Page 26 of Rich Forever: Zo & Remy

“You've been dodging me for eight days, and now you want to hit me with some half-ass ‘Zo’ like I ain’t watched you lie straight to my face?” I gritted.

“I’m not-”

“You are.” I kept my tone even. We never did the yelling.

“You think I didn’t peep you stiffen when I walked in? You think I don’t hear how different your voice gets when you talk to me now? You're insulting me, shorty.”

She didn’t even notice, but the guilt on her face was back again. Proving what I already knew to be true.

I didn’t touch her. I kept my hands to my side.

“I’m asking you one more time,” I said, staring dead at her. “What the fuck is going on? And don’t give me no ‘I’m fine,’ Remy. I’m past fine. I’ve been past that.”

She opened her mouth but closed it.

“That’s what I’m talking about. That scared ass look. Who the fuck put that on you? What happened?” I questioned.

Her eyes watered, and she tried to look away, but I stepped a little to the side, blocking her gaze, not her body. Keeping her from running mentally and forcing her to look me in the eye.

“Nah, look at me. If something happened while I was gone, I need to know. If somebody said some shit to you, touched you, threatened you, I need to know that shit.”

She shook her head; tears started to well in her eyes.

“Zo, it’s not. It’s not like that.”

“Then spit it out.”

I was louder than I had intended to be, but my patience snapped right there. “Tell me what’s up, Remy. Before my mind goes someplace neither one of us wants it to go.” I could feel the heat rising in my chest. She was holding on to the shit like it was a military secret.

She wiped her face, chest rising and falling like she was trying to hold herself together.

“Okay, I’ll tell you.” She said, exhaling and folding her arms across her chest.

She wiped her face again, like it’d buy her another second. But it didn’t.

“Remy,” I warned.

“Well. I found out something while you were gone.”

I clenched my jaw. She wasn’t talking fast enough for me, “What?”

She swallowed hard. “We’re not. Our marriage...Zo, we’re not legally married.”

For a second, everything around me went still.

“What?” I asked, confused. My tone was ice as I scanned her face. We had two ceremonies, so I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me.

She winced, like it hurt her to say the words. “I’m legally married to Karlos Weston. He forged documents that I never knew about, and he hasn’t been declared dead, so I’m not technically a widow. But I didn’t know, Zo. I swear I didn’t know. And when I found out, I just panicked. I didn’t want to tell you.I thought you would… or… I don’t know, I thought it meant something to you. That it would change something.”

She went from not talking at all to stumbling over her thoughts and stuttering. She was talking, but my mind stopped at the two words that she had spoken earlier. Karlos Weston.

The same nigga whose name I hated hearing attached to hers anywhere. Rem and I had talked over the years about him when she decided to open up. Just the way she reacted to the mention of his name always pissed me off.

“That’s why you've been walking around like this? Because you think a piece of paper makes you his?” I asked her with my voice flat.

She stumped her foot and threw her arms down. “Yes, Zo!”

“So let me understand this Remy…” I spoke slowly, almost forcing myself to keep a straight face. “You been in this house, my house,ourhouse, torturing me for eight days… over some paperwork?”