“One night,” I muttered. “I remember her in this yellow bathing suit in the hot tub. We smoked so much weed. She was bouncing on top of me.”
Kam groaned and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “Man, . . . fuck, Zay.”
“I ain’t saying it’s mine,” I said quickly. “I’m saying I gotta know.”
He sighed again, stood, picked up the neatly stacked papers, and shoved them into his briefcase. “This is where lawyers come in. And PR. Immediately.”
“Man, I ain’t ready for all that right now.”
“Zay—”
“Not yet,” I repeated. “I’m not dragging my name through the blogs off a maybe.”
Kam shook his head. “You’re too calm about this. You gotta move fast with shit like this, man.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I couldn’t place into words how everything weighed heavily on my chest.
He pulled his phone out. “Is it anything online? She posted something?”
He scrolled through his phone and switched to different social media apps. I was as curious as he had been and watched him from the corner of my eye. When he pulled up her profile, he paused. Shaking his head, he flipped the phone toward me. A photo filled the screen of a tiny hand interlocked with Amora’s. The caption read“I would’ve announced this sooner, but as you can see, I have my hands full.”
The time stamp showed that it had been posted only eleven minutes ago, but the comments were already wild.
“Wow, surprise baby? Congrats!”
“Bitch we ain’t even know you was pregnant.”
“Who baby is that??”
I could see Amora’s reply under one comment about showing the baby’s face.“In due time, love. When he’s ready.”
I scoffed. “She private, but she just threatened to tell the blogs?”
Kam snorted. “See, man. Let me get on this shit for you. That’s not private. That’s leverage.”
“She said if I don’t talk to her, she’ll tell them it’s mine.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m calling the lawyers. Tell me how you wanna handle this.”
His question punched me in the gut. It was as if my body already knew something my mouth couldn’t make out. Part of me wanted to call her bluff, but I kept thinking that there was no way she would pull off a lie this big. Groupies had done it allthe time, but Amora had never given that vibe. Another part of me remembered that summer in Germany and made me realize how fast a lie could turn into a lifetime you could never get back. I knew what needed to be done.
“I’m gonna get a DNA test,” I said. “Quietly.”
“Princess?” Kam whispered.
I remained silent. I thought about how it started just like this, the first time she left. I didn’t know what was real until it was too late. I couldn’t do that again, not to her.
“I have to tell her.”
Kam nodded. “You got this.”
Princess and Yana were already at the house when I walked in later that night. After a long session at the studio, I walked into the kitchen, and the smell hit me first. It was catfish and spaghetti, Princess’s mama’s recipe.
“Hey!” Yana turned her head at me from the couch.
I smiled. “What’s up, baby?”
“I’m on the phone,” she whispered. She stood and walked back to her room.
