“I love you too,” he admits before ending the call.
“Wow!” The sound of her sister’s voice behind her startles Sunjiya and she jerks her head back. “So we’re in love? Okay! I can dig that,” she adds as she walks onto the veranda. After sitting in the other chair, she smirks then crosses her arms over her chest. “Ishewhat we need to talk about so urgently?” she asks snarkily.
“Part of it.”A big part.“But you first. You texted and said you really needed to see me,” Sunjiya says.
“I did but you told me no. I had to wait until our original meetup but lo and behold, you showed up last night. So, lil sis, you go first,” she snaps and Sunjiya shakes her head.
“Just tell me what you wanted. Mine is complicated.” Sunjiya sighs.
“It was Honey.”
“Honey, what about her? I paid her already, twice. That morning after I left Lazy’s I had you send her twenty-five grand and I gave her ass another five. I told you,” Sunjiya says, confused as hell.
“Another five? You didn’t tell me about that. You sent her that because she called for another ten. That’s why I texted you.”
“Did you send it?” Sunjiya asks angrily.
“Yeah, when you refused to come,” she says with a shrug.
When Sunjiya finally escaped Marcelin and made it to Crescent Falls, she contacted her twin sister. Marcelin’s control over her was tight. She was accompanied by at least two of his goons wherever she went, even when he forced her to go to Lazy’s.
His sick need to degrade her had him pimping her out and forcing her to dance at that hellhole. Sunjiya hated Lazy’s, especially Ano’s dumb, country ass. Her only positives about that horrible experience were Honey and one of the daytimesecurity guards, Ced. They’d formed a bond, and although everyone was under strict rules concerning her, those two broke the rules. There would be moments when she could get Honey’s phone and reach out to her twin. Those times were few and far between but it kept them connected.
The plan was simple. If and when Sunjiya managed to get free, she would run and get to a place Marcelin would never expect. Because he knew about Aunt Pri and found her with her before, reaching out to her was out of the question. The spot became Crescent Falls and her twin met her there. They spent the first week together putting shit in motion.
There are so many perks to having a person in the world with the exact same face. Sunjiya could be in two places at the same damn time. After crying in her sister’s arms, showering too many times to count, and getting her mental together, she took care of the money first. The fear of Marcelin finding and snatching her back was always lurking in the back of her mind, so she was strategic.
Sunjiya split her money up and distributed it. She took seventy-five thousand and opened several accounts, depositing the maximum amounts that would not trigger the IRS. Then her twin took the remainder to an overseas friendly bank, ACB Caribbean, here in Antigua.
The plan was for her sister to stay in Antigua and wait for her. Sunjiya had one task to complete before joining her twin—killing Marcelin. The man who’d deceived and tricked her into trusting him, then caged her and treated her like an animal had to fucking die. She had the money; she just needed the time to find the person to pull the damn trigger. Akeem was never part of the plan but turned out to be the necessary missing piece.
Sunjiya just had to think quickly and navigate around him and his tech savvy brother. Axton finding Lazy Nights Club and Aunt Pri were two very big monkey wrenches, but shemaneuvered around them. Honey was first. There was no way the scheduled brunch meeting with her could happen. Honey wasn’t convinced that Sunjiya was who she claimed to be. She was Tanjaya and they both knew it. Sunjiya couldn’t risk Honey exposing her, so that night after they left the club, she’d called Honey.
Once Sunjiya confided her identity, detailed her escape, and explained who Akeem was to her perceived friend, things shifted. Their two-year friendship dissipated and Honey only saw a means to get herself and her son out of her mother’s house. She wanted money to keep her from showing up to meet them and exposing Sunjiya. At that time, Sunjiya was in deep. She wanted to believe Akeem was actually helping her and wouldn’t hurt her but she was leery. She had also convinced Akeem she wasn’t Tanjaya and revealing the truth to him then was risky, too risky. He was a killer after all. So to play it safe, she had her sister send Honey twenty-five grand for her silence. She paid Honey another five to make the call about Marcelin having Tanjaya when they were with Aunt Pri.
Aunt Pri was truly not part of the plan.That damn postcard.As soon as Akeem found it, a pit formed in Sunjiya’s stomach. If there was one person she couldn’t fool, it was her Aunt Pri. The woman who’d taken her in during the first months of her life, loved her like her own, and kept up with her over the years could not be fooled. No matter how many times Sunjiya insisted she wasn’t Tanjaya, it was clear Aunt Pri didn’t accept it. Pri merely went along because she loved Tanjaya. The problem was, Sunjiya wasn’t sure how long Aunt Pri would; so she’d reached out and paid Honey to make the call. That was the last time though. Honey wasn’t getting another penny from her.
“How much did you send her and why?” Sunjiya snaps.
“Five grand. She threatened to call Marcelin.”
“He’s dead.”
“What! Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” she screeches.
“Because it wasn’t something to say or even text over the phone,” Sunjiya admits.
“Oh my God. When? How?”
“I killed his ass,” Sunjiya says with so much satisfaction. “I slayed my dragon.”
“And still got the prince I see,” her sister says. “You’re living our fairytale finally and I can’t wait to feel his love.”
And that’s why I’m here,Sunjiya thinks.
Swapping lives, sharing men, and playing games is their dynamic that Sunjiya desperately wants to break. The little swaps that happened when they were teenagers escalated when they became adults.
“Not this time,” Sunjiya announces.
