“Then I’m at a loss for words. You think she broke in your house or something?”
I was looking at her, and she stared back at me, waiting on me to answer. I didn’t want to give voice to the shit that I’d been experiencing last year came back to me. My feeling like I was being watched. Stuff in my house being moved around. Food in my fridge going missing. I’d gotten so paranoid I’d started avoiding going home and laying up in hotels because I was so creeped out. It only got worse when I was moving sluggish but then everything stopped and I got better.
“I thought I was going crazy. I got the complex to up security for around my place when I thought shit was weird but they never reported anything. I’m still not sure how this shit happened.” My voice broke slightly and Billy’s body tensed.
“How what could’ve happened, Money? You’re scaring me with what you’re about to say.” Her beautiful face was filled with apprehension and her voice sounded as strained as mine.
“She’s been in my house, B. Tampering with all kinds of shit. I’ve seen her on film wearing my clothes, messing with my food. I ran the tapes back and I don’t know if the girl is some kind of tech whiz or got my passwords but every day I thought something had been moved. I saw she’d been in there.”
She reached for her office phone almost out of habit. “Do I need to get team security in here?”
“This isn’t something I can talk to the team about. They’re already trying to get over the bullshit that I’m bringing to them with this stupid girl. I already bothered Stew the other night and I feel bad enough about that.”
She quirked her brow at me as her arms folded across her chest. “You don’t think he includes you as part of his family? He would be offended.”
“I’m sure he would it’s just that…”
“This must be the male pride thing that you have going on.”
“Billy, when I tell you…you gotta understand.”
“Money, I’m calling Doc or I’m calling the police because you got me feeling like one or both are needed.” She was looking at me with a way that showed me she understood I didn’t want to talk about this, but that I needed to. I could only hold this shit in so much longer and slid my hands down my face defeated.
“I counted back the months. The weeks. I watched her…having sex with me.”
I could see the sheen of tears form in her eyes making their unique coloring even more vibrant. I knew her heart was hurting for me but I could still feel that twinge of disgust with myself for letting this happen.
She cleared her voice and I knew she was trying to strengthen her voice but it didn’t work. “You just said that you didn’t sleep with her, Money. Do you mean—”
“I was passed out. Knocked out.”
“She raped you.”
I nodded slowly unable to even get the words out because I was a grown-ass man. Not just a grown man, I was a fucking professional football player. No one would believe this shit and if it hadn’t happened to me I doubt I would believe it either. I was a fucking hypocrite and now I was a statistic.
“Seems that way.” I tried to keep my voice calm because the last thing I wanted to do was upset Billy. I knew she was already worried about me anyway, so the last thing I wanted was for her to be even more upset.
“Tell me what you want me to do.” When I glanced up her eyes were hard and I knew she was putting her own heartbreak to the side so that she could handle this for me.
I gripped my hair and squeezed feeling the tug at the scalp soothing me in a way that was almost therapeutic. It gave myemotional pain a physical outlet. “I don’t even know Billy. I’m fucking angry all the time. I feel wrong in my fucking skin. I sat there and watched that shit happen and I have never felt more powerless in my entire life.”
“Money—”
“I’m angry because I got a kid on the way by a stalking ass, rapist bitch. And because it’s my kid I got to pay this bitch for how she ASSAULTED ME!” My voice was raised and I could feel my emotions threatening to clog my throat. I pushed up out of my seat and paced around Billy’s office. To her credit, she didn’t flinch. Didn’t call someone else in here to witness this and I appreciated her calm when I had none.
I paced until I felt my heart settle back down to a tolerable level and then I moved my seat back in front of her desk.
She cleared her throat and I knew she was about to soothe me. “You don’t have to—”
“I’m fine. No, I’m not fine, but I’m calm for right now. This is how this shit goes. I’ll be okay until I’m reminded of what the fuck my life has come to. I worked so hard, Billy. To put my people in a place where they never had to worry about money. Grinded so that the last name Dinero meant more than just a moniker my Black and Dominican ancestors used as motivation. I’m their wildest dreams and now this bitch gets a giant check cut after she did this? The fucking press treating me like a no-good ass athlete and she is feeding into the narrative. Of course, since I’m Black I would do something like this: make a baby and not take care of it. Nobody knows the truth and she thinks I don’t.”
Billy huffed, the sound drawing my attention to her rage-filled face. “Well, that ends today.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s going to be an immediate cease and desist sent to her people. I already sent out the email to Bobby whileyou were gathering yourself.” She nodded to her computer to emphasize her words and I was grateful she was thinking more clearly than I was.
“Does that mean she can’t talk about me?”
