49. Forever
FOREVER
My phone vibrated against my face, pulling me from sleep. Demetrius’s arms were still wrapped around my waist, so I shifted softly, careful not to wake him, and squinted at the screen.
There were three texts. One from Carmen, and two from Kai. I buried myself deeper in my husband’s embrace, reading them while his heartbeat thumped steadily against my back.
That nigga dead. Collective’s got his body.
Your mother is asking to see you. She’s being discharged today.
I replied to his message about our mom but ignored the one about our dad, then opened Carmen’s.
You okay?
I’m okay. See you at the office in a couple hours.
My baby stirred behind me, his grip tightening before relaxing again. I set my phone down and turned in his arms, studying his face. Even in sleep, he carried tension around his eyes.
Last night had changed things. I don’t think he ever thought someone from inside the compound would betray him.
The revelations kept piling up, making my head spin if I thought too hard about any of it. But somehow, I felt at ease with this man. Maybe because he’d kill for him, no questions asked.
“You think I’m handsome, my forever?” he mumbled, eyes still closed.
I pressed a kiss to his jaw.
“The most handsome.”
He slowly opened his eyes.
“You good, baby?”
I nodded, brushing the tip of my nose against his.
“My mom’s being discharged today,” I said, fingers tracing the outline of his lips. “I’m going to see her before heading to the office.”
He caught my hand and pressed a kiss to my palm. “You want me to come with you?”
The offer warmed my heart, but I shook my head.
“It’s okay. You can’t follow me everywhere…” I got out of bed and stretched, looking back at him and smiling at the way he ogled my naked ass. “Oh, what’s your ring size?”
His lips curved as he sat up and let the comforter fall away from his body.
“Why, baby? I only need one ring on my hand.”
I chuckled and entered the bathroom.
“Text it to me,” I said before shutting the door. “Thank you! Love you!”
I showered and dressed in a black pantsuit with a silk shirt to match beneath. Demetrius was in the kitchen when I emerged, still shirtless and making breakfast.
“I’ll be home early,” I told him, taking a mini bottle of orange juice and ibuprofen he handed me without much thought. “How’d you know my head hurt a little?”
He kissed the spot right where my nose began and murmured, “I’ve been tracking them for when you’re ready to tackle that. Don’t gotta be today or tomorrow or next week.”
I nodded and leaned into his lips.
“I love you so much.”
He hummed, kissed my forehead, and backed away.
“I love you more, my forever. Thank you for wanting to protect my family and me. Shit means everything.”
Even though I needed to be on the road, I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed.
“Be careful today. Come home early, okay?”
I knew he would attend the auction happening later, and that anything could happen, but I still put my request in.
We had to learn to navigate our separate lives, and there was just some shit I couldn’t be part of. Some shit he preferred I let him handle on my behalf.
“I’ll come home early for you.”
That was enough to satisfy me, and I left after eating some of the food from his plate, instead of the one he had made me.
“Forever,” Tristian whispered as he jogged over to me, pulling at his basketball shorts. “I didn’t know when I came to you it was that deep.”
His eyes searched mine, and I tipped my head.
“Is that your way of asking if I’m okay?”
He smiled, lighting up his baby face.
“Yeah, we family. Plus, D really loves you…” He looked past me, then back. “Imma go talk to him, but be safe. Don’t send him off the deep end. We can’t have too much more of what happened last night.”
I chuckled and watched him amble toward the front door, knocking and then entering after Demetrius called for him to do so.
He was definitely a natural-born leader.
I drove to see my mom in silence, doing my best not to think of anything or anyone, but to no avail. By the time I pulled into the parking lot, I’d decided to start with a clean slate. Not forgiveness, but openness to something new.
My mother was sitting on the edge of her bed when I scanned into her room, already dressed. Her face brightened when she saw me, an unexpected reaction that made something twist in my chest.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” she said, standing to greet me.
I kept a distance between us, needing to talk before allowing an embrace.
“Kai said you were asking for me.”
She smiled, a genuine expression that softened her features as she took a seat closer to the chair I’d dropped in.
“You look… better,” I added. “Is Dad the one who put those bruises on before?”
Instead of responding, she continued to smile, and it told me all I needed to know. Starting over was going to be hard, and there was only so much effort I planned to give.
“They called about your father,” she said after a moment of silence. “Was it you or your husband?”
I shrugged.
“Will you miss him?” I asked, not offering details. “Did you even love him, or was he forced on you?”
She laughed, but I could tell it wasn’t shit funny to her.
“Your father was the last person I wanted to marry,” she confessed, meeting my eyes dead on. “His best friend was the love of my life, but died right when I found out I was pregnant with Kai.”
I leaned forward and asked, “Is Kai not Eliel’s son? Am I his daughter?”
The follow-up made my mouth dry, but this was the most she’d ever told me, and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything.
“You are his. Your brother is not. That’s a different story for another day.
I gave up a lot to protect myself. Being pregnant out of wedlock was a big deal back then.
My family didn’t agree with me marrying Semaj’s best friend, but I did it anyway.
Lost out on them because of it, but life moved on. ”
She shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal, but what it sounded like to me was that we all needed a bit of therapy.
“How’s your head been?” she asked, changing subjects. “You seem better.”
“It’s… I’m…” I searched for the word. “Adjusting. Learning how to live with them, and I don’t know, Demetrius’s presence helps. I feel happy.”
Her expression softened, and I could feel mine doing the same.
We sat in silence for a moment before I spoke again.
“I want to try having a real relationship with you,” I said, the words coming out before I could second-guess them.
“Something where we actually know each other. I don’t know, I just really want you to be a mom to me.
Like I should be able to tell you I lost a…
” My eyes started to water, and I stopped to wipe them clean, not wanting to do all that.
“I lost a baby and I don’t even remember. ”
She got up and pulled me into a tight embrace.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I’ve made so many mistakes with you. Trying to control everything. Keeping secrets I thought would protect you.” She shook her head. “I want to do better.”
I held on to her until I snapped out of my trance. The contact felt strange after years of distance, but I wasn’t against it happening more.
“Come on, I’ll take you home.”
We left the facility, and I walked beside her rather than ahead of her, like in the past. There was still awkwardness between us, wounds that would take time to heal.
“Do you want to go home? Or to your apartment in the neutral zone?” I asked as I started the engine, giving options since a lot had changed. “Or maybe to my apartment? Your husband trashed it, but mine had it cleaned. He wants me to get rid of it, but it’s a perfectly good apartment.
And part of me was attached to it, though it never felt like home to me.
She looked out the window. “Your place is fine.”
I took her there and promised to have Kai bring her car later. She wouldn’t stay cooped up for too long. Keeping busy was in our blood.
Word had already spread about my dad’s death, the lingering stares as I walked through EG twenty minutes later, telling me so. Eyes tracked my movement across the marble floor. And I guess I had shot a man dead in the lobby not too long ago.
“Lucien is waiting in your office,” Carmen said as I walked off the elevator to find her waiting for me, keeping her voice low. “He’s been there for thirty minutes. Oh, and the results came back for the Naratriptan. Lab says there’s nothing abnormal about them.”
I nodded, grateful for one less mystery to solve.
“I’ll be in my office if you need anything,” she said, pausing outside my door.
I pushed it open to find Lucien sitting in one of the chairs facing my desk.
“Forever,” he greeted, not bothering to stand. “You look well.”
I ignored his greeting and took a seat.
“To what do I owe the pleasure? You here to talk about how all this time you knew Demetrius had a brother? How his mother was already dead?”
He smiled, the expression never reaching his eyes.
“I take my duty as a neutral party in Everwood’s political sphere seriously, Forever. My father left me a task, and I did what was asked of me. However, I don’t see neutrality as a good thing like the men who came before me. There’s just some shit, you can’t be on the fence about.”
I matched his expression, rocking back in my chair. He made sense, but fuck what he was talking about. Being lied to and played like a video game wasn’t gonna keep happening moving forward.
Lucien chuckled after the silence stretched between us.
“You’ve done your part,” he added for clarity. “And as long as you continue to do it, the rest will fall into place.”
He reached for the briefcase sitting by his chair, placing it on my desk and popping it open. Inside were stacks of documents.
“We can’t kill him outright; his position in Everwood is too entrenched. His allies are too far and wide. But we can isolate and strip away his support.”
I flipped through the papers. There were financial records, shipping manifests, and photographs of known associates.
“Your mother and her friends have been collecting evidence for years,” Lucien continued. “Enough to expose parts of his operation without bringing down the entire system.”
I looked up at him. “And why not bring down the entire system?”
“Because chaos benefits no one, Forever. Better the devil you know than a power vacuum that could be filled by someone worse.”
I nodded slowly, appearing to consider his words while thinking it through carefully. He wasn’t wrong about the danger of a power vacuum, but his approach was too cautious.
He was too concerned with maintaining the status quo.
“And the trafficking?” I asked.
“We dismantle the worst of it and make it clear that certain lines aren’t to be crossed.”
But leave the rest to continue suffering. The unspoken part of his proposal bothered me.
“I see,” I said, closing the briefcase. “And Demetrius’s role in all this?”
Lucien leaned back, studying me. “He asked to head up counsel for outside alliances, and I’m granting that wish. The more allies he can garner, the easier it will be to move forward with Amal’s plans. Slow and steady wins the race, Forever.”
They wanted to use my baby for the connections he’d already made, and I wasn’t feeling that. But that was fucking Everwood for you.
“Just so you know,” I started, standing to signal the end of our meeting. “I will kill you if something happens to my husband. Don’t make me shake this city to its core over my man, Lucien.”
He rose and buttoned his jacket, letting my threat hang free. It was what it was, but I meant what the fuck I said.
After the door closed behind him, I returned to my desk and pressed the intercom. “Carmen, can you come in, please?”
She appeared moments later, and I gestured for her to sit.
“Everything alright?” she asked.
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the desk, the cool surface soothing against my skin. When I spoke again, my voice was quieter than intended.
“Do you remember someone from our elementary school named Arabella Hartley?” I asked, lifting my head to meet her gaze.
Carmen frowned, confusion evident in her expression.
“I was home-schooled until the eighth grade,” she told me. “You were my only friend for the most part.”
All she did was remind me I didn’t remember shit about a lot of things and that it’d probably always be that way.
My head throbbed suddenly, a familiar pressure building behind my eyes. I massaged my temples, trying to ward off the incoming pain.
“Forever?” Carmen’s voice was laced with concern. “Should I call Demetrius?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. It was maddening, the inability to remember important life events.
And yet…
Despite everything, I felt strangely content. My marriage to Demetrius had given me purpose. A center to orbit around when everything else felt uncertain. I knew I needed therapy to stay this way, to manage the migraines and the memory issues. But for the first time in a while, I had hope.
“Actually,” I said, looking up at Carmen. “I am fine. Really.”
She didn’t look convinced, but she nodded anyway. “If you say so.”
“I do.” I straightened in my chair. “Now, let’s talk about this security briefing.”
I made a silent promise to myself to personally be part of the fall of Solomon’s empire. Piece by piece, until nothing remained. Not just the parts that affected society, but all of it. Every girl, every victim, would be accounted for.
No matter how long it took.