by Love Belvin
“Why are you here?” I asked before that conversation could continue.
Why did she need Trent? Hearing how long it had been boosted my confidence. I guessed she wasn’t counting that emotional performance at her concert. The doorway was cooling fast with a winter blast shooting through. They were in furs, I was in thin cotton.
“Oooh,” Terrell commented with his regard to me, amusement lining it.
Brielle cocked her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. “I need to talk to him about something personal between the two of us.
I adjusted my stance. “I’m his fiancée. I don’t think there’s anything I can’t hear.”
Before I was done speaking, Terrell sputtered a hard laugh at that.
“Terrell!” Brielle shouted.
“I’m sorry, B! I’m sorry. It’s just that…”
I would’ve believed this was an April Fool’s joke, only April wasn’t until tomorrow. How could she not have anything better to do on her birthday?
She shook her head, her butterscotch face turning red. This was a far cry from the Brielle the world knew—I once knew.
“Look. I don’t know what you two got going on, but I can assure you, if you tell him I stopped by, he’ll tell you I’m not the one for you to be territorial with.” Her eyes rolled gesturing inside the house. “I decorated this place.”
“False. The old design was yours. He’s upgraded since.”
Without failure, Terrell barreled over to his knees and laughed harder than was appropriate. I now didn’t know if it was at me or Brielle.
“This bitch, done moved…yo shit out and hers in!” he tried over hoots.
I was over it. “Again, you can tell me anything you want conveyed.”
Brielle’s eyes rolled from Terrell back over to me, brows furrowing again.
“You can tell him some stupid employee at my doctor’s office leaked my old pregnancy test and abortion records to the press. They’re running with the story any day now,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
That jarred me. It was the last thing I was expecting. How much of a past did these two have? Brielle, on camera, was sexy, sultry, seductive and mesmerizing. The Brielle off stage was America’s sweetheart: demure, reserved, and warm to everyone she encountered. A reigning musical princess, earning her crown as queen. She had a spotless record from drugs, alcohol, partying, and scandalous affairs. Her entourage kept her sheltered and protected. The quick buzz of if she and Trent were lovers that spawned from her show last fall had quelled. Now this.
“What is it with you and drama?” I asked. “Y’all cousins or something? In December, it was a threat of a threesome, now it’s your abortion. What does that have to do with Trent?”
Her pretty face formed an expression of disdain.
“What do you think?”
Oh… Realization hit me.
That was a gut blow. But again, I couldn’t let her see me swaying from it.
“Again. What does that have to do with Trent? The public doesn’t even know you two were once lovers. That’s a load you can carry yourself, sweetheart!” I backed to show I was prepared to close the door.
“Oooooh!” Terrell sang. “You done made her big mad, B.” His eyes were on me while he addressed her.
“I don’t care!” She spat, face contorting. Oh, my god! Brielle was losing her cool. She wasn’t the super power everyone perceived her to be. She was…no different than the girls Ryshon pitted me against. Holy shit! My husband was fucking Brielle! It may have been long ago, but I was familiar with a woman burning with jealousy over a man who supposedly belonged to you. This was surreal. “Who are you anyway? A stripper he caught feelings for? A dancer—”
“We know that ain’t entirely true, B,” Terrell interrupted. “TB is like titanium with them emotions. He ain’t falling for bullshit.” He chuckled.
My palm flew to the center of my chest and eyes brightened. “So, I’m bullshit?”
“I don’t know what the hell you are! That’s why I’m so confused!” Brielle shouted so loud, her heeled feet leaped from the cement each sentence.
“Don’t be,” I offered with a deceptively calm tone, extending my left hand as a reminder. “I’m his fiancée, remember? What we’ve not established is your reason for being here.”
“My entire reason is none of your business. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re nobody. What do you even know about him other than what’s in the media?”
“Welp. She knows that schlong,” Terrell answered, tossing his chin to my exposed belly.
Brielle was pissed as she kept shifting in her high heels on the platform of the steps. “Knowing that doesn’t make her special.” She looked about to explode. “Doesn’t make her suitable.”
My chin dropped. “And you think you’re the one for him?”
“For some insane reason you do. I wonder why.”
“Girl!” Terrell perked up, stepping toward Brielle and taking her at the arm to pull her away from the door. “I’m over this. Too damn old for this ‘he fucked me harder’ shit. Let’s go catch this flight, B.” His tone was warning. Terrell wasn’t in joke mode anymore.
“Wait!” she yelled, tripping backwards over her feet, Terrell’s tug was unrelenting. Everything seemed to happen fast. “I want to see him!” Brielle stopped. “Who is this bitch? What makes her think she has anything remotely real with a man like him?” She then shot bullets into me through those brown orbs.
Bitch?
The word didn’t sound right rolling from her tongue. This was Brielle. The Brielle, who sang at Michael Jackson’s tribute before he passed. The one performing alongside Tina Turner at Oprah’s birthday party at the age of eighteen. The one who won the Golden Globe, starring next to Will Smith.
“It’s in the way he looks at me after the world has taxed him for fumbling the ball. The way he holds me when soaked in my sweat. How he wears the confidence I saturate him in and tells me so. You can’t have what’s been ordained for me.”
“Fuck you!” Brielle shouted from just at the limo’s door. Her index finger swung my way.
“Bitch, you sounding stupid, now!” Terrell attempted while trying to push her inside. The driver stepped out, but didn’t intrude. He just held the door. “Did you really bring me out here to catch a Bergen County case? Girl, I’m too femme for anybody’s county!”
He managed his friend inside the limo, but not before I could catch the string of tears falling down her beautiful face. Brielle was hurt. That thought angered me.
I slammed the door and threw my back against it, sliding to the floor. My head rolled back and rested on it. My limbs were shaking, mouth turned dry and sour the moment I recognized her at the door.
God, what in the world just happened?
Brielle?
I couldn’t even think who would believe me.
The tip of the ball spun, landing in my hands. I tossed it up again, twisting it on the way up. It went even higher, taking longer to reach me this time.
She walked into the room, reaching behind her back, unclipping her bra. Jade went to the walk in and from the mirror on the inside of the door, I could see her pull the long baggy dress she’d been wearing lately around the house over her head. My dick got hard at the sight of her panties wedged between her ass cheeks and her bra hanging from shoulders. She took another dress from a drawer in there and pulled it over her head, pushing her arms through, and tugged it down until the elastic stopped just above her tits.
When I saw she turned, I tossed the football in the air again. She came out of the closet and headed to the bathroom. She’d just put Ky down for the night and I wanted to talk to her before she got started on her school work.
“You doing homework tonight?”
She stopped. “I knocked it out this morning. How’re your classes coming?”
“I’m maintaining.” She nodded, looking awkward standing in front of the bed. I shot the ball in the air again. “Need to talk to you.”
“Oka
y,” she agreed softly and walked closer to the bed.
“My pops been tryna contact me.” I tossed the ball again.
“Really?” I heard the desperation in her tone, and she moved closer. “Since when?”
“A few months now.” Before throwing the ball in the air again, I caught Jade biting her lip.
“That’s been a while.” Her voice was a different low now. A thinking low. “You respond?”
I shook my head. “Nah. Wasn’t going to.” I went back to the ball.
“You are now?”
I didn’t speak. Honestly, my heart wasn’t settled either way. Ezra hit me up the other day, and it somehow came up in the conversation. He told me to stop ducking him, and at least hear him out.
“You don’t have to feel obligated.” She switched weight on her hips. “It doesn’t appear that Mr. Jackson has felt one to you.”
I tossed the ball again, knowing I had to find the words to say. It was hard with all of Jade’s aggression. Things had been off with us since finding out about the baby three weeks ago. She had been in her own zone, adjusting. I’d been trying to give her the time she needed while on the road working. This was the first sign of the feisty Jade I’d seen in weeks.
“Trent!” she called my name, impatient with my delay.
The ball dropped into my palms. “We can meet with him. Okay?”
I heard her whisper “we,” trying to process it.
“Do you want me to set it up?”
I tossed the ball again. In my peripheral, I could see Jade move. She lay out on the foot of the bed on her side. She used her palm to hold her head as she faced me. I tossed the ball higher in the air, doing it over and over again, trying to think. Until Jade yanked the top of her tube dress down and tits fell out.
The ball dropped into my hands and luckily not in my face, because my eyes were on those hard chocolate nipples that I hadn’t tasted in…weeks. I put the ball down on the bed and slowly sat back against the headboard. My eyes couldn’t go anywhere else.
“So, this is what I have to do to get you to drop the ball and give me your undivided attention?”
“To drop the ball, yeah. You always got my undivided attention.”
“Good—”
“But I don’t wanna talk, Jade.”
Her eyes rolled then closed before she let out a long breath. “We have to talk, Trent. You’ve been in and out, and we have a lot going on. It feels like we were just celebrating Ky’s birthday and already, yours will be here next!” She paused for my reaction. I didn’t have one in my face. My dick maybe, but all my face wanted was to be all in her mouth, tits, and valley below. “Okay. You need to focus this semester in school. You’re almost done. If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know. The next is your father.”
That broke my eye game. I looked over to the wall. This topic made me uneasy.
“Okay. I can tell you know you have to deal with it. Otherwise, you would’ve never brought it to my attention. I can set up a meeting with him—if you want me to.” Her eyes were wide with that one. She didn’t want to overstep. My eyes dropped from hers and I nodded. I knew she’d take care of it. Jade always did. “Okay.” I could hear the relief in her voice.
Jade sat up on the bed, pulling her top over her breasts. That made me feel some kind of way.
“The next thing we need to discuss is Ky.”
I felt my face tighten. “What’s wrong with Ky?”
If that cocksucker, Ryder, did something stupid…
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “He’s fine. But we have to tell him about the baby. My stomach is spreading. There’s really no time left.”
“You want me to do that?” Panic hit my chest.
“No. I think we should do it together. It may be better since it happened before the wedding. You know?”
Dag…
I nodded, my eyes going to the wall again. This thing was complicated each way.
“Cool…” she whispered, catching my attention.
Jade bit her lip, her eyes running across the comforter below.
“What’s that all about? What you gotta say, J?”
Her eyes closed again. “Brielle came by.” Her words were rushed.
It was obvious she didn’t want to tell me.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Yesterday? Why you ain’t tell me?”
“You just got in this afternoon. I was waiting until we had time alone tonight.”
“You could’ve hit me up.”
“It wasn’t an emergency,” she whispered, eyes squinting at the comforter.
That’s when anger turned into anxiety.
I sat up from the bed. “What she say?”
“She said she’s been trying to contact you to no avail.” That’s when her eyes met mine. “How did she get your new number?”
Oh, no! Not this!
I felt agitated all over, almost to the point of violence. I couldn’t look at her when I answered, “Alton.”
My jaw tightened. I hadn’t had the time to confront him about it.
“He gave her your number knowing I live here. My son and I live here. I’m no fling!”
“I know!” My hands shot in the air defensively. “I’ll handle him. I’ve been busy, but I’ll handle him. He knows I’m on his ass.”
“He’s insane!” she spat out.
“Nah. Not totally.”
“And what makes you think that?” Jade was ready for war.
“Because I had to tell his dumb ass she couldn’t perform at his party with Lord if he wanted me to come.”
“She was supposed to be there?”
Shit!
The thing with trying to be open with your lady is when you start, you open up other doors that ain’t necessary.
“She was there—”
“What?” Jade flew to her feet. “So she was there? I didn’t know if I could take him seriously when he mentioned it that night.”
“Chill,” my voice was purposely calm as I reached for her arms to get her to sit back down. “She left before we got there.”
“This is just too much, Trent!” Her angry eyes turned against me. “First that concert in December when I learned my husband had a damn affair with Brielle, of all people! Then she shows up on my doorstep when I’m indecent: hair standing on top of my head, no makeup on, and looking barefoot and knocked up. And now you’re telling me you had her leave an event so I wouldn’t see her? You have that kind of power? This is Brielle, Trent!”
“And?” My face screwed.
“She’s considered the eighth wonder of the world!”
“She’s a person like you and me. Let’s not do this, Jade!”
“You know what I mean, Trent! I’ve been in rivalries with women over a guy. It’s hard to think my current one is with Brielle. I gots no wins!”
“What did she say to make you think that?”
“Everything and nothing.”
“Speak English! Please!”
Jade cupped her face with her hands. “She said lots. But I gather her reason is that you’ve been ignoring her. She mentioned the press getting a hold of her doctor’s records that included her abortion.”
What abort—
Then it hit me.
“That was mad years ago.” I tossed my hand at that old bullshit. “That was before I did my bid, and all.”
“I asked her why she thought you needed to know.” Jade’s tone was soft again.
She was scared.
I swallowed hard, my eyes rolling back to the wall.
“You said I was the only woman you had sex with without a condom since you’ve been an adult.”
“You were!” I never lied.
“Then why does she feel you should know?”
I took a deep breath. “Because the condom broke.” My dumb ass kept going. It was too late. I was already there. “That one time—the only time.”
“So, it was your baby?”
&nbs
p; “We didn’t know.” My laugh was dry. “B was with Shiraz around that time.”
“She cheated?”
“Nah.” My eyes went wild. “We were never together like that. I told you.”
“Right.” She nodded with tight lips. “You only had an arrangement.”
“I never lied to you, J.”
“No. You just dole out your secrets slowly.”
My neck jerked back. “And what the hell that supposed to mean?”
Jade jumped to her feet and started to the bathroom, speaking with her back to me. “Nothing. Just be ready to tell your stepson he’s expecting a baby sister soon. Don’t wanna keep him in the dark longer than necessary. I’ll set up something with your father after your birthday.”
That was a jab if I’d ever had one thrown my way.
~Fourteen
“Dave Kincaid?”
“That or David Kincaid, is all I got,” I answered.
Things got quiet. I figured he was taking down the information. My eyes swept the inside of the garage where I waited for my ride. Jade had the Range and my pickup looked lonely in the second parking spot. I hadn’t had time to take her out and crank her up on the road.
Maybe I’ll take Jade down for a long ride to Cowtown this spring in her…
“And what town did you say?”
“Bernardsville,” I answered scratching between my brows. “Here in Jersey. That’s all I know. They supposed to have some long paper, too.”
“Well, let’s see how long. Real long will make him easier to find.”
“Yo, Divine, you sure I can’t offer something for this?” I asked, listening out and watching for StentRo. “I know he’s your employee and all…”
“Nah. You’re good. I’m texting him as we speak. This is lightweight for Washington. He’s been the head of my intel team for years. Top of his game.”
I had no doubts. D was a powerful man. A strong movement.
“A’ight. I appreciate this solid.”
“Indeed.” I saw headlights coming up the driveway path as he responded. It was late at night and chilly out. I looked crazy hanging out in my garage, but was waiting to go out with my guy, who was scooping me. “I gotta go, TB. The wife’s calling me.”
“Got you.” I remembered something. “You got the invitation?”
