Page 37 of Truth

“At some point, though, you have to go home.”

“So he can pretend that all these years he hasn’t played with me? I’m fine… except for my fucking PTSD.”

My voice cracked. I could feel myself unraveling, but I wasn’t taking anything to harm my baby. I remember that day and wished I’d listened. Sahmeer asked me to wait for him to do a walk through, but my fast ass went alone. He also was trying to cockblock. He had his own place, and I had my own. For years, we played house when no one was around, but Alix knew. He just didn’t care to share. He felt we needed to play by our own rules since Truth and Brick played by theirs.

“Oh, honey. Come here.” She hugged me, and I winced. “Damn, your ribs.”

“Still tender.” I smiled since my little one managed to survive all of that. If he or she could, who was I to complain?

“Well, I have to go to the shop. It’s been a few days, and the fellas are asking questions. Also, ho, I’m losing money, and I have to run off those dusty bitches. Biscuit pretends he’s just being nice. Too fucking nice. He gives out more discounts than tats. Fuck that. You want me to order anything before I go? I can have it delivered.”

Her two bedroom townhouse was small in comparison to my three bedroom condo on the Upper East Side. I wasn’t too good to be here, but I’d become kind of claustrophobic after weeks in that damn hospital room. I felt I was suffocating. Rowdy Red had cut me off after Sahmeer beat his ass for dropping me off.

Truth was so caught up in Saint business he didn’t fight me on not coming there. He also wasn’t in a rush to face me. I didn’t blame him. I knew who my family was and what we represented. Unlike my mother, I lived. I survived, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less, though.

“I’m on Instacart. Text me what you need, and I got you. I’ll just get my money back from Breeze. I’ll find a way, but I’m feeding his big head ass baby.”

“Uh uh, girl. Don’t do my baby like that.”

She tittered then waved me off.

“His daddy does have a big head, don’t he?”

“Like I said, I’ll get my money back from Breeze.”

I sent her a list and found a seat on the balcony. I was walking with a cane, but physical therapy had helped. I wondered if my pregnancy would slow me down. I stayed away from mirrors. The sight of burn scars triggered me. I needed to call and find a therapist, but so much was happening at one time.

“Later, Genny, baby.” She kissed my cheek and off she went.

I borrowed her laptop and logged into our accounts. The bar was doing well. No surprise there, even the two restaurantsand grocery store. The gym and the tattoo shop was doing good too, but our numbers had dropped significantly for fundraising purposes. I heard the annual race fundraiser was a success, but to me, we’d barely made a dent in what our goal was.

I heard the doorbell ring and cursed myself. I placed it on my to-do list to have a Ring camera installed. I would download the app and ask them to leave the groceries at the door if we had one. After a few more rings, I gripped the side of the chair and managed to get up.

“I’m coming! You can leave them. I’ll get them.”

I wrapped my robe around my body. Thankfully, I dropped a few more pounds, pregnant and all. Teenie had a wardrobe to die for, which included the satin nightgown and robe I’d borrowed. Well, more like I hijacked it. The delivery person rang once more, and I was close to saying fuck that food.

“Hey, you can?—”

Shit, it was Sahmeer. I slammed the door, but just before I could lock it, he forced his way inside.

“Help me! Helllllp!”

He covered my mouth, lifted me up, and carried me straight to the guest bedroom as if that bitch had been here before.

“Have you?—”

He wasted no time. He lowered me to the bed, got down on his knees, and pushed my nightgown up.

“Can you…”

He peppered my stomach with kisses as he slid one of my arms out of the gown.

“Sahmeer, come on now.” My pleas went unheard until I sat completely naked and he sat there, breathing laboriously and stared. That’s it. He just stared at me. He looked at my hand, my ring finger, and kissed it.

“Sahmeer, we really need to?—”

My rant was cut off when he slid a ten carat diamond ring on my finger. It was three or four times bigger than the one he’d purchased seven years ago.

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