Chapter 39 Asia
When I first got the email in my inbox, the subject line stopped me in my tracks. It was from a name I didn't recognize, and the subject line read: YOUR FIANCE? OR MY BABY DADDY with a smirk emoji.
As soon as I saw the words "baby daddy", something twisted in my gut.
It wasn't true, my mind said, but still I clicked the message. There was a block of text from some bitch named Isis talking about how she and Nyree had a son. A fucking four year old child. Named after him.
I called her bluff, thinking she was some weird bitch playing on my work email after Nyree posted about our engagement.
But then I got a message request on my messenger app. A photo of the boy. And he looked just like Nyree. As soon as I saw that shit, my mind went blank.
My phone kept buzzing with messages after that back to back, with her trying to throw Nyree's secret baby in my face. I didn't respond. The only thing I kept thinking was, Bella was right. What the fuck did I just get myself into?
I had been sitting at the kitchen table for hours, my body alternating between ice-cold numbness and burning rage. The tears had started and stopped so many times I'd lost count. Every time I thought I was cried out, another wave would hit me—betrayal, humiliation, fury.
The truth was right there on my phone. Messages and photos that told a story so different from the one Nyree had been feeding me that I could hardly reconcile the two realities.
You talk to your "fiancé" about little Ny yet?
Just thought he should know that while he's playing house with you, he's missing his son's whole life
Four years and not a dime of child support, but he's buying you rings?
Maybe ask him about Miami... Ask him about Isis
I'd gone from disbelief to horror as I scrolled through the messages and photos she'd sent. The little boy had Nyree's eyes. His smile. The same little dimple in his left cheek. There was no denying it—this child looked exactly like him.
I'd thought I'd found my person. My safe place. The one man who was different from all the others who had hurt and disappointed me. And now this.
When I heard the key in the lock, I straightened up. I'd been waiting for this moment, rehearsing what I would say, how I would react. But nothing could have prepared me for the sight of him walking through the door with that carefree smile on his face, like our whole world wasn't about to implode.
"Honey, I'm home!" he called out, so fucking happy, so oblivious to the storm that was about to hit.
His smile faltered when he saw me sitting there, tears streaking my face. He rushed to my side, concern etched across his features as he knelt beside my chair.
"Baby, what happened?" he asked, his voice laced with worry. He took my hand in his.
"Explain this to me, husband." I said that last word like it was poison on my tongue, and in that moment, it was. Marriage was supposed to be built on trust, on honesty. Not whatever the fuck this was.
Nyree picked up the phone, confusion evident in his eyes. I watched his face as he read the messages, as he scrolled through the photos. I saw the exact moment comprehension dawned—his eyes widened, his jaw went slack, his entire body tensed.
By the time he finished reading, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. I was floating somewhere near the ceiling, watching this scene play out below me: a woman whose world had just been shattered, and a man who had done the shattering.
"Asia..." he said, but his voice trailed off, as if he couldn't find the words to continue.
"How could you?" I asked, rage coursing through me, pulling me back into my body with such force I felt dizzy with it.
"Asia, I..." he tried again, but I cut him off.
"A fucking four-year-old child, Nyree? Why would you lie to me like this?" My voice was rising now, the careful control I'd been maintaining starting to slip.
Nyree shook his head vigorously, his expression desperate. "No, Asia, you don't understand. I don't know anything about this child. I've never met him. I've never even heard of him until today."
"Bullshit," I spat. "Look at that boy! He's your fucking twin! You expect me to believe you don't know him?"
"I swear to you," Nyree said, his voice cracking with emotion.
My eyes welled with tears as the rage continued to build. I wanted to believe him. But the evidence was right there, staring back at me from my phone screen. A little boy with Nyree's eyes, his smile, his dimple.
"You fucking married me knowing you had a whole baby mother!" I shouted, the dam breaking. "You fucking lied to me! I told you what the fuck I been through and you did worse!"
"Asia!" Nyree stood up, reaching for me, his face contorted with desperation.
But I was beyond reaching. I stepped back, putting the table between us, my voice going cold and flat. "Get the fuck out."
"What?" He looked stunned, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Get the fuck out," I bellowed, my voice echoing off the walls of the apartment that just hours ago I'd been so excited to share with him. "And as far as I see it, this marriage is annulled."
"Asia, please," Nyree begged, his eyes filling with tears. "You have to believe me. I don't have a child."
I stared at him, wanting to believe him so badly it made my chest hurt. But the photos... the uncanny resemblance... how could it not be true?
"He has your whole face, Nyree," I said. “There’s no way to explain that away.”
Nyree's shoulders slumped. "I can't explain it. But Asia, I swear on my life, I do not have a child."
I closed my eyes, suddenly exhausted. The emotional roller coaster of the day had drained me.
"I need you to leave," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "I can't look at you right now. I can't think straight with you here."
"Asia—"
"Just go. I need space."
He stood there for a long moment, staring at me with such raw pain in his eyes that I almost relented. But the image of that little boy's face kept flashing in my mind, and I couldn't get past it.
"Fine," he said at last, his voice thick with emotion. "I'll go. But this isn't over, Asia. I'm not giving up on us. I'm going to figure out what the hell is going on."