Chapter 24 #2
When we finished showering, we stepped into the master suite wrapped in towels. For the first time in a year and a half, my body felt relaxed. Dick drained. Heart full. I ran my hand down Solei’s spine, feeling her shiver under my touch.
“Would you like to watch a movie, Mrs. Winters-Madden?” I murmured against her shoulder, wrapping my arms around her waist.
She didn’t respond even when I kissed her neck, slowly and deliberately. I turned her over, wanting to see her face, wanting to watch her eyes when I reminded her what this was. But when I looked at her, something was wrong. Her expression wasn’t soft. It was distant.
“What’s wrong?” I questioned. She pulled away from my touch and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at me. “What?”
“We need to talk.”
“We just talked outside with my dick inside you. That was the conversation.”
“No.” Her voice was calm. “That was you reminding me that my body wants you. That’s not the same thing as fixing what’s broken between us, Montana.”
I exhaled, my patience already wearing thin. “Nothin’ is broken. You just forgot who you belong to, and I reminded you. Problem solved.”
“You had him killed, didn’t you?” The words hung in the air between us, but I didn’t confirm or deny it. I just looked at her. “Darius is dead, isn’t he?” she asked, her voice steadier than I expected. “Please don’t insult my intelligence.”
“I told you I had different plans for him, didn’t I?”
Her eyes widened slightly. “What did you have done to him, Money?”
Narrowing my eyes, I asked, “Are you really sittin’ there with my cum still inside you askin’ me about another muthafucka? The nigga ain’t dead, but I did what I had to do.”
Solei stared at me like she was seeing me for the first time.
“This is who I am,” I reminded her. “This is who I’ve always been. You knew that when you married me. You knew that when you had my kids. You knew that when you let me fuck you in that shower twenty minutes ago. You’ve always fuckin’ known.”
“Knowing it and accepting it are two very different things.”
“Then accept it.” I moved closer, my hand reaching for her face.
She pulled back. “Don't.” That one word stopped me cold. “Don’t touch me like you’ve won," she said, her voice shaking but firm. “Don’t speak to me like sex fixes everything. Like making me cum back to back erases years of infidelity, lies, control, and pain.”
“I’ve never hurt you in that way.”
“You hurt me every time you promised to change and didn’t.” Her eyes were wet now, but they weren’t sad tears. She was angry. “You hurt me every time you said that running your empire was more important than me. You hurt me every time you swore you’d be faithful and then fucked someone else.”
“Those bitches didn’t mean…”
“I don’t care, Montana!” Her voice rose as she jumped up.
“I don’t care that they didn’t mean anything, Money.
I care that you did it anyway. I care that you chose them over keeping your word to me.
I care that you thought I’d just accept it because you’re Montana Madden and you always get what you want. ”
I clenched my jaw, my hands curling into fists.
“You think bringing me to this island changes anything?” she continued. “You think fucking me silly makes me forget why I left? You think doing whatever the fuck you want to Darius to make him leave me alone proves you love me?”
“It proves I’ll do whatever the fuck it takes to keep you.”
“No, it proves you’re dangerous.” She wrapped the towel tighter around herself. “It proves you don’t respect boundaries. It proves you think possession is the same thing as love.”
“It is love.”
“No, Money. It’s obsession and control. It’s you deciding what I need and forcing me to accept it whether I want to or not.”
I stared at her, my chest tight, my mind racing.
This wasn’t how this shit was supposed to go.
Solei was supposed to accept that we belonged together and stop fighting what we both knew was inevitable.
“So what the fuck are you sayin’?” My voice was low, dangerous.
“You sayin’ you really don’t wanna be in this marriage anymore?
Is that what the fuck you’re tryin’ to say? ”
“I’m saying I don’t trust you, Money.” The words hit harder than I expected.
“I don’t trust that you’ve changed,” she continued.
“I don’t trust that you won’t cheat again.
I don’t trust that you won’t put business before me and the kids.
I don’t trust that you won’t use violence and intimidation every time something doesn’t go your way. ”
“I’m not in the streets anymore, Soul. Everything is legit.” I lied.
“Don’t bullshit me, Montana. I fucking know you.
Hello?” She rolled her neck. “You just had me send a man to prison to protect you.” Fuck.
She had me there. “You want me to trust you? You want your family back?” Solei asked, stepped closer to me, eyes locked on mine.
“Then prove it. Not with words, sex, grand gestures like an island, or expensive gifts. Prove it with sustained, consistent, behavioral change.”
“How long?”
“You got a week. Seven days. Sound familiar?”
I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You want me to… what? Court you? Date you? Pretend like we’re not already fuckin’ married?”
“I want you to show me you’re capable of being the man I need you to be, not the man you think you are. Not the man you want to be. The man you actually are, consistently, when no one’s watching.”
“And if I do that?”
“Then maybe we have a chance.”
“Maybe?” My voice dropped, cold and flat. “I don't do maybe, Soul. You’re either mine, or you’re not.”
“Then I’m not.” The words hung between us like a death sentence. “Not yet,” she clarified, her voice softer but no less firm. “Not until you prove you can change, and I know a week isn’t enough time. I’m not an idiot. But I’m serious, Montana.”
I stared at her, my mind working through every angle, every play, and every way to turn this back in my favor. I knew Solei wasn’t bluffing, though. I could see it in her eyes that she meant every fucking word. “So what now?” I asked, arms folded across my chest.
“Now we stay on this island like you planned,” she shrugged. “We spend time together as a family and you can start to show me something different. Don’t rush me to get back together and don’t give me any more ultimatums. I need time to decide whether I want you back fully.”
“And if I don’t follow this… whatever the fuck this is?”
She sighed and reached to firmly tug on my beard. “Then I’ll go through with filing for an official divorce.”
“I’ll never let you go, Soul.”
We’ll see,” she replied, her voice holding a slight amusement to it. “Because I won’t stay with a man I can’t trust. I won’t teach my daughter that love looks like control, and I won’t teach my son that this is how you treat the woman you love.”
I wanted to snatch her up and tell her to shut the fuck up with this bullshit.
I wanted to argue like we used to, then fuck it out all night.
I wanted to tell her that she was mine, whether she trusted me or not.
I wanted to tell her that I’d already won and she just didn’t know it yet.
But something in my wife’s eyes stopped me.
She wasn’t the same woman who’d left me eighteen months ago.
She was stronger and more certain of what she would and wouldn’t accept. That shit turned me the fuck on.
“Aight, Soul,” I said finally, licking my lips as I pulled her into me. I stared at her for a long moment, then I nodded once. She searched my face, looking for the lie, the angle, or the trap. I was going to have to prove I deserved her. That was that. “Get some sleep,” I kissed her forehead.
“Where are you going?”
“To clear my head.” She watched me pull on a pair of basketball shorts, her expression unreadable. I paused at the door, looking back at her. “I love you,” I told her. “You want me to prove that shit? I’ll prove it.”
“For your sake, you’d better hope so.”
I left without another word. Outside, the island was dark and quiet, the ocean waves crashing against the shore in a steady rhythm.
I walked down to the beach, my bare feet sinking into the sand, my mind racing.
Solei had called my bluff. She wanted change.
Real, sustained, provable change. And the fucked-up part was I didn’t know if I was capable of it.
I’d spent my entire life taking what I wanted, eliminating obstacles, and refusing to accept no for an answer.
But Solei wasn’t asking me to accept no.
She was asking me to earn yes. And that was something I’d never had to do before, but losing her for good wasn’t an option.
So if earning her meant becoming someone I’d never been before, then that’s exactly what the fuck I had to do.