Page 129 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

“Sit down.”

I was already standing.

“No.”

“Alisha, sit your ass down.”

I picked up my purse and he leaned toward the glass. “You walk out that door, don’t come back.”

I stopped, there it was his last card. The old me might’ve sat back down. Might’ve cried or Might’ve tried one more time because five years was a long time and we had a daughter and I loved him. But that woman had spent enough time at the table. I looked at Deuce, my husband, the man I once thought I’d grow old with then I smiled. “That’s the whole point.”

I hung up and his mouth started moving behind the glass. I didn’t hear a word and didn’t need to. I turned toward the door and walked out. For months, everybody around me had been moving pieces while I didn’t even know I was part of the fucking game. Deuce thought he could have a wife and a mistress. Kim thought babies would win her somebody else’s husband. Shante thought she could betray me and still keep our friendship. Grandma thought staying quiet meant staying out of it. They all made their moves and now I made mine. Divorce filed, my daughter was with me. My money was secured and my business was expanding.

Kim could have Deuce and Shante could live with what she’d chosen. And Deuce could sit right there in the county and think about the family he’d gambled away. I pushed through the door without looking back. Checkmate bitches!

DEUCE

Two weeks that Italian motherfucker wasn’t bullshitting. When Moretti first sat across from me and told me to give him two weeks, I thought he was talking that expensive lawyer shit attorneys told niggas sitting behind glass, but he wasn’t. Moretti went to work on Agent Brown. Every report Brown touched. Every affidavit with his name connected to it. Every piece of evidence he helped obtain. Every decision he participated in got thrown out.

And the deeper Moretti dug, the uglier that shit looked. Brown knew his daughter was fucking me and knew I was married. He also knew Kim was emotionally involved with me and wanted me to leave my wife. The muthafucka had personally confronted me about his daughter before my arrest, then stayed involved in an investigation targeting me like none of that mattered. Moretti tore into it, challenged Brown’s involvement, went after evidence tied to him and argued that his personal conflict had contaminated the government’s case then he filed the motion to dismiss.

The government fought it but Moretti fought harder. By the time everything was laid out, enough of the case had been tied back to Brown’s involvement that the judge granted the motion. Charges dismissed just like that and I was going home. I still didn’t celebrate until they gave me my personal shit back. When they handed me my shoes, that was when it finally felt real.

I got dressed slowly. The officer opened the last door. “You’re good.”

I looked at him. “That’s it?”

“You wanna stay?”

“Hell nah.”

“Then go.”

I walked outside and that first breath of fresh air hit differently. There were no concrete walls, nobody telling me what to do. No asking permission to do basic shit I’d spent my whole life taking for granted. I was free and Rell was waiting for me. He saw me and started smiling. “My nigga!”

We slapped hands before he pulled me into a quick hug. “About fucking time.”

“Get me the fuck away from here.”

He laughed. “Where are we going?”

“Home.” I said with no hesitation. That’s the only place I wanted to be. I leaned back in Rell’s passenger seat and watched Detroit pass by. Everything looked different after being locked up. Regular shit looked good when you hadn’t seen it without a fence in the way. But my mind wasn’t really on the city it was on Alisha. Those divorce papers had been sitting in my head since the day they came. I had read them more times than I wanted to admit. Seeing my wife’s name attached to a divorce case pissed me the fuck off.

At first, I told myself she was angry and that Alisha was hurt and she would calm down. We’d talk when I got home. But that last visit let me know she wasn’t playing with my dumb ass. Malik bitch ass told her everything because he was in feelings apparently. I swear to God that’s why I never really fucked with him, because he was a snake. I was furious when I found out. Mostly because I wanted to be the one who controlled when that truth came out. If I could’ve gotten my hands on Malik that day, we would’ve had a problem.

But the county gave me too much time to think. And after the anger died down, there was another feeling underneath it, relief. I hated how Alisha found out but I was glad she knew. That secret had gotten too fucking big. Every time she talked about Shante’s babies, I had to lie without saying anything. When she bought them gifts and called herself Auntie. Talked about Malik being excited to be a daddy. I sat there knowing the truth. No more hiding or wondering what would happen when she found out. She knew exactly what I’d done. And in my fucked up mind, I thought that gave me something to work with.

I knew Alisha. She got mad and cussed me out and then went quiet, but eventually, she talked. And this time I wouldn’t be sitting behind glass. I could get in front of my wife and look her in her face and explain everything. The divorce? I wasn’t accepting that shit. She was still my wife. We had five years together and we had Brittany. You didn’t throw that away overnight. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

When Rell pulled into my driveway, I sat forward and smiled. There was my house something I thought about everyday.

“I’ll hit you later,” I told Rell.

“You good?” He asked.

“Hell yeah I’m free.”

He laughed. “Enjoy that shower.”