Chapter 30 #3
Deep lines mar the space between Blake’s eyebrows. “Again—these were allegations with no evidence. Did she show you pictures, Kenny? Scars? Shit, a bruise?”
I think my heart might beat right out of my chest.
“Evidence? Pictures?” I croak. “You keep talking like you didn’t have a front-row seat to the evidence.
You saw the evidence on me before anybody else ever did!
You looked me right in my black eyes last New Year’s Eve when you picked us up off the side of some random street in New York after I tried to get away from him! ”
That night is burned into my psyche with all the other nights and days where I ducked, dodged and ran from a man who said he loved me.
Blake blinks at me with a contrived, downtrodden expression that makes me feel dirty. “I don’t recall that night, Lovie. If I saw anything like that, I would’ve bought you a plane ticket home because no woman deserves that type of treatment.”
“You’re a liar!” I yell.
Aunt Faye jumps up and shuffles behind my chair, pulling me back. “Lovie…let me and Ken handle this.”
She reaches down, wrapping her hand around mine. It’s clenched so tight that my nails dig deep into my palm, and all I hear is Rich asking me if I’m gonna use it.
“Calm down,” Aunt Faye murmurs, squeezing my fist.
The air between us is so thick that it hurts to inhale, but I gasp anyway, swallowing it with a choke.
“Is that true, Blake?” she asks. “Did you know?”
I chase his dark eyes, but he won’t look at me. Instead, he looks at Aunt Faye’s hand covering mine, then over at Uncle Kenny, who watches us with flared nostrils. He looks everywhere but at me.
“She asked you a question,” I grit out.
“I didn’t know,” he replies.
I push up, making Uncle Kenny’s glass of tea slosh back and forth, and Aunt Faye pulls me back down, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
“He’s a liar.” I gasp. “He’s been at our apartment and saw the aftermath of what his client does when he gets mad at me. He sat in silence with AJ all the way back to our apartment on New Year’s Eve while I cleaned up my bloody face in his backseat.”
He still won’t look at me.
“It’s funny how after that New Year’s Eve, AJ started hitting me in all the places people can’t see—my chest…my stomach…my ribs. You advised your client not to hit me in my face anymore, didn’t you?”
“Jesus…” Aunt Faye mutters, tightening her hold on me. “Oh, Jesus.”
Blake clears his throat, tugging his goatee. “That’s just an assumption—not a fact.”
“Did you tell him not to hit me in my face anymore, Blake?”
“I’ve never had any conversations with AJ about his mistreatment of you—only about the exorbitant spending you two were doing.”
“You lying piece of—”
“AJ wants to work through this despite my reservations, Lovie,” he mutters. “He wants to spend his whole bye week down here until he gets a handle on this.”
I shake my head. “He needs to leave. I don’t want him. I don’t want anything with him or that life anymore.”
“Now I can agree with you on that. He does need to leave. I told him how stupid of a decision this is. His career is in jeopardy, yet he’s wasting an entire bye week trying to rekindle a toxic relationship.
He needs to be back in Jersey like yesterday.
This is all stupid, but my pay depends on his success.
So if he wants his number one girl back, then my job is to help him get her back. ”
He pulls his phone out of his pocket, tapping on the screen and unlocking it. He slides it toward me.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Something we all should’ve discussed when he got drafted—an NDA.”
Aunt Faye leans over me. “A what?”
“A non-disclosure agreement,” I grit out, remembering all the disgusted murmurs at my first and only brunch with the Knights’ WAGs when the quarterback’s wife said she was signing one after a “silly Miami fight.”
“He wants to shut me up. He wants to bury my story.”
Blake chuckles as his phone screen goes black. “Let’s not be dramatic. I just think this is what’s best for all parties involved.”
Uncle Kenny shakes his head. “I don’t understand. If you’re trying to say it never happened, then why would she even need to sign something? I don’t like where this is going.”
“Ken, what I’m saying is that some strangers are now privy to the intimate details of Lovie and AJ’s relationship, whether it’s on or off right now. What we want to do is stop anyone else from potentially getting involved.”
“So you’re confirming that you did know about the abuse and never thought to pick up the phone and call us?” Uncle Kenny asks. “Is that what you’re saying in so many words?”
There’s that ugly word again—abuse.
My mouth grows dry.
“I’m protecting your niece and future nephew-in-law from a media firestorm.
I’m doing my job as AJ’s agent and getting ahead of whatever might come because my client and his fiancée are young and impulsive.
How many times has Lovie said they’ve broken up only for them to get right back together?
This shit should’ve been done a long time ago, man. ”
Blake’s mask is slipping. That good ole’ wanna-be “southern boy” act melts right off of him.
He taps the dark screen on his phone and drags his finger until three signature lines appear—one for me, one for Uncle Kenny, and one for Aunt Faye.
“We…we can’t sign that without a lawyer or somebody here,” Aunt Faye says.
I yank my hand out of her hold. “I’m not signing that. I don’t care if a lawyer is here or not.”
Uncle Kenny buries his head in his hands. “This…this has gotten out of control.”
“It has,” Blake replies, nudging the phone.
“And this is how you exert control, Ken. This is how you stay one step ahead of everybody else and protect your family. Remember, you told me that was the most important thing to you in that suite in Dallas? You said you were just a simple man—you just wanted to make sure the bills were paid and your wife and her niece were safe.”
Uncle Kenny looks up, swiping his bald head. “What if we don’t sign?”
Blake sits back in his seat, blowing out a breath.
“Well…there’s a lot that can happen if you don’t.
Shit, what’s already happened is enough.
People are already talking. Like I said, I paid a visit to that little agency that bought Lovie her plane ticket home.
I sat down with the girl who roped her into that place and convinced her that getting them involved was a good idea. ”
He glances over at me and snorts. “Yesenia.”
“If you threatened to do anything to her, I swear—”
“Oh, she didn’t even give me a chance to do or say anything before she threatened me.
She said she could ruin AJ’s career with one hot tip to WAG Watch.
” He shakes his head. “Ken, if y’all don’t sign and Lovie decides she wants to go public with these claims, it’s gonna be the world against Lovie.
And Lovie is a sweet girl, but we both know she ain’t got the heart for internet trolls accusing her of lying, Knights’ fans blaming her for another damn lackluster season, or AJ’s robust legal team going after her for defamation.
She won’t survive it, and I don’t think you and Faye will either.
So she can sign this and keep what’s transpired between her and AJ close to the vest unless she wants some real deal legal trouble.
Then she can get some therapy for whatever trauma she’s been carrying.
Ultimately, this NDA is what’s best to protect Lovie from herself.
She’s already shown a lapse in judgment by involving these outside folks, now look at the trickle-down effect. ”
Uncle Kenny lets out a deep sigh while glancing at me as if I ruined something precious.
I want to scream, but I can’t. All of my words are caught in that bile in the back of my throat, and even if they come out, I don’t think they’ll change anything.
All of it is futile—just like when I tried to hold Rich’s future inside of me.
Nothing I have to say matters because they’re all talking for me.
“I…” Uncle Kenny sighs.
“We’re only here for the week, Ken. When I leave, this deal leaves too.”
“I don’t know about this, Blake. Faye is right. We need to talk about this first as a family and then get us a lawyer who can look this over. I don’t believe in signing nothing without reading it either.”
“Ken, look, AJ told me about the trouble you’re having at the gym—about the industrial AC unit you need and a few other odds and ends that need to be taken care of, like missing punching bags.
” He waves his hand. “We can get all that to you and write it off under the AJ Boyd Foundation while the kids work through this tiff. No problem.”
“He told you about the gym?”
“Of course he did. He told me about the family fun day celebration—all of it. Hell, he wanted to come just like he promised. He’s been wanting to call you—begging to call, actually, but I told him it was best if he didn’t do that considering what Lovie had been…
alleging. Man, we’ve been fighting about this since last week. ”
Uncle Kenny drums his fingers against the table and shakes his leg.
“So that’s what I’ve been reduced to? An AC unit and a few punching bags?
You’re…you’re gonna let him walk in here and press you to sign my voice away for a few thousand dollars?
I’m not even worth a million, huh? Not even a car…
or…or a new place.” I laugh bitterly. “I’m just worth an AC unit and three punching bags, huh? ”
“Lovie, I didn’t even say nothing like that,” Uncle Kenny replies.
“You didn’t have to. The fact that you’re sitting there contemplating it instead of telling him to get the hell out of your house tells me everything I need to know.
” I grab the edge of the table, leaning forward.
“You flounce around this neighborhood like you’re so high, mighty, and better than but they don’t know how you really are.
How…how you walk around here and talk about Rich like he’s nothing when—”
“Lovie.” Faye grabs my shoulders, digging her nails into them.
“You talk about Rich like he’s nothing when he takes care of everybody around here without showcasing it to the world through contrived family fun days.
He’s probably even paid one of your gambling debts down at Lucky’s.
He’s never even spoken ill of you around me yet you abuse his name so damn much.
You taint his character anytime you get a chance.
You want to know what we were arguing about last night?
We were arguing about how he’s tried to paint this fake image of you in my head—tried to make you seem more caring and concerned than you’ve ever actually been when all along he’s the only man I’ve ever had in my life who’s cared to protect me.
All you care about is protecting AJ Boyd and that damn gym my mama’s life insurance money paid for. ”
The last of my words crack and fall somewhere between us.
Blake’s cold eyes sparkle. “Well, who’s Rich? Kenny you didn’t tell me another man was in the picture.”
I yank my shoulders from Aunt Faye’s clutches, forcing her back until I can push out of my chair.
“Where you going, Lovie?” Uncle Kenny asks. “Sit back down so we can—”
“I’m not doing this. I’m going to Rich.”
“Lovie…” Aunt Faye sighs, reaching out for me. “Sweetheart—”
“I need Rich. Not you, not Uncle Kenny, not AJ.”
I shake my head, stumbling back from the table. “I…I need him.”
Tears blur my vision as I back out of the kitchen.
“Lovie! It’s—” Aunt Faye’s voice fades away as I power-walk through the living room in a daze and out the front door.