by Love Belvin
“Daaaaaamn!” Julius’ head reared. “You must gone send the jet to pick me up. That drive could be a monster.”
Unbothered, Sadik rubbed his eyes. He stretched back and yawned, “Life’s evolving.” He blinked several times, as though clearing his sight. “Time for some changes.”
My face folded as I shook my head softly. “That’s far.”
“Far for who?” he countered.
“For you…for me. It’s far away from your family.”
“As it concerns my home, the only family I need to take into consideration is you and my children.”
A chill ran through me at that declaration. Where did this energy come from? I could understand him still being upset about Iban’s suicide attempt, but to the extent of drawing such a distance between us and the whole family? That didn’t seem right.
“Mr. Ellis,” the captain called out from the P.A. system. “We’re about three minutes out from the destination. You can start gearing up.”
Sadik raised his arm for the crew to see above us in the cockpit.
“Let’s go, Richards. Let me show you how to trick on the water.”
Laughing, Julius stood and kissed his wife. Sadik left with a trace of his fingertips down my arm. I shot to my feet to tell him to wait a minute. We needed to talk about this moving thing. He hadn’t shared with me anything about expanding his search for properties to build on. The last we spoke, I was to decide between the three vacant properties he listed as a birthday gift. When did this change?
My anxious eyes burned into the back of his head, but my lips balled shut. I didn’t want to be confrontational in front of his friends. We’d just found out about my pregnancy, something I still hadn’t wrapped my brain around. I didn’t want to sour the day with a fight that was more appropriate to have in private.
“Damn, so this where the tycoon spends his holiday, huhn?” Julius’ regard swept the living room of the villa. It was plush in design. Rolling walls opening the rooms to aquatic nature. Even the floor-to-ceiling window in the master suite had a majestic view of the ocean. “Yo, you can see to the backyard. Your fuckin’ backyard is the goddamn Caribbean Sea!” Sadik shook his head. Julius glanced down to Keisha, who leaned into him. “Our shit was dope as hell, but not this big, and with views like this! Do better, Ellis.”
She laughed harder and I couldn’t help but to do the same.
“Don’t pay him any mind, Sadik.” Keisha reached her arms out for a hug. “This was incredible. I feel like I’ve learned a whole new side of you after less than forty-eight hours out here.” Her eyes closed as she squeezed Sadik at the waist. It was a sweet sight. “Thanks so much for having us.”
“Anytime. Always good times,” Sadik returned. “Thanks for chaperoning this nigga.”
When they broke apart, Keisha graced me with a hug. “These are the rough days in relationships,” she whispered. “Have patience even when he doesn’t deserve it.”
My eyes closed as we held on to each other. Her words were more than a heeding; it was a connection through wisdom.
“Thanks,” I returned.
Julius approached Sadik. “So, we’re good on the terms, bruh? You got my back?” He leaned into Sadik for a half hug.
“Always,” Sadik assured. “Thanks for coming through.”
“Easy.” Julius pounded his chest with his fist as they withdrew. “I’ll see you in two days?”
Sadik nodded. “No doubt.”
Julius hugged me warmly before we walked them to the door. There was a car waiting to take them to the airport. We waved them off and Sadik closed the door behind them.
“What time does their flight leave?”
Sadik peered at his wrist for the time. “Captain Willie said about nine-forty.”
My head jerked back and I blinked hard. “That’s how they’re traveling?” Of course… Sadik flew them out. “And what about the officiant from last night?” My tone turned derisive.
Sadik’s bright eyes met mine and he nodded. “He’s already at the airport. Rory left thirty minutes ago to drop him off.”
“So, you’re not going to deny it. Your family’s priest.”
“I think the more appropriate title in the Baptist facet is pastor.” A sly grin crested his face.
“Whatever his title is, his presence was mighty convenient for a spur of the moment vow exchange—or ceremony, as he called it.”
Sadik’s bushy brows furrowed, his head tilted to the side. “Nalib, what the fuck is buggin’ you? What am I missing here?”
“Missing?” I nodded with poked lips, trying it out for size.
“Yes.”
“I think your question is exactly what these past few days out here have been about. Your friends magically appear only to officially offer you a non-official job. When my drunk ass talks about congratulating you sexually, you counter with a wedding on the beach where, magically, your friends are present, serving as witnesses, and your family’s reverend is front and center to officiate it.”
“So, I was a little strong-willed in getting you to marry me—”
“And then today,” I spoke over him. “during one of your infamous mood swings, you tell your friends you’re considering moving out of state?” My eyes widened in emphasis. Sadik’s brows lifted with cavalier. “What a way to kick off a marriage!”
Sadik took a deep breath, appearing calm and too unmoved. That response amped my anger.
“Sweetheart, I don’t know what’s gotten you—”
“Don’t call me sweetheart!” I yelled, body vibrating with anger.
His palms lifted into the air. “Bilan, I don’t want to see you upset in your condition.”
“Then be considerate, Sadik. Don’t treat me like a second-class party in this union.”
“How are you being treated any less than the woman I adore?”
“By manipulating me into marrying you! I would have done it!”
“When?”
“Soon!”
“How soon?”
My arms shot into the air. “Does it matter now? The opportunity is lost.”
“It always matters.”
“Then acknowledge your wrongdoing!”
“I’ll never apologize for not leaving you on the table. I’m not a passive man, Bilan.” His brows lifted with emphasis. “You know this.”
“And I’m not a helpless woman, Sadik. It ever crossed your mind that I was perfectly content taking my time, figuring out my life as a new mom and acclimating to living with a man?”
“You never said.”
“Because I was too busy acclimating!” I yelled.
“To what?”
“To all of you! To your wealth, your alpha, your…dark side, your tightly-knit family. It’s been a lot, and I thought I was doing a good job.”
His face tautened and voice cracked when he asserted, “Baby, you were. But you don’t have to worry about my family. I’ve never imposed that on you. If I have, I was wrong. They are of no concern to you.”
That hit me like a gut blow. Swaying, I backed away. “No concern?”
With a strong glare, he answered, “No.”
“Sadik,” I cried. “Your parents have been—”
“It’s not my mother who I take issue with.”
“Earl has been hugely supportive of me since learning of my pregnancy with Sadik.”
“He arranged to have you killed.”
And there was that. Sadik learned of that horrid detail the day Iban shot himself in the baby’s nursery. I’d never told him I was shot at in my bedroom at my parents’ last August. He didn’t know Iban walked to the back of the house with the intention of killing me.
“But I wasn’t!”
“Because Iban slipped, and Iban rarely slips.” His hand went into the air as he approached me. “You could have been dead eight months ago. My son would have never been born!” he shouted violently.
I’d never seen his face color in this manner, or his throat lift and cords pro
trude. If I wasn’t so angry, it could have frightened me.
“But I was not. He’s here, Sadik,” I tried to reason with him. “Your father is your father. He’s not changed. Iban has issues of mental health. That isn’t new either. What had changed was you. You fell for me. You took a risk with me they weren’t willing to. It’s called survival, Sadik. I could have run to the police. They didn’t want to risk that!”
“Are you defending them?”
“No.” My eyes closed and rolled behind the lids as I shook my head. “I’m yielding to their narrowed perspectives, something I do in this relationship every day to survive in it.”
Sadik issued another penetrating gaze. The orange bush forming around his mouth was unruly and entirely impossible to battle.
“You think it’s okay for me to accept my family plotted to kill my lady behind my back?”
I scoffed. “I think it’s okay for you to forgive, considering the circumstances. We’re alive. We’re breathing.” I raised my engagement ring to him to symbolize the new commitment to each other we’d just taken on last night. “In the end, you still got what you wanted.”
“You make our wedding seem one-sided.”
“You made it one-sided when you planned it without me!” His face opened wide with betrayal. I dropped my face into my palms. “You don’t get it,” I murmured.
“What you don’t get is I’m not like you.”
My head shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t allow my family to walk over me. I don’t allow my brother to betray me so severely and turn the other cheek.”
“It’s not like Iban tried to kill you, Sadik.”
“Hell, no. Not like Abshir did you when he set you up to die!”
Damien…
That jab winded me.
Tears blurred my vision and my lips trembled. “How could you pay for specialized care for him and have your mother arrange his burial if you had a problem with it?”
“I worked for the good of my best interest. I supported you.”
“And that’s a problem?” I needed to understand him.
“No, Bilan. It’s not a problem. Not interfering in how you dealt with your brother after his betrayal was not wrong; no more than you not judging me for how I deal with mine. It’s my family.”
That stunned me, too.
“You made me feel your family was mine. Did you not? So, now the Ellises—even after our vow exchange last night—is just yours and Sadik’s family, and not mine?”
Sadik’s face balled viciously and he spat, “Of course, that’s not what I’m saying! My mother, sister, sister-in-law, and nieces adore you.”
“And Earl doesn’t?” My question was sincere.
He took a deep breath, nostrils flaring. “Look…” Sadik shook his head then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t even know how we got here.”
“Welcome to my world! Lucky for me, I do know how we arrived here. ‘We’re’ not going to make decisions regarding my life without me moving forward, Sadik. You tasked me with deciding on a home, I will do that. In New Jersey!” I stormed off.
“Bilan,” he called after me to deaf ears.
The next morning, as the baby talked his head off to the small, hanging stuffed animals from his bouncer, I packed our clothes. Camille was doing a final load of laundry for S.Q.E., II. It amazed me the amount of clothes an infant went through in a day. As much as I wanted to feel in control of motherhood, Sadik was right to insist on a nanny. And now with two babies in my near future, I had to prepare to readjust again.
Sadik’s hike in volume snapped me from my thoughts. I peered over my shoulder to find him smiling at the little stuffed elephant. His small arm flapped in the air as he tried reaching for it. My heart expanded.
“Hey, lil’ boy,” I called out to him. “You mind keeping it down and stop growing up so fast?”
Sadik’s smile fell for seconds at the sound of my voice. Then he was distracted by the sight of the toys and his little face opened in wonder again. I turned my shaking head back to the task at hand. I’d just finished packing Sadik’s clothes and needed to start my own next. The baby’s would have to wait until his load was done by Camille.
We were due to return home this evening. Of course, this task of packing for three should have begun last night, but I was so angry with Sadik’s bullheadedness, all I wanted to do was snuggle with my baby to sleep. I didn’t even feel when he came to bed. I rolled over at some point in the night and he was there. Then I felt him get up and head to the shower this morning. He’d been a ghost since.
As I moved to the bathroom to start pulling together my makeup, a strong buzzing sound rang out. It grew louder by the second. Sadik’s babbling stopped abruptly once it sprouted into a vibration in the air. I made my way to the opened floor-to-ceiling window leading to a lounge area and private pool. I arrived just in time to see aircrafts fly over the villa, south, toward a small uninhabited island that could be seen miles away.
There were three of them in formation. They circled in the air, diving then swerving. Two began emitting purple smoke. It took less than a minute to recognize the letters M R, and it appeared the one airliner was working on an S.
Airwriting…
The aircrafts were airwriting. It was clear to me when my first name started to appear. Minutes later, when they were all done, the sky read “Mrs. Bilan Ellis.”
My mouth collapsed.
“What in the…” I mumbled, watching the planes fly away.
My attention returned to my name, spelled out in the air. When was this planned? How long will it stay? It was a sense of proprietorship, having my name over our villa. It felt like an imposition. It felt like—
Clicking sounds to my right grabbed my attention. Rory was off the living room patio, snapping pictures of the sky art. But before her, on the patio off the dining room was the man himself. In navy Bermuda shorts and a hunter green sleeveless knit sweater, Sadik could be an Ase Garb model. His shoulders were globular masses of muscle and his hands rested coolly in his pockets. I watched as his kaleidoscopic hued irises slowly descended from the sky to my frame.
My chest began to heave from unspoken words of gratitude and regret. But Sadik didn’t wait until I was able to formulate them. He backed away before turning into the dining room, leaving my view.
“So the meeting with Miller next Wednesday?” I asked into the phone to my assistant, Tonya, while stepping onto the elevator. Rory was right behind me as I asked her, “You got that on your schedule?”
Rory was in the calendar app on her phone. She nodded. “At one-fifteen. Yup.”
“We’re on one accord with that, Tonya,” I remarked as Rory pressed the button for the respective floor.
“Good. Another item: we’re down a warehouse receiver,” Tonya shared.
“How?”
“Why?” Rory asked, hearing from the speakerphone.
“Isaiah Green,” Tonya explained. “He’s been with us for five years. A few days ago, he was processing an incoming on the Kolwaski account. He said the contents of a couple of containers didn’t feel like liquid. Said he couldn’t allow something so blatant to pass on his watch. When he kept mouthing off, the foreman told him to pack it up. He fired him the next day.”
My eyes met Rory’s big ass ones.
Shit…
I didn’t need this bullshit. While I knew Kolwaski would stuff his packages, I padded his account with the right warehouse people so we wouldn’t feel it.
“I told Rashad to handle that account with gentle hands himself,” I thought out loud.
“He’s the one who appointed Green,” Tonya offered.
“Then he fucked up.” I gestured to Rory I had to handle Green.
I never had my professional world intersect with my dark inclinations, however, I knew this couldn’t go by unchecked. That comment by Green was a red flag. The last thing I needed was the regulatory dogs sniffing around my warehouse. Never had I endeav
ored harming an employee, but this problem could spread like a wildfire. Who knew how many people Green shared this suspicion with.
Rory, understanding the risk, shook her head, motioning she’d take care of it.
“He clearly selected a hothead, and one untrustworthy.” I pinched and rubbed the bridge of my nose, out to my eyes. “I’ll talk to Rashad and the foreman tomorrow. Fit that into my morning, please.”
“It’ll be a tight squeeze, but you got it,” Tonya answered.
It was close to seven at night, and after the longest day of work, I’d just arrived at the hospital to visit my father for the first time since returning from St. Justin. Although I’d been at Ellis International all day, I didn’t have a chance to meet with my executive assistant about my schedule that had just gotten more demanding since I’d been away for over a week.
“Another issue I’m seeing,” Tonya noted.
My empty gaze lifted to the floor number panel above. “Hit me.”
“You asked, months ago, that your schedule begins later in the morning three days a week.”
“Bilan’s workouts,” I thought out loud. “Yes.”
“It’s going to be impossible, especially over the next few weeks with the expansion transition. And especially with your commute from Midtown Manhattan, and your need to leave the office in time to get you home at a decent hour.”
“Make the adjustments needed for me to get home by six,” I replied. “I’ll figure out something for Bilan.” I could feel Rory’s eyes on me but ignored them. Shit hadn’t been right with the Ellises since she became one. It was a topic I didn’t want to deal with now. “In fact, cancel that rooftop dinner for Friday.”
“This Friday?” Tonya asked and Rory’s eyes mirrored the same question.
“Yes.”
The elevator chirped as it stopped.
“But we’ve signed with DiFillippo’s for the food,” Tonya warned. “It’s non-refundable at this point.”
I shrugged…at her comment and at Rory’s annoying ass eye-regulating me. “Pay them.”
