“All right. Let us know if you need anything, baby girl,” Daddy stated.
“I will. Love you guys.”
“Love you more,” Mama professed.
My phone immediately rang again. “I don’t believe this shit.”
“What?” Evie asked.
“It’s Darius.”
“Your ex-husband?” she asked.
“Ex-slime,” Sabrina declared.
“Ex-weasel,” Tommi added. “What the hell does he want?”
“I don’t know why he’s calling. Hello?” I answered my phone after replying to the girls.
“You really want to ruin someone else’s life like that?” Darius greeted off the rip.
“Hello to you, too, asshole. But why are you calling?”
“I think it’s messed up that you’d mess up someone’s marriage knowing that you’re not capable of fulfilling all that man’s needs.”
My belly clenched, and my head and neck instantly started hurting. Nausea rolled through my belly as anxiety and fear swirled within me as I recalled the reason for our divorce.
Ignoring the girls’ pointed looks and questions about what he wanted, I stomped upstairs to my bedroom for a little privacy. I closed and locked the door before I snapped on him.
“You sorry ass bastard. You had the nerve to run out on me when I needed you the most, making me feel like less than a woman, accused me of misleading you, and you have the nerve to call me up after not speaking to me for two years and saying some shit like that? Fuck you, Darius.”
“I’m just saying that you should tell that man the truth before you allow him to ruin his marriage over you. I’d hate for him to regret it in the end. Those people have been together for eighteen years. Don’t do that, Chanel.”
“I’m not ruining anything. You’re an idiot, and so are the gossip columns and the people who sold those pictures. This is some twisted story, and your dumb ass would be quick to jump on it and believe it so that you can continue thinking the worst about me as always. Don’t call me again. Forget my number.”
I punched the red phone icon to end the call. When I had, I exhaled a long cry, slumped on my bed, and cried my eyes out.
My girls would give me grace and space to have the time that I needed. They all knew that a conversation with Darius would be emotionally exhausting.
When I finished bawling my eyes out, I was getting ready to get up and clean my face to join the ladies, but my phone rang again. My heart dropped when I looked at the screen and saw that it was Ashton. I wiped my face and cleared my throat before I answered.
“Hey, I was wondering when you would get around to calling.”
“I’ve been tied up with my sports agent, my attorney, my PA, my PR rep, and my wife. I don’t have time for the bullshit, Chanel. What the fuck is going on? Is this your way of pushing the narrative and getting the story out there somehow?”
“No. That’s not my plan.”
“What are you doing? Combating my bad reputation with her good one isn’t going to work. You trying to play us against each other? Amélie warned me about you,” he grumbled.
“What are you talking about? You think I did this? I would never sell my soul for a story or collude with a gossip column for rubbish like this, Ashton.”
“Unfortunately, I know the opposite to be true. My attorney and agent have both informed me that you are on the hook at the magazine. They’re about to drop you, and you have to come up with something major within six weeks, or you’ll lose your byline at Legendary Sports Magazine. Did you sell me out to keep your byline so that you can keep those fancy clothes and shoes, Chanel?”
I was so frustrated with everyone jumping to conclusions and not giving me the benefit of the doubt. “You idiot. If you knew anything, you’d know that losing my byline at LSM will cost me nothing but my pride. I don’t make any money there. The only reason I still write for them is because they gave me my start in this industry. They don’t fund my lifestyle, and not that it’s any of your business, but Bolton Media does. So you wanna try that again? All this shit is beneath me.”
“This is my damn life we’re talking about here!” The bass in his voice thundered across the line and sent an odd thrill through me.
But I exhaled, pinched the bridge of my nose, and calmed down. “Ashton, I know that. I swear that I’m not behind this, andneither are my people. This does me no good. My reputation is on the line too.”
