The Big Catch (BLP Sports #1)

Prologue - Adabelle Caroline Lee “Belle”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

“Girl, I am so ready to blow a bag!” Belle spoke to her friend through her luxury SUV sound system.

She was on her way to Rodeo Drive to spend all of her husband, Carson’s, money.

Her best friend, Gabrielle, giggled through the speaker.

Although she giggled, her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Thank God they were on the phone, and Belle couldn’t see her.

“Girl, when are you not ready to blow Carson’s bags.”

Belle kissed her teeth.

“Aht, aht, don’t do that. The least he can do is make sure I have money for shopping to keep my time occupied. Hell, his damn company keeps his ass in Texas so damn much. He was supposed to be home last weekend, but they needed him to close a big deal.”

Belle loved her husband, but she hated how much he worked and had to stay away from home.

Four years ago, Carson’s company moved their headquarters from California to Texas to save money on the bottom line.

When Carson broached the topic with Belle about moving, she adamantly told him that was not an option for her.

There were many married couples that were not physically under each other because of work.

She’d been out to Dallas a few times to visit, but she abhorred it.

No matter how city Dallas was, in her mind, it was still the country.

If Belle wanted to be in the country, she would have stayed her thick ass in Newsome, Alabama, where she was born and raised.

The small rural town’s population was less than two thousand people.

A majority of those numbers were bum ass, Black folks, or at least that was how Belle saw it.

The place was so small that the residents had to drive almost an hour to get to a major store like Walmart or Target.

The only thing to do there was hunt, fish, line dance, drink, smoke, and have babies.

She knew from a very young age that all of that kind of shit was beneath her.

Born Adabelle Caroline Lee, she always felt she was worth more than anything her tiny town of Newsome could give her.

Her mother, Sidda Mae, and father, Jessie, were teenage parents who had her at fourteen and seventeen years old.

That was a normal occurrence in the small town, teenage mothers and fathers.

Adabelle would not be one of the small-town statistics.

She worked her ass off to get a scholarship to none other than the University of Southern California.

Her parents were lower, middle-class, so she knew if she didn’t get a scholarship that she would end up in some trade school or, worse, working at the gas station that her family owned.

None of those were options in her mind.

When she got her full ride to college, she was on the first thing smoking to California.

The second her foot touched the ground there, she went from Adabelle Caroline to Belle Cari.

It was time for a major rebranding of herself.

“Girl, you better thank God that your husband bust his ass to make sure your pockets can stay laced,” Gabrielle quipped.

“Don’t be ungrateful, friend. Everyone isn’t as blessed.”

Now it was Belle’s turn to let her eyes roll in their sockets.

If there was one thing that Gabrielle could do, she was going to remind Belle how blessed she was.

“Girl, I know I’m blessed. I just miss my man sometimes.” When her best friend suggested she go visit him, Belle’s forehead creased.

“Yeah, no. I’m fine until he comes home in a few days.”

“Well, you can’t miss him that much.” Gabrielle was single in the mean streets of LA, fighting for her life with the trifling men options.

Here Belle was with an amazing man but was never willing to go out of the way to accommodate him.

As far as Belle was concerned, this conversation was over.

“Alright, girl, I’m pulling up to the boutique. Let’s get together for lunch tomorrow or something.” Gabrielle reminded Belle that not everyone had free days.

Some people actually worked.

“You’re right. Everyone’s not blessed, so you let me know when you can do lunch.”

Belle swiftly disconnected the call.

She knew she was blessed, so she didn’t need a constant reminder.

From the day she met Carson at her little waitressing job, she knew meeting him was a blessing straight from God.

He came into the restaurant for a week before he asked her out on a date.

Belle’s ego was at an all-time high to know that she pulled a professional twenty-eight-year-old, fine man at her tender age of twenty-one.

Six months after they started dating, Carson moved her in with him and convinced her to drop out of school.

He wanted her to be his kept trophy.

Belle damn sure accepted the role in Carson’s play called life.

Four years later, he asked her to marry him, and a year after that, they were married.

They had been happily married for ten years, and she loved every minute of it.

Well, not every minute, but she did love being a kept woman.

“Mrs. Atkins, how are you today? You look fabulous, as usual.” Geoffrey greeted her when she walked into the boutique.

She was one of their top spenders, so they rolled out the red carpet for her when she came in.

Belle gave her award-winning smile.

“Thank you, Geoffrey. You know I do what I can to please the eyes of people.”

She followed him into her private shopping suite.

Moments after she sat down, a bottle of wine and a tray of dainty snacks were brought out for her.

“Okay, Mrs. Ma’am. You came in just in time because we got in a plethora of new arrivals that I just know you will love.”

For the next two hours, Geoffrey styled her to the gods!

They took a break for lunch, then were back at it for another hour and a half.

When it was all said and done with, Belle successfully ran up an eighteen-thousand-dollar tab.

Today was a good day.

“Belle, hun, your card was declined.” Geoffrey’s voice was low, even with them being in a private room.

He was embarrassed for her.

Belle’s head bucked.

“What do you mean it declined? Did you do it right?”

“Now, Belle. I know how to run a card better than I know how to suck a dick. Don’t do me, girl.” Geoffrey’s brow twitched with his top lip.

“Maybe call hubby to see what’s up. I’ll give you some space.”

As soon as the door was closed behind him, she pulled her phone out to call her husband.

After four back-to-back calls, there was no answer.

On the fifth call, the voicemail answered immediately.

“I know this nigga didn’t send me to voicemail.”

Embarrassment didn’t seem enough of an adjective to describe how she felt.

What was she going to do?

Before she could fully formulate her thought, Geoffrey pranced back into the room.

“So, what’s the tea, B?”

“Girl, there was a fraud situation with our account, so hubby canceled the card and forgot to tell me. He said that he placed the new card on the kitchen counter this morning.” Belle stood up.

“Let me run home and get it. I’ll be back.”

Geoffrey shook his head.

“Okay, girl! No problem. I’ll be here when you come back. I close today.”

Belle was full of shit, and Geoffrey knew it.

Earlier in the shopping experience, Belle complained that she hadn’t physically seen her husband in almost a month because he was out of town for work.

If he hadn’t been home, then how could he put a card on the table?

There was no need to call her out because, what would be the purpose?

It wouldn’t mysteriously make the payment go through.

The speed that Belle used to get to her vehicle was astonishing.

The entire ride to her house, she continued to call her husband to no avail.

She was livid. Why is he not answering the damn phone!

All she knew was Carson had less than an hour to answer, or she would book a flight to Texas.

She pulled into her roundabout driveway on two wheels.

There was an unfamiliar vehicle in her driveway.

Who the hell is that?

She stomped up to her front door, pressed the code, then opened it.

With the open layout of the bottom floor, the kitchen could be seen from the front door.

“Carson, what are you doing here? I’ve been calling you repeatedly.” Belle was surprised to see her husband sitting at the kitchen island.

It’d been so long since he’d been in their house that he almost looked out of place.

Carson looked up from the papers that sat in front of him.

“Hey, love. I know you’ve been calling. I needed you to come home.”

Her face tightened.

“Did you cut my credit card off? I was in the middle of a damn transaction. Do you know how embarrassing that was?”

Carson snickered.

“Thank you for inquiring about how my day, week, or work has been. I just love how considerate you are.” He huffed.

“Yes, I turned your card off. I knew that was the most effective way to get you home expeditiously.”

Belle’s eyes bucked at his attitude.

“You have an attitude when you put me in an uncomfortable, embarrassing situation, Carson? Really!” She took a step toward her husband.

“Why would you turn my card off? You could have just called and told me you were here.”

“Come sit down so we can talk about our finances.” He ignored her small rant.

He wanted to get to the point of why he came into town earlier than expected.

He was on a time crunch right now.

Belle was cast with worry.

Were they broke? She didn’t know if she’d be able to take it if they were.

She took a seat across from Carson at the island.

“What’s going on, baby?”

Carson was always a straight shooter, but lately, he’d dropped the ball.

That was what initially attracted Belle to him.

Carson cared about Belle; however, he could admit that love was not there any longer.

He did love her at one time, but he battled with the reality that he might have never liked her.

She was a young body that looked good on his arm, with good pussy.

Eventually, he wanted more, and she didn’t seem to have matured enough to give it to him.

He was forty-one, so it was time for him to live in his truth.

“Belle, I think it’s time that we wrap this up. I haven’t been completely honest, and that, I will own. For the last six years, I have been in another relationship, and it’s time that I stop the farce that is us to be with my wife,” he said with a lack of emotion.

There was no room for Belle’s hurt to surface because all of the space was taken up with her confusion.

“I’m confused. You’re calling your mistress your wife. It’s fucked up that you’re cheating, but calling the bitch your wife is another level of disrespect.” How the hell could he be this callous.

He huffed, then responded to her comment.

“Four years ago, I decided that I wanted to marry Kimberly, so I went to my lawyer to start the divorce process.” His head hung for a moment at the thought of the confession that he was about to make.

“When I went to him, I found out that our marriage license wasn’t on record.”

“Excuse the fuck out of me?” Belle jumped from her seat.

“What the hell do you mean our marriage license was never filed. We signed it with the pastor before our reception, and you took it to file, Carson.”

He nodded.

“I know, but I forgot. When my lawyer told me that it wasn’t on record, I didn’t understand it. I tore the house up when you were out of town on your girls’ trip with Gabrielle. I found the license in the pocket of the tuxedo that I wore the day of our wedding. You know I put it in the attic when we moved in here. I hadn’t thought about that tux until I looked for the license.”

Carson honestly felt bad because it was an honest mistake and slip of the mind.

Until that moment, he thought they were married.

It was a shock to him.

Although he felt horrible, he also felt that everything happened for a reason.

Belle couldn’t believe it.

“You never filed it. Why didn’t you say anything? Four years, Carson? Are you serious right now!”

“I should have told you, and that’s on me. I honestly didn’t know how to tell you,” he admitted.

“Um, when I found out that I wasn’t legally married, I moved forward with marrying Kimberly.” He paused with a deep breath.

“I didn’t want her to have our son before we were married.”

The hurt finally arrived at the group chat.

“Did you just say that you married your mistress, and you have a son?” A tear fell from Belle’s eye.

This couldn’t be life right now.

“How could you do this? Does that bitch know about me?”

“Belle, please do not disrespect her because this is not on her; this is on me. To answer your question, yes, she knows now,” he confirmed.

“She recently found out about you and laid out an ultimatum. It was either you or my family.”

Kimberly stumbled upon Carson’s relationship with Belle six months ago.

She moved out of their family home with their children and refused to come back until he resolved his situation.

He met Kimberly when he visited Texas when his company contemplated moving their headquarters there.

The company wanted to use as many local businesses as possible for their needs.

Kimberly owned a catering business that they used.

She was a downhome Texas country girl, and he loved that about her.

Belle was completely undone.

The man that she’d been with for fifteen years, married for ten, just told her that they were never legally married.

He also told her that four years ago, he married another woman who he had a son with.

“I guess you chose your wife and son.”

“I actually chose my wife, son, and daughter. We had a little girl ten months ago.” Carson couldn’t take being away from his family for another day.

“My baby girl is another reason I wanted to end this. Now that I have a little girl, I recognize that I would kill a nigga if he ever did this to her.”

Belle’s eyes bucked.

“So, the birth of your daughter made you realize that you’d been a fuck nigga all this time. Well, thank God for her.” Her head shook hard.

“What the hell am I supposed to do? I just found out that my husband isn’t my fucking husband. You have a wife and two damn children!”

Belle paced the kitchen.

This was the only thing that stopped her from beating Carson the fuck up.

Earlier, she tried to shop until she dropped.

Now her life was falling apart.

“Belle, I know this is fucked up, and for that, I’m sorry. I came here to let you know that although we’re not married, I’m still going to give you some provisions until you get on your feet. I know this will be different for you, but I can’t just let you spend money that rightfully belongs to my wife.” Audacity was at an all-time high.

Her eyelids turned into slits.

“Did you just say rightfully belongs to your fucking wife? Nigga, for ten years, I was your wife! Mrs. Kimberly, is it? She’s only been around for what, six years.”

“How long she’s been around is not germane to the conversation. Regardless that it was a huge mistake when I didn’t file the license, the fact still remains that we are not married. Kimberly and I are married.” Now his annoyance set in.

He had no right to be annoyed since this was his fault, but Belle could be a lot sometimes.

When he met Belle, she was young and impressionable.

He liked that, or so he thought.

She was the sweetest girl, but when he moved her in and gave her open access to his money, a shift happened.

By the time they married, she transformed herself into this arrogant, self-centered, entitled brat.

Carson should have tried to divorce her two or three years after their wedding.

Instead, he took the cowardice way out and cheated.

“Like I was saying, I don’t plan to leave you high and dry. This house is in your name, so this is yours. Yesterday, I paid the mortgage for the next six months. That should be long enough for you to find a job. Your vehicle is paid off. I’m also going to put one hundred thousand dollars in your account.” Carson thought he was being more than fair.

Her head ticked to the side.

“You said that as if you’re doing me a favor. One hundred thousand dollars after ten years of a fake fucking marriage. I can blow that in one shopping trip.”

“Well, I suggest you scale back, Belle. I don’t know what to tell you. Shit, sell some of your clothes. You act as if I haven’t told you for years that your spending habit was exorbitant. You have clothes, shoes, jewelry, and purses that you’ve never worn, yet every month I get a credit card bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Now he was pissed.

Yes, he suggested that she drop out of school when they moved in together in the beginning.

Eight years ago, he suggested that she go back, and he would pay for it.

Her response to his offer was, “why would I do that? I’m a housewife.” He wasn’t sure how she came up with that conclusion when they had a cook and housekeeper.

Belle felt a certain way.

Yes, Carson told her that she needed to stop spending so much, but she never thought it was that serious.

She figured if he wanted her to truly stop spending that he would put a limit on her credit card.

Shopping in her mind was her consolation prize for him always being away from home.

Now she knew why he was away so much.

“So, that’s it? We’re just over?”

“Belle, I don’t mean to seem so insensitive, but yes, we’re over. Honestly, I don’t think either of us have loved each other for some time now. It’s clear that you love my money, but loving me has always been debatable. I can admit that I barely like you, Belle. I dealt with you because I felt a sense of obligation more than anything else.” He had to be honest with her.

His words hurt to hear.

Not because they were untrue, but because they were.

When she first met Carson, it was more infatuation than love.

She loved him, but in love, not so much.

The money made her cozy when he wasn’t around.

“Well, I guess that’s it then. You can get your shit and get the fuck out of my house.”

She gave him that one tear, but he wouldn’t get any more of them.

All he could do for her now was get the hell out and deposit that one hundred thousand dollars into her account.

He could carry his ass back to his wife.

I wonder if I could still sue him.

Carson expected the anger.

One thing that he would give Belle was that she was not a weak woman.

He couldn’t recall a time that he saw her show weakness.

He respected that because most women would have fallen apart right then and there.

He was pleased that she didn’t.

He didn’t feel like dealing with it right now.

All he wanted to do was get back to Texas to fix his real family.

“I got here shortly after you left to go shopping. All of my things have already been removed. Belle, I know this is fucked up, but I love my wife and family. I can’t lose them.” His eyes were soft, and he meant what he said.

“I hope you find what you truly are looking for.”

With nothing else to say, his ass was out the damn door.

Belle stood there frozen for a moment, before she moved to the bedroom.

She felt herself moving, but it was like she was on some sort of autopilot.

She noticed the door to their massive walk-in closet open.

It was a two-story closet where all of her things were upstairs and Carson’s down.

A gasp left her mouth.

The entire downstairs was completely void of everything.

Just as many clothes, shoes, and jewelry as Belle had, Carson did as well.

Carson may not have shopped like she did, but he had a lot of expensive items himself.

There was something on the island in the middle of the closet that drew her attention.

The closer she got to the island, she realized what it was.

His wedding ring. That was it.

Her dam broke after she picked the ring up from the island.

How did she get here?

She trusted a man to take care of her solely when she knew better in her pit.

Her parents taught her how to take care of herself, but she wanted to be taken care of.

Her parents struggled, and even with that, her father took care of her mother.

Belle just didn’t want to be a part of the population that her parents settled into.

It looked like she was about to be there without trying.

Carson paid the mortgage for six months, but what was she supposed to do after that?

As quiet as it was kept, she didn’t know how much the mortgage was.

She didn’t know how much any of the household bills were.

She lived the pampered life that her fake ass husband provided.

Why should she have been worried about the damn bills?

Carson paid the damn bills.

Get a job . She never finished college; therefore, to the work world, she only had a high school diploma.

What kind of job would she get with that?

She knew it wouldn’t be enough to cover the bills that she would have to pay eventually.

Carson fucked her in the worst way possible.

Life had just gave her a bitch slap from hell.