Chapter 5 #4
The events from tonight were all piling up, and I was fucked up in more ways than one. I paced the sidewalk, bringing my eyes up and searching the rooftops. I didn’t like lingering anywhere, and right now, a nigga was feeling like a target.
“How the fuck did they even get this?” I hissed, seeing the headline on repeat.
We were near the car that D was driving, and since there wasn’t another soul around to take it out on, I ran with it on her. She cringed, backing into the car with her arms up in defense. This was the first time that she acted as if a nigga would hurt her, and that shit was like a punch to the gut.
“Maybe your other baby mama had something to do with it.” Daggers pierced me from her outraged orbs.
She didn’t back down. Instead, she brought herself steady on her feet while D lingered nearby like he was ready to pop off on me if necessary.
Ain’t that a bitch? She had somehow captured the heart of one of my most-loyal soldiers as well.
I knew he admired her, but D was also my minion, and he would never turn on me.
He stood on her side for a reason, and all a nigga could do was respect it.
Suddenly, a news van pulled up, and the reporter and cameraman hopped out like two eager fucking beavers.
Fucking hounds. Like sharks in the water that smelled blood, they came right over to us.
“Harbor Lawson?” the blue-eyed brunette asked.
The lights from the camera flickered off her enraged glare.
“What?”
“Donna True with the Virginia Times. Is it true that you faked your own kidnapping?” she asked, sticking her mic in Harbor’s face as D pulled the back door to his Charger open. “Sources tell us that you’ve actually been living with the man that abducted you. How founded is that statement?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I have no comment.” She ducked into the car, and D shut the door behind her.
The finality wasn’t in the words that she had spoken, but in the way that they had come across.
Something had shattered inside of her, and for the first time, I didn’t have a clue how to put it together.
I was conflicted, and rightfully so. Another man in my position might have folded by now.
I was doing the best that I fucking could given the circumstances; at least I thought I was.
Standing there on the curb, I remained stuck as I watched Deviance wheel the car from the curb and speed off down the street.
I brought both hands to my head, stressed to the fucking max.
Before the reporter could turn on me, I spun around to go get valet to get my ride.
I had to get the fuck out of here. Damage control was needed.
Arriving home, Celine was on a nigga’s head as soon as I burst through the door. I released a sigh so heavy it was like I was draining a fucking balloon. Shaking my head, I closed the door behind her and stomped past her toward the staircase.
“Celine, I’m handling it.” I already had an idea about what she could want to lay into me about.
“Are you?” She lifted both brows. “Harbor just burst in here like her world had ended. She couldn’t stop crying. I saw the news. What are you going to do?”
“I can’t do shit standing here and talking to you!” I belted, startling her.
The emptiness in her stare sent a slight pinch to my chest. I didn’t mean it. “I’m sorry. Is she upstairs?”
“Yes. Packing. She said she’s leaving,” Celine concluded. “You better fix this.” The warning in her tone wasn’t approving as she padded down the hall to the kitchen.
I started up the stairs, and before I got to my bedroom door, I could hear things being opened and closed and clothes being tossed around while Harbor sniffled away the tears.
Closing my eyes, I shook my head slowly while my shoulders dragged.
My chest had caved, leaving me feeling like every breath I took was an extreme effort.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To a hotel for now until I find a place,” she answered, not looking up as she stuffed her suitcase full of clothes.
“You can’t just take my kids.” I argued, stepping further into the room.
I paused on the opposite side of the bed, and she stopped what she was doing. Her eyes were as red and defeated as I felt.
“Don’t worry. I won’t keep you from them. But I need to go, and they are not staying anywhere without me.” She was firm in her words, mama bear mode fully activated.
If I dared try to go against her, there was no telling what lengths she would go through. I could read that much in her broken stare.
“Just… stay here,” I pleaded, head sinking downward. “I’ll leave.”
“No. This is your house. I shouldn’t be here. I should have never been here,” she muttered, getting as much as she could into the suitcase before zipping it.
She hit a nigga where it hurt with that line, straight sucker punched me, knocking the fucking wind from my lungs.
“That’s how you feel?”
“That’s exactly how I feel!” she snapped.
“You brought me here, took me out of my life, and turned my shit out like it was all some kind of game to you. Did the challenge of getting me to open up to you and fall in love get you off? Did you lay around at night smiling in victory thinking about how you were slowly breaking me down!” Rage submerged her, cloaking every inch of her.
“All this time, and all it takes is your first love to come back for you to switch up on me. It only proves one thing: you never fucking loved me. I was a possession to you. Hell, you kept me locked up for the first year here. Telling me what to do, when I could do it, holding me like some princess in a fucking tower.”
The words she had for me were all harsh.
She was holding no fucking punches, and no lie, a nigga felt like she was going to tip me over soon.
Her bark was just as bad as her bite. She knew which buttons to push.
I typically wasn’t easily angered, but the pain she inflicted was internalizing into malice.
“I never lied to you about any of this.” I ground my teeth together.
“No.” Harbor laughed a little and swiped the tip of her nose. “No, you didn’t. I was just stupid enough to fall for it.”
“She’s Ivy’s mother,” I declared.
“I know. And up until about a year ago, she was the love of your life. Now she’s back, and you obviously need to deal with that.” She snatched her bag off the bed and held it at her side. “I’ll get the rest of my things some other time. This should be enough for a few days.”
I was at a loss. Bringing both hands to my head, I dropped down into my bed and sat there staring at the door.
She passed me by, and I felt for the first time that I didn’t have a right to stop her.
She was spot on about me and Ivana. There were a lot of loose ends there, and until they were resolved, I couldn’t move on, not with Harbor and not with myself.
Lock
Seated in the living room of my home with my daughter on my lap, I could barely believe the breaking news that had interrupted the basketball game I was indulging in.
I had a spread of food that Alba had hooked up in front of me, and my baby girl was content being near me.
Lately, Alba was doing her best to make things right between us, and I was okay with that since I was getting all of the benefits.
“So, the potato skins are almost done—” Her words were cut short when she saw Harbor on the TV screen and some reporter in her face. “Oh my God! Is that…” She didn’t complete her sentence.
She hovered behind the sofa and watched with me.
Harbor appeared to be outside of some restaurant, and she was climbing into the back of a car while brushing the reporter off.
She had asked her plain as day if she had been abducted and was living with the man that made her a victim.
I couldn’t quite read her through the TV screen, but she appeared to be very rattled by the turn of events.
The reporter turned, and I caught a glimpse of Frequency, looking distressed as they tried approaching him.
He turned quickly, and they chased after him, but the camera was doing too much jumping, and eventually, the screen went out altogether.
“What the hell just happened?” Alba questioned, as blown away by the events as I was.
“I have no fucking idea,” I answered, shaking my head.
The doorbell to our house suddenly rang, and Alba took a couple of steps toward the entry.
“I’ll get it,” she offered, disappearing.
I could hear her talking to someone, another woman, and then both sets of footsteps were heading toward us.
My heart sank, and a nigga’s stomach suddenly felt tight like I had loose bowels that were about to give in at any moment.
Harmonie stood with a smile, waving and admiring me with my daughter.
“Harmonie is here,” Alba announced.
“What’s up?” I asked, and her eyes darted over to Alba before a slight smirk spread across her full lips.
“I just wanted to talk to you. Wow, your daughter is gorgeous.” She complimented, but that was more for Alba than myself.
I could see it all in her eyes, deceit lingering behind the false facade she was putting on.
“Thank you. We just saw the TV. Is that what you are here about?” Alba was curious.
“Yeah. I was close by when I thought I would come and check on you guys. I know how hard this has all been. I don’t know about you, but for that year she was missing, I blamed myself.
To find out all this time it was some twisted ass game…
I can’t believe my sister put us all through that. She’s selfish.”
“I won’t argue there,” Alba muttered. “I didn’t even know you knew where we lived.”
“Oh yeah, Lock and I ran into each other a few weeks ago,” Harmonie said with a sly smirk in my direction. “He told me Harbor actually sold you this house. Amazing.”