Chapter 17 #2
I kept seeing that little girl's face. The way she looked up at me when I walked in. She didn't know who I was. Didn't know I was her sister. She just went back to coloring.
How long had this been going on? Years? It had to have been.
And my mother. Mannn, my mother had no idea.
By the time we got back to the compound, my eyes were swollen and red. My face was puffy. I looked broken.
We pulled through the gates and Kaseem was already on the porch.
Not inside. Not waiting in the house. Actually standing on the porch like he'd been there the whole time, waiting for me.
The second the car came to a stop, he rushed down the steps. Opened my door before Sam could even get out.
"Come here," he said, and his voice was different. Not cold. Not controlled. Worried.
I got out and he pulled me straight into his chest. Wrapped his arms around me like he was trying to hold me together.
"You good? You good?" he asked, kissing the top of my head over and over. "Talk to me. What happened? Who hurt you?"
"I'm okay," I lied. My voice was shaking. "I just... I can't... I can't process what I just saw."
He didn't ask more questions. Just held me tighter and brought me inside.
---
Inside, he sat me down on the couch. Got me some water. Made me drink it even though my hands were shaking so bad the glass was rattling.
He didn't hover. Didn't push. He just stood there giving me space but not leaving me alone.
After a few minutes, when my breathing was a little more under control, he sat across from me. His elbows on his knees. His whole body leaning forward like he was trying to catch every word I was about to say.
"What happened?" he asked. "Who hurt you? Tell me who did this and I'll handle it."
I opened my mouth. I was about to tell him everything. About my aunt. About the extortion. About how I'd been paying her off for years. About how she was threatening to expose everything if I didn't keep paying.
But fear stopped me cold.
What if he thought I was a liability? What if he used it against me? What if this made him regret the proposal? What if he tried to take everything away from me?
I couldn't risk it.
So I backed out.
"I needed to talk to my father about something important," I said carefully. My voice was still shaky. "Something personal. So I went to his office without calling first."
Kaseem watched me. His jaw tight but his eyes soft.
"And when I got there..." I paused, trying to find the words. "He was with another woman. Not my mother. A woman named Lashara. And there was a little girl in the corner coloring. She looked just like him. Kaseem, I think... I think my father has been having an affair. For years probably."
I felt the tears starting again.
"And nobody knew. My mother doesn't know. My family doesn't know. And I don't even know how long this has been going on. That little girl looked like she was four or five years old. That means my father has been living a double life the whole time."
Kaseem rubbed his face with both hands. Let out a long breath like he was processing something heavy.
He was quiet for a long time. Just sitting there with his hands folded, his eyes closed.
When he opened his eyes and looked at me, something was different. He looked like he was about to tell me something that was going to change everything.
"I'm only telling you this because I want what we have to be built on truth," he said slowly.
"You know who I am. You know what I do. You know everything that comes with me.
I've never been able to lie. Lying is a trait of a scary nigga and that's not who I am.
That's what I've always been taught. I keep it real with people I care about. Always."
My stomach was already dropping but I stayed quiet.
"So I'm about to keep it real with you right now," he continued. "This arrangement between us. The reason why this happened. The reason why your father had to give you up to me. It wasn't random. Yeah, it was about connections and business deals, but you were the price he agreed to pay.”
"What do you mean?" I asked, but I already knew I wasn't going to like the answer.
"My father had dirt on your father," Kaseem said. "Real dirt. The kind of dirt that puts a man in prison for the rest of his life."
I felt my chest get tight.
"Your father didn't just have an affair," he said. "He killed the man. He killed his own business partner. The man who was married to Lashara. When your father’s partner found out about the affair and what was going on, your father made a choice. He decided to handle it permanently. When he killed that man, she was already pregnant with your father’s baby. "
The room started spinning.
"My father has proof," Kaseem continued. "Evidence. Everything he needs to put your father away for murder. And your father knew that. So when my father approached him about this arrangement, your father didn't have a choice. Give us you, keep his secret buried, or go to prison and lose it all.”
I couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe right.
"Your father chose you," Kaseem said. "He gave you to us so that his secret would stay safe.
We needed political ties so that we could run legit businesses as well as have cover ups.
Being married to you made sense. He did this so his other family wouldn't be affected.
So your mother would never find out what he did. "
I just stared at him.
"And I knew," he said. "When I came to get you. When I kidnapped you off that driveway. I knew exactly why your father let it happen. I knew what he'd done. My father told me everything."
"You knew?" My voice came out small. Broken. "You knew and you still... you still did this?"
I stood up. Started pacing. Tried to make sense of it all but my mind couldn't hold it together.
"So what?" I asked. "What does this mean? This marriage is just... what? Just a cover for blackmail?"
"No," Kaseem said, and his voice was firm. "This marriage started that way. But it stopped being about that when I met you. The moment I realized you were nothing like anybody I ever met.”
"How long have you known?" I asked. "About my father? About what he did?"
"When he agreed to the arrangement about six or seven months ago," Kaseem said. "My mother has known the whole time. So has my father. I just was the one who didn’t know.”
Everything was making sense now but in a way that destroyed me.
My father was a murderer. Kaseem's father was blackmailing him. My entire life was a lie. My marriage was built on a crime cover-up. And somehow, through all of this, Kaseem still wanted me. And he was all I wanted.
He got up, hugged me tight and whispered in my ear telling me that if he could fix this, he would.
I had this information about my father, too much to process.
And I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.
Not to mention that tomorrow, I had to marry this man while my head was somewhere completely different.
As much as I wanted to run again, and try to leave, I realized that Kaseem was the only person in my life who was keeping it real with me.