“I can’t be that bad either. If I get pissed off then that’s mental energy that I’m taking away from Ami for people that don’t deserve it. I gave her no attention in life so she’s trying to snatch it from me in death. I refuse to give her that.”
The respect Bryan felt with my answer was written all over his face. “Good. Then let’s get this together and see what these people want. Hopefully, before the end of the day, we’ll have it resolved and you won’t have to think of them again. But first, you've gotta talk to the team about what’s going on.”
I didn’t want to be here.
I had always thought I was a good person but this right now made me rethink every action I’d ever done like maybe I was reaping some type of karma for something bad I’d sown. I felt her move closer to my side and I braced myself for whatever it was she was going to say.
“I know baby but breathe and let’s at least hear what they say.”
I nodded my head and was damn near fighting back tears. My tears were the gratitude because this woman’s love covered me when I didn’t feel worthy. She never made me feel weak for my emotions and didn’t expect me to act like I had all his shit figured out. Because I didn’t. The one thing I could focus on was football, Ami and Ling, but when I didn’t have any of those things I was a fucking shell of myself. Sterling would catch me staring off into space and I knew she was getting worried because just like her I thought I would be getting better by now.
“Money, you know you called this meeting today, right? Not to rush you, but whatever you've got to say, you can tell us without judgement.”
I nodded before taking a deep breath and looking up at Parker who was seated across the table. Billy, Bobby and Marcus, my other lawyer, were seated to my right and Sterling was on my left holding my hand. It took everything in me not to rock back and forth like I was on that shit but that was how I was feeling.
“I thank y’all for agreeing to have these people meet us here. I hate to involve the team in my personal business—”
“You know when we say this team is a family, we mean that shit.” Parker spoke up and I could only nod because he was the main one who practiced what he preached.
Stew nodded but when he sat forward I knew he was going to say something crazy. “Don’t get it twisted. Just like blood family we like summa y’all muhfuckas more than others—”
“Stew, why would you say that, man?” Parker’s cheeks were turning red like he felt bad about Stew’s honesty.
“Chill, P. You've always been family but you're about to be family for real since you're marrying in. You need to learn bynow we might in-fight but we will all come together like the Power Rangers to beat someone’s ass that tries us.”
Stew was schooling Parker who was nodding his head and I had to laugh at his quick education in Black culture.
“Parker, did you find out how security was breached?”
The easy look on his face disappeared like he was angry all over again about what happened. “Yeah. Appears she got a press badge.”
“Press?”
“Yeah. It’s an ongoing investigation but trust, we have it covered.” With the way he spoke, I knew he knew more than he was letting on but I was confident when I needed the information, they’d give it to me.
Coach Stew and Coach Johnson were the only people from the team besides Parker that were here with us and I wanted to be grateful that this meeting was kept small, but that didn’t do a lot to make me feel better considering what was going on.
“I don’t want y’all to doubt that my focus is on ensuring my production stays—”
“Money, you’re on pace to rush for over two thousand yards this year, bruh. Calm down.” Coach Johnson tried to put a genial smile on his face but I wanted to emphasize that I wasn’t going to let this distract me from work.
“I’m not sure if they’re going to come in here and spread lies about me, but I have to tell y’all this despite how I wish I didn’t.” I wished Doc would’ve just released my information to my coaches but he refused to. He told that speaking about it was something that I needed to do in order to stay in control of what was going on. He was right, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t feeling like my stomach was about to fall out of my ass.
“Is it something that you think is going to damage the team’s reputation? We had eyes on the situation with your daughter’smother but we didn’t see any need to step in especially after she passed. Is something else going on?”
Parker was now sitting forward like he needed to brace himself and even Stew and Coach J were more alert than they’d been.
“Something else is. The reason I didn’t believe that I was the father of her baby was because I never had sex with her. Not that I could remember.” Sterling squeezed my hand when I added that last part and instead of lowering my head like I immediately wanted to, I kept it high and looked each man in the eye.
Their faces held various emotions. Confusion, worry and then clarity. That clarity meant that their faces quickly morphed into anger.
“She stole your seed?”
I nodded before shifting in my seat slightly and telling them the truth. “She broke into my house and drugged me.”
“We have video evidence of everything. Her tampering with his drinks is how we think he got the drugs in his system. And then the act itself was captured.” Billy relayed that information as gently as possible but it was still hard to hear.
The other side of the table looked stunned at then their eyes went to me, which made me uncomfortable as hell.
