Cazmir
Secrets are like pesticides. They gnaw at you from the inside and work their way out.
While some of us were good at holding them, others were not.
Bree was damn near on the verge of a breakdown holding onto the fact that we’d been keeping such a detrimental secret from Kade and Ysis, and after discovering I was at the restaurant with Judge Emory, my father, and the Captain, she lost her shit.
No sooner than we left the restaurant, she confronted me crying and hollering about how this secret was going to blow up in our faces.
Either we told them, or she would do it herself tonight because she was tired of looking Ysis in the face knowing something that could change the trajectory of her life.
I tried to explain to her that things were bigger than just one conversation, bigger than even Ysis finding out Majesty was her father, but Bree wasn’t trying to hear none of that shit.
To her, loyalty was simple. If Ysis was her friend, then Ysis deserved the truth, and the longer we sat on it, the more wrong we became. Which was how I ended up at Kade’s with a busted lip and her standing there quivering and shaking like she was the one who’d been hit.
I knew the moment Yayo walked through that door with Kayla, a nigga was gone have to fight for his life, and judging by the way Kade had already put hands on me before they even arrived, I knew patience was not something the Myles household had in abundance tonight.
I couldn’t even be mad at him for swinging because had I been in his shoes and found out somebody close to me knew something life-changing about my wife and sat on it, I probably would’ve reacted the same way.
Still, my intention had never been to betray Kade.
When I found those files while logged in as admin covering for him at Myles Tech, the ground shifted under me.
I wasn’t looking for Ysis’s past, wasn’t digging for family secrets, and damn sure wasn’t trying to insert myself into something that had nothing to do with me, but once I realized the man I called Pops was tied to Ysis in a way none of us had fully understood, I couldn’t unknow it.
The truth was, calling Majesty had been instinct.
It was no different than if I found out something about Bree that affected her whole life and called the one person who could confirm it before I dropped the bomb in her lap.
I needed to know what was real before I went to Kade with something that could destroy the woman he loved, especially with everything they had already survived.
But somewhere between trying to confirm facts, protect people, and keep the wrong information from landing in the wrong hands, silence became secrecy, and secrecy became betrayal. That was the part I had to own.
When the front door opened, Yayo stepped in first with Kayla behind him, both of them carrying their own tension like they had already been at war before Kade called.
His eyes bounced from my busted lip to Bree’s tear-stained face, then over to Kade, who looked like he was one wrong word away from finishing what he started.
“What the fuck going on?” Yayo asked, as Kayla stepped farther into the room, still visibly shaken from whatever had happened before they got here.Kade didn’t waste time looking at Yayo. His eyes stayed locked on me.
“Tell them what you told me.” His voice was calm, but it was the type of calm that let everybody in the room know violence was still very much on the table.
Ysis stood beside him with her hand resting on her belly, her eyes moving between me and Bree like she was trying to read the answer before anybody said it out loud. I wiped the corner of my mouth with my thumb, tasting blood again as I looked at Ysis.
“When I was covering for Kade at Myles Tech, I came across some files I wasn’t supposed to see.
At first I thought it was just old records connected to Marius and some of the shit he had his hands in, but the deeper I looked, the more I realized your name was tied to Majesty in a way that didn’t make sense at first. I called him because I needed answers, and that call is what started everything else. ”
Ysis’s face changed, but she didn’t speak. She just stared at me like her body had gone still while her mind tried to catch up. Bree let out a broken sob beside me, and that was when Ysis’s eyes slowly slid over to her.
“You knew?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Bree covered her mouth, tears spilling before she could stop them. “Ysis, I didn’t know how to tell you. I swear I wanted to, but Caz told me we needed to make sure everything was true first, and then it got bigger, and I was scared.”
Ysis blinked, and the tears that had been sitting in her eyes finally fell. “Bitch, I thought we was better than that.” Her voice cracked as she slowly stepped toward Bree.
“You sat in my face. You came to my house. You laughed with me. You hugged me. You watched me cry over not knowing where I came from, and the whole time you knew there was something I deserved to know.”
Kayla moved before anybody else did, stepping between them with both hands raised, not because Ysis looked like she wanted to fight, but because the hurt in her face was big enough to make everybody nervous.
“Ice, hold on,” Kayla said gently, keeping her body between them. “I know you hurt, sis, and you got every right to be, but let her explain before this turns into something we can’t take back.”
Ysis wiped her face, shaking her head as she looked past Kayla at Bree. “Everybody keep deciding what I can handle. Everybody keep choosing when I deserve to know shit about my own life, and I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired of being the last person to know who I am.”
“Both y’all knew he was my father before he showed up to my wedding and still said nothing. For God’s sake, what the fuck is up with all the secrecy? I am so sick and tired of this shit. Change the damn song and fucking tune already.”
Ysis wiped her face before stepping back, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to keep herself together. The hurt in her voice made the room feel heavier than it already was. Then her eyes shifted toward Kade.
“Did you know about this too?”
“Hell nah.” Kade answered immediately. “Don’t lump me in with this nosey, disloyal ass nigga. He went through the system while we was in Dubai, found all this shit out, then went blabbing to Majeston instead of coming to us like he should’ve.”
The accusation landed how he intended it to because the second Kade’s eyes found mine again, I knew he was still pissed. The only reason we weren’t throwing hands right now was because Ysis was standing in the middle of it. Of course Yayo chose that exact moment to make everything worse.
“This the nigga you got standing in as CFO?” He looked between me and Kade before shaking his head. “We should just pistol whip his ass and send him on his way.”
Before anybody could stop him, Yayo slid the gun from his waistband and scratched the side of his head with it like he was considering the option. The room collectively groaned, as I stepped forward before I could stop myself.
“Nigga try it. These suits and ties got y’all thinking a nigga won’t break your jaw if I have to.
” Yayo’s eyebrows shot up while Kade’s did too.
For several seconds the three of us stood there staring at each other before Kade started laughing.
Then Yayo joined him, and despite myself, I found myself laughing too.
The women looked at us like we had completely lost our minds.
“Nigga calm down before I gotta explain to Majeston why I shot your ass.” Yayo pointed at me again.
“I’m confused though. It’s clear your pops is in bed with Marius and so is Judge Emory, but since I was late to the party, what I’m not understanding is why and what the fuck this got to do with me and Kade?”
The joking faded as quick as it arrived because that was the real question. Not the threats, not the fighting, and not the secret itself. The real question was why any of this involved Kade and Yayo in the first place, and judging by the way both men were looking at me, they deserved that answer.
I looked over at Kade, then Yayo, then toward the hallway where Ysis was still standing because once I started talking, there was no putting this shit back in the box.
“Listen,” Kayla interrupted, immediately sensing where this conversation was headed. “We gone leave y’all to discuss that. Come on.” She grabbed Bree by the wrist before reaching for Ysis.
“Nah, I’m staying.”
“Yes, you are.” Kayla pulled harder. “Because right now you emotional and Bree look like she about to pass out. Come in this kitchen so I can talk some sense into you heffas before y’all ruin a friendship over some shit that already happened.”
“I deserve answers.”
“And you gone get them. But first you gone breathe.”
Ysis looked ready to argue, but after looking at Bree and then looking away, she finally allowed Kayla to guide her toward the kitchen.
Bree wiped fresh tears from her face as the two women disappeared around the corner with Kayla leading the charge.
The second they were gone, the room grew noticeably quieter.
For the first time all night it was just me, Kade, and Yayo standing in the middle of the fallout with a truth that had been buried for far too long finally demanding to be told.
I proceeded to break this shit down in a way they could understand without further escalating the situation. The last thing we needed was Yayo crashing out or Kade deciding he wanted to finish what he started.