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  “Please, Baby. Please forgive me and take me back.”

  As a slow tear slid down her cheek, she said, “You really hurt me.”

  “And let me spend the rest of my life making it up to you,” I said, pulling her close to me.

  She looked around and I guess the number of people all up in our business made her uncomfortable because she slowly exhaled, backed away, then said, “Go home, Terrance.” Before I could protest, she held up her hand. “I’ll come by after I get off from work.”

  “That’s just it, Baby, you don’t have to work. We’re rich,” I said, for the first time truly acknowledging that my money was her money.

  “You’re rich. I’m not. Our marriage is getting annulled, which means we were never legally married, which means I’m not entitled to your money.”

  “Girl, don’t be no fool,” Dante mumbled.

  I threw up my hands as if to say ‘Really?’

  He shrugged and stepped back.

  “It’s too late for an annulment. We only had thirty days,” I told her, feeling a glimmer of hope.

  She folded her arms. “Then, I’ll begin the paperwork for a divorce tomorrow.”

  The mention of the word ‘divorce’ felt like a sledgehammer being slammed into my stomach.

  “I should have done it already,” she said, looking like she was silently chastising herself.

  The fact that she hadn’t filed meant there was still hope. I seized the opportunity and stepped closer. “You haven’t because that’s not what you really want. It’s not what I want. I was a fool, Baby. The money doesn’t matter if you don’t have someone to share it with.”

  “I’m sure there’s no shortage of people for you to share it with.”

  “I want the right person to share it with. I want you.”

  “I told you, I didn’t care about the money, I cared about you.” She sighed again. “Just go home and we’ll talk later, okay?”

  I wanted to protest some more, but I finally just said, “So you’ll come by after work?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you bring your stuff?”

  She hesitated. “Maybe.”

  That made me break out into a huge grin. Right now, maybe would have to do.

  Chapter 27

  Janine

  Owen had made good on his threat. That’s the only thing that could explain why Tony was sitting in our living room, playing with our son like we were one big happy family.

  Tony had shown up just as William was coming home from school. I knew it was all planned because the minute my son saw him, he lit up. Tony had only been to see William twice since he moved out. Oh, he’d made promises, but they always ended up broken because “something came up.” But the way my son was acting – like a kid on Christmas – none of that mattered now.

  Despite my attempts to get Tony to wrap up his visit and leave, he continued to ignore me and pretend that we were fine. My son was over-the-moon ecstatic and that’s the only reason I didn’t cuss Tony out, as I was kicking him out.

  “Son, it’s eight-thirty. Time for bed,” I finally said. William was sitting on the sofa, showing his dad some videos on his phone.

  “Awww, Ma…”

  “Don’t awww, Ma me.”

  He turned to Tony. “Daddy, can’t you stay, please?”

  Tony looked at me with puppy dog eyes and it made my stomach turn. “I’d love to stay, son, but I don’t think your mom will let me.”

  “Mom, please?” William said, jumping up and down. I wanted to slap my soon-to-be-ex.

  “Goodnight, son.”

  The tone of my voice let him know this wasn’t open for discussion. He stuck out his bottom lip as Tony took him in his arms.

  “I love you, son. I’ll be back.”

  I could tell William was trying hard to fight back tears and it broke my heart. I was so angry, I had to grind my teeth to keep from going off.

  “I love that little boy,” Tony said as soon as William was gone. He took a step toward me. “I love my wife, too.”

  I moved away from him. “You don’t have a wife. You left, remember?” I turned and walked into the kitchen and he followed behind me. “How’s the Pop Tart working out for you?” I felt compelled to ask.

  “She’s not. We broke up.” He leaned up against the kitchen counter.

  “Cry me a freakin’ river.” I removed a glass from the rack, put it in the cabinet and slammed the door shut. I was trying to busy myself to keep my cool.

  “She’s just on the go all the time, I can’t keep up,” he said like I really cared.

  “She’s twenty-one, you’re forty-one. What did you expect?”

  He didn’t answer and instead watched me put away the dishes. “I miss this. I miss our family,” he said after a few minutes. “Can we talk about working this out?”

  This fool wasn’t fooling anyone. I barely heard from him and now he wanted me to act like we were fine? “No, we can’t work anything out. The only thing I want to talk to you about is when you plan to see your son. This staying out of his life, then popping back in isn’t good for him.”

  “William was happy to see me.” He stepped toward me again. “What about you? Were you happy to see me?”

  I tossed the plate I was holding down on the counter. “Really, Tony?”

  “So, you’re just going to stay mad?” he asked.

  “Are you serious?” He was really trying me. I was already freaking out behind Darnell. Now I had to listen to this foolishness. “Tony, you left me to go be with your twenty-one-year-old kickboxing instructor. I’m not mad, I’m pissed and I have no words for you.”

  The smile left his face and he stared at me. “You know, you never asked me why.”

  “What?” I replied, exasperated.

  “You never asked me why I left,” he repeated, walking over to take a seat at the kitchen table.

  “I know why,” I snapped. “You lost interest in our marriage when the Pop Tart came along.”

  He shook his head. “No, our marriage was dying long before she was in the picture. I felt like we were going in two different directions. And every time I tried to talk to you about it, you wanted to bury your head. You don’t like to deal with issues until it’s too late. So, yeah, I lost interest because I was unhappy. I lost interest because you didn’t support me.”

  I threw up my hands. “What are you talking about?”

  He had the audacity to look offended. “I’m talking about my dreams. You never have supported my dream to get into the music industry. You were content with me working at the post office for the rest of my life, despite how miserable it made me. I felt resentful and you never noticed or cared.”

  I slammed my palm on the kitchen table. “You want to be a freakin’ rapper, Tony! And let me repeat myself, you’re forty-one. There is a cap-out age for rapping as a serious profession.”

  His lips tightened and I could tell he was struggling to contain his anger. “LL still raps. Ice Cube still raps.”

  “In their spare time!” I yelled. “When they’re not making movies and TV shows. And they didn’t start their rap careers in their forties!”

  The way his chest heaved up and down, I could tell he was serious and that floored me.

  “Joel Osteen says its never too late to follow your dreams.”

  Was he really quoting TV preachers now?

  “Joel Osteen also makes $2,334,000 a minute. He can say whatever he wants.” I took a deep breath. I didn’t know why I was even entertaining this foolishness. “Do you hear yourself? You have a family and you fail to realize that comes with some responsibility. You think I wanted to go up to Clearcast and get cussed out by folks on a daily basis? No, but I did it because we have a little boy in there that depended on us to put a roof over his head and clothes on his back.”

  “But I knew you were unhappy and I encouraged you to go back to school, find another job. But you didn’t want to better yourself. You were content wallowing in your discontent and you were bringing me down with you. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

  Now he sounded exasperated. “All I wanted was someone to believe in me.”

  I was tired of this discussion. Our relationship was done, so we didn’t even need to pretend otherwise

  “Tony, why are you even here?” I asked. When he’d first arrived, I just knew it was because Owen had opened his big mouth Now, I wasn’t so sure.

  He stared at me. “You know, I was hoping that we could talk but with you, that’s virtually impossible. So, yeah, I’ll cut straight to the chase. Did you win some money that you’re trying to hide from me?”

  I returned his stare. And there it was.

  “And before you get ready to lie,” he continued, “I spoke with Owen. Now, I’m going to ask you again.”

  I had no idea what to say or how to handle this, which was crazy because I knew that this day was coming. Maybe Tony was right, I didn’t like dealing with issues until they were staring me in the face.

  Tony leaned back in his seat. “Owen told me that you actually had Darnell claim the money. So I know you think I’m slow, but I did a little homework before I came here. Word on the street is that Darnell is living the life.”

  “Darnell won the lottery. I didn’t,” I said, my tone defiant.

  “Oh, so Darnell played the lotto with your coworkers? Okay.” He nodded as he slowly stood. “You know what? I messed up, I did. I’m sorry. But your hatred for me just messed you up. Believe that.” He moved toward the door. “You’ll be hearing from my attorney. And soon.”

  As my husband walked out of our home, I knew he was right. I was going to pay for trying to cheat him, he’d see to that. The question now was, just how bad was this story going to end?

  Chapter 28


  Angelique

  I squinted and did my best to peer through the blinds of the sidelights on Antonio’s front porch. I’d already rang the doorbell three times and Antonio hadn’t answered. The beveled glass of the front door distorted my view, but I could see that the television was on.

  He knew I was on my way, so why in the world wasn’t he answering the door?

  I pressed the lit-up circle once again, and finally, I heard the speakers on the intercom.

  “Yeah? Who is it?”

  A wide smile spread across my face. Then, I cleared my throat in an attempt to sound less enthused than I was. “Hey, Baby. It’s me.”

  I heard the phone hang up and shortly after that the door swung open. Antonio wore a pair of sweats that hung off of his waist just low enough so I could see the bottom of his stomach. The parts that were covered, I’d see soon enough. There were small beads of water trickling down his chest and he had a white bath towel draped around his neck. I could smell the scent of soap even though we stood about two feet away from one another.

  “I thought you’d changed your mind,” he said with a wicked grin.

  My heart warmed in anticipation. It wasn’t just my imagination. He did seem more excited than normal to see me.

  “I just stopped at home to slip into this,” I said, pulling the strap on my coat so that it would open. His eyes lit up and he smiled his approval at my attire. He took my arm and pulled me inside.

  “Dang, girl, I missed you,” he said, closing his door.

  “I missed you, too.”

  He continued leading me toward the stairs that led to his bedroom. Dang, he wasn’t wasting any time.

  “We were just getting started,” he said.

  That caused me to stop with my stiletto mid-air. I pulled my hand away and stepped back.

  “We?”

  Just then, a gorgeous young woman descended down the stairs. She looked like she’d stepped right out of a rap video with her exotic features and long jet-black hair. She was wearing a black lace bra and a matching lace thong.

  I was speechless as I watched her. And I couldn’t help but notice how Antonio was watching her, too. I saw his manhood rise as she slowly made her way over to me.

  “Ooooh, Babe, you were right,” the woman said as she ran her hands over my cheek, “she is cute.”

  Her touch snapped me out of my daze and caused me to jerk my head away from her. The woman giggled as her eyes roamed up and down my body. She placed her hand on my thigh. “She’s a little flabby, though. Like she used to be fat and lost a lot of weight.”

  I gasped and knocked her hand away. A look of disgust crept up on Antonio’s face. “You used to be fat?”

  I was too much in shock to speak so the girl spoke up. “It’s okay, though, Babe. I can work with this.”

  I wanted to cry. Antonio was looking at me like he was trying to imagine me fat. I had never been so humiliated in my life.

  “Wh-what’s going on?” I asked Antonio, finally finding my voice. “Why did you tell me to come over?”

  He shook off his apprehension. “To join the party,” he said. He glanced over at the woman, who was feeling herself up right in the middle of his foyer. “So, what’s up?” Antonio asked. “You in? Diamond has a mean tongue.”

  That chick had the nerve to wiggle her tongue in my direction. In all my life, I had never felt so low. I didn’t say a word and just turned and bolted toward the door.

  “Come on, Baby, you’re gonna miss the fun!” Diamond called out after me.

  I was almost to my car by the time Antonio caught up with me.

  “What’s up? Why are you trippin’?” he asked.

  I looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Are you serious? You invite me over and I think it’s because you want to be with me and I find out it’s because you want a threesome?”

  “And the problem would be? Shoot, I thought you’d be down.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  It was his turn to look at me crazy. “Umm, let’s see… we had sex on the first date, the second date and every date after that. Matter of fact, we haven’t even had a date, we just had sex.”

  Okay, so I was wrong. This was the lowest I ever felt. Mainly because he was right. It hadn’t even registered with me that Antonio hadn’t taken me anywhere. Other than the game, I hadn’t even seen him outside of a bedroom.

  “I… I just thought, I mean…”

  “Look, if you’re not cool with a sexual relationship, because that’s all I’m looking for, then we might need to chill, for real. I told you from jump, I’m not looking to get serious and when I am ready to settle down… well, it’ll be with a different type of woman.”

  I didn’t know what that meant, and I was too hurt to ask. “Wow,” was all I could manage to say.

  “Sorry.” He shrugged. “It is what it is. See you around.”

  He didn’t even wait for me to get in my car. He just turned around and walked back into the house. I wasted no time jumping into my car, putting it in reverse, and screeching out of the driveway, barely making it to the corner before the tears came tumbling down.

  Chapter 29

  Raquelle

  If I hadn’t been a believer before, I was definitely one now. God was the only explanation as to why my son was sitting in my living room, giggling at his sister as she tried to play Sony PlayStation. He’d been home a week and his recovery had been almost miraculous. He still had a long battle ahead, but the first 48 hours after a kidney transplant are the most crucial and my son had come through like a champ. I’d never been so happy.

  Today, however, my happiness would be short-lived as I was on my way for a one-on-one with Mr. Perry. We had a court date on Monday and my attorney had urged me to stay away from Mr. Perry until then. But I was a mother who needed to mother. So I was grateful that Elsa had convinced him to meet with me. Now, I planned on doing whatever it took to get Mr. Perry to drop the charges.

  I made my way back into my bedroom to finish preparing for my meeting with Mr. Perry. My mother appeared in my doorway. “Why are you wearing that low cut dress with your boobs all propped up?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Honestly, the fuchsia wrap dress made me uncomfortable, but if Mr. Perry’s wandering eye could convince him to take my offer, then it was worth it.

  “I know why,” my mother said. “Breasts have weakened many a men, so whatever works. Here.” She held out her hand toward me.

  “What is this?” I asked, taking the item she was holding.

  “It’s Tiana’s volleyball kneepads. Because if you need to get down on your knees and beg that man, or whatever else you need to do, you need to do it, so he can drop these charges.”

  I tossed the kneepads on my bed. “First of all, that’s disgusting, mother.”

  She shook her head as she walked in my room. “You’re the one whose mind went straight to the gutter. I was talking about getting on your knees to pray.”

  “Oh,” I replied, chuckling.

  “And the way your boobs are sitting up like they’re ready to do a salute, don’t act like you’re above using your womanly wiles.” She chuckled. “But, baby, you have to do whatever it takes. Your son has been given a new lease on life.”

  My mother was so right. And now, I needed one, too.

  My attorney said that a jury would probably sympathize with me and give me probation, but it was that ‘probably’ part that I wasn’t willing to gamble on. Even if I only had to do two years, which the attorney said he thought I’d get if I was found guilty, that was too long.

  I walked into the living room, kissed Shaun and Tiana on the forehead. “Okay, take care of my babies. Hopefully, I’ll have some good news when I get back.”

  Neither Shaun nor Tiana had any idea what was going on with me professionally and I prayed they never had to find out.

  I drove in silence to the Clearcast building, stressed beyond belief and praying the entire way. I ignored the looks of the people at the front desk and the coworkers I passed in the hall. Mr. Perry’s secretary greeted me, the expression on her face a mixture of pity and disgust.

  “You can go in,” she said.

  “Thank you.” I took a deep breath and pushed back my nervousness. I would beg, plead, whatever I had to do.