Rah

Chapter 21 Aaliyah

AALIYAH

Ihad been living with Fabe for a month now.

Things were good. It was awkward learning each other more intimately, but our chemistry won over the awkwardness every time.

He was a good man to me and a great father to Junior.

It had taken me some time to get used to trusting that he loved me, despite everything, but I was working on it.

For weeks, this man showed me what a real man, love, and real chemistry was.

Yet, I still hadn’t gotten used to him waking me up like this in the morning.

“Mmmm!” I moaned with my eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of his concrete stiff erection plunging in and out of my slippery center.

I wanted to do more than moan. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him. I wanted to tell him how good the dick was. But I kept my lips closed tight, in fear that my morning breath would seep out into his nose and make this good dick go soft. “Mmmmuph!”

This dick was so good. He was on top of me with all his weight on me, as he reached under me, spreading my ass open, allowing his dick to slide deeper in my pussy that was leaking from cumming over and over again.

“Shit!” escaped my throat against my will. “Uhh!”

“That’s it. Take this dick, baby,” Fabe groaned into my neck.

“Oh, God,” I whined as tears stung my eyes.

“Yes, baby.”

“Oh my God, it’s so goooood!” I squealed.

“Fuck yeah, it is.”

Suddenly, Fabe sat up on his knees. He grabbed my legs by the knees and nestled them in his arm pits, holding them there with a tight grip. Then he started to pound every inch of him into me over and over again.

“Shiiit!”

“Arrrrgh!” he growled as a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, his nose, and then started to free fall and landed on me. “Fuck! I’m cummin’, baby!”

I grabbed the nearest pillow and held it over my face to keep the baby from hearing me.

Then I allowed myself to moan as loud as I needed to so that I could take every deep, long, hard stroke.

I wanted him to cum so that he could relieve me from this beating that felt so good, but I could barely take.

“Argh! Fuck!” he cursed.

Then I felt a hard tug as he pulled out of me. As I moved the pillow from over my face, I could feel him spilling his cum on my belly.

“Don’t move,” he said through heavy breaths.

I obeyed and watched as he left the bed.

As he walked into the master bathroom, I admired his caramel skin that was dripping with sweat.

Fabe was built like a wide receiver. He was so big and wide, with thighs and an ass that looked good when he was naked.

He made me want to hit the gym so that I could tone up as much as he was.

Now that I was all healed up from labor, he said I could start hitting the gym with him.

Soon, he returned with a hot towel and wiped my stomach clean.

“Have you heard anything else about Solae’s case?”

Since everything that had happened, Fabe had been slowly distancing himself from Rah.

He had continued to visit him in the hospital about once a week, in order not to make himself look suspicious.

But now that Rah had been released a few days ago, Fabe was ready to cut all ties with him.

Rah was still pressuring him to try to find me and my aunt in Texas.

Rah had been such a fraud that he didn’t pay enough attention to me to even know my aunt’s name.

He even started telling Fabe that he wanted his woman and his child back.

But Fabe and I knew better. Rah wanted that money and to punish me for taking it.

“My father said that her attorney tried to get the charges dropped during the preliminary hearings saying that it was all in self-defense, but since Rah’s story was so different and she didn’t have any proof of the abuse, that didn’t work. The charges stuck and her trial should start next month.”

“Damn.” I sighed.

Even after experiencing what Rah could do with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe that Solae had gone so far as to try to kill him, but I envied her courage.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah, babe.” Fabe threw the towel on the nightstand, grabbed the remote, and then got comfortable on the chaise.

He was about to watch some TV before hitting the streets, something he always did in the mornings.

I envied his routine, wishing that I had one.

I had been in the house for weeks; first because of maternity leave and now because I was hiding from Rah.

I wanted to go back to school so bad. I missed doing hair, eyebrows, and nails, but since Rah knew where I went to school, I had to drop out, for now.

“Was Solae and Rah still together?”

I had been so far up in Rah’s ass that I never questioned him again after Solae showed up at my house on Christmas.

But it had always been in the back of my mind after Felicia sent me that picture of him in her bed.

And after Solae tried to kill him, I needed to know everything.

No woman is that mad at a man that isn’t hers.

Fabe looked at me briefly, then put his eyes back on the TV. “You really don’t know?” he asked as if he didn’t believe my ignorance.

“No,” I pressed, feeling slightly offended.

He sighed deeply and put the remote down. Then he looked into my eyes and said, “Yes, they were together. That was his woman.”

My face fell into my hands. I couldn’t believe it. I thought of Solae standing in the cold outside my door on Christmas. No wonder she was so hurt. No wonder she looked to be in so much pain.

How could I have been so stupid? But as I thought about every night Rah spent with me, how he was there with me for every appointment, for the birth of Junior, how I had been around his parents…how could I have known?

“For how long?” I asked. I couldn’t even look at Fabe.

“Years.”

My heart wrenched. Years? I would have felt better if he and Solae had been off and on, if I was the girlfriend while he and Solae were on a break.

“Years? How many years?” I asked, despite being scared of the answer.

“Fourteen.”

My eyes finally darted towards Fabe. “What?!” I snapped. “So, he was with her the whole time that he was with me?”

“Yeah.” The way he answered was so heartless, I could tell then that clearly everyone had been used to Rah juggling both me and Solae. Everyone, except me.

“So, I was the side bitch?”

“Yeah.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me that?!”

Fabe’s eyes bucked at my anger. “I did, in so many words.”

“You should have told me that he was in a whole ‘nother relationship!” I snapped, my arms flailing as I shouted.

“How I look telling my brother’s girl that she is really his side chick?”

“Like the man that claims he loved me the whole time!” I jumped out of bed, grabbed a shirt, and threw it on. I didn’t know where I was going, but I needed to get out of there.

I could feel Fabe’s eyes on me as he asked, “You mad at me for real?!”

“Yes!” I snapped, spinning around to face him. “How could you have had feelings for me and watched me be a fool like that?! You watched me be loyal to a nigga that was playing me! How could you love me? You watched me suffer–”

“You weren’t suffering,” Fabe shot back as he jumped to his feet.

Pointing a strong, angry finger at me, he snapped, “You were happy. He was taking care of you. He was with you damn near every night. You were happy. You weren’t suffering.

Solae, she was suffering. She was getting the short end of the stick. ”

His anger didn’t faze me not one fucking bit. We stood toe-to-toe but barely eye-to-eye. I looked up at him with fiery eyes. “I don’t care about your loyalty to Rah. You cannot tell me that you loved me knowing that he had a whole bitch!”

“I did love you,” he swore as he grabbed me gently by the elbows. “And I did more than I was supposed to. I told you in every way that I could. I couldn’t lay that shit out in black and white, but I told you that he wasn’t shit, Aaliyah.”

I snatched away from him and went to find some pants. “I wanna know everything.”

“Why?”

“Because I do!” I spat. “And if you really love me, you’ll tell me. I understand that you had a loyalty to him, but it’s very clear to you by now that that he doesn’t deserve anybody’s loyalty. I can’t be with you knowing that you have been lying to me–”

“Hold up. I didn’t lie to you!”

“You didn’t tell me either!” Finally, I found a pair of sweatpants in the drawer. As I sat on the bed and put them on, I said, “You’re keeping things from me, even now that I am with you. You know all of my dirt. I am here in rare form, but you’re still keeping secrets from me.”

Hearing him take a deep breath, I looked back at him. I watched as he sighed deeply and sat back on the chaise. He rested his arms on his forehead. It took a few seconds for him to say something, but when he finally did, I wished that I hadn’t pressed him to be so honest.

“I didn’t tell you everything because, despite what you feel, I really did and do love you.

And sometimes you keep the truth from the ones you love if you know it will hurt them.

You chose Rah. You were in love with him.

All you would have done was run to him with the truth I told you, and he would have finessed you out of believing it.

” When I scoffed and rolled my eyes, he touched my thigh to get my attention.

“Yes, Rah was with Solae the whole time. Yes, he was fucking other bitches, in addition to you and Solae, the whole time. Why you think I kept pressing you to fuck with me? Yeah, I felt a loyalty to him because he was my blood, but the more I saw how cold-hearted that nigga was, I saw how he didn’t deserve you or Solae.

That nigga ain’t got no heart, but you don’t have to feel stupid.

You weren’t alone. And if you want to know everything, Rah was never a hustler.

He didn’t sell drugs. He was a fucking thief.

He robbed other men who got it out the mud because he was never smart enough to. ”

Finally, he looked at me, but I couldn’t even look at him now. My face once again fell into my trembling hands. I wasn’t only shaking from the heartache; I was shaking from fear of now knowing how deep Rah’s deception went.

I finally lowered my guard, telling him, “I understand. I’m sorry.”

I no longer faulted Fabe for keeping his brother’s secrets. I hoped that he would be just as loyal to me. Besides, the regret on Fabe’s face told me that he had already been punishing himself enough.

“I got something else to tell you too...”

I watched him, not ready to hear anything else but needing to know, since this was the man that I wanted to be with.

And despite knowing that he had kept secrets from me, I still wanted to be with this man.

Fabe keeping these kinds of secrets was no comparison to what some of these heartless niggas were capable of.

“I was already in a relationship when you moved in–”

Instantly, I started to cry. “Fabe…”

He quickly stood and raced towards me. I tried to push his embrace away as he came towards me with open arms, but he was able to grab me and hold me anyway.

As I started to cry, he swore, “But it’s over.

It’s been over. As soon as you gave me you again, I was done with that girl.

I never wanted her. I got with her to get over you.

And as soon as I saw her again, I ended it, baby.

I swear. I saw what Rah did to you, and I would never put you through the same thing.

Me and him may have the same blood, but I’m nothing like him.

I love you. I swear to God, I do, and I will never hurt you.

I will protect you from hurt and pain. That’s my job.

Which means I won’t inflict any on you. I swear, baby. I swear.”