Deleted Scene
This scene didn’t make it into the book, but I still felt it was necessary to show you just how little Najee cared about ending things with Renae. Not everyone in life chooses to move on peacefully after being wronged, but he did… even if everyone thought he should’ve handled her differently.
***
Had Najee known about Renae’s cheating before now, he would’ve never placed her on such a high pedestal and spoken highly of her.
The thing about loving someone was expecting them to love you with the same capacity, if not more, than you loved them.
Honestly, it wasn’t even about the love Najee gave her; it was the respect.
He would’ve never stepped out on her while she was locked down, and even if she wasn’t.
That’s just how he was built. Loyal to the soil, and Renae was receiving a front row seat to what it felt and looked like to lose his respect and love.
Najee wasted no time packing his belongings up.
It hadn’t been a week, and all of his things were boxed and being loaded onto the back of a U-Haul.
He couldn’t stand to be in the same vicinity as her, and thankfully, Renae had kept her distance.
She didn’t even have the decency to come home and face him like a woman.
Najee didn’t care to hear what she had to say, but at least she could’ve held herself accountable.
That would be too much like right, though.
As upset as her sister had been with her, Kelli still let her stay with her for a few days.
Those other days were spent with the same man she cheated with.
Najee now knew why his house didn’t feel much like a home on his first day out. It was because she had another man in it. There was no way in hell he’d be subjected to sleeping in the same bed and under the same roof Renae had done her dirty deeds.
“Can we please just talk about this?” Renae’s pleading fell on deaf ears, just like it had since she pulled up.
Najee didn’t know where she was coming from, nor did he give a fuck, but her constantly trying to talk to him was pissing him off.
Every time she opened her mouth, he ignored her.
But she was persistent, if nothing else.
When he grabbed one of the last few boxes and slid it onto the truck, she blocked his path.
“You’re really going to act like you don’t hear me? Why just leave like this?”
Najee gave her a deadpan stare and chuckled. “Man, watch out.”
“No! I need you to hear me out. It’s not what you think.”
“Aye. I know you better move from in front of him with all that hand swinging before my hands start swinging. I let you slide at the party, but I’m not today,” Nyesha said, walking out of the house.
Knowing Renae and how she moved, Nyesha wasn’t about to have Najee get caught up again.
She knew how quickly pain could turn into rage, and if Renae made her brother get out of character, it wouldn’t be pretty for anyone.
So, she was here on standby just in case she wanted to try something.
In her eyes, Najee was giving Renae too much grace, but she was proud of him for getting the hell on.
Renae rolled her eyes, not bothering to look Nyesha’s way. “Najee... please.”
“There ain’t shit for us to discuss and I’m damn sure not trying to hear you plead your case, ‘cause there ain’t one.
You couldn’t hold shit down for a year, Nae.
That shit is sad, and there’s no justifying how you moved.
On the real, you were probably fucking with dude way before now, and me going to jail was your chance to live it up with him. Gon’ and do that.”
“But I don’t want to,” she murmured on the verge of tears. “It was a mistake.”
Nyesha sucked her teeth. “Girl, a mistake is accidentally booking a hair and nail appointment for the same day. You cheated and got pregnant by another nigga, and you think my brother owes you what? Some fucking sympathy? Bitch, he doesn’t, and neither does anyone else.
Now, move like he said before I move you. ”
“Come move me then! You talking all this shit and don’t even know the full story,” Renae hissed.
Nyesha rushed her, and Najee was barely able to swoop her behind him as she quickly ran up.
“Nah, Ny. Not out here,” Najee said. “If she’ll cheat on a nigga who was nothing but good to her, she’ll snitch. She ain’t worth it.”
“You lucky, bitch,” Nyesha spat, pointing at her and smiling. “You lucky my brother is a real nigga, otherwise you’d be getting dragged all over this driveway.”
“Aye, that’s everything?” Saleem asked, walking out of the house. He’d been inside taking a call and had missed all the action.
He looked between the three and shook his head. Wrapping an arm over Nyesha’s shoulder, he pulled her away from the duo.
“You don’t need to get involved in this. We’re done, so sit in your car,” Saleem told her.
“Yeah, okay. I will, but I’m not pulling off,” Nyesha said, pulling her door open.
Saleem smirked. “I know you’re not. Just chill for a second. She ain’t crazy enough to put her hands on him.”
“Probably not, but I’m crazy and don’t play about him, so you better make sure he walks away untouched,” Nyesha stated.
“I got you.”
While Saleem made sure everything in the back of the truck was secured for a safe drive, Renae was still trying to muster her way back into Najee’s good graces inside the house. He wanted to do a final walk-through, and she followed behind him like the stray dog he now condemned her as.
“I never meant for things to go like this between us,” she sniffled. “You didn’t seem like you were taking things seriously between us, and then you go to jail behind some girl you barely know.”
Najee stopped walking and faced her with a scowl. “I didn’t seem like I was taking things seriously? Because I didn’t put a ring on your finger fast enough like them niggas did with your friends? Is that why?”
He didn’t care, but Najee needed to hear how ridiculous she sounded. Comparing her life to someone else’s was the first mistake. When Renae didn’t answer, he kept going.
“That can’t be, because they’re all single now, just like you.
They were the main ones who had you up on the phone running their failed relationships down to you, and now look,” Najee said, laughing.
“You’re in the same boat. Don’t use me wanting to wait and build on something more as me not wanting to be married.
That was always my goal, obviously just not to you. ”
Renae wiped her wet eyes, and it moved Najee none. She could cry until she was blue in the face, and it wouldn’t change a thing.
“But people make mistakes, Najee. You act like you?—”
“I act like what? Like I never cheated and fucked a bitch raw, got her pregnant, and then made her get an abortion and hide it? Is that what you expect me to act like I did so that shit can be even between us? Nah, don’t disrespect me.
I never once cheated on your ass. Never even texted another woman, but that’s the difference between me and you.
When I’m loyal to someone, it’s forever, in all aspects.
You tried playing the game, but in the end, you got played.
All you had to do was remain solid and talk to me if you weren’t feeling something.
Instead, you fuck off on me. Go explain yourself to another nigga ‘cause I don’t have shit for you.
I’m doing you a favor by letting you stay in this house. ”
“I don’t want the house if you’re not in it,” she murmured. Her emotions were all over the place, and it was no one’s fault but her own.
Najee shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m cool on you.
Just so we’re clear, we’re over with Renae.
Stop calling my phone and don’t even think about popping up at my business, or I’ma let Ny do you scandalous.
Take your L like I’m taking mine. What you tell Kelli?
You’ll have to live with her being disappointed just like you have to live with fucking me over. .. stand on that shit.”
He didn’t wait for her to say anything before heading out the door.
Renae’s knees buckled watching Najee walk out of the house they once shared.
Everything she’d done in the dark had finally caught up to her, and she didn’t know what to do but cry.
Najee was done listening to her plead and was done with her altogether.
He was convinced she had never loved him, but that was fine.
Najee knew deep down that the woman he was meant to be loyal to and love wasn’t her. She wouldn’t have folded on him the moment life got real, and she damn sure wouldn’t have disrespected his name while he was behind bars.
Whomever that woman was, she would get the world from him. No questions asked.