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“Mama? Papa? What’s going on?” Cole ran between us and pushed us apart. “Don’t fight.”
I released Irisah and finished getting dressed.
“We’re just having a heated discussion. Everything is okay. Go back out and watch the soccer game.” Irisah led him out of the room.
“Is she telling the truth, Papa?” He stopped and turned around to look at me. “You’re just having a heated discussion? Doesn’t that mean fighting?”
Was she telling the truth? Hell no, she fucking wasn’t. “What do you think, Cole?”
His hazel eyes darted from his mother toward me.
“Don’t manipulate him.” She kissed Cole’s forehead.
“But it’s Easter. Everyone should be happy today. It’s going to be so much fun, right, Papa?”
Jesus Christ, I didn’t need this right now. I went into the closet and pulled out a huge Easter basket I’d bought him. “Here.” The thing was almost as big as him.
“Wow! Thank you, Papa. Thank you!” He hugged my legs, but I couldn’t return the affection. I was a fucking asshole for it too.
“Go watch the game, baby. I’ll be out in a minute to make your lunch.” Irisah pushed him along and closed the door. When she turned to face me, she looked like she could kill me. “Don’t you—”
“What?” I roared, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her back against the door. I squeezed until her terrified eyes bulged. I could end her right here and now. But for Cole’s sake, I wouldn’t. “You don’t own me. I know your game, you fucking cunt! How you used me.” I shoved her on the bed.
“No.” She shook her head and gasped for air. “I care about you, Rocky. I helped you when no one else would.”
“Bullshit! I remember the day of the explosion—before and after!” My crew and I had planned to cripple my sperm donor’s compound for months. I’d personally scoped out the property for weeks. It’d been torture to be so close to Ella but unable to see her. I’d wanted nothing more than to drive the two and half hours and find her. But I couldn’t risk being followed and leading my goddamn enemy to my woman. It’d been six months since I’d talked to her on Valentine’s Day. I knew I’d hurt her. Knew she was angry I hadn’t called back. And Vegas had never mentioned her when I’d called, and I hadn’t asked about her either.
Now that I thought about it, I’d been a stubborn asshole… a pussy behaving like a wounded fucker because she didn’t trust me and had told me not to come home. But she hadn’t been wrong to think the worst of me. In the end, I had cheated on her.
Years had passed since we’d attacked David’s compound, but it felt like yesterday. Everything was fresh in my mind like it’d just happened, and I was realizing the explosion had been the fucking catalyst for the past five years of my fucked-up life—and losing my memory.
I should be with Ella now, apologizing for the time we’d been apart and promising her that it would never happen again. But that wasn’t what had happened. I had no fucking clue where or what Ella had been up to. I was about to change that very soon.
Irisah gasped and turned white as a ghost.
“Yeah, that’s right, you fucking bitch. I remember.”
“What are you going to do?” Panic washed over her, and I fucking loved seeing her scared.
“I should kill you.” I hovered above her, fuming like a raging bull. “You used me. Lied to me. Fucking manipulated me all this time to your own goddamn advantage! Every day, a little more comes back to me.”
“If that’s true, then you remember the good times. You remember Cole’s birthdays and the holidays. Don’t you?”
I did, but none of that should’ve happened. “I’m leaving.”
“What?” She hopped onto her knees and grabbed my biceps. “Don’t leave us, Rocky. We need you.”
“Fucking figure it out for yourself!”
“How can you say that after five years together? How can you destroy his life? Don’t you love him?”
“I’m done, Irisah. Fucking done with you.” I pushed her back. “You have two weeks to find another place to live.”
“What?” she shrieked. “I don’t understand!”
“I sold the house. You have until the end of the month to get the fuck out!”
She covered her face with her hands and cried. “But his school. His friends. He’s just a little boy! How can you do this to him? How, Rocky? He loves you so much.”
