Theirs

Chapter 19

I sniffed and rubbed my eyes while plastering a smile on my face and spinning.

“Boom. One for Xy and one for Joss.” I set their lunchboxes on the table. “Drake, are you good on lunch?”

“You realize I’m eighteen, right?” He chuckled.

“Yeah but you’re still in school. So you get all the perks everyone else in school gets.”

“Trust me. I’m good on lunch.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

“Alright.” He nudged me lightly with his elbow to be reassuring. “Come on, y’all. Let’s make moves.” Drake clapped his hands.

Joss hopped up and Xy quickly downed the rest of his orange juice before hopping up too.

“Be careful please!”

“I got you.” Drake picked up his water bottle and the three of them headed out.

Everyone was stepping up while Stone was in jail.

It had only been two days and the hope was he’d be out tomorrow since the weekend had a shitty booking timeline.

But in the meantime, I was using his house as mine and making sure the youngest of his siblings weren’t missing anything but his presence.

Kiano had gotten Drake a car the morning after Stone’s arrest. I wasn’t sure if it was because he felt guilty or if he genuinely just thought it would take stress off Stone, Morocco, and Leann.

I took a deep breath then got to work cleaning the kitchen. I liked feeding Stone’s family and cleaning up behind them. It kept me busy. It kept my brain focused on something that wasn’t replaying that night at the club.

I felt responsible just as much as Kiano.

It had been me and my big ass mouth getting into it with a man that led to all of this stupid shit. Should he have grabbed my ass? No. Should I have smacked the fuck out of him? Probably. That didn’t mean I wasn’t at fault for all of this drama.

“You good?” Morocco’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I realized I was standing in front of the sink just letting the water run.

I turned it off immediately.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“You’re not,” he said simply. “And that’s nothing to be ashamed of, but you should be taking care of yourself. Stone would want you to take care of yourself,” he added.

“Right.” I rubbed my running nose with the back of my sleeve. “I’m the reason he’s even in jail and I’m standing around—”

Morocco cut me off. “Look, me, Joss, Drake, and Xy can say we’re the reason Elijah is in jail too.

Shit. He got locked up trying to provide for us, right?

But we don’t and he wouldn’t want us to take that blame.

” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter.

“I’ve known Stone my entire fucking life.

He’s a grown man and he’s been to jail before.

If he cared about going, he wouldn’t have done whatever got him caught up.

” He shrugged. “I love Stone and I’m going to do what I can to get him out but I’m also going to make sure Xy and Joss are good, eat at least twice a day, smile at my daughter, and shower.

There ain’t no shame in that shit. Life didn’t stop when Elijah got clipped, and as much as you love Stone, life ain’t gon’ stop for him either.

You and Kiano are doing what you can and that’s all you can do.

Don’t make yourself sick behind this shit.

” He hit my back. “I think you should go home.”

“What?”

“I’m not saying you aren’t welcome here but I am saying sitting up in Stone’s room while Kiano is running around and everyone is at work and school ain’t doing you or your mental no favors.

Stone used to do the same shit when Elijah first got arrested…

go into Elijah’s room and sit at the foot of his bed for hours. It don’t help.”

“I know.” I sniffed.

“Good.” He turned toward me and hugged me, hitting me on my back twice. “Go home. Get real rest, and if you and Kiano want to come back out here when he’s done doing what he’s doing, cool.”

“If you hear anything, will you call me?”

“Stone is definitely going to call you or Kiano first.” He smiled and nodded. “But yeah. If I hear something, I’ll call you.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah. I’ve got you.”

I nodded and took a slow breath then nodded again and swallowed.

“Alright. I’ll see you tonight for dinner.”

“Sounds good, J.”

I exhaled, squared my shoulders, and headed to Stone’s room. I took a glance around and closed my eyes to get my tears under control. Then I snatched up my keys and bag and headed out.

I drove home with my music blasting and my hand tapping the beat on my steering wheel. The last thing I needed was silence.

When I got home and pushed the door open, I didn’t bother putting the lights on.

I threw my bag on the floor by the door and waded through the open space in the dark.

I collapsed across my couch and made a move to check my phone.

I had several messages and I fumbled to unlock it while unable to use my facial recognition.

I lifted my phone and tapped it several times before the screen slid to my camera by accident.

I sucked my teeth then paused. My eyebrows knitted together and I moved my phone one way then the other.

A purple light gleamed through my camera.

I sat up and took a picture. Then I pushed myself up and turned the lights on.

I walked over to where I’d seen the light and squinted, trying to see where the reflection had come from.

I grabbed a chair and stood on it to check it out. It took several minutes for me to pinpoint the spot and I felt physically sick when I saw it was a camera.

Someone had put a camera in my home. I yanked it off and climbed off the chair. I tossed it into my sink and ran water on it while I tried to think of who had access to my place. It wasn’t a long list. The building’s maintenance team, Stone, Kiano, a few friends.

I tried to think about the last time I laid in my living room.

How long had the camera been up and I hadn’t noticed?

I grabbed my phone and headed to my bedroom.

I repeated the same technique, walking around in the dark with my camera and felt my breathing grow shallow while I tried to grapple with the fact I’d been watched in the place I felt most secure talking and changing and having sex with my men.

I pushed down the sickening feeling and continued my hunt. I felt like I was getting light headed when I found the second camera.

I texted Kiano immediately.

Me:

Can you come to my place when you’re free?

Kiano:

Omw now.

I tossed the other camera in my sink as well and was still staring at them when Kiano got here in record breaking time.

I threw my arms around him as soon as I had the door open and he hugged me back.

“What’s wrong, Jiselle?”

“I-I…” I exhaled while I gathered myself.

“Someone set up a camera in here and has been stalking me.” I dragged him to the kitchen and gestured toward the sink.

“I found one in the living room and one in my bedroom and I don’t know how long they’ve been there.

So someone has footage of me living my entire life and…

” I paused and shook my head. “I’m already overwhelmed and this is about to be the fucking breaking point,” I admitted.

“It’s okay, Jiselle.”

“It’s not fucking okay, Kiano! How are you not freaking out about this? Someone has footage of the three of us having sex and talking about things we never wanted to share with anyone. You own a fucking company. What if you get blackmailed? What if?” I shook my head as words failed me.

“You’re okay.” Kiano put a hand on my back and rubbed it up and down. I leaned over my sink in case I threw up.

All the crying I’d done for the last few days was definitely taking a toll on me but I didn’t have a way to reset and get my emotional regulation together. I dry heaved once then twice.

“I set up the camera,” Kiano blurted.

I froze, mouth open and hands on each side of my sink. I sniffled and swallowed the excess spit gathering in my mouth.

My head slowly turned in his direction.

“What?”

“I set the cameras up, both of them.”

“When did— Why?”

“Because I love you and wanted to make sure you were always okay.”

“And you didn’t think you should tell me you were putting a camera up in my place?”

“What’s the difference between you being at my spot that already has cameras and me adding cameras to yours?”

I blinked at him.

“When did you put the camera up?”

“Does it matter, Jiselle?”

“If it didn’t matter, I wouldn’t have asked.”

“Jiselle—”

I cut him off. “It isn’t a trick question. Don’t fucking lie to me, Kiano.”

“I love you. That’s not a lie. I mean that.”

I took half a step back. This was an invasion of privacy.

“You said you trusted me, that you didn’t look at me differently because I do cam work. You lied to my face.”

“I do trust you and I don’t look at you differently.”

“Then why’d you set the camera up, Kiano?”

“Because I love looking at you.” He shrugged. “There’s no deeper meaning. I wasn’t looking for something or trying to find something out. I just like looking at you when we aren’t together.”

“When did you put the camera up?”

“After we slept together.”

“The first time?”

“That’s right.”

“So if we weren’t together right now, you would have still just been watching me through those cameras?”

“Probably.”

I opened my mouth then closed it.

“You realize this isn’t normal, right? Normal men who want to see their girlfriends set up dates, right?”

“I understand but we don’t have a typical love story, Jiselle.”

“Yeah and nowhere in it does recording me without my fucking permission make sense! I’m a fucking cam worker, Kiano! You could have asked and there’s a chance I would have said yes!”

I was hysterical but I couldn’t reel it in. I wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep or already heightened emotions but I had the burning desire to either start crying again or punch Kiano in his mouth right about now.

“I guess now is as good a time as ever to let you know that when I walked into the bar the night we reconnected, I walked in knowing you were there.”

“Excuse me?”

“I was subscribed to your cam site. I remembered you from when I played with Rene. I thought you were beautiful and loved talking to you. I walked into the bar that night with every intention of talking to you in person.”

My heart sped up. I put a hand to my chest and blinked several times.

“Jiselle?” Kiano reached for me and I slapped his hand away.

“So our relationship is built on a lie?” I checked.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Well, yeah. I bet you wouldn’t.” I turned around, yanked my fridge open, and grabbed a bottle of water. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time. You’ve been looking in my face and fucking lying to me, Kiano, and you know how I feel about that shit.”

“I didn’t lie to you, Jiselle. We met through Rene. I never told you I wasn’t subscribed to your channel and I never told you chance led to me walking into that bar. Those are all assumptions you made.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

“Right. Okay.” My mouth was dry. I opened the water bottle and took a quick drink. “Can I just… I need a minute.”

“A minute?”

“Yeah. You can let yourself out, right?”

Kiano blinked at me. He lifted an eyebrow.

“Jiselle—”

“I’m serious, Kiano. You know how I feel about men living double lives and fucking lying and you just…” I shook my head. “I can’t handle this right now. I’m sorry. I just can’t. I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Sweetheart—”

I cut him off. “Get out.” I turned my head to avoid the look on his face. “Please.”

He took a deep breath.

“Alright. Just… call me after you can get your bearings, okay?” Kiano took a step toward me. I took a step back. He didn’t stop. He closed the space between us, leaned down, and kissed my forehead. I let my eyes flutter shut. “I’m meeting with Stone tomorrow morning. I’ll text you and update you.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Kiano took a step back.

He opened his mouth, then closed it, nodded, spun, and headed out.

I followed him to the door and locked it behind him.

Fuck.

Was Kiano as bad as my father?