Page 57 of Only if You Catch Me
“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Tesha screeched making me whip my head in her direction. “You have some big balls calling my phone and asking me that question. I don’t know if drugs got you out your body or what, but you need to seek help. Goodbye.” Kissing her teeth, Tesha ended the call and looked over at me.
She stared at me for a few seconds, and my brows rose. I was waiting for her to tell me who she was talking to.
“Do you know Ryder had the nerve to ask me if he could come lay low at my house? Talking about I know you hate me, but I’m scared for my life. I told on too many niggas, and I think there’s a bounty on my head.”
“Are you serious?”
“Girllllllll,” she drawled. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care if he died. That would be taking it a little too far. But I have a man that treats me well, and I will not be harboring his ass because he decided to tell on local drug dealers as well as ones out of town. He should have thought that thing through before he did it. Ryder might as well go ahead and turn himself in if he doesn’t feel safe on the streets because I can’t help him. And he had the nerve to say if anything happened to him his blood would be on my hands.”
A sarcastic chuckle escaped my throat. “Not him trying to gaslight you into helping him. Ryder is a real piece of work,” I frowned. “Thank you so much for the company boo and letting me vent. I’m going to head home.”
We stood at the same time, and Tesha gave me a long tight hug. “Call me if you need me.”
“I will.”
On the way home, I blinked back tears. Every second of every day, I missed Kastian. But I would be okay. I had to be.
The next morning, I waited anxiously while his lawyer looked through a few papers. I had no clue what he was about to tell me, and my stomach was in knots. Finally, he lifted his head and gave me a small smile.
“Mr. Miller came to see me a few days before his arrest. He has an accountant that will be paying his personal bills and allocating his money as he sees fit. However, this is the information to a checking account that he has, and he is giving you full access to it.” The lawyer extended a piece of paper toward me, as I sat there with a slack jaw.
Looking down at the paper, my heart fell into my ass when I saw the balance in the account was more than a million dollars. I looked over at the lawyer with pure bewilderment etched onto my face.
He passed a brown manila envelope to me. “These are the keys to his home and cars. He’s giving you access to both. His cleaners are still set to come in weekly, and his accountant will be keep the mortgage and utilities paid. The Feds can’t seize these belongings because they were not purchased with drug money neither was his company built off money laundering.Kastian did a very good job of keeping a paper trail and using his legal money wisely.”
I was stumped. I knew Kastian loved me but damn. I didn’t expect any of this. And if I had access to a million, and his accountant was still going to keep his bills paid, how much money did he have???
“What about his case?” I swallowed hard. “Do you think you’ll be able to help him?”
“I’m going to try my very best.”
That was all the information he gave me, and I understood he didn’t want to make promises that he couldn’t keep. I gave a curt nod. He went over a few more things with me such as Kastian’s desires for his businesses which he was leaving to me to run. It was a little overwhelming, but I was going to do whatever he wanted me to do. I wasn’t broke, but I was far from a millionaire. I had no clue what I would do with the money that Kastian gave me. I almost thought about buying a house, but I wanted to wait. Wait and see if he was coming home, and we could get a house together.
I left the lawyer’s office with a heavy heart. I had access to over a million dollars, and I couldn’t even be happy about it. I would have rather had Kastian instead. As I pulled up at the office, I had an idea. I’d seen some gorgeous rings on Tik Tok. Of course they weren’t real, but they were very cute and honestly, if I rocked one with my real jewelry, nice outfits, purses, and shoes, the average person would assume it was real. The cubic zirconia’s were huge. It was a perfect way for me to appear married while Kastian was away to keep men out of my face. Maybe he doubted that I’d wait years for him, but that was absolutely my plan.
Hell yeah, I was going to miss him and that D. Good Lord that D. But I had no desire to run to another man. I ordered the rings off Tik Tok shop and smiled somberly. My mothercalled as I was getting out of the car, and I sighed. Unlike most mothers, she never called just to say hello or to see how I was doing. There was always some annoying ulterior motive up her sleeve. Tina still wasn’t speaking to her and though she deserved the silent treatment, sometimes I’d try to tell myself to just have more patience with my mother. If she hadn’t changed by now, she probably wouldn’t. However, a girl could always pray for miracles.
“Hello?”
“Persia! I saw David coming out of the nail salon with a woman, and she was pregnant. He looked a little stressed ‘bout the face, but they got into a new BMW. You sure leaving him was a good idea?”
God knew my heart. And He knew I’d rather have Kastian than to have the money he left me. I was the epitome of humble, and it was no one’s business what he left me but just for once, I wanted to shut my mother the hell up.
“You’re asking if leaving him was a good idea because he got in a new BMW? Baby, that BMW doesn’t mean a thing to me. Meanwhile, the man I’m with now, just gifted me access to a bank account with over one million dollars in it. A BMW is cute though. Don’t worry mother. I didn’t disappoint you. I landed a shark. My nigga is rich.” With that, I ended the call with a frown. That woman could ruin anybody’s day.
I wished I could have seen the look on her face when I gave her the news. I didn’t have plans to tell anyone else about the money. One reason was because I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Maybe let it sit for a while. Again, I had my own money, so if I wanted to travel or buy myself something nice, I could. It was nice to know that if I fell on hard times, I would have it to fall back on. I was just a girl that loved traveling, bags and shoes, but I wasn’t going to run out and buy a Birkin. Probably wouldn’t even be going on any trips for a while. AllI wanted was a phone call from Kastian saying he was coming home. Until that happened, I’d be walking around with a heavy heart.
CHAPTER 24
KASTIAN
As soon asthe call connected, I smiled. “Hey, baby.” It was the first time that I’d been able to call Persia. I’d been locked up for a week.
“Hi. How are you? I mean, I’m sure that’s a dumb question.”
I chuckled. “I’m better after seeing you today. You looked good as fuck, baby. Damn I miss you.” Seeing her in a crème pants suit looking like a bad ass boss had my dick hard in that courtroom.
I had gotten word to my mother and my sister about how I felt about Persia, and they found her in the courtroom, and they all sat together. That made a nigga feel good.
