It was Zay calling. After all this time since their last argument, he now called.
Her heart stopped, then kicked back in like it was trying to escape.
She hesitated, and in those few seconds, she debated on answering. She knew she could get on with life without him. She didn’t need him.Theydidn’t need him. But she remembered her father’s voice.
“He has a right to know,” her father had told her. “It’s your life. You’re grown, and it’s your family now. You have control. I won’t make you do anything. But he has a right to know, Princess.” With that thought, she quickly answered.
“Hello?”
There was a pause on the other end before she heard his voice.
“Damn, . . . you actually answered.”
His tone was lighter than she expected. Nervous, but playful, like he was trying to test the water before wading in.
Princess leaned back on the college’s study hall couch, shifting slightly. “I did.”
Another moment passed.
“I thought you’d cuss me out,” Zay admitted. “Or just hang up on me. Or both.”
“I thought about it,” she said quietly. “But no.”
There was another moment of silence.
“We left Amsterdam a little over a month ago,” he said, finally. “Been to Luxembourg. Now we in Camden. You’d love itout here. Got that real underground vibe you like, posters on the walls, cyphers on the corners.”
Her lips twitched, but she didn’t smile.
“I’m glad the tour’s going good,” she said, voice soft but distant. “I mean it.”
Zay sighed on the other end, and something in that breath felt heavy.
“I need to tell you something,” she started gently.
“Wait—” He cut her off, voice tighter now. “Let me go first. It’s major. Like, for real.”
Princess sat up straighter, throat suddenly tight.
“Okay.”
He exhaled again. “I want to tell you the truth about that night. After the show in Germany. I was drunk, hyped . . . It was wild. Deuce invited some people back to the hotel. I barely remember the end of the night, but I woke up, and there was this girl. I didn’t know her name, barely remembered how she got there . . .”
Her chest clenched.
Zay’s voice dropped. “She hit me up a few days ago. Said she pregnant.”
Everything in Love’s surroundings stopped.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. I wasn’t thinkin’. I was outta my head. I thought—hell, I don’t know what I thought. I just . . . I wanted to tell you before you heard it from anybody else.”
The blood drained from her face.
“I loved you,” she whispered. “I waited for you. I believed in you when nobody else did. I gave you everything. Everything, Zay.”
“I know, I know?—”
“No, you don’t!” she yelled, finally unraveling. “You don’t know what it’s like to stay up all night praying somebody youlove is safe, only for them to treat you like a damn placeholder! I stayed loyal to you when you were nobody! When nobody clapped at your shows but me!”
