Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Yale
“Morning,” Mama Diamond greeted me when I walked into the kitchen.
The smell of eggs, bacon, and biscuits hit my nose as soon as I walked down the stairs, so I knew she was in here getting down.
Pops was nowhere in sight, which meant he was already gone for the day, and she and I were alone. “Why do you look so sad?”
“Amethyst never came back,” I answered as I sat at the island and scrolled through my phone. I didn’t have any missed calls or texts from him, which was abnormal for him. “Have you heard from him?”
“He called his daddy a few hours ago.” She nodded as she continued to cook. “They should be here shortly.”
“Is everything okay?” I asked, and she looked over her shoulder at me. “What?”
“I’m waiting for you to admit you’re in love with my son, Yale,” she said, then turned back to the eggs and started plating them. “Y’all have been dancing around each other for too many damn years.”
“I-”
“If you’re going to say you’re married, I’m going to pop you in the head.” She set the plate of eggs in front of me, then went back to the stove to make her own plate. “I know it, but there is this magical thing called divorce that would make that problem go away.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” I laughed. Mama Diamond turned around and leaned against the counter with her plate in her hand.
“What were you going to say?”
“That I’m in love with your son,” I answered, and she smiled. “And before you start, because I’ve seen that look a million times in all the years I’ve known you. Yes, I am going to file for divorce.”
I’d decided last night, after Amethyst left, that I was done living in fear because of my decisions. I was going to tell him the entire truth about my deal with Quincy and let him handle it. Nothing was holding me to my marriage to Grant, and he deserved to be with someone who loved him.
“Thank goodness,” she said, then started eating her food. “I was getting tired of seeing y’all dance around each other, and the way that boy had you moaning yesterday should be studied.”
“You heard us?” I asked, embarrassed as hell. Amethyst swore that their rooms were soundproof. I dropped my face into my hands and shook my head. “He said you wouldn’t be able to.” I lifted my head. “Mama Diamond, I am so sorry. We won’t do it again. I swear.”
“Girl, I didn’t hear shit. I was guessing,” she laughed and waved me off. “Amethyst came back downstairs in different clothes, so I just assumed y’all either fucked or dry humped the shit out of each other.” She shrugged, then took another bite of her food. “I’m glad to see I was right.”
“Do you live to torture us?” I questioned her with a laugh. “You really gotta stop.”
“Nah,” she denied, shaking her head. “I’m just getting started. I have years of torture to make up for since it took you and my son so long to get it together.”
“Shit was complicated,” I said as I sat back and playfully pouted.
“Girl, talk to someone who never saw y’all together,” Mama Diamond replied. “From the first time he brought you home, I knew he was in love with you. My boys don’t bring women home, ever. And Amethyst brought you home. I remember how he doted on you and barely let you out of his sight.”
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t complicated,” I replied.
“There is nothing about love that isn’t complicated,” she said. “Hell, life is complicated, but that doesn’t take away from the love you two share.”
“You’re okay with us being together?” Even though I didn’t need her approval, I wanted it because I knew how Amethyst felt about his mother.
“You’re the only person I could ever see with my son.” She smiled. “Amethyst is a better man because of how you love him, and I would even dare to say you are a better woman because of it.”
“I am,” I agreed.
The side door leading to the garage opened, and in walked Pop and Amethyst. Pop greeted me, then went right to his wife, took her plate from her hand, and pulled her out of the kitchen. Amethyst approached me, pulled me to him, and kissed me.
“Hi,” I said as I wiped my lip gloss from his lips. “You handle whatever you need to handle?”
“Yeah,” he answered with a nod. “Sorry it took me so long.”
“It’s okay,” I said, then picked up my plate and started feeding him. “What’s on your agenda for today?”
“I gotta get ready to go into the hospital,” he answered, and I nodded.
“We need to talk about something when you get off,” I replied, and he took the plate from my hands and set it on the counter.
“Nah, talk to me now,” he said, shaking his head. “You already know I hate that ‘we gotta talk later’ shit. It’s going to be heavy on my mind until later. Just spit it out.”
“I want to talk about my deal with Quincy,” I said, nodding. Amethyst’s face twisted, and his body stiffened. “I didn’t tell you everything.”
“What else is there?”
“The other reason I agreed to marry Grant. The main reason, really,” I said, then took a deep breath.
“For him to cover up the fact that there was a body in the car,” he said, nodding. “ I know.”
“And the fact that Grant lied about the race.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was a pot,” I said, looking at him.
Amethyst’s expression was blank, which worried me.
Whenever he got like this, it was hard as hell to reach him.
I licked my lips and rubbed my hands down my thigh.
“Five million each. Quincy agreed to pay off the debt if I agreed to marry Grant, and I did.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me so I could take care of it?” He stepped back and shook his head.
“Because I knew you were struggling too,” I answered, and his face twisted in anger. “It was a reason you were working for Grant. You’d told me plenty of times that you didn’t want to go to your brothers or daddy for anything, and five million dollars is a lot to ask for.”
“Ten,” he said, and my brow damn near connected. “It would’ve been ten that I asked them for—five each. I would’ve gone to my people or paid that shit off myself. That wasn’t for you to decide to handle.”
“I know, but I did what I thought was right.”
“You did what you thought was right?” he laughed and stepped back. “You can’t be serious right now. How?”
“I did what I needed to do to save your life. The deal was with the Franklins.”
“I didn’t ask you to save my fucking life, Yale!” he yelled. “I’m a grown ass man. Shit, I was a grown ass man even then, and you decided to just enter a fucking deal on my behalf without telling me?”
“Am, let me explain.” I got up from my chair and tried to approach him, but he stepped back. He threw his hands up in surrender and shook his head. “Really, Am?”
“Explain what?” he questioned with a laugh.
“The fact that you decided shit on my behalf? Nah, man, ain’t shit to discuss.
You made the decision, lived your life, and then what?
Decided you were done playing house with that nigga and confessed?
” he laughed humorlessly. “What did you say to me the other day?” he snapped, then nodded.
“Oh yeah, you chose me? Nah, you chose yourself.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard what the fuck I said,” he replied.
“Amethyst, I’m going to walk away right now because obviously you are trippin’,” I said, standing. “Go to work, get your mind right, and we will talk later. I have a doctor’s appointment I need to get to anyway.”