I smiled, thinking about all the lectures he’d given me over the years about women.
“How?”
“He always preached to me and got in my shit about having babies unless it was with a woman I loved and planned on spending the rest of my life with. He used to get mad as hell, telling me kids needed to be loved by both of their parents. It was strange as fuck because he never got down like that and never had kids I knew of. I mean, he had women, don’t get me wrong, but never anybody worth talking about. He never got over your mother.”
“I guess not,” she said softly before she lowered her head onto my shoulder and moved closer to me.
I pulled her against my body before I kissed her forehead. She had a lot of heavy shit on her mind and all I could do was be there for her. We were quiet again. Me watching the game and Sophie in her head until she spoke up again.
“I wanna meet him. Will you ask if it’s okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” was all I said.
Story already told me he didn’t want her to come there. He loved her, but I didn’t think he was ready to face his demons yet. I wasn’t sure if I could make it happen, but for her, I would try.
Chapter 30
Maddie
“Why am I here, Richard?” I looked around his office, standing at the corner of his desk before my eyes were on him. His enticing chocolate skin glowed under the soft recessed lights above his head. His hair and beard were freshly trimmed and the dimples in his cheek showed even as he glared at me.
Opening his top drawer, he lifted a folder and tossed it onto the desk, angling it toward me.
“Sign this shit, then get the fuck out,” he said in the husky, sexy voice that used to whisper “I love you” while he was swimming in my ocean.
As angry as I was with him, it still hurt for him to treat me with so little regard.
I hadn’t done anything but love him. He was the one who made me give him my heart only to break it by cheating on me with so many women I couldn’t keep up, then trying to make me feel as if it were my fault.
As hurt as I was, I quickly got it together and held my ground. “Sign what? What is that?” I asked, glancing at the folder.
Richard released a cocky laugh before he narrowed his eyes at me. “It’s your divorce settlement. Now sign and get the fuckout of my office. I can’t even stand to look at your simple, ghetto ass anymore.”
“Simple and ghetto? You got me twisted. I’m far from simple, and yes, maybe I’m still that girl from Queens, but I clean up nice as you can tell. You knew it too, which is why you paraded me around like your trophy wife.”
“That’s all you ever were or will be. A fucking whore from Queens in diamonds and expensive clothes. Now sign this shit so you can go back to your drug dealing boyfriend.”
Richard calling Carlos a drug dealer rubbed me the wrong way. I was curious about how he even knew that. Maybe from the way Carolos looked. That was possible, but he said it with so much confidence, like he just knew it was true.
“I’m not signing anything until our lawyers agree on?—”
“Four point eight million of my money. Money I worked for. I’m giving you that, but trust, you don’t deserve one penny. Now,sign the goddamn papers, Madeline.”
My body flinched when he yelled at me. I was confused about what was going on, so I snatched the folder and scanned the documents. It was printed right there. He was to pay me almost five million dollars and all I had to do was sign.
“What’s the catch? Why are you giving me money?”
Richard smirked, then pointed at me. “Oh, you don’t know? You have no idea who you’re giving your pussy to, do you? Sign the shit and get the fuck outta my life. If you want answers, you’re looking at the wrong person.”
Richard removed his eyes from me and lifted the phone to make a call. “I need you to make copies for me and escort my ex-wife out of the building.”
An hour later, I was at Carlos’s door confused and angry. I had no idea what had gone down, but I was divorced from Richard and almost five million dollars richer. That part I couldaccept, but the how and why ate at me. What had Carlos done and would it come back to haunt me, him, or both of us?
“What’s up, beautiful?” he greeted me and tried to lean in for a kiss after he opened the door. Dressed in jeans and no shirt, his body looked amazing. I couldn’t even enjoy it because I was so pissed.
I stepped around him and entered his place, causing him to frown at me. “The fuck is wrong with you?” he asked before shutting his door.
“What the hell did you do?” I barked, holding up the folder.
