Chapter 8
“That’s it. Another one in the books.” Kam clapped his hands together when the meeting room finally cleared out. Chairs scraped the floor, and I heard Simone’s laughter, along with the other execs, fading down the hallway. He and I were the last two left in the room.
I sat back in the chair and loosened my shoulders as he continued to speak.
“Congrats to you, nigga. Film scores, producing for movies, then easing into your own label with indie artists? That’s grown-man bid-ness.”
I didn’t move. With the shades still on my face, I remained emotionless. I still had remnants of that call on my mind.
He squinted his eyes at me. “You ain’t even smiling. What’s wrong with you?”
Amora called back-to-back so many times after I hung up on her that I turned my ringer off. It lay face down on the table in front of me. I reached for the table, picked it up, and tapped the screen.
“Amora,” I answered, dry.
Kam’s whole mood shifted. He stopped fidgeting with the papers he had in front of him and turned his body toward me. “Nah.”
“Yeah.”
“What she want?”
I looked at the screen and saw three missed calls and four unopened texts before I pressed the side button and locked the screen again.
“She says she had a baby. Says it might be mine.”
Kam let out a sharp laugh. “Man, please.”
“That’s what I said.”
“She lying,” Kam snapped. “You know she lying.”
“I don’t know,” I said quietly.
He stared at me. “Zay.”
“I know how she looks,” I continued. “But Amora ain’t stupid. And she don’t lie about shit like that.”
He paused, then took a deep breath. “So . . . what you sayin’?”
I exhaled and threw my head back on the chair. I wished I knew the answer to that myself. “I’m saying, the dates line up enough to make it possible.”
“Possible how?”
“One night,” I muttered. “I remember her in this yellow bathing suit in the hot tub. We smoked so much weed. She was bouncing on top of me.”
Kam groaned and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “Man, . . . fuck, Zay.”
“I ain’t saying it’s mine,” I said quickly. “I’m saying I gotta know.”
He sighed again, stood, picked up the neatly stacked papers, and shoved them into his briefcase. “This is where lawyers come in. And PR. Immediately.”
“Man, I ain’t ready for all that right now.”
“Zay—”
“Not yet,” I repeated. “I’m not dragging my name through the blogs off a maybe.”
Kam shook his head. “You’re too calm about this. You gotta move fast with shit like this, man.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I couldn’t place into words how everything weighed heavily on my chest.
He pulled his phone out. “Is it anything online? She posted something?”
He scrolled through his phone and switched to different social media apps.
I was as curious as he had been and watched him from the corner of my eye.
When he pulled up her profile, he paused.
Shaking his head, he flipped the phone toward me.
A photo filled the screen of a tiny hand interlocked with Amora’s.
The caption read “I would’ve announced this sooner, but as you can see, I have my hands full. ”
The time stamp showed that it had been posted only eleven minutes ago, but the comments were already wild.
“Wow, surprise baby? Congrats!”
“Bitch we ain’t even know you was pregnant.”
“Who baby is that??”
I could see Amora’s reply under one comment about showing the baby’s face. “In due time, love. When he’s ready.”
I scoffed. “She private, but she just threatened to tell the blogs?”
Kam snorted. “See, man. Let me get on this shit for you. That’s not private. That’s leverage.”
“She said if I don’t talk to her, she’ll tell them it’s mine.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m calling the lawyers. Tell me how you wanna handle this.”
His question punched me in the gut. It was as if my body already knew something my mouth couldn’t make out.
Part of me wanted to call her bluff, but I kept thinking that there was no way she would pull off a lie this big.
Groupies had done it all the time, but Amora had never given that vibe.
Another part of me remembered that summer in Germany and made me realize how fast a lie could turn into a lifetime you could never get back. I knew what needed to be done.
“I’m gonna get a DNA test,” I said. “Quietly.”
“Princess?” Kam whispered.
I remained silent. I thought about how it started just like this, the first time she left. I didn’t know what was real until it was too late. I couldn’t do that again, not to her.
“I have to tell her.”
Kam nodded. “You got this.”
Princess and Yana were already at the house when I walked in later that night. After a long session at the studio, I walked into the kitchen, and the smell hit me first. It was catfish and spaghetti, Princess’s mama’s recipe.
“Hey!” Yana turned her head at me from the couch.
I smiled. “What’s up, baby?”
“I’m on the phone,” she whispered. She stood and walked back to her room.
Princess came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a paper towel. “You hungry?”
With a smile etched onto her lips, she stepped close to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me into her. I put my arms around her waist like muscle memory. She smelled so good. It felt familiar, like home, heat, and comfort all mixed.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
I must have held her a second too long, or maybe not long enough. I couldn’t tell. I just knew my nerves crawled under my skin, and my palms felt clammy. She noticed. Princess pulled back far enough to look me in the eyes with her hands still on my shoulders. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I shot back a little too quickly. “Just had a long day with work and . . . a bunch of other stuff.”
Her eyes searched my face. “Mm,” she mumbled. It was obvious she wasn’t convinced. “Yeah, tell me about it.”
She let my neck go and stepped to the bar.
She pulled two wine glasses from the shelf above and eyed the collection.
I followed her with my eyes. I tried to figure out how to start, how to not blow everything up with one sentence, but before I could say another word, she laughed softly and broke the silence.
“Oh, guess what?”
“What?” I asked. I walked into the living room and sat in a chair.
“Tell me why Juwon called me today.”
And just like that, the moment shifted. It had been a year since Princess filed for divorce, and although it was over, I still cringed every time I heard his name.
“That’s not unusual, is it?”
“Not really,” she began. “But it was what he said that threw me all the way off.” She finally settled for an unopened bottle of Moscato and unscrewed the cork as she continued. “Talking about he miss his family. Wants to meet up. Says the divorce might’ve been a mistake.”
I scoffed.
“I told him that he lost his damn mind!” she said. “Cheating is one thing, but having a whole baby? You wanna come back from that?”
I nodded as I listened to her continue going on and on, but her words kept echoing in my ears. Having a whole baby.
“What kind of shit is that?” She sliced through my thoughts.
Princess walked from the bar with the poured glasses and handed one to me.
“Once you got a child, that’s it. You don’t get do-overs.” She looked at me. I took the glass from her and gave her a short smile. She noticed before I caught it.
“You good, Zay?”
I took a sip from the glass. “Yeah. I just . . . My bad, baby. I’m listening.”
“What you wanna talk about?”
The way she’d just set the tone about cheating and having a baby on her told me that had not been the right moment to talk about Amora’s claims. I couldn’t do it with how she smiled sweetly and waited patiently for me to tell her what was on my mind, so I changed the subject.
“Brand deals going good, Kam got some stuff lined up for me, and I’m finally making moves to start my own label.”
Her eyes lit up. “Zay! That is amazing! Is that what’s bothering you?”
She crouched down in front of me and balanced herself on her toes. Her head cocked to the side gently, and we met each other’s gaze.
“You got this, man. You been doing this your whole life. Don’t let them thoughts creep in and get in your way. You’ve come too far. You are amazing! Always have been. Always will be.”
I smiled, but my stomach twisted. How long would she still feel that way once she discovered the situation?
I decided then, no more half-telling anything.
I didn’t even want to bring up anything I wasn’t sure about and ruin the friendship we’d just rebuilt, not over something that may not even be true.
I wouldn’t say a word until I had a DNA test in my hand.
Anything else would just reopen wounds that we’d been through before.
I placed the glass on the table, leaned forward, and hugged her again.
I sent a silent prayer to the Lord above that her confidence would be enough to carry both of us.