A smile played on Parker’s face as he watched his brother’s discomfort grow. “Oh, I am. See, you think that I hover overTiana because I’m worried that one of you silver-spoon urchins could hurt her feelings. But really I was protecting y’all from her because my girl is more than capable of taking care of herself. She would’ve eviscerated your soul with a few sentences and left you crawling back to your seat. A Black woman’s words can speak life into someone or crush their souls. But she won’t ever have to in my presence. If she wants to for fun, I’m more than happy to grant her heart’s desire. Furthermore, Peter, your wife hasn’t been able to stand you since she found out that all the money that you have coming in is only at my benevolence. And when that runs out y’all are going to go under.”
My eyes widened because this tea was hot and I couldn’t believe he was pouring it out with no warning.
Peter Jr. looked at me and I could only smile at his pain, cause, fuck him. “Parker—”
“Nah. You had so much you wanted to say, right? Wanted to be slick? Be slick now, Peter. You have the floor. You have my rapt attention. That’s what you wanted when you came over here thinking I was going to tap dance to whatever desperate attempt to earn money off of my name since you haven’t made one for yourself.” Parker waived his drink hand in front of him like this fool was really giving his brother the floor and I had to fight like hell not to laugh in his face.
“Now look here—”
Parker only grinned brighter before sipping his drink as he kept my hand in his. “Peter, right now your family is being escorted out of the suite along with your guests. No explanation is being given. You all decided not to help with any of the drives but I saw you took credit for participating on your website. I’ll be happy to remind the family accountant that tax fraud isn’t something that he can escape. Now, I’m here with my lady because we enjoy spending time with each other. She actually likes me and it isn’t because she’s been led to believe I’ve gotmore money than I actually do. I make her laugh, she makes me happy and I make her cum, which I’m sure you haven’t been able to do with your wife since…ever.”
I had to put my head down because I almost bust out laughing in this man’s face. He would’ve deserved it but it would’ve been fucked up. Besides, Parker was throwing ‘bows and landing shots so my laughter might’ve been the man’s thirteenth reason.
“You’re kicking us out? Over a name? That’s a ridiculous thing to do to your family.”
Parker only smiled harder as his brother stood by angrily.
“No, I’m making changes in my life and I realize that holding on to you all in any capacity isn’t something I want to bring with me as I grow. Attempting to keep up appearances doesn’t mean shit when I don’t care for the opinions of the people who spend their time making suppositions on what I do with mine. With that being said, if you ever want to sit in this suite again, you’ll be paying market price like everyone else, which I know you can’t afford. Now, get the fuck out ofmystadium, Peter.”
Parker turned back around and pulled me closer to him before putting his arm around the back of my seat. I knew he was silently telling his brother that he needed to tread lightly and I hoped for his sake that Peter paid attention to his ancestors.
Did white people's ancestors guide them? Nah, they got forefathers who probably tell them to do fucked up shit cause that’s all they knew.
“Parker, you can’t be serious. You’d kick out your own blood? Your nephews?” I thought it was wild that he hadn’t mentioned his wife or his daughter and that made me dislike his ass even more.
“I tried with them but sadly they got the Phillips gene that’s just like their father. I like to personally think that the retribution of the Phillips family downfall is all thanks to LillyWhitehorn and Orange Moon watching the rise and fall of a family that stole their future and their lives from them.”
Parker had extensive genealogy done and even had his DNA analyzed by a lab because he was just that sure he wasn’t blood related to his family. He’d shown me all the research and it was heartbreaking. The long history of how his family had robbed, cheated and stolen then in order to wear the mask of respectability now was incomprehensible, but it was probably far more commonplace than people realized. He was apprehensive about showing me any of what he’d found thinking that it would somehow reflect poorly on him or have me feeling some type of way about continuing to be in a relationship with him. Had he not been the type of man who fully realized the way he benefited from supremacy and actively worked to assist people in communities that had been stepped on because of it, I would’ve never let him in my orbit. But he was the type of man who earned money and promptly gave it away. He recognized that tax laws were going to be too favorable to him so instead of making funny stock moves that meant he hoarded his wealth; he made donations to actual charities instead of rich people tax shelters and attempted to invoke actual change. The amount I’d learned about how grimy rich people really were in the time I’d known him was eye-opening. And frankly, depressing. Being in the room with the people in his not so social circle when we had to do something in the public was oppressive. And he felt the same way because he rarely stayed long. Parker knew those rooms held the types of people who were happy to rob the next man to ensure they were good but were quick to call someone else a thief. He went to charitable organizations in order to ensure he could keep a pulse on what was happening around the city and figure out a way to step in if it was going to harm the community. A modern-day Robin Hood.
It was only when we were at team-sponsored events or at home that Parker could truly be himself. Peter stomped away when he saw he wasn’t going to get anywhere and because I’m sure Franklin’s ass was standing behind him to escort him out. I hadn’t bothered to watch him leave because I knew he wasn’t a threat.
“Are you okay?” I angled my body so that my free hand could caress his cheek and attempt to lessen the stress I could see in his jaw. Within seconds, he had less tension in his features and I saw him relax.
“I’m fine, Princess. I’ve been wanting to do that for years but I tried to keep the peace. Today, I couldn’t take the disrespect to you any longer.” His words made me feel as though there had been a lot of shit spoken about me behind my back that he’d shielded me from. Given what I’d seen spoken about me in public, I wouldn’t doubt that it was ugly and abundant.
“He’s fucked up my name before, Parker.” I tried to soften the blow, not for Peter’s sake but for Parker’s. I didn’t want him holding onto this type of stress for the rest of the game into our night together. We had too much to celebrate tonight to let his brother fuck it up.
“And he should’ve learned the first time I wouldn’t tolerate it. But no, his inviting the McDurmonts here sealed his fate.”
Now I was curious and as the stadium got louder I increased my volume to ensure he could hear me. “Who are they?”
His pink lips snarled against his tanned skin and I knew the reaction was visceral, breaking through his normal poker face, so these people had to be shitty. “Besides being someone who thinks highly of my father and brother their daughter is someone that my family had on the short list of acceptable people for me to date.”
The gravity of how badly Peter Jr. had fucked up hit me full force with that revelation. “Oh, I didn’t realize white folks werestill doing that. The weird ass joining of forces, bloodline purity bullshit.”
Parker’s face got less tight with the joke and he settled closer to me despite the arms of our chairs being in between us. With his brother no longer in the suite, I was sure he’d want to move to one of the available loveseats. Normally, his family parked themselves directly behind us hoping to be picked up by the cameras and spotlighted during the broadcasts. They never were and the cameramen always found Parker no matter where we sat.
“I should stop calling you Princess and start calling you Duchess.”
Thankful that he was loosening up I grinned and kissed his cheek. “Definitely feeling real Meghan Markle around this bitch.”
“And that’s the problem. Nobody, especially not some muthafuckas that need me to eat, is going to make you feel any of the way they made her feel. He left everything behind and had to depend on others to ensure that she was safe. My path isn’t nearly that hard so I have even less issue with removing them.” His brows were furrowed again, two angry, dark slashes over his eyes. As badly as I wanted to, I refrained from manually soothing them.
“I’m not even going to ask you if you’re sure because I know the only reason you kept them around this long was to not rock the boat and have people blaming me for fracturing your family.”
He smiled, the first genuine one since before Peter came over and I hoped it stayed that way. “You’re learning the game.”
I reached for the champagne flute that was resting on the coffee table in front of us. The main suite attendant had brought it over with Parker’s drink and I took a sip not minding that it was not as chilled as it had been.
