Chapter 24 #2
“This isn’t personal,” she said, gathering the file into her arms.
“It never was,” he replied and turned to walk out but just before he crossed the threshold, he paused, hand braced against the frame.
Without turning around, he said one last thing.
“Keep it professional, Corrine. We’re dealing with something a lot bigger than you and your little feelings.
Don’t make me regret giving you the benefit of the doubt. ”
Adair set his phone face down on the couch after texting Sabine back. Always. He meant that. Meant it even when he didn’t have the words to say anything else. Even when the rest of life between them stayed jagged and uncertain, he meant that. For Ade, he’d always show up.
The sound of rapid button tapping pulled him back to the moment. Ade was planted in the center of the living room floor with both legs crossed, brow furrowed.
“Alright, lil’ man,” Adair said, grabbing the other controller and settling onto the couch. “You ready to get whooped?”
“You wish!” Ade beamed up at him, cheeks puffed like he already had the win in the bag. They dove back into the game, something with dragons and an absurd number of glowing potions.
Adair didn’t know what the hell he was doing half the time, but he kept up just enough to make Ade squeal with laughter when he fell off a pixelated cliff. After a few rounds, he glanced over, controller resting in his lap.
“Hey,” he said casually. “You miss Mommy since she been workin’ more?”
“Yeah…” Ade didn’t hesitate. “But she told me her software helps build stuff like spaceships, so I’m happy for her!” He turned and grinned like he really meant that. Like in his little head, that meant Mommy was off building something that helped the world.
Adair smiled too, because…hell yeah. He was proud of her. He didn’t always know how to say it but seeing the way Ade lit up talking about her? That was enough.
“That’s wassup, man,” he said, bumping fists with him. “What about when Daddy gotta work a lot?”
Ade paused this time. His fingers stopped on the buttons. The brightness dimmed just a little. His small shoulders dipped.
“Ummmm…” he murmured.
“Where I’m at?” Adair leaned forward slightly, voice firmer. That made Ade’s eyes shoot back up. The hesitation on his face hit hard. “You can be honest,” he said gently.
“When…” Ade’s voice dropped to barely a whisper. “You work Daddy, I don’t see you even when we were home together.”
Oof.
That hurt. Adair’s throat tightened, but he didn’t say anything. He let his son finish.
“But…” Ade’s whole face lifted again. “But I see you all the time now and it makes me happy!” He bounced slightly on his knees like the words gave him permission to be excited again.
Adair smiled, for real this time but behind it was that ache. That shit-I-know-I-wasn’t-there as much as I could have been ache. That I’m-trying-now ache.
“I’m happy too, lil’ man,” he said, pulling Ade in and messing up his hair just to hear him laugh again. “Daddy’s tryna be around more. I mean that.”
“Okay,” Ade nodded seriously. “Can we still play one more game though?”
“One more,” Adair promised, picking the controller back up.
After, he started Ade’s bath then went to clean up their dinner mess, still thinking about the way his son’s little voice had dropped earlier.
“I don’t see you even when we were home together.
” That shit lodged itself in his chest like a nail.
Not just because it was true, but because his boy had said it with no anger.
No resentment. Just sadness. Kids didn’t lie. They just told you what they felt.
Before that conversation, for dinner, he made fish sticks and mac and cheese and sat with him while they ate at the table.
Ade talked a mile a minute about something he saw on YouTube Kids, something about underwater volcanoes and space jellyfish.
Adair nodded, laughed in the right places, and soaked it all in.
Not just what Ade was saying, but who he was becoming.
Every day, he got taller. Wiser. More thoughtful.
It wasn’t just a phase. It was childhood unfolding in real time and Adair didn’t want to miss it anymore.
Once he was done cleaning the kitchen and living room, they did bath time, pajamas, two books—both of which Ade insisted on reading out loud tonight and a soft light left on in the corner. By the time Adair pulled the covers up to his chin, Ade was already half asleep.
“Love you, Daddy,” he murmured.
“Love you more, man. Get some rest.”
Adair lingered in the doorway, watching him breathe. Then he turned off the hallway light and went to this bedroom. He stood there remembering the last she was in there. The last time he got to touch her.
God.
That night had gutted him. In the best, worst, most intimate way. It wasn’t sex. Not even close. It was something rawer than that. She’d let him in. Not just physically but spiritually. Like her soul cracked open just enough for him to see inside again.
The way she moved under him. The way she whispered his name.
The way her hands clutched his back, her lips trembled against his neck, her thighs trembled around his waist. She’d tried to be guarded.
Had warned him with her silence that this didn’t fix anything but her body said something else.
Her body told the truth and so did his. He’d spent years trying to forget how she tasted.
How she sounded. How she arched into him when she was right there, on the edge of moaning and meaning it but that night?
That night erased the space between them.
Space that he wanted to close within them completely.
Adair wanted her back.
Not just in bed.
Not just in co-parenting.
He wanted her back in his life.
And for once…he wanted to do it right.
He went to the living room and grabbed his phone. For a second, he stared at the screen, before he tapped it, his mind shifted—just for a beat.
The firm looped the past in once Corrine’s name landed on that meeting invite, and Sabine saw it, it was going to hit like a punch to the chest.
Adair would be the one who let it happen.
He couldn’t let that be the first time Sabine found out.
Couldn’t let her walk into a professional space—her space—only to be blindsided by a woman who once played a role in destroying their marriage.
No matter how clean the deal looked on paper, emotionally? It was messy.
He needed to get ahead of it.
Needed to say something before their first sit-down. Before she looked across a negotiation table and saw everything she’d finally started to rise from staring back at her in designer heels and a smug little smile.
Because no matter how much he was trying to make this about business, Sabine had every right to take it personal. He opened his contacts and scrolled until he found Narri. He hesitated a little because he hated his ass. Rightfully so but he needed her now.
Thankfully she answered on what seemed like the last ring.
“What?” she said, dry as ever.
Adair let out a breath. “Hey, Nar.”
“Nigga, what the fuck do you want?”
“I ain’t call to argue.”
“You sure? That’s usually your favorite hobby. Gettin’ a bitch upset then actin’ like you ain’t start shit wit ya bitch ass!”
“I’m serious. I just…I wanted to talk.”
There was a pause. Then a sigh. “About what?”
“Sabine.”
Another pause. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. I mean…she’s killin’ shit. You know that.”
“I do…my bestie is shittin’ on the people who did her wrong. Niggas and desperate ass bitches who don’t know what the fuck husband and wife mean.”
“I hear you…” he sighed, deserving every angry word. “I’m so proud of her. I’m proud of her accomplishing all the shit she wanted to do for years. I’m happy she doin’ so good but…I’m…I’m not.”
Narri didn’t say anything, but he could hear the shift in her breathing. He pressed on.
“I fucked up,” he said plainly. “You know that. Everybody do but it wasn’t just the cheating.
It wasn’t just the lies. It was how I stopped showing up.
Stopped seeing her. I thought making money, building my career, giving her and Ade everything they desired was enough.
But she needed me to be present…and I wasn’t. ”
“You’re just now figuring that out?”
“No,” he admitted. “I been knew. I just didn’t know how to fix it.”
“You can’t fix it,” she said, her voice suddenly softer. “You broke her, Adair and I don’t just mean the marriage. I mean…she needed you the night Ariyah died, and you weren’t there. That’s not a crack. That’s a fracture.”
“I know.” His chest caved a little.
“I was on that call,” Narri continued. “Me and Par. We heard her scream. Heard her beg for help. Do you know what it felt like hearing my best friend in that much pain and knowing her husband, her protector, was with another woman? They had to snatch her son away from her because nobody was there for her!”
He closed his eyes. “I know you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” she whispered. “But I hated what you did. Because it changed her. Sabine used to believe in forever. In building something solid. You took that from her.”
“I want to give it back.”
Narri didn’t laugh. Didn’t scoff. She just waited.
“I know I can’t undo the past but I want to try again. Not start over like nothing happened but start fresh. Honest this time. I wanna take her back to the beginning. To that first night we met. The party. Her two left feet.”
“Don’t be comin’ at my friend,” Narri chuckled under her breath. “But Lord knows my girl can’t dance a lick.”
“But she was so fuckin’ beautiful and I saw her. Really saw her. Before the babies. Before all the grief. I want to take her back there.”
“And you’re telling me this because…?”
“Because I need help. You’re the only one who knows how her brain works. You know what she’d wear. What song she’d want. What drink she ordered. Hell, you probably still got the picture from that night.”
“I do,” Narri said. “It’s in my cloud.”
“So will you help me? Please?”
Silence stretched on the line. Adair waited, his chest aching.
Then finally…
“I’ll help you,” Narri said. “But not for you. For her. Because if she says yes, if she gives you one more shot, you better not just show up. You better stay and love her like your life depends on it.”
“It does,” Adair whispered. “It really fucking does.”