I licked my lips and looked at Cassie in a daze. “Everything still feels surreal. I don’t know how to process it all.”
“Tell me about it. But take your time. Everything is still fresh. Y’all story is so fascinating. Having a secret baby with your high school sweetheart, then ending up becoming a surrogate for that same man. That ain’t nothing but God. Look how he had everything come back full circle for you.”
“I know He did,” I muttered. I would be in a state of shock for a while. “I promise I did what I did because I always believed in Reason’s potential. His life could’ve turned out totally different.”
“You’re right, and I’m not judging you. After hearing your story, I admire you more than I ever did, Ember. You have easily become one of the most unselfish people I’ve ever met. And I’m so lucky to call you my friend. Look how this man’s life turned out, all from a decision you decided to make. Like, how were you able to have that mindset at that young age?”
“Cass, it wasn’t easy at all. It was hard, so hard…” I paused for a second. “Although it pained me, it felt like the right thing to do.” All the feelings came rushing back. For years, I buried my emotions when it came to thinking about the day I left him. As a grown woman now, and for the first time, I was allowing myselfto feel every emotion, to face what I once ignored, and what I wouldn’t allow myself to feel back then.
I continued. “Back then, Reason didn’t act like any of the boys our age. He had a fire in him that was lit since we met in our freshman year of high school. He was a leader, a boss, before I even knew the weight of those two words. Reason had potential, something I didn’t quite understand at the time. I just knew he had it. And my feelings were strong enough for me to risk it all for him.”
Cassie was smiling so hard as she picked up a slice of kiwi from the platter of fruit Reason had the chef prepare for us.
“Why you smiling?” I asked instead of guessing.
“Reason St. Pierre must be one special man to have you looking and smiling like this.”
“He is, Cassie. He is.” Flashbacks of him continued living rent-free in my head. “After seeing him again, I realized my feelings for Reason never died.”
“Wow, this story is everything. I thought Albert's and my love was the shit, but baby, you and Reason’s ‘continued love story’ got us beat. And the way I saw him looking at you before he left here, you would think you never missed a day in his life since y’all were kids.”
I smiled, thinking about our days as young lovers with no care in the world. Cassie’s words replayed in my mind as I sipped on my cherry and lime flavored mocktail and took a brief moment of silence to thank God for bringing Reason back at the right time in our lives.
“Aren’t I a lucky girl to have a front-row seat to y’all love story?” She giggled. “I can’t wait to see how this all pans out. A new chapter with the man your heart never truly let go of.”
“Literally.”
I didn’t know where Reason and I would go from here, but I was prepared for the ride and wherever it took us.
CHAPTER 33
NOVAH
Iwent from thinking I was preparing for a proposal to eavesdropping and hearing Basheer and Saje on the phone talking about their daughter and setting up a hotel date. He ended the call and rushed out of his man cave when I accidentally slipped up and gasped, but it was too late. I was already back in his bedroom, acting like I hadn’t heard a word. Saje probably thought she was the best actress there was, but the way I acted during that heartbreak should’ve been studied. That night, Basheer treated me better than he ever had. I wasn’t dumb, though. He was checking my temperature, seeing if I had heard anything. The nigga didn’t know I had heard it all.
In his face, I made him think there wasn’t anything wrong. I continued to drain his balls, show him love, cook for him, and do everything else I had been doing before hearing about him and Saje. But inside, I was conjuring up a plan to ruin his whole fucking life. He played me for a fool, but I would have the last laugh when I was done with his ass.
When I left his house the next morning, I went straight to my cousin Wynn’s house to tell her what I had found out. My cousin and I weren’t the closest growing up, but we got closer when she started working at the studio where Saje worked. And I onlyfound that out at our family reunion when one of our relatives brought it up. Crazy how we connected through our dislike for that bitch Saje.
It wasn’t until before the gender reveal that Wynn told me Saje and Ezekiel were fucking. It tore her up because Ezekiel wasn’t only messing with Saje. He was having sex with my cousin too. Wynn said when she confronted Ezekiel, he brushed her off and told her she better accept it because it was the only way he was going to move up in his career. My cousin was falling for a nigga who blatantly told her he wasn’t going to stop dealing with Saje, so he said she better get with the program or leave him the fuck alone.
So, when I told her I found out Saje was messing with my man, too, we came up with a plan to air their shit out, and my invitation to the gender reveal couldn’t have come at a better time. It took some convincing to get Basheer to let Wynn come with us to the event, but he finally gave in. He had no clue we were coming to fuck some shit up.
Days before the gender reveal, I worked hard to find Basheer and Saje’s daughter. Through tears, I wracked my brain, trying to find a way to get into his phone to get the information I needed. During one of our meetups, Wynn told me she heard about a hidden camera so small it could be placed anywhere without being seen.
Right away, I went online and did my research. I found the perfect one and had it expedited to Wynn’s grandma’s house. That night when I went over to Basheer’s house, we fucked, and while he was in the bathroom washing off his dick, I quickly hid the camera near his side of the bed. Whenever he sat on his bed, he sat in the same position every time, so that’s where the camera pointed, right above the headboard light. I lay next to him and had the biggest smile on my face when he sat in his spotand punched in his password. All I did was hope the quality of the camera was great and had captured everything.
The next morning, on our way out, since he never left me in his home by myself, I snatched the camera off the headboard and slipped it in my purse. I sped to Wynn’s house after I kissed Basheer goodbye. We extracted the footage from the device, and we celebrated when we saw it was clear enough to catch him typing in 8181.
That same night, he invited me back over, and when he went to sleep, I carefully snuck out of his bed, quietly slid his phone off the dresser, and tiptoed to his walk-in closet. I had put the pussy on him so good; I knew he would be in a deep sleep. I went through his messages and found a text thread between him and his daughter, which I found only because next to her name, it saidDaddy’s Girl.
I copied and pasted the address for the gender reveal from the invitation I found in his photo gallery, the one he refused to send to me, and sent it to her. This was the same address he said I wouldn’t need because we were riding together.
I impatiently waited, hoping she was still up. I kept peeking out the door, making sure Basheer hadn’t woken up.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait long for a response. She messaged back fast. I quickly sent a message back like I was her father, saying I wanted her to meet me at that address that weekend. Then I added that I would send her flight information to Miami from another phone number. Baislee Buchanan made it easy because she didn’t ask any questions.Daddy’s Girlwas the key to my plan.
Lucky for me, Basheer had all the information I needed to book her ticket saved in his notes, so I snapped a photo of it using my phone, and my job was done. I told her good night and deleted our messages.
