But I'm Not a Business Major

It was about 6 in the morning when a frazzled woman with red hair – dyed because her roots were closer to a just-barely-brown – rushed into the corporate owned café I worked at on the corner of Catherine and Lafayette. It was just an hour into my shift, so I hardly paid her any mind when she showed up, plus I’d had an evening class from the night before, so I was still a little drowsy. Her skin was a light honey brown and complimented nicely against her pastel blue pantsuit, even if she did seem frantic. I briefly imagined myself in that suit, walking into some highbrow meeting and commanding a meeting full of rich men, but I abandoned the idea almost as soon as I had it.

The suit was nicely tailored and probably came from some first-class brand I had never even heard of before. There was no way I would ever wear anything like it, even with me and Mama’s budgets combined. When she rushed up to the counter I slapped on a practiced smile and said, “Morning, welcome to-!”

“Are you Aliyah Daniels?” She rushed in a high, out-of-breath voice. I had half-a-mind to be unnerved until I remembered the name tag sitting over my left breast with my full name and title as assistant manager.

“Yes, I am. Is there something I can help you with, ma’am?” I responded as evenly as I could. I was annoyed yes, but she only seemed panicked not angry, so I could only assume she rushed here at the command of some middle management jackass who was annoyed at a wrong order or something.

“My name is Renee Noguiera, I need to speak with you for just a moment.” My heart dropped as soon as she said it. Mama had told me this morning about some woman named Renee trying to call her about some debt she had never paid off, but I had never expected her to track me or Mama down. I guess you couldn’t put anything past debt collectors. But this left me in an awkward position. Do I try to shoo her away or do I hear her out?

“…If you come back in 2 hours, I can see you.” She relaxed almost instantly and gave me a grateful smile. This probably went against my better judgement, but something about her told me that she wasn’t a collector – collectors were usually just normal people, not lawyer types in expensive suits.

When the time came for me to finally take my break, I met with her several blocks away on some random park bench.

As I sat down, the first words out of her mouth were: “Do you know who Julius Richard is?”

“Of course.” It was an odd question, because practically everyone knew who he was. Back in the 60s, this old money guy by the name of Andreas Davenport had had a baby with his black maid – an affair he claimed, but I don’t think it could be called that considering that he was her employer. It was something of an underdog story because no one expected the child to ever be anything more than a bastard. But once he got to be an adult, Julius struck out on his own in the tech industry and soon he was making more money than his father could ever even dream of having. He had passed away just a few months ago, so his name was popping up practically everywhere, especially concerning what would become of his company Clover Enterprises.

“If you seriously just called me out here to gossip-”

“I didn’t, I swear! Look I know this sounds really crazy, but Julius Richard is your father.”

I could only gawk at her. Before I could even get a word out in response, she shoved a stack of papers into my arms.

“Just look here if you don’t believe me, he had a test done for you.” My eyes scanned over across the words; sure enough, there were the words “50% genetic match” plain as day across the top.

“When did this test even happen? How do I know it’s not fake?” This was absurd. It felt like I was being pranked or in an episode of Maury.

“Oh, it’s certainly real, Miss Daniels.” A smooth baritone voice chimed in. My head whipped around as a man in an immaculate outfit approached Renee and me. His skin was the color of mahogany, and his dark curly hair was cut short and tight.

“I can take it from here, Renee,” he said, his hands tucked into his pockets. “I apologize if this whole thing seems unreal. Your mother wouldn’t agree to open a line of contact, so we had to get creative. I’m James Beaumont by the way, Julius entrusted me with the execution of his will.” Still, I could hardly muster anything more than a stunned look. I mean, it certainly did sound like something Mama would do. When I was 16, she didn’t tell me that her friend had offered me an internship for me at her law firm; she said she didn’t want my attention split between school and work, but it didn’t hurt any less that she denied me the chance to decide that for myself.

“I understand this must all be overwhelming. If you like we can continue this conversation elsewhere? I’m sure your work will be expecting you back sometime.”

I nodded mutely, then licked my lips and said, “If this is real, I need more proof. Anyone can make a fake DNA test. And I have still have a shift to finish.”

“Don’t worry about your work. I assure you won’t have to think about it ever again, but of course you are free to tell them of your whereabouts.”

“I… okay. I’m taking my own car.” Beaumont gave me an “of course” in response, as he handed me a sheet of paper with an address on it.

***

Arriving at the address just left me feeling even more disconnected from reality. The estate was an imposing figure against the now cloudy sky. Dark spires and crosses jutted into the sky, with luxurious embellishments all across the facades. I had done some research on it – what little I could while driving – this manor used to belong to the Davenport family, had been in the family for decades practically. But Julius didn’t get it from them in an inheritance. When the Davenports had gotten close to declaring bankruptcy, they decided to auction the house off. The original plan had been for another member of the family to buy it, but Julius outbid them.

The inside of the Davenport Manor was much like the outside, everything made from expensive materials that felt like they would cost me money just looking at them. I felt so very out of place in my Starbucks uniform, like a dark green and brown paint splash across some Renaissance painting.

Beaumont led me further inside to a room with walls covered entirely by pictures. Some of them had pictures of what I recognized as a younger Julius, but some of them had a young woman I felt vaguely familiar with. I drifted closer to a picture where the young woman held a newborn baby. There was a date and a note carved into the frame: “July 17th, 1991, my darling girl’s birthday.” The note gave me pause – that was my birthday exactly, but Mama had no friends or family to take a picture like that. But now that I was looking closer, it was obvious that it was her; the woman had dimples and a beauty mark under her left eye just like Mama.

The next picture over seemed to be a year after with the baby – she had to be me – in a light sundress on the beach, and my mother looking into the camera with that not-quite-smile she has when she found something funny but didn’t want you to know. A younger Julius stood with his arm around her shoulder, and a sly grin on his face. The photo was just so… domestic. It didn’t look anything like what I knew of Mama or Julius. Every picture was just like this, some variation of me, Mama, or Julius just living life as if we were a normal family.

“How-?” I stopped, forced myself to swallow. “How long?” How long had Mama known Julius? How long had they been together? I didn’t even know what I was asking.

“23 years. Your mother met Mr. Richard before he started Clover Enterprises. The inner details of their relationship escape me, but to my understanding the two had a falling out about two years after you were born. But the fact of the matter is that Julius has left the entirety of his estate to you. Houses, cars, businesses; it’s all yours now.”

I collapsed onto a nearby futon.

“Miss Daniels? Is something wrong?” Mr. Beaumont tilted his head, hazel eyes scanning my face. There was no panic or concern on his face though. His expression was placid, expectant in the way that an employee was when their boss called on them and a little annoyed as if he had something better to do.

I schooled my features into a blank expression, fighting down the red-hot anger and sickly green nausea climbing up my neck. “No, nothing’s wrong. Thank you for telling me this.”

He merely nodded after a while. “As your father’s primary lawyer for all his business concerns, I will also be on retainer for you, should you wish. Renee will also be available as she was his personal assistant.”

I could only manage a light nod in response. “Excuse me for a moment.”

I hardly waited for him to say anything before I was out the door and just a little bit down the hallway, not so far that I couldn’t remember how to get back to the room. I whipped my phone out, pulling up the contacts almost at once. But as soon as I got to my mother’s phone number, I stopped.

I won’t lie and say that my relationship with her was perfect. She had never been great at saying sorry – I had learned years ago that the closest thing I could get from her was my favorite meal the next morning. She had always had an opinion about what you were doing and wearing, and God forbid if it wasn’t something she would have done. The issue of us always being low on money didn’t help either; neither of us had the means to really live on our own, so with her always in my space we were bound to clash.

But still, she was one of the hardest working people I knew. When I was a kid and I wanted to play piano, she scrapped together months of pay so I could learn. When a teacher gave me a failing grade for falling to sleep during a test, Mama was the one to go to bat for me. When other kids had been bullying me for not having a dad, she was the shoulder I had to cry on.

What would happen if I called her right now? Told Mama that I knew she was lying about my father all those years? Would she even own up to it? What reason would she have to lie to me about something so big, to deny us something that might have fixed every financial problem we had faced?

She answered the question for me, her familiar ringtone starting up through my phone’s tinny speakers. I hesitated, then answered after two rings.

“Hey, Mama-”

“Where are you right now?”

My eyebrows flew up. I was sure she’d be at work all day. “No hi or how you doing?”

“Don’t get smart with me Aliyah. Our next job is starting in an hour, and you don’t have any of the materials ready, which I know, because I’m looking at them right now.”

Right. She had no idea where I was right now. She wouldn’t have let me go if I told her anything about Renee or Beaumont, that much was obvious, but the why still escaped me. “They cancelled Ma. Said they found someone else for cheaper.” It wasn’t a complete lie, the woman really had cancelled on us for someone cheaper, but she had never scheduled with us anyway.

I could hear her sucking her teeth through the phone as she cursed. “It’s fine, just come home. We got another call-in anyway, the Coopers.”

My heart dropped. “The Coopers? As in the Black dynasty Coopers?” I was sure at this point that the world must be playing some kind of cruel joke on me. The Coopers were rich too, but where the Davenports made money by being born with it and Julius by pulling from his tech, the Coopers made it from eyeballs. They were such a mainstay in reality TV that it was hard to know exactly where they got their start. It was practically everywhere when the Cooper matriarch Ruth had announced a relationship with Julius and so was their fallout and breakup.

“Yes them. They’re having a house party in a week, and their cleaners flaked on them. Now come on, we ain’t got all day.”

“Hey Ma, wait.”

“Yes?” Her voice had a tinge of annoyance in it. My mouth went dry. One last chance to ask her about my father.

“…Nothing. I’m on my way. Love you.”

“Love you too, ’Liyah.”

***

When we got to the Coopers’ mansion, I gawked at the scenery around me again, but for a completely different reason.

Where the Richard mansion was steeped in subtle tones and embellishments, the Coopers estate was the exact opposite, dripping in bold colors and gold on practically every surface. There was no end to the extravagance, but this time it felt like an eyesore. What really got me though, was the way everything looked cheap somehow.

I noticed it with the flooring the minute we walked in the house. The tile wasn’t marble, but bargain bin vinyl instead, the kind that was an absolute pain to clean because basic mop water tended to make the vinyl peel away. It wasn’t just there either. The couch was made of this weird fake wood with a formaldehyde smell to it, and there were lamps with shades that seemed made of papier-mâché. This place honestly looked like a McMansion, the architectural version of bitter fondant on cakes.

I tried not to let it show on my face when Ruth Cooper finally came down the stairs in red Louboutin shoes to greet us.

“Welcome, welcome! You must be the cleaners,” She shook my mother’s hand excitedly. I started to squirm. This whole thing was just throwing me off. My mother pinched my side with her fingernails which she accompanied with a strong side-eye, so I forced myself to stay still.

“It’s so great that you could come today, the other cleaners were just horrible…” I didn’t mean to tune out what she was saying but I couldn’t focus on the conversation, only on Ruth. There was something about her that unnerved me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it felt like her presence just made me feel off kilter. Maybe it was just everything that had happened today.

“And what this is lovely girl’s name?” Ruth’s voice was like cold water over my head.

“I’m Aliyah, ma’am.” How I managed to respond so steadily was a mystery to me.

“Oh, are you?” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Well, I’ll let y’all get to it. Chop, chop, these rooms won’t get themselves ready.”

At that, my shoulders relaxed. It was odd to say that I was more familiar with the dismissiveness most clients treated me and Mama with, but it was the truth. We split up, her taking the wide-open space of the great room, while I tackled the smaller (at least in comparison) rooms to the side. An office, a sitting area, a workout room – I fell into a routine with minutes, a welcome reprieve from all the revelations of today.

The fourth room was a bedroom which I gathered as soon I entered. There was a boy lounging in on top of the covers, not that much older than me. He had to have been one of the Cooper children, Cassius, I think. I cursed under my breath and started to back out.

“I’m sorry, I’ll just-!”

“You’re one of the cleaners. Aliyah.”

I stopped in my tracks. “…Yes?” Something felt wrong. It had been a few hours since I had seen Ruth, so I guess she could have told her kids my name, but why would she?

He got up and slunk across the room, dark eyes set in a hard gaze. “Don’t look like much of a cleaner to me.”

“I didn’t realize cleaners were supposed to look a certain way.” My palms were clammy all of a sudden.

“Cut the bullshit. I know why you’re here.” Cassius hissed through his teeth.

“Excuse me?”

“It wasn’t enough for you to get everything in the will. Now you come here, to take whatever else you want? No, everything you have should be mine.” Oh shit. They knew.

My hand scrambled for the door knob behind me.

“But that’s alright. I figure once Mother gets rid of yours, and I get rid of you, everything will fall naturally into place.”

Cassius rushed me – I fell backward with a shriek. My hands scrambled, first to pry his grip off me, then at the bleach at my side. By some miracle I uncapped the bottle and slung it at his eyes.

“You bitch!” He snarled, one hand clutching at his eyes. With the other hand Cassius swung wildly and caught my cheek alongside the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. Now there was only his vague dark shape against the void of the room.

He rushed me again but this time I wasn’t lucky enough to jump back in time. We slammed into the wall, my breath forced out of my lung in a sharp exhale. I threw my knee at what I hoped was his stomach, and when he cried out I shoved him away. Cassius felt to the floor with two thuds like he hit something on the way down. I didn’t stick around to see what he had hit; I scrabbled for the door in the dark and once I found it, I was gone.

“Mama! Mama!” My voice carried like a siren through the halls as I sprinted to the front of the house. “Mama-!” I was strangled into a shrieking gasp. In the middle of the great room, my mother stood with blood on her hands, hair falling wildly around her face.

Beneath her was Ruth, already dead, blood spilling from her neck. Her hands were clutched around ceramic and her face was twisted up in some hateful expression.

“Ma?” I could only mutter weakly.

“’Liyah, we need to go.”

I wanted to protest, but the sound of something, probably Cassius, stirring far behind me made me put it aside. In three long bounds, me and Mama were out the door and peeling out of the driveway in our car.

“What was that?” I hissed “Why did Ruth attack you? Where they just waiting for us the whole time?”

“It’s about your father.” Mama responded with a calm tone in spite of everything from before.

“I know that! I’m asking you why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mama looked at me shocked.

“Beaumont told me everything, because you wouldn’t. Why didn’t you say anything? Did he hurt you?” I pressed.

“No-”

“Did he blackmail you?”

“No!”

“Then why did you just let us suffer like this?! Do you know what we could have done with that money?”

“I didn’t want that life for you! You saw what happened with Ruth, you think that would have been the first time someone would have tried something? They’re all snakes – every last one of them, and they’re not all kind enough to show you they are off the bat.”

“How do you know things wouldn’t have been different with me?”

“Because they weren’t with him! I loved your father, I really did, but the things he did for his money – there’s no way to be that way without hurting anyone.”

I could only blink back hot tears. “Stop the car.”

“Liyah-.”

“Stop the fucking car!” I stumbled out before she even got to a full stop. I ignored my mother’s cry as I took off running. I didn’t even know where I was going.

I only knew that I wanted to be away from her, from all this.

***

When I walked into Clover Enterprises, I was wearing the pastel blue pantsuit Renee had had tailored for me – an MM.Lafleur original. Outside there were hordes of photographers and journalists, no doubt eager to see exactly who this mystery daughter of Julius Richard was. I had been ushered through some hidden entrance he’d built within the building, so that he could avoid exactly that. Every click of my heels felt punctuated in the large space of the skyscraper. Even though I was only one of dozens of people in the headquarters, everyone stopped to look at me.

Beaumont led me into to the top floor, where the floor was taken up entirely by the boardroom. Inside every chair was taken up, except for the one at the head; the empty seat that was once my father’s now mine.

Every head turned as I walked past them, every agonizing step like walking through mud. I sat in the thick leather chair and tried not to let it show that I couldn’t get comfortable in it.

“So, what’s on the agenda?” I asked, shrugging. I didn’t have it in me to pretend to be interested.

Even as the men around me launched into inner workings of Clover Enterprises, I couldn’t bring myself to pay attention. My mind wasn’t there; I had fled for some far-away place untouched by everything around me. In my body there remained only an empty feeling, the sense that I had lost something irreplaceable.