Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“You gave me the one gift to force me to keep going. I tried. I tried to come home again when I found out I was pregnant. When I got to Sunnyside, they sent another warning and this time everyone. Every. One. That we know was in those photos. They said they would come for you all.”
I grab the back of her neck and dip to get in her face. We’re nose to nose as my chest heaves. I can almost taste my anger.
“Then let them come.” I snarl in her face. “My son belongs with me. There isn’t a motherfucker alive who can take me away from him, Lex. Not even you.”
Releasing her, I take a step back and go to get AJ. I’m done here. She should have trusted me to protect her.
“Let’s go,” I say to Pit and Skittles as I lift a sleeping AJ from Pit’s arms.
“Ox, I know you’re pissed, but don’t you think we should find out who’s been threatening her and what’s going on?” Skittles says.
“She’s right. I want to know who’s telling her she can’t come back to my city.”
“I really don’t care.”
“Ox,” Pit tries, but I keep moving. “Come on, bro. Ox.”
“Where are you going with my son?” Lex says with panic in her voice.
I ignore her, heading for the door. “Anthony, you need to listen to me. New York’s laws will have you behind bars if you do this. Once you cross state lines, that’s fed time, bro. She’s favored here. Let’s do this right,” Pit tries to reason.
“So what am I supposed to do? I’m not leaving my son,” I growl.
“She can prove it all. Go get the box, Lex. Show him the notes and pictures. You have to show him the threat is real,” Kid says.
“Just wait, Ant. Please, let me get the box. Don’t take my baby from me.”
“He’s my son too. You already kept him from me.”
“That’s not fair, I haven’t kept him from you—”
I glare at her, silencing her words. She holds her hands up. Her eyes plead with me as tear stream down her cheeks.
“Just wait right here,” she says.
“Go get it,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Okay. Don’t leave, okay?”
“I’m not the one who runs off as soon as someone they were supposed to care about turns their back.”
“Okay, I deserve that,” she sobs in a small voice.
She rushes off, looking over her shoulder at me a few times before disappearing. I work my jaw as I hold my son tight in my arms. My thoughts and emotions are all over the place.
“She has been trying to get back home. She’s wanted you and AJ together from the beginning. These bastards have blocked her each time.”
“Why are you talking to me? I have nothing to say to you.”
“Ox, I’m mad at her too, but if this is all true, you need to give her a break,” Skittles says.
“There’s no one in this room who understands how I feel. How much she knows me, how I loved her, how much she hurt me. So respectfully, you all need to shut the fuck up.”
“Bro, I see you’re hurting, but watch how you talk to my wife. I mean that shit,” Pit growls.
I look my brother in his eyes, feeling the tears in my own. I’m too angry to speak. All I can do is feel.
I feel the sting of abandonment. I feel confused because she had a reason for what she did and there’s a chance I should forgive her. I feel betrayed by Lex and Kid. I feel like something has been stolen from me.
Most of all, as I turn my gaze down to my son, I feel… I feel… I don’t know what to feel… I’m a father. This is really my son in my arms. I love this kid so fucking much.
The tension in the room is extra thick. Skittles moves to my side and elbows me in my ribs.
“I told you that boy was yours,” she teases. “Damn, I’m going to have some cute-ass babies. Oww.”
Her little ass starts to do this dance as Pit shakes his head. She manages to pull a small laugh from me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, feeling bad for taking my shit out on her.
“You’re good. Lex might still have to fight me, now that I think about it. She dated you for a year and I never once knew a thing about you.”
“I didn’t want Daddy’s mess to touch him, but it did anyway. Here. This is everything.”
I nod for Pit to take the box. He takes it and we both move to the couch to sit. He opens it and there are a couple of notes and a ton of pictures inside.
“I get that you used to keep us separate from your friends and you had another life you kept from Uncle Lester, and I totally get why, but you could have come to me for help,” Skittles says as she sits on the arm of the chair Alexis sits in.