“I won’t,” I said.
“Good,” he replied. “I’ll see you soon.”
The line clicked dead.
I stared at the phone for a second before hanging it up slowly.
The room felt quieter than before.
“He knows,” Marlon declared.
I turned toward him immediately. “What? Are you sure?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I ain’t asking, Bunny. I’m telling you.”
The certainty in his tone made my stomach drop.
“But… how?”
“I don’t know,” he said, watching me closely. “But by the sound of it, he’s playing it cool until he can confirm.”
I shook my head immediately. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No, he doesn’t know.”
But even as I said it, the conviction wasn’t there.
You alone?
We’ll talk when I get there.
Don’t make me regret trusting you out there.
What the fuck was all that about?
“He can’t know,” I said again, quieter this time. “Nobody knows.”
Marlon didn’t respond immediately so I turned in his lap to face him.
“And if he did know,” I continued, trying to reason through it, “he would have said something.”
“Not if he wants you to say it first.”
“So you think he’s testing me?”
“I know he is.”
I dragged a hand through my hair, exhaling sharply as the realization settled deeper.
“Okay… okay,” I muttered, trying to steady myself. “So what do we do?”
Marlon leaned back slightly in the chair, his eyes never leaving me.
“We don’t panic. We go and enjoy ourselves at this launch party you worked so hard for. And when your dad comes, you politely let him know that your event is not the place for this conversation.”
“I don’t know, Marley. I’m scared.”
