FREDDY PRINCE | CH. 3
This story is an original work by Shamar Phillips. No part of this chapter may be copied, reproduced, redistributed, or republished without written permission from the author.
Chapter Three
Kalani and her father, Mayor Corbin Montgomery, developed a terrible relationship long before her mom was killed. She felt like she knew her dad had a hand in what happened and helped cover it up. She just didn’t know how. Or why?
Her goal as a journalist—and loving daughter—was to figure it out. It was the only reason she ever went back to Virginia. She hated it there. Especially since her father was the mayor, and it was the place where her mother was killed.
Shonnie saw Kalani approaching the entrance to their office building from a mile away. She remembered her as the woman Freddy shared a drink with on their date the night before. But she also knew Kalani as the mayor's daughter and someone who knew all about their affair.
They never liked each other from day one. Even before Shonnie and her father started messing around behind her mother's back. There wasn’t any real reason on Kalani’s end other than the affair, but Shonnie held a grudge against her for something that happened years before her dad ever became the mayor.
“I see you’re still here.” Kalani shot her an antagonistic smile. “Where is he?”
“Of course, I’m still here, silly.” Shonnie shot back in a nice but nasty tone. “I plan on being here longer than the last one.”
Kalani got the urge to slap Shonnie across the face for throwing shots at her mother, but Mayor Montgomery emerged from his personal office before either of them could cross the line.
“Ah!” he clapped like he was excited to see his daughter. “Kalani, good morning. I see you made it to Virginia just fine.”
“Yeah,” Kalani scoffed as she headed for his office. “I do everything just fine.”
Mayor Montgomery’s eyes rolled as Kalani brushed past him. He let out a sigh and shared a look of annoyance with Shonnie before he turned around to follow suit. They both knew why Kalani returned to Virginia. They also knew it was only a matter of time before she found out the truth. So, they had to do everything in their power to stay on her good side in order to keep their secret from hitting the public.
Montgomery grunted as he took a seat in his large red office chair.
To Kalani, the inside of her father’s office reeked of a violent murder scene. It was as if she could feel her mother's presence pointing out where everything took place. Everywhere she turned, she felt agony and grief. Pain and torture. She didn’t even take a seat anywhere because the feeling was so overwhelming she thought she might throw up.
“We can cut the small talk, Dad,” she sighed. “You know why I’m here.”
Montgomery leaned back in his chair, folded his hands together, and squinted at his daughter.
“I do?”
“Mom's murder?” she scoffed.
Kalani tossed her purse onto his desk and removed an envelope. An envelope that contained all the threatening letters she knew were coming from him or someone he worked with. She didn’t understand why the letters started to come before she spoke out about her mom's murder. The only explanation she could think of was that someone wanted to cover their tracks and keep things quiet. But who?
“Someone’s been sending me threatening letters. Telling me to stop investigating and to watch my back. You know anything about that?”
Kalani stood in front of her father’s desk with her arms folded across her chest, waiting for his reply. They hadn’t had an actual conversation about what happened to her mom or what he was doing to solve her murder. But when she got back to Virginia, she made a promise to herself that all of that would change.
“Why would I know anything about that?”
Montgomery got up from his desk and headed toward an open window for a breath of fresh air.
“You think I'm having someone threaten my own daughter?”
“Well, you had someone kill your own wife. So, I wouldn't put it past you.”
He turned around and shot her a daring look. A look of warning that Kalani caught on to right away. There was no hard evidence that her father was the one who killed her mother. There were only signs. Signs like the look he gave her that made her suspicious.
“Stop with the accusations, Kalani. The things you’re talking about in your reports and articles, your blogs, and tweets are all harmful to my candidacy. You can’t go around having people think that I’m a murderer. Much less murder my wife!?” he spat. “I don’t know what hill you’ve climbed on that has your mind in such a twisted fantasy, but I hope it’s one you’re willing to stand on forever.”
Kalani showed up fully prepared to die on that hill. She didn’t go to Virginia to waste a single minute on anything other than finding out who killed her mother. Even though she already had a killer in mind, she needed the proof. And she needed Freddy’s help to get it.
“Who helped you, Dad?” She asked. “Because I know for a fact you’re not smart enough to get away with murder. Hell, I don't even know how you got elected as the mayor of an entire state. Was there money involved?” she chuckled. “You actually had to pay someone to let you through the door?”
“You underestimate me.” Montgomery slowly walked toward her.
“Yeah, I bet I do,” Kalani replied sharply.
“Listen, I don't know where you and I went wrong or how our relationship became what it is now, but I don’t wanna fight with you. Right now, we should be mourning together. Helping each other through this difficult time. I'm sure your mother wouldn’t want us to be at each other’s throats the way we are.”
Kalani felt a sickness in her stomach every time her father mentioned her mother. It was disgusting to her—the way he could say her name with so much ease and conviction, knowing he knew who killed her.
“You know what, Dad.”
She chuckled and shook her head while grabbing her purse from his desk.
“I hope to God you had nothing to do with this. I really do. Because I won’t stop investigating until I know exactly what happened to my mom. And when I find out, you better believe I'm going to have this prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
She left Montgomery standing alone in his office, dwelling on how things got so far out of his control. When she was no longer in sight, Shonnie went into his office to make sure everything was okay and that she didn’t need to step in.
“What was that all about?” she asked, taking a seat at his desk. “I didn’t even know your daughter was back in town.”
“Yeah, neither did I.” He sighed. “She’s got it in her head that I’m the one who killed her mother.”
Shonnie gave him a concerned look.
“Why would she think you killed her? After all the toes that woman stepped on to get to where she was, it could’ve been anyone.”
Montgomery knew his daughter was smarter than he ever gave her credit for. When she got accepted into Stanford University, he knew for sure he had a genuine scholar on his hands. The only thing he could bank on—keeping his under-the-table activities under the radar—was her lack of street knowledge.
“Exactly,” he replied. “I think she’s running off pure emotion right now, you know? She's so angry with me because of our relationship before this; she’s trying to find any reason to make me the bad guy.”
“I mean,” Shonnie got up from her seat and approached him. “You are a bad boy.”
Montgomery stared down at her curvy frame, wondering how he ever got lucky enough to end up in bed with a woman as fine as her.
Sometimes, he felt like Shonnie had ulterior motives. But he never saw any signs of her being out to get him, so he didn’t question her. It was either that, or he was so pussywhipped he couldn’t see a red flag if she waved it in his face.
“Speaking of bad,” he said. “I have dinner tonight with a few colleagues to talk about this community center Fredrick Prince is pushing to open. You should join me. And afterward, we can have a nightcap. A little champagne. Wind down and talk about what to do about Kalani.”
Shonnie backed away from him when he mentioned Freddy. Her feelings for him were still fresh and unresolved, and she didn’t want Montgomery picking up on any of that. If he found out she had something going on with Freddy behind his back, she knew he would fire her on the spot, and she needed her position to continue benefiting from having the mayor in her corner, so she kept that part of her life a secret.
“Okay. What time is dinner? And what should I wear?”
Montgomery placed his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him. When he felt frisky enough, he slid his hands down to her ass and cupped both of her cheeks.
Shonnie didn’t deny him access. Even though he was twenty years older than her, he knew how to please her in ways that kept her satisfied enough to get what she wanted.
“Wear something sexy,” he said. “I'll be there to get you around seven.”
“Fine.” She kissed his lips and gently grabbed his crotch. “I’ll see you at seven, Mr. Mayor.”
Shonnie walked out of his office knowing his eyes were planted on her ass. She had him right where she wanted him—putty in the palm of her hand. So, if Kalani brought anything to light that would affect her in any way, she knew Montgomery would take the heat.
“Claire, I’m leaving a little early today,” she informed her stand-in. “There isn’t much to be done. All the paperwork has already been filed, and the phone calls are all made. Just keep an eye out for Corbin, will you? If anyone stops in, send me a quick note. His daughter’s here, and you know there’s a family feud going on, so he’s not really all there right now.”
“Ok!” Claire replied. “I’ll make sure everything's taken care of.”
Claire was a young blonde who was fine-tuning an internship at the mayor’s office. She was sweet and soft-spoken. Always eager to help. She was also Shonnie's do-girl. Whenever Shonnie needed to leave early, have errands run, have lunch picked up, or have drop-offs made, she called on Claire.
Some days, Claire got annoyed with being ordered around so much. But every time she saw Shonnie and Mayor Montgomery together, she remembered how much power Shonnie had over her.
“Girl, I don’t see how you do it.”
Bobbi West, a reporter snooping around the mayor’s office for information on his wife’s murder, noticed their interaction and used it as an opportunity to get the inside scoop.
“How I do what?” Claire asked.
“How you let someone like Shonnie Mitchell boss you around like that? She ain’t no better than you are. The only way she got to where she is was by sleeping her way there. Like, I’m not gonna say she’s not good at her job, but she needs to humble herself.”
Claire silently agreed with that. She never actually saw Shonnie and the mayor being physical with each other out in the open, but she had her suspicions about their relationship. The way they talked to each other, and how much authority Shonnie had over him, was pretty alarming.
“Just, you know, speak up for yourself,” Bobbi said. “In this game, you gotta be tough. No one’s gonna take you seriously if you aren’t assertive. Especially with somebody like her.”
“Yeah,” Claire chuckled. “Ms. Mitchell is tough.”
Bobbi laughed when Claire called Shonnie “Ms. Mitchell.” She knew Shonnie from around the way, and there was nothing respectable about her. She was grimy. Sneaky. Conniving and only out to take care of herself. At least, that’s what Bobbi learned while investigating her.
“She thinks she’s tough,” Bobbi said. “But once I get a chance to interview her, I’ma crack her.”
She gave Claire a friendly wink, hoping her pep talk did what needed to be done before she walked away.
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