Love filled her eyes. Nobody had ever looked at me like that, and that’s how I knew that I couldn’t keep this from her. She deserved the truth, the option to do whatever she needed to do for her. I was confused. A nigga was blindsided by Ivana’s presence to the point where it was leaving me unsettled with my own woman.
Studying every inch of her face, it was crazy that the first time I saw her, something had imprinted on me. I wasn’t sure what it was at the time. It was one of those things that marked me, something internal that the rest of the world couldn’t see.Once I was in her presence, she was like a forbidden toxin that I enjoyed inhaling, even if it made me sick or weak.
“You got that kind of blind faith in me?” I questioned.
“You’ve had it in me since the day I met you. You pushed me in a way that nobody ever has.”
Reaching for her hand, I held it between mine before I brought myself closer to her. Sloping forward, I brushed my lips across hers in a kiss. I didn’t want to shatter her already-fragile heart. I knew that what I had to say could possibly send her flying in the opposite direction, and that was the last thing I wanted. But I couldn’t lie to her, not about this. This shit was a deal breaker.
“There’s something else,” I said, and her brows knitted together in confusion.
“What?”
“Arrow brought someone to me. Someone I never expected, and someone I can’t just… eliminate,” I worded with caution.
“Who?” Harbor asked, anxious for answers.
“Ivana,” I answered, and she remained unflinching.
For a minute there, a nigga thought she had stopped breathing. Harbor didn’t speak. This far-off gaze took over her face, and she tried to pull her hand from mine, but I held it tighter.
“Ivana. Your… Ivy’s mother?” she whispered, eyes misting. “How? What… Where has she been?” She tripped over her questions, her voice barely going above a soft whisper.
“Arrow and my fucking father,” I replied. “They did all this.”
“Where is she?” Harbor asked, slipping out of the warped daze she seemed to be in.
“Upstairs. I locked her in your old room until I can get some answers.”
She yanked out of my grasp and tossed her feet onto the ground so fast, leaving me on the couch stuck.
“She’s… You brought her here?” she frantically questioned.
“I didn’t know what else to do with her. You were at the hospital, and I wasn’t thinking about it. I just needed her somewhere safe until I could figure the rest of this shit out.” I dropped my head and clasped my hands together, exasperated.
She had no idea how much I’d been struggling with this shit. Harbor paced, and that shit had me worried about her and the baby as she brought her hand to her head and rubbed her temples between her thumb and index finger.
“Ma, can you sit down? You making me nervous,” I urged her.
“You nervous!” she spat at me, her head moving involuntarily. “This supposedly dead woman is right upstairs, in the same room that you locked me up in not long ago. How the fuck am I supposed to feel about this, Frequency! Is it in Arrow’s twisted ass handbook that you kidnap and hold a woman against her will!”
“Right now, I need you to calm the fuck down. I know you’re upset. I’m not trying to take that from you. You got every right to be?—"
“Thank you for fucking understanding!” she continued to bark and rip the room like an animal preparing for an attack.
I had never even seen her this worked up before. Quickly bringing myself to both feet, I took a couple of strides toward her, but she flinched, not wanting me near her.
“This doesn’t change anything between us,” I assured her.
I meant it, but there was doubt clouding her, lingering there as if a storm could come next at the shift of her emotions. She was a woman. Not only that, but she was a pregnant woman. Her hormones were already abnormal. Being the cause of her worry or stress was the last thing a nigga wanted.
“You’re right. It changes everything,” she choked, eyes glistening when she looked at me.
Like a light bulb suddenly went off, her eyes lit up, and she gasped. “Oh my God. Ivy.”
“Yeah. I don’t even know how to tell her this. She’s just a kid. And it’s been seven fucking years,” I griped, circling thecoffee table. “I didn’t plan this shit, or see it coming, but it’s happening.”
Harbor stopped moving and examined me as I grew weary in front of her. Tension filled the room, and I didn’t like that.It was thick like invisible fog, enough to suffocate you if you let it, like a deadly gas.
