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Marcus stood and made his way over to her side of the couch. He dropped a kiss to the top of her head, then told her he loved her and was only a call away. She couldn’t even force her head to nod or her mouth to reply. As her tears streamed, Royalty laughed. All this time, everyone tried to make her feel as if she was losing her mind. She knew things had changed when Regal was born and that her parents, especially her mother, treated her differently. For twenty-one-years, she’d dealt with this cycle and believed she was the one insane, only to learn her parents deceit was the cause of her pain.
Standing, Royalty slowly made her way to her bedroom. She closed the shades before plopping down on her bed, face down. Royalty thought she’d cry even harder, but as she laid there, all she could do was laugh.
??????
Royalty missed her flight, and at that point, she didn’t even care. Before learning the truth, Royalty was prepared to leave Memphis and start anew. But for the past three days, she’d been home in her room with her thoughts. The only reason she shared the truth with her friends was because she didn’t want them worried about her. Apparently, Marcus told Jennifer that she knew the truth because Jennifer had been calling and stopping by every day. Every day, Royalty told her the same thing—she didn’t want anything to do with her when Regal was born, and now that was about to happen.
Twice that day, Royalty tried to eat, but she didn’t have the energy. She didn’t have the energy to do anything for that matter. Unlike Steven and Regal’s betrayal, this one seemed to have left her paralyzed. As if she’d thought him up, Steven called her from his mother’s phone. The day of the wedding, she’d blocked him on everything but overlooked his parents’ numbers.
“What?” she answered, surprised to hear her own voice.
“I was just calling to check on you.”
She chuckled and turned onto her side in bed. “I don’t have the strength to stomach your faux concern.”
“Whether you want to believe it or not, I really do love and care about you.”
Sighing, Royalty breathed deeply. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that, Steven.”
“I want you to say you believe me.”
“I don’t. Will you please leave me alone? Believe it or not, your cheating is the least of my worries right now.”
“Something else happened? Is there anything I can do?”
“You can leave me alone, like I asked. That’s all I need from you.”
“Fine,” Steven surrendered. “But if you ever need—”
Disconnecting the call, Royalty powered her phone off before tossing it to the corner of her room and going back to sleep.
six
Seven days.
For seven days straight, someone popped up at Royalty’s home to check on her.
For seven days straight, she didn’t talk to them or let anyone in.
For seven days straight, Royalty tried to find a reason for this season of her life. Hell, her life in general. She couldn’t find a reason for her mother’s death. She couldn’t find a reason for Jennifer to agree to raise her, knowing she had ill intentions. She couldn’t find a reason for Marcus to stay with Jennifer, knowing she treated their daughters differently. She couldn’t find a reason for the man she loved to cheat on her, with her sister no less.
Nothing made sense.
Nothing mattered anymore.
Seven days.
That’s how long it took Royalty to decide her life wasn’t worth living anymore.
All that day, she packed her things and wrote letters to everyone she loved. She hadn’t decided how she planned to end her life, but it would be something clean for the sake of her best friends. Though Royalty was sure they would mourn her forever, she didn’t want images of her with cut wrists or gunshot wounds haunting them.
For a while, Royalty tried to convince herself that she didn’t want to die—that she just wanted her life to get better—but that was a hard concept to accept as true. Because as far back as she could remember, her life had always felt unnecessarily painful or difficult, and it seemed like the same people were always the cause. As she looked through the pills in her medicine cabinet, Royalty considered ending their lives instead of hers. They were the cause of her pain. But as horrible as they’d treated her at times, she couldn’t stomach causing any of them permanent harm… not even Regal. A smile slowly crept across her face at the thought of whupping her ass, though.
Slamming the medicine cabinet shut, Royalty rocked against the counter.
“What am I doing?” she whispered before looking at her reflection, but she didn’t look like herself at all. Physically, she looked the same, but her eyes and her aura were unrecognizable. Squeezing the bridge of her nose, Royalty inhaled a deep breath.
She went back into her room and grabbed her phone. Powering it on, Royalty ignored all the missed calls and text messages while pulling up her father’s contact information. She called him, and Marcus answered almost immediately.
