Not until the door slammed did Darryl release me from his arms.
“Destiny, you have to calm down! The doctors said you needed to rest.”
“Fuck you!” I yelled, lunging at him again, pounding on his chest only because I was too small to accurately reach his face. “You got another bitch pregnant while … while …” I panted, suddenly feeling woozy. I grabbed for the wooden bannister to keep myself from falling.
“See, you probably haven’t eaten in days. You look like you’ve lost ten pounds since getting out of the hospital. You need to take care of yourself.”
“Ha! Like you took care of me?” I snapped back. The only reason I didn’t try to take his head off again was because he had the decency to look ashamed. I stepped back, staring at the man I’d once loved with my entire heart. The man I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with. The man who’d asked me to be his wife when we were just twenty-one years old, and I hadn’t hesitated in agreeing. His normally neatly trimmed beard was overgrown, his clothes were disheveled, and the bags under his eyes mirrored the ones I’d seen under my own when I’d looked in the mirror. But none of that made me feel even an ounce of pity. He deserved to be living in his own personal hell. I didn’t. I’d stayed true to my marriage vows. He hadn’t.
“You killed us.” My grip tightened around the bannister. “Everything we built is dead. It was all a lie.”
“Our life wasn’t a lie!” he retorted. “I’ve loved you since I was nineteen years old.”
“Is that what you tell all those other bitches you’ve fucked over the last eight years? Did you laugh with them about how naïve your fucking wife was to think big time NBA star Darryl Wright could ever be faithful?”
“I never—”
“Never what? You lied to me all these years. I investedeverythingin you! I gave up my dreams and career for you! And for what? This big ass house that was built on your bullshit!”
“Don’t say that.” He stepped closer.
“I might be half your size, but if you take another step closer I will take your fucking head off!” I snarled at him.
Though an unfaithful, lying, cheating bastard, Darryl wasn’t a fool because he didn’t take another step.
“All I see when I look at you is death and destruction. You destroyed everything we had and killed our baby in the process.” I stared at him with all of the disgust and hatred I felt at that moment.
“Destiny, baby, I’ll spend the rest of my life making this up to—”
“Shut up! I don’t need or want anything from you except for you to sign the divorce papers my attorney sent to you.”
“I’m not signing those.”
“The hell you won’t!”
“Those papers say you don’t want anything from me.”
“And I don’t!” I reiterated. “Trust me when I say you’ve given me plenty!”
His honey brown eyes widened. He obviously understood my reference. Darryl had given me the sexually transmitted illness that ultimately killed the baby I was six months pregnant with.
“I don’t need anything else from you. Not your lies. Not your money. Not your fucking house. And most certainly notyou!Sign the papers and we’ll end this fucking sham of a marriage and I will move on with my life! Now get the fuck out!” I yelled at the top of my lungs before turning and charging up the stairs.
“Destiny! Don’t do this! You’re being selfish. What about your mother? She’s going to need money to—” Darryl couldn’t get the rest of his sentence out before I’d turned, ran back down the steps, and slapped the taste out of his mouth.
He stood there, eyes wide, hand to his cheek, staring at me, as if he couldn’t believe that I’d just hit him.
“Don’t ever mention my mother again,” I stated through gritted teeth. “You didn’t give a damn about her health before and you damn sure don’t give a damn about her now!” I knew Darryl. Not as well as I’d obviously thought I had, but I knew him when it came to money. He saw money as a means of controlling. He didn’t give a shit about my mother or her health condition. He only cared in terms of how he could use my love of my mother to control me into taking something from him. I didn’t need shit from him. Not alimony, not the big ass house, not a lump sum. Nothing.
With one last look I turned and headed back up the stairs and locked myself in the bedroom before finally crumpling to my knees in the middle of the floor. Right on top of the pile of dirty clothes that’d accumulated there over the previous three weeks. These would be the last tears I’d shed over Darryl Wright and the deception he’d spun over my life to make me believe that our marriage was real. These very likely wouldn’t be the last tears I’d shed over the baby I’d lost.
However, when I was done crying that time around, I would pick myself up off the floor, call my cousin and best friend, Resha, who I just knew was anxiously waiting by her phone, to come get me. She’d been staying with me ever since I left the hospital but I couldn’t take her hovering. It had been a week since I’d sent her back to her apartment, telling her I’d call her when I needed her. That didn’t stop my bossy ass cousin from coming by a few times throughout the week and calling daily, but at least it’d given me some space.
By the time I got up off of that floor, I wasn’t healed by any means but I was ready to end this chapter of my life.
Chapter One
Destiny
