Page 46 of Mister Concierge

Her head hung. “I couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t know what to say or do to convince him I want to be with him. He knows I truly don’t. I’m afraid he will kill me, and our baby will be left alone with him. If you don’t want to have anything to do with me, I understand, though I hope you’d be willing to give us another chance. More than anything, I wanted to get Santino away from him, and I don’t trust him with anyone else.”

My head shook. Something was off about her story. It didn’t make sense for Gino to tell her he’d robbed me, then let her leave. It also didn’t make sense for him to capture her and think he could keep her forever. Some of what she said may have been true, but not all of it.

If Gino robbed me and confided in her about it, it was because they had some type of relationship going on. Mariah might not have wanted to admit it because then she would confess to cheating, but that made more sense. She’d been sleeping with him, and he used her to get close to me. I wasn’t sure if she was in on the robbery or not. At this point, I didn’t trust Mariah at all.

The only reason I was even trying to make sense of her story was because she said we had a child together, and there was no guarantee even that was true. If it was, I was going to take care of both of them… and Gino, too.

“Are you sure your son is mine?”

“Yes,” she agreed, with no hesitation.

“Go get him. I want to meet him.”

She smiled widely as she stood to her feet. “Okay. Um… Can we stay with you? Gino has gained more power in the streets this past year. What he took from the mafia from here put him on. I don’t feel comfortable staying anywhere else because I know he will look for me. Gino wouldn’t expect me to come back here to you, and even if I did, I don’t think he would believe you would help me.”

“Y’all can stay in the guest room. Do you have everything he needs?”

Her head shook. “No. I just packed two of his bags and what little things of mine I could quickly grab. He can sleep with me for the time being.”

Standing, I nodded in agreement. “That will have to do for tonight. In the morning, we can pick up whatever else he will need.”

Mariah hugged me, and it took me a few seconds to hug her back. I always wondered how it would feel to have her in my arms again, and all I could think about was how she didn’t fit me the way Cartier did.

“Thank you, Hosea. I knew if I could just get to you, that Santino and I would be okay. I’ll go pick him up and have Roxanne drop us off. I’m in her car.”

Nodding, I tried to think of how I was going to explain this to Cartier because it was still too much for me. I watched Mariah leave, wondering if another year would pass before I saw her again.

A son.

Santino.

Could it really be?

I’d always wanted kids, but I wanted to have them with the woman I loved.

That was Mariah, right?

All this time, I swore she had my heart and my love, but now that I had Cartier… what I felt for Mariah didn’t seem to matter as much.

The entire time I went back up to the suite, I tried to continue to make sense of what Mariah had said to me. Something in the pit of my stomach told me she was lying, and I needed to find out about what.

I opened the door, and Cartier quickly jumped up from the couch. Twiddling her thumbs, she licked her lips.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I… don’t know what I am,” I admitted, making my way over to her.

We sat next to each other on the couch, and I decided to only share what was absolutely necessary.

“Mariah has been in an abusive relationship with one of my enemies. Apparently, she was pregnant when she left me, and his way of getting one up on me was keeping them both.”

Her mouth dropped and when she closed it, she swallowed hard. “Pregnant? So… she had your baby?”

I nodded. “Yeah. A boy. Santino.”

Her eyes fluttered as they watered, but she forced a smile. “Wow, th-that’s… something. How do you feel? Are we happy about this or…”

I chuckled. “I’m confused as hell, I can’t lie. It was difficult enough processing her presence and the story she told me sounded just like that—a story.”

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