11. TRUTH #2
Amai guided me back to the bedroom with one arm still wrapped around my waist, supporting most of my weight.
My legs felt weak, my body exhausted from the violent purging, and I was grateful for his steadiness.
When we reached the bed, he pulled back the covers and helped me ease down onto the mattress.
The sheets were cool against my overheated skin, and I sank into them with a sigh of relief. My stomach still felt unsettled, but the worst had passed. For now.
Amai pulled the covers up over me, tucking them around my shoulders with a care that made me melt. He smoothed my hair back from my face, his touch gentle, and I closed my eyes, too tired to do anything but accept the comfort he was offering.
“Try and get some rest,” he said quietly.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. He’d changed—dark jeans, a black t-shirt that fit him perfectly. His hair was slightly mussed, and there was a shadow of stubble along his jaw. He looked tired too, but alert. Focused.
“Where are you going?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“To the store,” he said. “I’m going to get you something you can actually keep down.”
I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to do that. That I’d be fine. That he’d already done enough. But the truth was, I needed him to go. I needed something in my stomach that wouldn’t come back up. And I needed a moment alone to process everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
“Okay,” I said instead.
He studied me for a moment, his dark eyes searching my face like he was trying to read something there. Then he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead—soft, lingering, protective.
“Please call your mom,” he said when he pulled back. “I know she’s worried.”
Guilt twisted in my stomach. I hadn’t called my mama since I left with Amai yesterday. She had to be losing her mind by now.
“I will,” I said.
“Good.” He straightened and looked at me again, his expression unreadable. “I’ll be back soon.”
I nodded, and he turned and left the room. I heard his footsteps moving down the hallway, heard the front door open and close, heard the sound of his car starting in the driveway.
And then I was alone.
I lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, trying to gather the energy to move. My phone was on the nightstand where I’d left it last night, and I knew I needed to call my mama. But I also knew that conversation was going to be… difficult.
Because what the hell was I supposed to tell her?
Hey, Mama. Sorry I disappeared. I’m at a lakehouse with a man I barely know who just found out his brother might be the father of my baby. Oh, and I slept with him last night in front of a fireplace, and it was the most intense, soul-altering experience of my life. But don’t worry—I’m fine.
Yeah. That would go over well.
I sighed and reached for my phone, unlocking it and pulling up my mama’s contact. My thumb hovered over the call button for a long moment before I finally pressed it.
It rang twice before she picked up.
“Where the hell have you been?”
Her voice was sharp, angry, and laced with the kind of worry that only a mother could produce. I winced and pulled the phone slightly away from my ear.
“Mama—”
“Don’t ‘Mama’ me, Truth Renois! You left with that light-skinned man yesterday and ain’t been back since! I was about to call the damn police!”
I closed my eyes and took a breath, trying to find the right words. “Mama, I’m sorry. I should have called—”
“You damn right you should have called! I been sitting here worried sick, thinking something happened to you! You know how this city is! You know what can happen to a woman out here by herself!”
“I’m not by myself,” I said quietly. “I’m with Amai.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. A long, heavy pause that made my stomach twist.
“You with him right now?” she asked, her voice dropping to something quieter.
“Yes. Well, no. He just left to go to the store. But I’m at his lakehouse.”
“His lakehouse.” She said it like it was a foreign concept. Like I’d just told her I was on the moon. “Truth, what the hell is going on?”
I sat up slowly, leaning back against the headboard, and tried to organize my thoughts. This was going to be messy no matter how I explained it.
“After my appointment with Dr. Beaumont yesterday,” I started, “Amai showed up. And… things went left.”
“What do you mean ‘things went left’?”
I hesitated, then decided to just rip the band-aid off. “Mama, you know that man you kept saying looked like Amai? The one you saw yesterday?”
“Yeah. What about him?”
“That’s his brother.”
Silence.
Complete, absolute silence.
And then—
“His WHAT?”
I winced. “His brother. Kaisen. He’s Amai’s younger brother.”
“His brother.” My mama’s voice was flat, disbelieving. “You telling me that man who was all up in your face. The one who looked just like the man whose baby you carrying. Is his brOTHER?”
“Yes.”
“And you just now finding this out?”
“Yes, Mama. I didn’t know. Amai didn’t know he was coming around either—”
“Oh, HELL no.” My mama’s voice rose, sharp and cutting. “I KNEW it was some bullshit somewhere! I smelled it the second I saw that man! What kind of Flowers in the Attic, Blue Lagoon shit y’all got going on?!”
“Mama, it’s not like that—”
“Then what is it like, Truth? Because from where I’m sitting, it sounds like you caught up in some twisted family mess that you got no business being in!”
“It wasn’t like that,” I said, my voice firmer now. “Amai didn’t know what his brother was doing. Kaisen… he did something. Something bad. And Amai’s trying to fix it.”
“Fix it?” My mama laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Baby, you can’t fix crazy. And if his brother is doing sneaky shit behind his back, that whole family crazy.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to defend Amai and tell her she didn’t understand. But part of me, the part that was still trying to process everything, knew she had a point.
“We just needed a break,” I said instead. “That’s why we’re at the lakehouse. Things have been… chaotic. We needed some space to figure things out.”
“Figure things out,” my mama repeated slowly. “Truth, baby, listen to me. I need you to hear what I’m saying right now.”
I closed my eyes and braced myself.
“You leaning back in this shit,” she said, her voice hard. “And you need to sit the fuck up and stop reacting. You need to start putting your foot down and speaking up. You hear me?”
“Mama—”
“I don’t care how fine that man is,” she continued, cutting me off. “I don’t care how much money he got or how good he treats you. Don’t let no nigga play with you. You understand?”
“He’s not playing with me,” I said, my voice rising slightly. “Amai hasn’t done anything wrong. It was his brother who—”
“His brother who WHAT, Truth? His brother who got involved in your business? His brother who showed up acting like he didn’t know you? Ain’t no telling what else his sneaky ass been doing! I don’t like that shit at alllllll!”
My throat tightened. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And where was Amai when all this was happening?”
I didn’t answer. Because I didn’t have a good answer.
“Exactly,” my mama said. “He wasn’t there. He didn’t know. And now you caught up in the middle of whatever mess they got going on.”
“He wants to be with me,” I said quietly. “Amai. He wants to be with me, Mama. For real.”
There was another pause. Longer this time.
“Be with you,” my mama said finally, her voice softer now. Almost sad. “Baby, I knew that man wanted more. I saw it in his eyes when he came to the house. I saw the way he looked at you.”
My chest tightened.
“But he hiding something,” she continued. “And you need to get your head out the clouds and figure out what it is.”
“He’s not hiding anything—”
“Truth.” My mama’s voice was sharp again, cutting through my protest. “That man is RICH. He got power. He got connections. Men like that don’t just fall for regular women like us without a reason.
And if his own brother is doing sneaky shit behind his back, what makes you think he ain’t got secrets too? ”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell her she was wrong. But the words stuck in my throat.
Because what if she wasn’t wrong?
What if Amai was hiding something?
I thought about the way he’d looked at me last night—the intensity in his eyes, the possessiveness in his touch. I thought about the way he’d spoken to me, the way he’d claimed me, the way he’d made me feel like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
But I also thought about the things I didn’t know. The things he hadn’t told me. The parts of his life that were still shadows and secrets.
“Mama,” I said quietly, “I don’t know what to do.”
“Yes, you do,” she said firmly. “You lock the fuck in. Immediately.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You stop floating around in this man’s world like you don’t got a say in what happens to you. You stop letting him—or his brother, or anybody else—make decisions for you. You sit up, you pay attention, and you figure out what the hell is really going on.”
Her words hit me like a slap. Not because they were cruel, but because they were true.
I had been floating. Reacting instead of acting. Letting things happen to me instead of taking control.
“You a smart woman, Truth,” my mama continued, her voice softer now.
“You always been smart. But you been hurt, and you been tired, and you been trying to survive. And I get that. I do. But surviving ain’t the same as living.
And if you gonna be with this man—if you gonna let him into your life and your baby’s life—you need to know who he really is. Not who he pretending to be.”
Tears pricked at my eyes, and I blinked them back. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” I said again, my voice steadier now. “You’re right. I need to figure this out.”
“Damn right you do.” My mama sighed, and I could hear the exhaustion in it. “I love you, baby. You know that. And I just want you to be safe. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“I know, Mama. I love you too.”
“Good. Now, when you coming home?”