Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
MINA
“You got your bag, baby boy?” I asked Hassan as he and EJ got ready to go to my parents’ home for the weekend.
“I got it, Mom,” he replied, giving me a gap-toothed smile.
I smiled back and kissed his cheek. “Good job, big man. Let me walk y’all to the door. Your grandpa is waiting on y’all.”
“When is Dad moving in with us?” EJ asked. I sighed. I didn’t want to lie to my son, but I couldn’t tell him that his father would never move in with us. It took me some time, but I had to walk away with the little dignity I had left.
“Soon, baby.”
“When is soon going to ever be soon?”
“EJ, not now, please. Let’s not keep your grandfather waiting, okay?”
“Fine.” He conceded and headed out the door. I hated that I had to lie to him, and I was going to tell him the truth soon, but right now, I had to let it sink in that the man I fell deeply in love with could no longer take residence in my life.
I stood at the door, watching them get inside my father’s car, waved goodbye to them, then watched them drive out of the gates. I needed this time to myself to get my shit together. A bitch was falling off on the mental health tip, and I had never been one to slip.
I prided myself on being strong and standing on business when it came to any part of my health, but much to my dismay, I allowed Emil Camari Aldana to emotionally do my ass in.
Hell didn’t have no fury like a scorned bitch, so my hurt ass wanted to hurt Emil as much as he hurt me. And I used Normani to do it.
Yes, I was the one who put the idea in her head to send Emil and Mook’s ass to jail, but I put it in a way where it wouldn’t fall back on the family or me. Normani was so dick dizzy and na?ve that she played right into my plan to get Emil out of my life for good.
His fucking Paisley St. Claire and getting her pregnant was the last straw.
I’d dedicated almost nine years to his ass, and all I wanted was my respect.
That bitch wasn’t about to be walking around claiming she had Emil Aldana’s baby, so I slipped her maid a cool ten thousand to give her the abortion pills.
I was the only bitch that was going to give birth to Emil’s legacies.
I knew the bastard wasn’t ready to get married; hell, I wasn’t either.
But I stuck it out because the Aldanas were why we were so wealthy.
Of course, we had money before we linked with them, but being added to their alliance ensured us generational wealth.
Marrying into their family would guarantee that their legacy would be passed on for generations to come, so I didn’t mind marrying his fine, good-dick, cheating ass.
So long as he kept the shit away from me and out of the public, I was fine with letting him do him.
He did good for the better part of our arrangement, but after giving birth to EJ, I realized I wanted this to work with us. Emil never treated me badly; he just had a problem pointing his dick in every fine bitch’s direction.
When I saw those text messages, I lost it.
Insert dumb ass Normani.
I knew Emery wouldn’t give her his last name if someone paid him a hundred million dollars to do so. And when he walked into my house with Yumi, I knew for a fact that ho didn’t have a chance.
Yumi was more his speed.
She was pretty, humble, down-to-earth, and sweet. Normani was none of that. I was surprised she hadn’t called to vent to me about Emery not fucking with her anymore, but I was glad about it. I had my own problems to deal with.
Closing the door, I went straight to my bar and mixed myself a drink.
I had to figure out what was next since Emil wasn’t going to prison.
The only reason I felt a little bad while stuffing Normani with information was that Mook didn’t deserve to go down for Emil’s bullshit, and I knew Emery would have been fucked up losing his two best friends.
Otherwise, I felt no remorse for what I had done.
Emil had been sending all kinds of shit to my house, trying to win me back, but none of it was working.
I didn’t even think the nigga knew my love language or my favorite color.
That pink shit he did at my birthday party wasn’t it.
I rolled with it because I did like the color, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Turning on my R&B ’90s playlist, I let Toni Braxton croon through the Bluetooth speaker and pulled open my laptop to see where I wanted to take the kids for their summer vacation before school started next month.
While surfing the net, my doorbell rang, and I grabbed my phone from the couch pillow beside me to pull up the security footage.
Seeing Emil standing on my porch with bags, I rolled my damn eyes and tossed my head back.
This man was determined to make me take extreme measures to get him the fuck out of my life.
I set the laptop down and went to the door, flinging it open while I stared a hole in his sexy ass face.
“Can I help you?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest. The gesture made my boobs push up more, and I saw his thirsty ass eyes go right to them, and he licked his crusty ass lips. “I’m up here, nigga.”
“Amina, I’m being patient with you because I know I fucked up, but chill with that fucking attitude before shit gets ugly around here.”
“You don’t scare me, Emil Aldana.”
“I’m glad I don’t. I knew you were never a weak chick.”
I sighed, dropping my arms to my sides. “Emil, please leave me alone.”
“I can’t, Mimi. I love yo’ ass too much to lose you. That saying ‘you don’t miss your water until the well runs dry’ is true shit. I fucked up, bad, but I’m determined to get you back.”
“What’s my favorite color?” I asked, propping my hand on my hip. “What’s my favorite movie, food, love language, and places to go. If you can tell me those simple things, I’ll let you in, and we can have a conversation, only.”
He looked away, then down at his AM sneakers.
“Like I thought. Goodbye, Emil.” I was about to close the door when he stopped me.
“Your favorite color is purple and lavender, even though they’re both the fucking same to me.
Your favorite food is that nasty ass Chick-fil-A because you order the same shit every week, the spicy crispy chicken sandwich with the Polynesian sauce, large waffle fries, and a Coke.
You love physical touch, but I know you love words of affirmation too.
Ya ass stay in the damn salon and love a vacation—Barbados is your favorite place.
Your favorite movie is The Last Dragon because you think that nigga Bruce Leeroy is fine, making me want to shoot the shit out of that nigga, and he ain’t even real. ”
I didn’t want to, but a giggle escaped me before he stepped up in my space.
“You gon’ let a nigga in or what?”
I rolled my eyes and let him in. I was surprised he knew me as well as he did. I thought for sure this man didn’t pay me any type of damn attention. As soon as I closed the door, and he turned to me, I blurted, “I was the one who told Normani to snitch to get y’all locked up.”
I could see Emil’s eyes darken as he stared at me. The room was silent for a long minute before he ran a hand down his face and looked away. “You don’t have to go to this extreme to try to hurt me, Amina. I get it, I fucked up, but you don’t have to lie to get yo’ shit off, baby.”
“I’m not lying to you, Emil. You’ve been hurting me for years, and when I saw that shit from Paisley, it just set me off. I wanted to hurt you, so I just planted a small seed that she made grow because she was desperate to hurt Emery for hurting her.”
“Amina, . . . do you fucking realize that I could have spent the rest of my life behind bars? Hassan and Emil Jr. would have been looking at me through a fucking glass!”
“At the time, I didn’t care! While you were out here making a fool of me, I was here, trying to be everything you needed!
Taking care of your sons while you frolic around, fucking on dusty bitches!
So yes. Yes, the fuck I did tell her to do what she had to do to get her revenge.
” Tears were streaming down my face as I angrily swiped them away.
His ass didn’t deserve my tears. He didn’t deserve me.
Again, silence took over the room, and I could feel his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him.
“You were wrong for that, Mina. No matter what I did to you, my people were involved. All this shit could have come crashing down because you were hurting. You would have been better off shooting or poisoning my ass. If my brother didn’t get to that judge in time, shit would have been a lot different around here.
” He shook his head. “You better be glad you’re my wife, and I’m trying to make shit better for us.
I’m sure I would have done you worse than Em did Normani if I knew you were the mastermind behind her bullshit. ”
“I wouldn’t have cared. You don’t love me, anyway.”
“I love the fuck out of you. I didn’t know how to show it.
You gave birth to my sons and treated a nigga good.
I just wasn’t mentally ready for that grown woman love you exuded, but I ain’t on that little boy shit no more.
Can we start over? Please? I’ll erase what you did if you could forgive me and move on with me.
I’m ready to commit to you and give you and the boys everything you’ve been missing.
I’m now the head of the family, and I need my queen by my side to rule this shit.
” He stepped closer to me, pulling me in by my waist and kissing my forehead. “Please?”
“Let me think about it, please?” I asked. As hard as I was trying to end this between us, it was proving to be more complicated than I expected.
“I’ll give you forty-eight hours. Meet me at the lighthouse at 7 p.m. sharp. If you’re not there, I’ll know what it is and accept that. If you come, just know you’re walking away with a totally changed man, and a much softer life.” He kissed my lips, then turned and headed out the door.
I stood there, stuck in place by his demeanor. Emil was always stand-offish when it came to affection. He rarely, if ever, held me or kissed me more than once a day, but now I could see he was really serious.
And now . . . I was conflicted.
Shit!