Page 19 of Their End Game

Honestly, for the most part, I didn’t want to listen to anything she had to say, but for some reason, a little piece of me needed answers. “You got two minutes.” My tone was flat.

I watched her closely. She seemed to get nervous now that she had the floor. She didn’t resemble the person I’d grown to like over the last few years. “Before we came here, we were okay, Ja’vari. Relationship or not, we were okay and content with what we had going on. The second you found out about the little girl, y—”

“My daughter.” I noticed that every time Vanessa referenced Ja’Lani or even Radiance, she’d do so in a disrespectful way.

“Ever since you found out about your daughter, things shifted with us. Not just your daughter, but I saw in your eyes the feelings you had for her mother.” She paused, sniffling. “We were okay,” she repeated, and I didn’t know why. “Had we not came on this trip, or she wasn’t here, you and I would still be okay. They ruined it.”

I chuckled. This woman seriously didn’t have all of her marbles. “Whether we were okay or not, you thought having a DNA test done on my daughter would make things better for us? Hypothetically speaking, had she not been mine, you think I would have trusted and wanted to be with you after you went behind my back, pulling said stunt?”

Vanessa shrugged. “I don’t know, but it was worth the risk.”

There was a long pause between us. “How’d you do it?” I asked, but when the look of confusion crossed her face, I knew she wanted me to spell it out for her. “The test. How’d you go about getting our DNA?”

“Your toothbrush and your daughter’s dirty diaper.”

“You mean you took shit from her dirty diaper?”

The embarrassed look took over Vanessa’s features before my question was complete. She nodded but didn’t utter any words.

She was crazier than I thought. Hearing how she’d done it paired with her embarrassed expression, I couldn’t prevent myself from cracking up. She’d truly gone to great lengths to prove something that was not. Finally, my laughter subsided. “It was very pathetic of you to do that, low might I add.” I headed for the door. “Whatever you wanted to accomplish, you didn’t, and even if she wasn’t mine, I wouldn’t have been able to trust you as far as I could throw you any longer.”

“Ja’vari?” she called out once I reached the door and opened it.

“I have nothing else to say to you, Vanessa. I will have your things packed up and sent down to the lobby, but you gotta get the hell up outta here.”

Vanessa gasped as if she didn’t know her dismissal was coming. After a brief, blank stare, she headed my way, her head hung low like a dog that had tucked its tail.

“Whatever this was or wasn’t… it’s done. I never want to see nor hear from you again,” I uttered just before slamming the door after her when she crossed the threshold. Before, I was going to end things with Vanessa in a more mature way, but when she violated and disrespected us, I realized she didn’t deserve more than what I had given her.

It had beena few hours since Radiance stepped out of my hotel room. I was giving her time to process things, but now I was ready to talk. Stepping back, I awaited my knock to be answered; I was at Radiance’s room. Seconds after I knocked, the doorslowly opened. Radiance stood before me, barefoot, biker shorts, a tank, makeup free, and her natural hair pulled up into a messy bun. Her beauty outshined most, and she did very little to achieve the goal. “You got a minute?”

Radiance looked reluctant to let me in, and I was hoping she wouldn’t deny me. The longer I looked at her, the more I realized her eyes were red and puffy. She’d been crying.

“It’ll only take a second.”

After more hesitation, she stepped back, gesturing for me to step inside.

“Where’s Ja’Lani?”

“My parents took her for a while. I had a lot I needed to process.”

“Oh.”

“What are you doing here, Ja’vari?” she questioned after a moment of silence.

Fuck it, I thought. “I’m sorry, Radiance.”

She snickered. “Kind of said that already. It’s getting redundant at this point.”

She was right. The apologies were starting to sound like a broken record that was long ago out of style. “I didn’t know, Radiance. You believe that. I’d never do anything to hurt you or Ja’Lani intentionally.”

Radiance lifted her tongue to the roof of her mouth, looking away from me. “Maybe not intentionally, but what happened hurt. I left our daughter in your care for a few hours, and look at the aftermath. I can’t trust that she will be safe with you.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Her words offended me.

“It means I appreciate you wanting to be in Ja’Lani’s life, but we’re good over here. Continue your life the way things have been before you knew about her, and I will do the same.”

“What happened with Vanessa could have happened with anyone. You can’t stand here and pretend it’s my fault it happened.”

---