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“Love you,” I muttered and tossed the phone in her direction after disconnecting.
“What’s going on?” my cousin demanded.
I crossed to where Braxton was sitting and snatched his phone from his hand before he could even blink. I didn’t want to look at it, but I didn’t want him trying to call Barrick either. Not until I knew what was going on, damn it.
“Mia,” he started, his entire body tensing. “Just calm down. I don’t know what’s going through your head right now, but—”
“But nothing. Just be quiet for a second.” I started pacing as I hit connect on my phone’s screen.
“Hey, baby girl!” Momma greeted cheerfully.
“Why the fuck is my boyfriend meeting with Daddy and the uncles?” I demanded.
There was a short, surprised pause on her end, followed by, “Okay, excuse you. I don’t appreciate your tone or you cursing at me, young lady. And second, what boyfriend?”
Shit, I’d forgotten I hadn’t told her about Barrick. I’d been keeping quiet about our relationship because I didn’t want her to go diving into his background and trying to break us up if she didn’t like what she found.
“Hey, Momma, um…guess what? I kind of have a boyfriend. His name is Barrick—Charles Barrick, to be specific.”
“What?” she whispered, sounding winded.
“Ugh, that doesn’t even matter right now. I just heard him in the background when Uncle Drake called. He couldn’t come to New York with me this weekend because he supposedly had a meeting. Why is he meeting with Daddy?”
“Mia…calm your ass down and think for a minute here. If I didn’t know about you having a gods damn boyfriend, why would your father?” she snapped, and I knew she was in full-on firedragon mode.
She was right.
“Why would he know…?” I repeated, feeling just as out of breath as she’d been earlier.
“You stay where you are. Don’t move. I mean it. I’m going to do some digging and will call you back. Probably from the plane.”
“Momma, what’s going on?” I asked, my voice sounding weak, and I suddenly felt like a scared, brokenhearted little girl.
“I honestly don’t know, Mia. But trust me, I’m about to find out. Barrick, you said his name is? Why does that sound so familiar?” she muttered to herself before the line went silent, and I realized she’d hung up on me.
“Fuck,” I heard Braxton groan and turned my confused gaze on him. “I told him.”
“Told him what?” Neveah demanded. “What in the actual hell is going on? What did I miss?”
“Barrick was there,” I told her in a choked voice. “I heard his laugh.”
“Where? With my dad?” I nodded, and her eyes widened. “But I thought I was the only one who knew you even have a boyfriend.”
“You are…were. Whatever. They obviously know. Why else would he be having a ‘meeting’ with them?” I clutched my phone to my chest with one hand and clenched the other around Braxton’s phone.
Only for the damn thing to vibrate with an incoming text.
Looking down at it, I felt my knees go weak.
Barrick: Meeting going better than expected. Mission is over. We don’t have to pretend anymore.
“Pretend,” I breathed, my eyes glued to that last sentence.
We don’t have to pretend anymore.
Twin tears fell from my eyes before I could blink them back as I looked at Braxton. “Pretend to what?”
“Mia…” Blowing out a frustrated exhale, he lifted his hands in a pleading gesture. “It’s not what it seems.”
