“Quest…”
“Movement.” I pointed toward the stairs. “Now.”
She stumbled past me, heading for the staircase, her sobs echoing through the house. I turned back to the bar and picked up my bourbon, taking a long sip, letting the burn settle in my chest.
That’s when I noticed Lyric.
She was standing in the doorway, frozen, her purse dangling from her fingers. The rooftop party forgotten. Her perfectly made-up face was a mask of shock as she watched Camille disappear up the stairs.
“What the hell just happened?” she asked quietly.
“Camille’s pregnant,” I said flatly. “By somebody else. She cheated. She’s leaving.”
Lyric’s mouth fell open. “She… she cheated? On both of us?”
“Apparently she wanted a baby more than she wanted this relationship.” I drained the rest of my bourbon. “So she went and got one the old-fashioned way.”
Lyric was quiet for a long moment, processing. Then her expression hardened. “That bitch. I can’t believe she would?—”
“Believe it.” I poured myself another glass. “People will always disappoint you, Lyric. Always. The sooner you accept that, the easier life gets.”
She came over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist from behind, pressing her cheek against my back. “I would never do that to you,” she murmured. “You know that, right?”
I didn’t respond.
Because honestly? I didn’t trust any woman. I’d been burned a couple of times already, which is why I got the vasectomy.
An hour later,Camille came back downstairs with two suitcases and a tear-streaked face. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking at me with those red-rimmed eyes, searching for something—mercy, maybe, or a change of heart.
She wasn’t gonna find either.
“I’ll still work on Zainab’s case,” she said quietly. “I won’t let this affect?—”
“Oh, I know you will.” I stood up from the couch, walking toward her slowly, deliberately. Let her see the threat in my posture, the promise in my eyes. “Because if you even THINK about fucking up Zainab’s freedom—if you do anything, ANYTHING, to jeopardize her case because you’re in your feelings about tonight—I will make your life a living hell. You,your baby, your baby daddy, whoever. Don’t test me, Camille. You know what my family is capable of.”
She swallowed hard. Nodded once.
“Good.” I stepped back, gesturing toward the door. “Now get out of my house.”
She left without another word.
The door closed behind her with a soft click, and just like that, she was gone. Three years of my life, erased in a single evening. All because she couldn’t be honest about what she wanted.
Lyric appeared at my side, sliding her hand into mine. “You okay, baby?”
“I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. Not really.
This was the third time a woman I trusted had betrayed me. The third time I’d opened myself up, let someone in, believed that maybe this time would be different. And the third time I’d been proven wrong.
My mother always said I had trust issues. Maybe she was right. Or maybe I just kept choosing the wrong people.
Either way, the lesson was clear: don’t trust anybody. Don’t let anybody get too close. Don’t give anybody the power to hurt you.
Because they always would.
I poured myself another bourbon and stared out the window at the empty driveway where Camille’s car used to be.
