Chapter Twenty-Five
Truth
Mitchell
Staring down at the phone in my hand, I quickly place it back on my desk and flip it over. The missed call from Ella still lingered in my mind.
How the hell can a person go from being the happiest they’ve ever been to absolutely distraught.
Every ounce of me wants to call her back and tell her I’ll play her game.
I’ll hide like a fugitive as long as I get to keep her.
But pride is a bitch, and it won’t let me take that proposition no matter how badly I want to. I needed her to choose me.
I rub a hand over my chest. There isn’t an open wound there, but I swear I can feel the ache in my heart.
The phone on my desk buzzes. I picked up the receiver, accepting the call from my receptionist.
“Yes, Tina?”
“Valerie is here to see you,” I can tell by Tina’s tone Valerie has pissed her off.
“I don’t even know why you need to call him. I’m the mother of his child. I should be able to go straight back.” Val’s shouts into the background of the phone.
I rub the space between my eyes. “Send her back.”
Placing the phone back on the receiver, I lean back in my chair, waiting for my ex to come through the door.
It takes Val only a few seconds to walk into my office. Her denim skirt is tight and short and it’s paired with a silk and lace camisole top. Her flowery perfume precedes her into my office.
She shuts the door after she enters. When she flops down in the seat in front of my desk, she crosses her legs, places her purse on top of my desk, and leans back in her seat.
“You came all the way over here to stare at me?” I ask when she doesn’t speak. “Where is Jacob?”
Her grin is wide, showing off her teeth. “With my mother. I came to check on you.”
Not in the mood for the bullshit, I stood to my feet. “I’m good, Val. You can go.”
Her laughter stops me from going over to the door to open it for her.
“This is so funny to me. Jessica told me about you and Ella getting caught.”
My back straightens. Jessica is Jack’s wife. When I was married to Val, we often hung out and did couple things with the guys and their wives. Jessica and Val kicked it off quickly. However, Jessica never did quite take to Ella.
“I knew it.” She sneers. “I’ve always known you were in love with her.
The day she showed up going on and on about taking care of you, I had a prickling feeling something was going on.
But I tossed it aside. I didn’t think she had it in her.
Then, the night you came to confront James, oh, I felt it then.
But I kept thinking you two wouldn’t be that dumb.
” She cackles like a witch stealing ruby slippers.
“I can’t believe you tried it. Now you finally got a taste of Ms. Perfect. And what did she do? Toss your ass to the side like I always knew she would. I mean, the moment Andrew found out, she got rid of you.”
She stands to her feet, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “How does it feel, Mitch? Hmmm? How does it feel to know that you aren’t enough?”
I take a step toward her, my anger rearing up in me like lava. However, I don’t make another move. She watches me, taking in my stance and appearance. Her laughter burst out of her happily.
“I’m sorry,” she finally says, wiping the smile off her face. “I shouldn’t gloat. Besides, I’m not your enemy.” She walks up to me, her hips swaying with each step she takes. When she stops, she places a hand on my chest.
“Now that the bitch is out of your system and you see she’s nothing special, I think it’s time you and I had a talk about us.” Her hand moves from my chest, lowering to my stomach and then my belt buckle. I grabbed her hand, shoving it away from me.
“Hell no.”
My heart is broken. I’ve never felt heartbreak like this in all my years of dating, but it would take an act of God to get me back in bed with Valerie. I’m not that fucking sad.
“What do you mean, no?”
“Exactly what I said. There will never be an us again. I don’t give a shit if I live to be 100 years old with nobody by my side, I will never be desperate enough to get back with you.”
Her face scrunches up. I watch as disbelief, sadness, and then anger take over her features.
She steps away, glaring up at me. “Just so you know, she took him back.”
Her words cut me so deep I may actually bleed out. Each word taking a slice of my flesh with it.
“You’re lying.”
She scoffs. “Call Shaun if you don’t believe me. Andrew has been boasting about it. Even asked Jessica to find them a new place because they’re selling her little run-down piece of shit house.” She storms over to my desk and yanks her purse off.
Meanwhile, the last remnants of my heart are falling to the ground like shards of glass from a broken windowpane. Val goes to the door and opens it. She stops before walking out, turning to face me.
“At first, I was just playing about seeing you hurt, but now, I hope this kills you. I hope this sits with you for years to come. And when they cut you out of those boys’ lives, I hope you realize you never meant anything to them.
You were always just the third fucking wheel they couldn’t get rid of. ”
When she storms out of my office, slamming the door behind her, her words stay with me.
I don’t want to believe that Ella would take him back.
There is no way she would do that. Grabbing my keys off the desk, I rushed out to my truck.
I needed the truth. I needed to find the one person I knew would tell me the truth.
I pull my truck up to the precinct and immediately spot Devon leaning against his squad car talking to another police officer. When he notices me walking up to him, he says something that has the other guy walking off.
“Miller, what are you doing here? I’ve been calling you.”
“Is Andrew still with Kiely?”
His gaze narrows before he looks down at the ground. “No,” he finally says.
Everything around me spins. I place my hands on top of my head.
“Look, I was calling to tell you all this. Two weeks ago, Kiely walked out on him. Told him she wasn’t really into playing stepmother.
He found out shortly after she had been sleeping with some delivery guy around her age who was delivering to the law firm.
I guess all that shit about young pussy wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.
” Devon tries to joke, but I’m beyond the joking phase.
I guess he reads it on my face cause his smile falls and he clears his throat.
“Anyway, he’d been crying to Shaun about it since it all went down.
He started talking about getting his family back.
I didn’t really think anything of it because I knew you and Ella were doing your thing.
But two days ago Andrew started talking about it as if it were a sure thing.
Even said they were house hunting and shit.
I’ve been trying to call you to see if it was true.
You weren’t answering your phone. But seeing you now tells me it is. ”
My heart races so fast it feels like I might pass out.
The pain is severe and damn near takes me to my knees.
All that we had, all the love we made, even after the night in the cabin.
I know that what she felt was real. I could feel it in my soul that Ella loved me. How can she do this to me? To us?
I drop my head down between my shoulders; the burning in my eyes is hard to fight.
“What happened? I thought ya’ll were good?” Devon asks.
I shake my head, using one hand, I wipe my eyes with my pointer and thumb fingers at the same time.
“Fuck!” the word comes out in a laugh. “He and AJ caught us. The kid wasn’t feeling it and Ella got scared.”
“Damn man. I mean, I get it. That’s her son, but what about you?”
I shake my head, finding it hard to speak. “Drew told her she'd have to choose, and she couldn’t choose me. And I couldn’t continue to love her in secret. So I decided for her, and I let her go.”
Devon’s head rears back. “That’s it? You’re going to let her go just like that?”
I turn away from him. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
“Shit, fight for her.”
When I turn back to him, my face is scrunched up in confusion. Is this not the same man who told me this would happen? The same one that said we were risking a lot.
“Huh?”
He shrugs. “I wasn’t lying when I said I always knew there was something there between the two of you. I caught that the first time you introduced her to us as Drew’s girl. Q and I thought you were fucking her back then. Now I know you were just in love with her.”
“Since high school,” I admit.
He shakes his head before placing a hand on my shoulder. “If you’ve loved Ella for that long, ain’t no way you can let her go that easily.”
“She doesn’t want me. And I love her enough to let her be happy, even if it’s not with me.”
Devon takes a step back. “That’s some white folk’s shit. Cause ain’t no way. Sonya’s ass would be handcuffed to my damn bed in her drawers until she came to terms with the fact that she and I were going to be together.”
His words bring a chuckle out of me. I came here to get the truth and now I have it. There was nothing else for me to do.
“Thanks, Dee.”
He dips his chin. “No problem.”
I walk away, but turn back around when he calls my name. Devon tosses something at me. I catch it in my hand and look down. It’s a pair of handcuffs. When I look back up at him, he’s grinning.
“Just in case you change your mind and decide to try it my way.” He then tosses me a set of keys. I catch them in my other hand. He winks with a smirk.
With a grin, I stuffed the cuffs and keys in my pocket and headed to my truck. Once I climb in, I pull my phone out to make one more phone call. A call that I should’ve made two days ago.
“Hello?” the unsteady voice on the other end of the phone answers.
“Hey, do you have a few minutes?”