Naughty by Rochelle Alers

Author:Rochelle Alers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

“I was born Carmen Luz-Maria Rodriquez in New York City’s El Barrio or Spanish Harlem,” Karma began in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “Today they call it East Harlem. My mother was sitting on the stoop of her building when she caught the eye of a young red-haired beat cop. She said he came down the block every day at the same time for several weeks before getting up enough nerve to ask her name.”

Bree listened, transfixed as the former Carmen Luz-Maria told of the clandestine affair between her mother and the married New York City police officer. He had fathered four children with his wife and become a father for a fifth time when Bree’s maternal grandmother told him that she was carrying his child.

Although Colin Ryder couldn’t divorce his devoutly Catholic wife to marry his pregnant mistress, he did the next best thing—he set his lover up in an apartment in a three-family house in Brooklyn owned by the father of a fellow officer. However, the fairy tale ended when Colin was fatally shot while attempting to stop a bank robbery.

“I was two when my supposedly widowed mother, wearing the wedding ring Colin had given her when they’d fabricated a pretend ceremony, moved back with my grandmother and two aunts who’d come from Puerto Rico to live with us. Whenever someone in the neighborhood asked about my deceased father they were told he’d died in an auto accident.”

“When did you become Karma Ryder?” Bree asked.

“It was your father’s idea that I change my name, because he didn’t think he would be able to sell my image as a Puerto Rican R&B singer. I changed Carmen to Karma and Rodriquez to Ryder.”

Bree smiled. “I always wondered where you’d gotten your red hair.”

“Colin’s hair was so bright it looked orange.”

“What about your mother and aunts?”

“What about them?” Karma asked.

“How did they react to you denying your Latina roots?”

“After I explained the business, they understood. Once they began complaining about the long, cold New York winters I gave my mother enough money to build a house in Rio Piedras. Unfortunately, Mother passed away a year after she moved in, and my abuela grieved herself to death a year later after burying her daughter.”

“What about your aunts?”

“Both are alive, in their nineties and will probably outlive both of us.”

“When was the last time you saw them?”

“I spent a month with them just before you returned from Europe. It’s the only time I’m able to speak Spanish without censoring myself.”

A sly grin parted Bree’s lips. “How do you feel when you overhear your Spanish-speaking employees talk about you?”

Karma rolled her eyes. “I really don’t care if they do or don’t like me. In fact, I don’t want them to like me. What I won’t tolerate is them repeating gossip. Have you thought about moving out of the condo and into a house now that you’re going to have a child?” she asked, deftly changing the topic.

Bree thought about her mother’s query, wondering how much she should tell Karma about her marriage.

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