Free Money-Makin' Mamas by Smooth Silk Page B

didn’t work for me either, and I really had to put a plan in action to get rid of his ass, especially after he molested Chyna.
    After that day, I knew what I had to do. It was inevitable and timing was everything. I plotted revenge with Chyna and only her. Simone and Karrine were wussies when it came to Ray. They let him get away with too much shit, as I had done. I didn’t like that one bit, because what you allow yo’ daddy to do, you will allow any man to do. So without nobody knowing it, Chyna handled things like only she knew how.
    She called me on the phone while I was cooking fish for dinner in the oversized kitchen in our townhouse. It was spacious, with four bedrooms and three levels. I slept in the upstairs bedroom, Chyna slept on the lower level, and Simone and Karrine shared the second floor. We all had privacy. That was a good thing because I didn’t want my girls to think I was crowding their space. As I turned the crispy fish cooking in hot grease, Chyna whispered to me.
    â€œMama, are you still there?”
    â€œYes, I am, Chyna. I was just trying to finish dinner.”
    â€œWell, I just parked in front of his house. I want you to hear this shit go down, so don’t hang up.”
    I didn’t hang up, but I put the phone on speakerphone so I could get done cooking before Simone and Karrine came home. I wanted Chyna to have something to fill her belly with too. Lord knows she deserved it. We had planned this for months. Chyna wanted to do this, and out of all of my kids, she was the brave one. I couldn’t think of a better person to kill that fool, and as we discussed it, Chyna seemed hyped. If or when the cops asked questions, I would be her alibi, and she would be mine. And if that wasn’t good enough, we already had a friend of mine, Phatty, who agreed to say she was right here with us having dinner. I suspected that the police wouldn’t dig too deep. As much trouble as Ray had been in, I figured that they wanted his ass off the streets just as much as we did.
    â€œI’m makin’ my way to his door now,” Chyna said. “You wanna hear me knock?” she joked.
    â€œGirl, would you stop playing? This is some serious shit and yo’ ass needs to be careful. Ray got all kinds of guns and shit up in there. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
    â€œHe trusts me, Mama, so I’ll be fine. And if all else fails, all I have to do is fuck him and he’ll get with the program.”
    Chyna touched a nerve. I halted what I was doing and stood still. That was another thing about Ray. He had hurt Chyna when she was seven years old, but Chyna never told me that he had come into her bedroom to have sex with her until years later. I stood stone-faced, thinking about the day she told me what Ray had done to her.
    Chyna had just gotten home from high school. I was chilling back on the couch, watching TV while talking to one of my girlfriends about a fucked - up date she’d been on. But when I saw the horrified look in Chyna’s eyes, I told Nicole I’d have to call her back and hung up the phone.
    â€œChyna,” I yelled out to her as she headed toward her room. “Come back here. What’s wrong with you?”
    â€œNothing!” she hollered from the other room.
    I smashed my cigarette in an ashtray then got off the couch to go see what was up. I suspected that she was having issues with some of those bad - ass, knucklehead boys from school, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t understand why they always picked on my damn kids, and I got tired of going to their school threatening those muthafuckas. Obviously, my threats weren’t working.
    As Chyna sat on the bed with her head hanging low, I stood in the doorway with my arms crossed. “What happened at school today?”
    â€œNothing,” she said without looking up at me.
    â€œSomething had to happen because you wouldn’t be sitting there looking like a sad