Aldrich #6
“Honestly, Money, I think their only focus is getting paid and it’s clear they’re going to use whatever they have to get money out of you.
We have the baby’s paperwork, but they don’t seem to be the type to stay within the confines of the law.
They could easily try to have someone snatch her, which means Sterling needs additional protection than what she has now.
” Bryan’s fingers were drumming on the tabletop and I saw Parker pull out his phone and start sending a message.
“I love how people assume that just because I’m from up north means I can’t handle a firearm.
We want gun control not gun abolition. I appreciate that you want to have more protection for me and I won’t deny that in this situation it might be necessary.
But I will kill anyone who tries to take my child from me.
” Her tone was calm but her words held a deadly promise that had my dick rocking up thinking of how much she loved our baby.
“It wouldn’t come to that, Sterling, because we aren’t going to let them put you in that position.” I nodded at Billy’s words when Bobby turned to me.
“You know how this goes, Money. Anything that is salacious gets a headline. I hate that for us but that’s the reality.” Bobby was trying to lessen the blow but that shit still had me fucked up.
“What should I do?”
“Do you want people to know?” Billy posed the question and I knew she was trying to protect my feelings but I was conflicted about this shit.
I didn’t feel like less of a man but I damn sure felt…
something. Not weak but not strong. The memories I had of what happened were…
planted. I hadn’t lived them but I’d witnessed them.
“I don’t care about people, but I have a problem with Ami finding out how she got here later on it life.
What am I supposed to say to her, Billy?
‘I didn’t even know your mom so no you weren’t conceived in love?
’ I got fucking trauma behind how my first kid got here.
Some stalker took my dick in my own fucking house.
I already gotta contend with how that shit makes me feel as a man.
But now this little girl that I love more than myself has to understand how much I resented her.
The fucking headlines of my denying her. How is that going to make her feel, B?”
When my voice caught I was glad I had Sterling here with me.
I thought I could handle this shit solo but I couldn’t.
I’d needed her. Needed the softness that she carried with her so I could retreat there just for a minute, knowing she wouldn’t judge me.
The simple touch of her hand on my skin was enough to calm my nervous system but I still felt like shit about how my daughter would doubt my love for her.
Billy cleared her throat and I looked up, fighting the tears that I was feeling.
She tentatively reached out her hand and I nodded my head, letting her know it was okay.
I was fucked up that she even had to ask me that shit but I couldn’t lie that I appreciated it.
It had been hard as fuck for me to just exist in my own body and the only people that could be in my personal space without issue now were Ami and Ling besides my family.
She squeezed my hand as she spoke. “I can’t imagine how all of this is weighing on you. I wish I could fix it but I can’t. That girl did a terrible thing and had the nerve to up and die and leave us with her fuck up.” She was frowning up hard as fuck and I just knew she meant every word she said.
Sterling and I both chuckled at her words probably because we knew she meant them. “Got damn, Billy, that was harsh.”
“No, it wasn’t. If she were alive, me, Sterling and the women in your family would’ve had that bitch trussed up and in a ditch somewhere.” Billy’s face was a mask of almost deadly calm and my brows dipped even as I smiled because I was surrounded by a bunch of bloodthirsty women.
“Can’t go around committing felonies, Billy.”
She sat back the picture of innocence, at she admired her manicure like fucking up Ami’s dead egg donor would’ve been light work. “I would’ve called every powerful man I knew and cried like a white girl getting caught being racist until they let me go.”
Parker burst out laughing, and even Stew was shaking his head. They both knew her well enough to know they were two of the men she would’ve been calling.
The whole table cracked up and I had to shake my head, feeling good as fuck not to be stressed for a second. “You not supposed to be making me laugh like this, bruh.”
“I've gotta do something. You’re not supposed to be going through this. But I have to ask how will you handle it if the news gets out?”
I glanced at Sterling and even she looked momentarily lost at what to do.
She’d had to work through the emotions I never wanted Ami to feel because of me: being unwanted and virtually abandoned.
The difference is, Ami would have a lifetime of our love and support to fall back on, whereas Ling didn’t.
“I haven’t even thought about it yet.”
“Think about it. This world is full of people who don’t see us as real people just because of the money we’ve earned.
Folks will take this and latch onto it like it’s no big deal.
I need you to have stronger skin than you’ve ever had before because people will be ruthless.
” Stew was dropping knowledge and I remembered folks trying to name him as a drug addict over an issue he’d had years before.
“You’re right. I don’t want them trying to get at me by attacking the people I love.”
“They’ll try anyway. And if they don’t have fact they’ll make stuff up. We’ve been through it. Hell, Parker ain’t immune, cause they love trying Tiana because of him. Even Coby had his head messed up because of stress and the public way he mismanaged it. He got his mind right though.”
“Those four kids prove it.” Bryan muttered that shit under his breath with every intention of Billy hearing him.
“B, you’re lucky you’re Destiny’s godfather so I need you alive.”
“What’s our solution? They’re outside waiting.” Marcus looked at everyone in the room and I had to take the risk because I wasn’t about to pay them shit.
“Call them back in. If I pay them now, they’ll keep coming back. Keep wanting something and the second they don’t get what they want, they’ll just release it anyway.”
They knew I was right so Parker buzzed the three outsiders back into the conference room. The view from our side of the table was of the Desperados practice field below. It was too early in the day for anyone to be out there, but practice would start soon.
Mr. Zahran sat down looking smug and his wife still held a look of disdain when her eyes landed on my girl. Sterling just shot her a look of being completely unbothered by how this woman felt because it wouldn’t change anything.
With an eager look on his face, their lawyer glanced around to everyone on our side as though he were waiting to hear what we’d been discussing.
“So, what have we decided?”
“You can do whatever you want with the tape.”
I knew that was the last thing they expected me to say because all of their jaws dropped.
“Excuse me?” The lawyer was pale again, probably because he saw whatever money he thought he was going to get from brokering this arrangement going down the drain.
“Release it. There’s nothing you can do that will change our minds about your having access to Ami. So if you want to further embarrass your family and prove how little you care about the child that you feel entitled to, go ahead.”
I wasn’t bluffing about their doing what they felt was right.
No matter what Ami discovered, she would’ve had years to be covered with our love and her self-worth would be so locked in, no random gossip about a woman she never met would shake that.
And if she ever felt anything less than in love with herself, we as her parents would be a blessing to get her the help she needed to work through her emotions.
What we wouldn’t do was allow her life to be used as a pawn for someone to extort money from us that could go to her.
“You cannot be serious about this!” Mr. Zahran looked as though he was about to slam his hand again, which made me laugh.
“He’s more than serious. And so am I. You decided to manipulate this man without realizing who you were trying to come up against. My name is Sterling Sanders Williamson.
I’m a part of the Sanders multi-media conglomerate so many of those places that you would want to sell your tape to, I own.
And I would buy it from you at whatever price you named.
And then I would hand it over to the authorities so that they could have it as evidence of extortion. ”
“You all keep throwing this word around—”
“You’re a lawyer and you should know better. But you’re not a criminal attorney so maybe you don’t. That’s fine, you’ll be a codefendant soon enough.” Bryan grinned as he spoke. Letting these people know they’d ruined their lives made his day. Hell, it probably did.
“Excuse me?”