I called Countee, and he is on his way over here. I think something may have happened to Freda.”

  “Freda the flirt? What she got a man so she can stop cheezing in Countee’s face?”

  “Laila, I’m serious. My business account has been drained and Freda is the only person that can tell me exactly what happened.”

  “What do mean drained?”

  “I mean empty. Like one day there were several hundred thousand dollars in it, and today it’s negative tens of thousands.”

  “Okay, calm down. Sit down. We will figure this out,” Laila said while gently pushing me into my chair.

  She pulled out her tablet and started typing away on it while I watched email after email come in from the bank. After a short wait, Laila’s phone rang.

  “It’s Countee,” she said while connecting the call.

  “I sent one of the guys over to her house. Freda was unconscious in her basement. Someone gave her some type of drug and locked her down there. Based on her home alarm she has been down there for about two days.”

  “Is she going to make it?”

  “She should be fine. The ambulance is on the way. I am headed there now. Averie, call Samuel and fill him in. Laila stick close to Vee.”

  Samuel

  I rushed down the hall to the elevator as soon as Averie called me. I jabbed the button until the door finally opened then jabbed the twelfth-floor button until it opened on Patterson Law’s floor. I rounded the corner and saw Liddy at her desk talking to someone on the phone. She waved me in, and I walked into Averie’s office. Averie was sitting on the couch in the office with her head against the back of it.

  “What’s going on?” I said looking between Averie and Laila.

  “My accounts have been hacked. I thought it was just my main business account, but it’s also my account where we hold all the money in escrow. It’s all gone.”

  “Did you call your accountant?”

  “She is on her way to the hospital. Someone drugged her and locked her in the basement of her own house.”

  “What?” I looked at Laila for confirmation.

  “Yeah, the paramedics said she was close to overdosing. Her vitals are low, but they believe she will make it,” Laila confirmed.

  “Baby, all my money to run my business is gone. I can’t make payroll, pay for utilities or even pay rent. All the accounts are negative. If someone finds out that the money in the escrow accounts is missing, that’s grounds for disbarment.”

  I sat down next to her on the couch. I pulled her close to me while I formulated a plan to at least patch things up until we could get to the bottom of things.

  “Laila, can you call Paxton Bluette? I will need to speak with him and his wife, Olivia.”

  “Sure thing.”

  She took out her phone and hit a button which dialed the number.

  “I have them on speed dial. Faster access to my god babies,” Laila explained.

  “Hello?” A male voice spoke.

  “DT!” Laila said. “I have you on speaker so don’t be stupid. I am here with Samuel and his wi…fiancé Averie. Is Olivia around? Samuel needs to speak with both of you.”

  “Ollie! Can you come here for a minute? We have a call,” Paxton called out.

  A few minutes later Olivia said, “Hi Samuel, I am here. Hi Averie!”

  “Hi, Ollie. How are those beautiful babies?” Averie returned.

  “Busy! Thanks for asking,” Olivia answered.

  I explained the whole situation to the Bluettes. I knew that Paxton was a talented accountant because he’d been handling the investment group financials for me. He bragged that his wife could run circles around him in accounting, so I felt it was important for both of them to hear the situation.

  “Count actually talked to me about looking at some of the paperwork from this Freda woman, but we never followed up,” Paxton said.

  “I will get you all the paperwork and access that you need to find out exactly what happened at her firm. In the meantime, we need solutions to fix Averie’s financial problem.”

  “Are we the only ones on this call?” Paxton asked.

  “It’s just us, Pax,” Laila confirmed.

  “Take me off speaker and give the phone to Samuel.”

  Laila handed me the phone.

  “Look, there is a way to make the money look like it’s there until we come up with some solutions to get it there. I will have one of our old team members put the escrow money back in the account, but not really. Ollie and I will brainstorm and give you some options in the morning. Tell Averie we got it handled.”

  “Alright, Pax. I will speak with you in the morning,” I said and disconnected the call.

  “What did he say?” Averie asked as soon I handed the phone back to Laila.

  “He said they would look at some solutions and get back to me tomorrow. They will come up with something. I know it’s easier said than done but try not to worry. I don’t want my son born with a receding hairline.”

  “Samuel…” she pouted.

  “I’m serious, baby. It will be handled.”

  “I guess I will have to call the family and let them know that we can’t make the New York trip. I have too much going on here.”

  “Oh no, you don’t. We are going to leave so you can pack. You are going on that trip. I will handle this for you, I promise.”

  “El, I can’t just leave when my business is falling apart!”

  “Nothing is falling apart, lov
e. Trust me. It will be handled.”

  The men in the family stood side by side as my jet taxied down the runway. We’d just sent all the women in the family; Averie, Mom, Torrey, Estelle, Keeva, Kenzie, and Coco to New York. Princess had to stay behind with Princeton.

  “Welp, let’s try to stay out of trouble gentlemen until they return,” Wendell said. “I am about to go eat all the junk Estelle won’t let me eat while she is around. See y’all in a couple days.”

  My phone ringed.

  “Pax, what’s up?”

  “I have a way for you to fix Averie’s problem but it’s going to take a bit of sacrifice on your part.”

  “I want to get it taken care of so whatever it takes.”

  “I figured you would say that so here is the plan.”

  Averie

  Check your accounts – Samuel

  I quickly logged into my bank accounts, and all of them were the way they were supposed to be pre-attack.

  What did you do?

  I told you I would handle it. Now enjoy yourself. – Samuel

  I love you.

  I love you too. – Samuel

  We sat through three hours of Kenzie trying on dresses. Mommy wanted her to try on ball gowns because she wanted her to be a classic bride. The attendant brought out several ballgowns, and Kenzie tried them all on. She didn’t like any of them, and we didn’t either, including Mommy. Mommy stepped back and let Kenzie try on the type of dress she wanted to wear. She came from the back of the store and walked to the pedestal. We all stopped talking to take in how beautiful she looked in the lace mermaid gown that she had chosen for herself. I felt tears welling up and cursed the pregnancy hormones. I hated crying.

  “Oh my goodness, Ken. You are stunning,” Vivian said.

  “You really are baby,” Mommy said.

  “This is by far the best one you’ve tried on,” Torrey said.

  “It doesn’t matter how much this one costs. If you want it, I will put in on it,” Coco added.

  Kenzie looked at herself in the mirror.