Chapter 5 Jamaica
As soon as I peeled out of the parking lot, I tossed Freedom’s cowboy hat, which I had forgotten I was wearing, on the passenger seat and called Kody.
“Why in the fuck were you dancing with Freedom in front of our classmates and friends? People remember how everything went down back then, and that you were his girlfriend first. Are you trying to get back at me for what I did last summer?” He shouted as soon as he picked up.
“How dare you?” I yelled. “How dare you agree to work with him without telling me? We’re supposed to be partners in life and in business, and this is how you treat me?”
“I didn’t know he planned to be at the reunion. I thought I had time to tell you. He just signed last week.” He instantly became contrite.
“Why would you agree to work for him?”
“With him,” Kody corrected. “Never for him. I don’t work for Freedom Cade.”
“He’s paying you for a service, Kody. Don’t play with me when I’m this angry. Do you not care that he could take my baby from me? He told me he wants to meet Jamie. How does he even know about him? Neither of us has a personal social media account. Did you tell him?”
“He’s a celebrity. Maybe he did his research. Besides, Freedom is too doped up on alcohol and pills to really want to be a father. He was supposed to go to rehab a few months back after a fight at this club. I doubt he went.”
Ignoring the dig that may be true about Freedom, I reminded him, “He has the money and the power to take Jamie away if he wanted to.
“I guarantee that man didn’t want a baby then and doesn’t want one now.”
“What if he does? He could have a change of heart. What if he’s doing all of this for revenge because we weren’t honest with him?
I should’ve told him about Jamie and not listened to you.
” Kody had asked to be Jamie’s father when we started dating, and convinced me not to ever tell Freedom.
Now, he was back. My breath couldn’t seem to push through my lungs, and I gripped the steering wheel. “I can’t lose my baby.”
“Calm down, Jamaica.” He sighed. “I never thought I would have to tell you. He knew you were pregnant and never looked back, okay?”
I almost pressed the brake in the middle of the highway. “You told him?”
“No, your father did. He asked me not to say anything to you. Too worried knowing Freedom didn’t want Jamie would hurt you.”
Breathing became even more of a challenge, and my eyes darted around the highway, trying to remain focused while I drove. If I couldn’t get it together, I would need to pull off the highway soon. “When did my father even talk to him?”
“Apparently, Freedom showed up at your parents’ door when Jamie was a baby, and your father shut him down.
Told him about Jamie and that if he wasn’t ready to be a father, to stay gone.
He rightfully believed that if Freedom knew you had his baby, Freedom wouldn’t want to be tied down.
Or even if he did, he would’ve been a fuck up.
Your father did him and us a favor. He wouldn’t have been this star if he had stuck around.
He should be thanking me for taking care of the girl he left behind. ” He argued.
“Why am I just hearing this? I didn’t know he came back for me.
You told me he didn’t want to see me anymore after the court date.
” The acid in my stomach burned because the boy I once thought I knew walked away from me and his baby.
I’d always believed that he would’ve stayed and eventually resented me for not being able to live out his dreams. Somehow, I preferred believing that he would’ve stuck it out with me even if, in the end, he resented me.
“Your father worried that you would do whatever it took to get Freedom to be with you if you knew he came back.”
“I would’ve never forced or believed I could make a man do something he doesn’t want to do.
All these years, I felt guilty because he deserved to know about his baby.
Maybe if I knew he abandoned me even after knowing I was pregnant for him, it would’ve stopped me from…
” I cut off my words before I admitted my heart.
“From loving him,” Kody snarled.
I grew silent, willing my fast-beating heart to calm down.
I loved Kody. I wouldn’t have married him if I didn’t.
How could I explain that Freedom owned my soul in ways that I still couldn’t comprehend?
I also believed I would never see him again.
His dreams were far too big for the ones I had.
Like me, Kody was born and raised in Dallas and planned to take his last breath in Dallas.
Freedom and I were a fantasy love story.
Kody and I were real. Working on our relationship and building a life every day.
“Now, you’re all quiet. What did he say to you?” Kody asked.
Complete honesty and truth were the hallmarks of my life and marriage.
Until tonight.
“He said that he wants to meet Jamie.”
My husband snickered, “He’s trying to fuck you. He doesn’t care about meeting Jamie. Probably figures that his way in to get back at me by convincing you to cheat on me.”
“You just told me it’s not about revenge?” I shuddered, grateful that my husband couldn’t see my reaction at saying that Freedom wanted to “fuck” me. As a teenager, Freedom had me wide open and hot for him. I couldn’t imagine what sex would be like with him as a grown, virile man.
“It’s not revenge. Freedom likes to play these games with me. One up me on every damn thing.”
“And yet he’s building a home using our company.
What if this is his way to get back at us?
” I hit the console. “Funny how it never occurred to you that he might investigate a little deeper into his old friend and discover that not only has his best friend married his girlfriend, but that same best friend is raising his son. He had to be pissed and feel betrayed. How can we be sure he’s not trying to get back at us? ”
Kody sighed with annoyance, “Even if it’s about revenge, our lawyers looked over the contract too, and we still will make money if he pulls out at the last moment.
Maybe it’s as simple as he’s moving back home, and this is his way of giving his old friends money.
He might be making amends. Maybe he does want to meet his son, and it’s not about trying to get at you, okay? ”
“I’m not ready to fight him about Jamie.”
He softly admitted, “I’m not ready for Jamie to know I’m not his father.”
I closed my eyes briefly at the regret in his voice. “I’m sorry. We should’ve told Jamie a long time ago who his real father is. Now, we might have to tell him before either of us is ready to tell him. He’s so sensitive.”
“That’s the only bright spot of this conversation. He needs to be able to handle life,” Kody wryly admitted.
I reminded him, “Handling life is one thing. Knowing the very people you trust have been lying to you for years is another story.” The passing headlights of cars cast shadows on my windshield, reminding me that I was driving.
“And sometimes we don’t have choices in how we live. That boy is blessed. He doesn’t even remember the shabby one-bathroom, two-bedroom apartment we had. All he knows is his Beats, Jordans, and the latest game system. He needs to struggle and figure it out on his own.”
“Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter to you how Jamie will handle knowing the truth since he’s not your ‘real’ son anyway.” I flipped my signal to exit the highway.
“Stop. That boy has been my son since he was two. Have you let Freedom fuck with your head, already? I’m the one who’s been here with him all this time.
Even if he meets Jamie, which is a big ‘if’, I guarantee sooner or later he’ll return to his celebrity life, and Jamie won’t matter to him anymore.
I’ll still be here for Jamie if and when it happens. ”
“Then why would you open the door for Freedom to come back into our lives and sign a contract to work with him without telling me?” Only a husband who took a wife for granted would agree to work with her ex and the father of her child without making sure that the wife was okay with that decision. Had he learned nothing from therapy?
“You would’ve said ‘no,’ and if I listened to you, we wouldn’t be about to make five million in profit.”
I jerked the steering wheel so hard when I turned at the light that my wheel skidded, and I bumped the curb of the median. “Shit.”
“What happened? Are you driving?” His voice rose in alarm.
“Yes. And I ran into the damn sidewalk.” I nervously checked the empty street for cars and the lit console. So far, no red light signaling tire damage has appeared. Thankfully, the hit sounded worse than the reality.
“Which car did you drive?” Kody anxiously asked.
I stared at the console in angry disbelief before hanging up the phone and ignoring all the calls that followed. “Asshole. I legit married a selfish asshole.”
When I turned on my street, the idea of going to an empty home didn’t appeal.
The boys were with my parents for a weekend in San Antonio.
I’d thought this could have been a weekend of fun with classmates and to reconnect with my husband.
Instead, he decided to finalize deals in Atlanta, and now he was stuck there until tomorrow.
I probably should’ve stayed at the reunion.
There was no need for me to run, now that Freedom knew about his son.
Correction. He now wants to meet his son.
Or was it a ploy to get me to lower my guard through Jamie as Kody suggested?
I tapped the back of my head against the leather seat.
Freedom wasn’t a manipulator. If he didn’t get what he wanted, he accepted it.
But then again, Kody had been his best friend longer than I’d known him. Maybe Kody knew another side.
Or perhaps I didn’t know Freedom at all because I was too lost in love with him.
SENIOR YEAR