Chapter 18
Bria
Eight months later
“Cheers to me putting away another no good man in this city.”
Marcus lifted his champagne glass, smiling like he’d just closed the deal of his life. I raised my glass of water and tapped it against his, toasting to Crew’s conviction like it was something to celebrate.
We drank. I swallowed mine quickly and set the glass down like it was a shot of liquor.
Since the check was already paid, we stood up from the table and headed out.
I’m sure that we just blew a bag in this expensive ass restaurant, but that’s what Marcus loved to do.
He liked buying his status in the world and making himself feel important because he was rich.
The valet had Marcus’s red Lamborghini pulled up front, where Marcus paid for them to keep it because he wanted the attention. He’d bought the car just days ago, right after Crew’s closing arguments, as a gift to himself. He just knew that he had won that case.
He couldn’t stop talking about putting Crew away, and this win meant more to him than any case he’d ever prosecuted.
It wasn’t just about justice. It was personal.
Marcus is prosecuting Crew for reasons he could never tell a soul because that would be against everything he’d worked for.
I expected Crew to have brought up our little triangle in court, but he didn't. Knowing Crew, he probably thought that would be too much like snitching.
Once we stepped outside, the valet held the doors open for us, as the engine roared loudly. Marcus put on one of his favorite jazz tracks, which I hated but he loved to listen to because he said it brought him peace, but to me, it was just noisy as hell.
The city lights blurred past as he pulled off, and he was flying like a maniac simply because he knew the car drove fast. We’d already been pulled over once since he got the car, but with his pull in the city, he was able to get away with a warning and a pat on the back.
I sat in the passenger seat in silence, watching the road, feeling the weight of everything we weren’t saying.
Or should I say the weight of everything I needed to be said?
The more Marcus talked, the better it always was for me.
I had to listen to it now, in disgust, but in the future, it would be well worth it.
After a few blocks, I pulled my phone out, scrolled to the app I needed, and turned the radio down to have a conversation with him.
“Babe, you know I’ve been thinking, and worrying because that’s what I do, but are you sure that the case you tried to build against Crew and me together is trashed now?”
“Yes, sweetheart. How many times do I have to tell you that it’s over and done with? I got with the detective and let him know I was just moving off emotions. There really was no evidence, and the little evidence we had, I let him know I fabricated it.”
“Are you sure that he won’t tell them that it was fabricated?”
“Detective Freeman? Nah, he won’t trust me. I have so much dirt on him that he will never say a bad word about me. I know how much evidence he’s planted in his day. Shit, half of it was for cases that we worked on together. Witnessed we paid to lie. You are good, baby.”
He reached over and tugged at my chin.
“Good, I just don’t want the baby to not have a mom because I’m in jail.”
Marcus rubbed across my hard belly that sat up high through the seat belt.
“Don’t worry. I will be there for you and my baby boy. I will be able to teach him and mold him into a man like his father because there is no hope for Marcus Junior. He’s a lost cause.” He spoke about his autistic son with his wife. This was the hardest part to listen to by far.
“Marcus, there can be hope if you get him the right help, babe. Autistic kids are very intelligent.”
“Nah, I don’t think so.” He chuckled, laughing at that poor baby’s condition.
“He is gone with the wind, so I’ll let his mama deal with him. I’m going to focus on my son, who’s coming and has all of his marbles.”
“Marcus.”
“What baby? I’m just saying. There’s nothing wrong with wanting the best for the best. I have the best job and will be attorney general soon. I will have the best looking wife, the best homes, the best cars. Everything.”
He talked himself right into the conversation I wanted to have.
“Yep, life will definitely be good. I guess you making me be with you was a good thing after all.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Don’t say it like that, baby. I did what I had to do to make sure you were mine. In the long run, you're happier now, right?”
“Yeah, I am, I just hope that I can trust you from here on out and that you will never do any back-handed stuff again to force me to do anything else. I want to make decisions for myself, Marcus.”
“What exactly did I force you to do besides leave that gangsta Crew alone and be with me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about, but it’s whatever now.”
“Yeah, it is. In the long run, you and I are happy now. You will forever be good because of me forcing you to be with me.”
He held up air quotes.
Marcus and I had been officially together and living together for three months now.
For the first time in our existence, we were not sneaking around, not hiding, or hoping not to get caught.
He finally got the balls to divorce his wife and talked her into taking a settlement that included keeping the house and full custody of the kids.
According to him, his wife didn’t fight it the way he expected she would.
He said she, in fact, didn’t argue, didn’t beg, and didn’t drag it out.
He said that she was probably already seeing someone else, but I figured she was just tired.
Marcus has a way of wearing people down.
Making everything you believed in with him in the beginning, all of a sudden, feel like a facade.
When we pulled up to the condo we were renting, Marcus parked, got out, and came around to open my door like he always did, since he practiced polite, almost performative methods of being my boyfriend.
I stepped out slowly, wobbling a little as I rubbed my stomach.
My baby felt like he was sitting high and pressing right up under my ribs.
I remember I used to think my sister was dramatic when she was pregnant with Love, and I used to downplay it.
Now I see, pregnancy is just as painful as labor can be, which I don’t even want to think about until the time comes.
“Beautiful, I am going to go back to the office to pick up my laptop. You sure you're good going up by yourself?”
“Yes, of course, I am good, babe.”
I replied.
Marcus held the door open for me, and then I wobbled inside slowly before turning around at the elevators and finally hitting stop on the voice memo I’d been recording.
Once I saw Marcus was gone, I doubled back outside and into the garage faster than I’d walked in a long time. My heart was racing because I was on a clock now, and what I was about to do had to be done before Marcus made it back to the condo.
I slid into my brand-new Bentley, which he’d bought me a few days ago, the leather still smelling untouched, and pulled off quickly.
A few blocks later, the 24th Precinct came into view, gray and ugly, a direct view of how my life had felt on the inside.
I found an open meter right out front, luckily close enough to the entrance.
The second I walked inside, the noise hit me: phones ringing, officers yelling, metal doors clanging, people arguing all at once.
Straight up chaos, and I couldn’t wait to get out of here.
I walked straight up to the counter where a desk duty sheriff sat, eyes already heavy like he’d seen too much today.
I knew once I opened my mouth, there was no undoing what I said. This was it.
“Yes, can I assist you, ma’am?”
“Uhh, yes, I am here to turn in some tapes that I’ve been collecting.
They prove that there is a corrupt prosecutor working major cases in New York, and he also forced me to be in a relationship with him and quit my law practice.
I want out, as well as justice for all the people he’s wrongfully convicted. ”
His eyes perked up, and he saw right away this wasn’t just a normal concern.
“Okay, give me a minute.” he looked confused as he rolled back in his chair to page whoever to the front.
I was anxious standing at this counter, but I was finally feeling vindicated for all the time I’ve put in.
It took me all these months, but I think I finally got him.
No cases he’s built in the past few years will matter once they get these tapes, and a lot of people will go free due to the sacrifice I made to play him for the majority of this year.
At the end of the day, I was doing one last good deed for Crew, and the entire city of New York before me and my son are gone for good.
I’m ready for a new start. I’m ready to live life for me and the life I created.