The Other Side of Divine by Vanessa Davis Griggs Page B

guy I knew enlisted his then girlfriend to take it. He wanted to give his mother a Mother’s Day present—”
    â€œAnd he thought stealing my necklace was the perfect gift for his mother?” Deidra shook her head.
    â€œHe got his girlfriend to take the necklace after she was talking about how you kept it in some box but you never wore it,” Lawrence said. “His girlfriend said she didn’t think you really wanted it since you would pass it over whenever you were looking for a necklace to wear.”
    â€œWait a minute,” Deidra said. “This girlfriend . . . was this someone close to me? Yes, of course, it would have had to be a friend of mine since I wouldn’t have been doing something like that around just anyone.”
    Lawrence grimaced a little. “It was your best friend.”
    â€œLynette? You’re telling me Lynette is the one who took my necklace?” Deidra pulled her hands out of his and stood to her feet. She placed her hand up to her mouth, took her hand down, and frowned as she slowly shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I don’t believe you, Lawrence. I’m not saying you’re lying, but your buddy who told you it was Lynette is not telling the truth. Lynette was tearing up the room trying to help me find it. If she’d taken it—”
    Lawrence stood and walked over to Deidra. “If she’d taken it, which she did, it’s not like she was going to tell you she had.”
    â€œBut she knew how important this necklace was. When we were frantically looking for it, I told her the sentimental value behind it.” Deidra nodded quickly. “That’s why she fussed at me for having it with me on campus if it was something of that much sentimental value. And then she stormed out of the room—”
    â€œAnd she went to find her boyfriend to get your necklace back. But by then, he’d given it to his mother and said he couldn’t ask for it back,” Lawrence said.
    â€œWell, why didn’t he just steal it back from his mother the same way he stole it from me?”
    â€œBaby, you don’t really mean that like you just said it,” Lawrence said. “His mother was sick. The necklace cheered her up so much that once she put it on she promised to never take it off.”
    Deidra looked into Lawrence’s eyes. “If all that you’re saying is true, then how were you able to get it back after all these years?” She lifted the heart pendant and looked down at it before gently laying it back down.
    Lawrence took Deidra by the hand and guided her back over to the sofa, where they both sat again next to each other.
    â€œWhen you and I connected, because of how upset you were about the missing necklace, I went to Reggie and told him I wanted to buy the necklace from him.”
    â€œMy necklace? The necklace he stole? You offered to buy it from him?”
    â€œYes. But you have to understand, Reggie really wasn’t a bad guy.”
    â€œA man who stole my necklace wasn’t really a bad guy?”
    â€œI know it sounds crazy, but you have to understand what Reggie had gone through in his life. His mother had sacrificed so much for him and his three siblings. She was very sick, not expected to live long. He wanted her to have something nice for Mother’s Day for a change—”
    â€œSo he got my best friend to steal my necklace. Lawrence, please . . . spare me the sob story. I don’t care how hard he may have had it. I don’t care how wonderful his mother may have been. I really don’t care how sick his mother was at the time, except to say I’m sorry she was sick. But you can’t take someone else’s property and still be called a good guy. You just can’t. He was wrong and I don’t know how he could live with himself knowing he’d given his mother a stolen piece of property. That’s just it in a nutshell and no amount of