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Jacob claimed the darkness tricked his eyesight, and he thought I was she. I would never believe it. On my dying day, I would never believe Jacob didn’t know he was making love to me. In my soul, I knew he felt me, understood our passion and needed it again. The familiarity of our love had to have resonated deeply within him.
“What are you going to do about this, Justine?” Mommy asked, and thoughts of that savored rainy night when the city lost electricity faded away.
“Nothing…I have to get over him so I can find my inner self,” I quoted a line from the psychiatrist I had been seeing since I caused ridicule for our family by going to trial for attacking Destiny and holding her at gunpoint. It should have been enough for my mother that both the justice and medical systems thought I was certifiable. Did she want me to end up on First 48?
“No, what you need to do is get Jacob back! I’ve been pushing for the two of you to be together since you were toddlers. There is no way Miss Thang has blown in like the putrid wind and taken your future husband. This is not happening.” Mommy slammed the paper down and stood abruptly.
“Mother,” I looked at her sternly. “It has already happened. Let it go!”
She rambled on about how she didn’t raise me to be a loser and that there had to be something we could do to persuade Jacob that he made the wrong choice.
Hmmmm….mum. I hummed louder to ignore her.
I struggled enough internally without her added stress. It was a feat every day not to get up and go slit tires, scratch cars, or kidnap children. With my legal and mental health battles, I didn’t need her to keep hounding me about Jacob. I truly didn’t think she knew what kind of monster she would awaken by demanding I do something to get him back.
“Well, she needs to go back to that ex-husband of hers. She was slutting around with him after she got out of the hospital. What’s his name?” Mommy asked but answered her own question. “Montie. Yeah, Tammy told me all about her sleeping with him. She should’ve just stayed with him, her own kind. That way everyone would be better off.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I offhandedly replied, though I wished there was a way I could ignore her rant. Humming clearly wasn’t working.
“And he’ll be down here in a few days for that youngest child of theirs birthday party. I hope they rekindle and she realizes she needs to be with him, because Jacob belongs to you.” Mommy was relentless in digging up old feelings of betrayal and animosity, which resurfaced with a vengeance and swirled around in my mind. My hands shook. An uncontrollable nervous tick started in my right eye.
She was right. Jacob had been my lover, friend and everything to me. Why should I be alone, left with only his memory while he skates off to be happy and free with Destiny? I deserved to be happy, too.
Only losers roll over and let the other woman win, and I’m no loser.
“So, the little brat is having a party in two days?” I asked in a devious tone I hadn’t used in months.
&nb
sp; “Yes, there will be plenty guests there. That might be the perfect time to pull Jacob aside for a heartfelt convincing,” she winked, “while Destiny’s distracted with the activities of the day.” Mommy’s face held a scheming grin.
“Hand me that newspaper.” I tore it straight down the middle when she handed it to me. I balled up the part of the image that had Destiny in it. “Okay, Jacob is mine, and I’m willing to fight for what’s mine.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” Mommy handed me a glass of tea.
I took a sip while glowering heatedly at the crumpled-up paper on the table in front of me. I concocted a fool proof plan to reinsert myself into Jacob’s life.
Two hours later, I parked a block away from his house and waited until a man I was certain was Montie Brown walked out to his car.
“He’s here already,” I mumbled as I jumped in my car and followed him.
“There’s more than one way to play the game,” I said as I tapped the steering wheel. Montie would serve as the perfect weapon in the war I was about to wage for Jacob’s heart.
CHAPTER ONE
Montie
Outside Looking In
There I was in Miami. Destiny planned a big party for Montana.
When we were irresistibly in love, she wanted our creations a part of me forever. She made sure my offspring carried my name. That was then. Now, she had a new fiancée, and I was invited to the massive home they shared. In keeping with the truce we made in Atlanta, I interrupted my summer vacation with the kids so Destiny could throw Montana a birthday party. For the most part, I was unbothered by the intrusion.
I arrived in town a day before the party. Destiny wanted to take Montana to the salon and shopping. I wouldn’t dare think of my little princess spending her birthday without me or her mother, of whom she was the spitting image. Therefore, I obliged.
What more could a brother ask for, than to fly his kids to another state to be with the ex-wife he still loves and her new white husband? Not to throw race around, but damn, was I so bad as a husband that she abandoned the whole race entirely?
I shook my head after pulling up to their larger than life, Italian-style mansion. I hopped out of my rental and received a heartily welcome by Jacob and Destiny. They stood inside the foyer waiting for me to walk up the driveway.
