His tone slapped the breath right out my chest. I blinked because I couldn’t believe he was talking to me like that.
“Excuse you?” I snapped back. “Who the hell you think you talkin’ to like that? You might talk to your wife crazy but you ain’t gon’ talk to me like that.”
His whole expression shifted like I had just offended his ancestors.
“I don’t talk to my wife like no hoe,” he said, stepping closer to me, “and even she don’t pop the fuck up at my place of business like this. The fuck wrong with you, girl?”
It felt like he ripped my pride out my chest right there. My stomach dropped because I never expected him to react this hard. I thought he’d be irritated, maybe, but not this cold.
“So that’s what we doin’ now?” I asked, my voice shaking with anger. “You ghost me, disrespect me and play me?”
He shrugged with no emotion on his face. “Echo, I ain’t play you. I can’t play somebody I never claimed.”
My heart stung all the way down to my toes.
“You dick dizzy, and that’s my fault for fuckin’ you,” he said without blinking. “But I told you we was chillin’. You knew I had a wife. You knew what it was from day one.”
“You made it seem like y’all was done!” I yelled.
“No,” he replied, “you heard what you wanted to hear.”
I felt something in me snap.
“I swear if I was a nigga, you wouldn’t talk to me like this.”
His eyes went flat and empty in a way that scared me.
“If you was a nigga,” he said calmly, “yo’ ass would be dead.”
The words hit like a punch. I could see it in his face. He wasn’t bluffing. He wasn’t saying this shit for show. This was who this nigga was and I finally saw it for myself.
“You really played me… but I’m gon’ show you how I play,” I whispered because I didn’t know what else to say.
“You played yourself,” he said.
He leaned in a little closer.
“Now don’t come back to my shop.”
With my pride in shambles, I walked out before my face crumbled. I got in my car with my ego hanging by a thread. I sat there gripping the wheel, breathing hard because the embarrassment was eating me alive. I had never let a man make me feel small.
By the time I made it home, my hands were still shaking. I kicked off my shoes, sat on the edge of the bed, and opened Instagram because I couldn’t stop myself even though it made everything worse.
His wife had just posted a story, and the shit stopped me cold. She moved her camera slow across the mansion hallway, and the whole place looked unreal. Roses covered the tables and stretched out across the floor like somebody ordered half the island’s flower supply just to make her smile. Balloons floated near the ceiling, candles glowed in the corners, and a giant teddy bear sat in the middle. The mansion itself was beautiful, and beautiful in a way that hit me hard because Kay’Lo had this woman living in a world I had only imagined for myself.
Then the caption slid across the screen with laughing emojis: My husband really tryin’ y’all
My throat got tight. Kay’Lo had never decorated shit for me. He had never sent me flowers or surprised me with anythingthoughtful. I didn’t even get a single rose out of him, not one. I gave him attention he didn’t deserve and feelings he didn’t earn, and he gave his wife a whole mansion full of proof that she was the only one he was willing to go all out for.
It hurt in a way I didn’t expect, and it pissed me off even more because I felt it.
The roses, the gifts, the soft lighting, the caption… all of it showed me exactly where I stood with him.
It burned me all the way down to my bones.
I stared at her profile picture for a long time before I finally said fuck it and clicked message.
Me:Hey, I don’t know what’s goin’ on between you and your husband, but I been messin with Kay’Lo while he tellin’ me y’all separated and I just need to know the truth.
