The pieces were connecting in my head and I didn't like the picture they were making. If the man had only been dead less than five years, and my father had a baby with the man wife… this shit was making me sick to my stomach.
I turned and ran out of that office as fast as I could.
Sam was right behind me.
My father was right behind him, begging me to stop. To listen to him.
"Get him the fuck away from me!" I yelled to Sam.
Sam stopped and backed my father all the way up. Gave me space to move.
My life was in shambles. I didn't know what the fuck was going on. And I didn't know how the hell I was gonna tell Kaseem any of this.
—
I got in the car and the tears wouldn't stop.
Not just a few tears sliding down my face. Full-on breakdown crying. My whole body was shaking. My chest heaving. I couldn't catch my breath. Every time I tried to breathe, it came out as a gasp.
How could he do this?
How could my father have a whole other life? A whole other woman. A whole other child.
A sister. I had a sister I didn't even know about.
And my mother had no idea. My mother was at home thinking my father was at work, at his office, and he was with Lashara. With a baby that looked just like him.
I pressed my face against the window and just let it out. The tears. The confusion. The betrayal. All of that mixed with my own damn family extorting and blackmailing me. Today was too damn heavy. All I could do was cry.
Sam was up front but his eyes kept going to the rearview mirror, watching me fall apart.
After a few minutes, he reached his phone up to his ear. I heard ringing or something.
"Boss," he said quietly into the phone. His voice was low but I could hear him. "Something's happened. She's... she's crying real bad. Like, real bad. I don't know what happened back there butshe came out of that building shaking and I had to make her father back down from running after her.”
I heard Kaseem's voice come through the phone. Not calm. Not controlled. Yelling.
"What the fuck happened to her? Is she hurt? Did somebody touch her?"
"No sir," Sam said. "She's not hurt physically. But something happened. She's breaking down."
"Get her home NOW. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but get here with my wife, and make that shit swiftly!”
The phone went dead.
I looked up at Sam and the driver was already pressing the gas. The car moved faster.
---
The whole drive back, I couldn't stop crying.
I kept seeing that little girl's face. The way she looked up at me when I walked in. She didn't know who I was. Didn't know I was her sister. She just went back to coloring.
How long had this been going on? Years? It had to have been.
And my mother. Mannn, my mother had no idea.
By the time we got back to the compound, my eyes were swollen and red. My face was puffy. I looked broken.
