Page 147 of Save Room for Us

Pullingup to the townhome in Moreno Valley, I put my vehicle in park and climbed out. I was vexed and ready to either fight or kill someone at the moment.

Walking to the door, I banged on it loudly before it flung open and Terri, Grady’s one-of-many bitches, stood there with a snarl.

“Told you about banging on my fucking door, Milan,” she said rudely as I sidestepped her to get in.

“Is he up there?” I asked.

“Of course.” She shut the door. “Wake my baby up and watch what will happen,” she threatened.

“Yeah, I can tell your husband you got your side nigga up in the attic.” I shot her a look, and she could only suck her teeth and switch off.

Pulling open the pantry door, I climbed up inside and then went up into the attic to see Grady sitting down with his kneesup, peering out of the small window he had up here. He’d been staying here for a while now, never going much of anywhere in fear of being caught by Asif. Had he not been helping me, or so I thought, I would’ve ratted his ass out.

“Fuck you doing here?” Grady frowned, peering behind me.

“Calm your ass down.” I sat on the floor since it wasn’t enough space to stand. “I don’t have him with me. In fact, I can’t even get that nigga to answer the phone. You wanna know why?”

“Not really.” Grady picked at his nails nonchalantly.

“My pregnancy test came back negative, nigga!” I barked.

“So.”

“So I was supposed to be pregnant! Remember our fucking deal?” I spat, wanting to jump over there and beat his ass up.

Grady disgusted me, and I never liked him too much because he was a creep. But when I got desperate after losing Asif and he reached out to me again to assist, I took the bait. The plan was for him to get me pregnant, for me to make Asif believe it was his, and then I would suddenly miscarry once I had Asif back in my grasp. However, the plan couldn’t even get off the fucking runway, because this nigga’s sperm was shit. Now I had fucked him for no reason, and I was sick.

“And you not?”

“No! I sent that nigga a picture of some random pregnancy tests, but his overly skeptical ass took me to the doctor, and they told me the shit was negative, Grady.”

He stared at me before bursting out in laughter.

“Shit. Why yo’ stupid ass didn’t take a real test before going?”

“I did, but it was showing negative, so I figured it just wasn’t showing up yet. But I knew the longer I took to send him a positive test, the less likely he would believe me, so I found one off the internet.” Grady began laughing again, pissing me off. “This shit is not funny, Grady! I just lost my fucking chance with him! This is worse than before because he caught me in a big asslie! How am I gonna redeem myself when you know that nigga has trust issues!”

“Calm yo’ obsessed ass down.” Grady chuckled. “Yo’ beloved Asif will be single very soon. I made a connection recently.”

“With who?” I frowned, suddenly interested, so I moved closer to him. A foul odor emitted from him, but it wasn’t one related to bathing; it was something else as if a person left rotted meat up here once upon a time.

“Stazi’s attempted murder victim.”

“Her ex?”

“Yeah.” Grady nodded. “Been following the case details and shit ever since she dissed me.” His mouth twisted a bit.

“Dissed you? You wanted her?”

That bothered me for some reason, despite me not wanting this nigga in the slightest. I just didn’t like the fact that niggas were into her for some reason.

“I did, and before that nigga, but see, Asif got only child syndrome. Nigga want everything for himself.”

I bobbed my head, agreeing with that. He had brothers and a sister, but he was an only child for a long while.

“So?”

“So I followed his girl and saw her take him to a physical therapist and approached the nigga there. We got to talking, and at first, he wasn’t fucking with me, but when I told him who I was and my background, the nigga was all ears.” Grady smirked as he recalled the memory, eyeing his dirty ass nails. “Came up with a plan to kidnap her ass after the trial is over. Doing it before would cause too much of a frenzy and garner too much media attention. Doing it after will too, but not nearly as much.”

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