Lies of a Real Housewife by Angela Stanton Read Free Book Online Page B

really want another child, and economically, I couldn’t
    afford another child.
    Phaedra made a telephone call, and after speaking for about ten min-
    utes she hung up. I wondered what it was Phaedra had written down on her note pad. Then I found out that the person she had spoken to had given her some type of potion for me to drink. This concoction would cause me to have a miscarriage. Phaed ra and I headed to the grocery store where she purchased some kind of large red root. I had no idea what that sh** was. Honestly, I really didn’t, but I trusted Phaedra. We immediately returned to Phaedra’s home, and she boiled it along with some other ingredients. I drank the brew then waited for a reaction. We waited! We waited longer…! Still nothing hap-
    pened! Damn! I began thinking.
    Even though the concoction didn’t work, Phaedra had convinced me
    that abortion was my only real option. When I told my baby’s father about my plan to abort, he got on his hands and knees. Slim begged me to spare
    his child’s life. Then he called my mother, and put her all up in my business.
    By this time, my mother was a preacher. God had finally delivered
    her from low-down Curtis. She hadn’t seen him for a year, and she was doing well living with me in Atlanta. There was absolutely no way she was going to stand by and let me abort her grandchild. Needless to say, I was stuck being pregnant and raising anoth er child in addition to my three children. My family situation required steady financial gains. Making money quickly became
    the driving force behind my participation in all of the corruption.
    March 2001, Phaedra introduced me to her current husband, Apollo Nida. He was clean-cut and very well spoken. About six feet two inches tall, intelligent and very handsome, Apollo put light skin dudes back on the map. He reminded me of a smooth criminal. Ironically, he even thought we were all crooks. For some reason, he came across as honest and sincere. Phaedra told Apollo that I was one of her closest friends, and her best worker. She explained that I had a proven track record, and it was time for my promotion.
    This was the moment I had been waiting for and we met for hours
    that day. Finally, I was going to make the real money she promised me. No more running around to Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, or Wal-Mart. I was tired of writing checks. Thus far, I had conducted our scam in every major department store in Atlanta. Therefore in order for me to continue to pull stunts involving writing bogus business checks to fill her daily orders, I would have to extend the boundaries of the operation. That would involve driving to the nearby cities and towns. I had hit the jackpot! I was pregnant. Simple trips seemed to take all day, and were becoming more tiresome. Phaedra called to inform me that she had something different for me to do. It was a good thing because I had told her on many occasions that I hated repetitive cycles. I
    needed something different.
    By the way Phaedra was acting, I could tell that this gig was going
    to be the big one. I was ready for those thousands of dollars she promised I would make. Other than the one time I got caught, and was charged with forg-
    ery, everything Phaedra had told me to do seemed to have a smooth ending.
    Even the one snafu or offen se, I really couldn’t blame Phaedra for
    that. She provided me with the checks, but I got banged up for personal purchases. She had nothing to do with that. I was out on bond awaiting trial. Phaedra assured me that I was only going to get a slap on the wri st. So again, I put my trust in her, and we kept rolling along.
    July of 2001, Phaedra and Apollo drove me to Hartsfield Interna-
    tional Airport. The previous day, I had given Phaedra a passport picture of myself that she instructed me to purchase from a CVS Pharmacy. I was told to go inside the airport, and purchase a round trip ticket from Atlanta to Wash-
    ington, DC.
    From the jump, I could tell that this