Prologue
Amina Sinclair
London, England
“Baby, where are you? I’m so excited to tell you about everything that happened at the salon with the girls. Wait until you see my hair. The stylist did a good job. You’re going to love it,” I beamed, walking into my home, excited to get to my fiancé, so that I could give him all the tea.
My fiancé’s name was Jacob, and all his cars were parked out front in the driveway, so I knew he was home. Just didn’t know where the hell he was yet. I’m used to walking inside the house, and if he was already here before me, he would typically greet me at the door.
I took steady steps throughout our home, until I landed in the kitchen area. Standing in the kitchen, it was easy to look out of the patio glass doors that were ahead of me, and I spotted Jacob. His back was turned to me, as he sat alone on the patio, in one of the outdoor lounge chairs. I wasn’t sure if I was thinking too much into it, but his body language seemed off. The way he was sitting was unnaturally still.
I’ve been standing here for about a minute now, just glancing over at him, and he has yet to move.
I eventually sat my purse down on the kitchen counter and walked over to the sliding door. You would think that the sound of the door opening would cause him to turn around. He didn’t though. He continued to look ahead of him.
“Baby, I was looking for you. How come you’re sitting out here?” I asked, taking a few steps, until I landed right in front of him.
It wasn’t like Jacob to sit outside. It really wasn’t like me to sit outside, either. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the sun. I preferred to be in the AC. This big, beautiful backyard that we had was simply for the aesthetic because we rarely spent any time out here.
Jacob looked up at me, and it’s as if when I spoke to him, I’d snapped him out of whatever daze he had slipped into. Almost like it took him a few seconds to come to terms that I was standing in front of him.
He smiled at me eventually, but his smile was forced. Almost like he only did it because he knew that it was the right thing to do. The thing that he would always do whenever I joined him in any room.
“I’m sorry, beautiful. I came out here to see what was going on with the sprinklers, and I ended up just taking a seat. How are you? How did everything go with the girls? I love your hair. Come here. Let me get a better look at it,” he said, sounding more like the man that I was getting ready to marry in one week.
Even so, he still looked down about something. Sad. Unsure. He had been thinking about something deeply when I walked out here, and I was curious to find out what it was.
I walked even closer to where he was, and he opened his legs a little bit, so that I was able to stand directly in the middle of him. With a big smile on his face, he reached both hands up, running them through my freshly straightened hair, that cascaded down my back. I knew that Jacob loved it whenever Iwould come home with a fresh silk press. It showed in his smile. It showed in the way he continued to run his hands through my hair.
After showing love to my hair, that’s when I straddled his lap. Instead of him wrapping his arms around my waist like he would do any other time, or placing them on my ass, he kept them on the sides of the chair.
“How did it go?” he asked me again, referring to my meet up with the girls this afternoon.
“It went well. You know I rented out the entire salon for me and the girls, so it was just us in there. We talked, we laughed, we played games, we drank wine, all the things. We even cried together. My emotions were so high today for whatever reason. Sitting around, being there with the women in my bridal party, I think it just hit me that this moment is so real, and we’re really getting married in just one more week. The girls were making jokes, saying that I should get my IUD taken out, so that when we make love on our honeymoon, I can get pregnant that night,” I shared, following that statement with a laugh because I thought back to when the comment was said at the salon, and how funny of a moment that had been.
Jacob didn’t really laugh though. If anything, he forced a smile. The same forced smile that he’d given me when I walked out here.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Did I do something? Are you upset with me about anything?” I asked, picking my hands up, so that I could wrap my arms around his neck.
He sighed, and then he looked away from me for a few seconds. He eventually placed his icy blue eyes back on me, and within seconds, his eyes watered. Something in my gut told me that he was getting ready to put something on me that was going to break my heart. I could feel it. I could feel it in his energy. I could feel it in his lack of affection right now. He wasn’t eventouching me. Knowing that I was getting ready to get my heart broken, I removed my arms from around his neck, placed them at my side, preparing myself for this.
“Amina, you do know that I love you more than anything, right? When I tell you that I love you, I need you to know that I mean it with every fiber in my body. You know that, right?” he asked me.
I sat on top of him, and my body was literally shaking right now. I was trembling to the point that it felt like I was getting ready to pass out. It was almost as if I couldn’t speak, so instead of verbally answering the question that he just asked me, I simply nodded my head.
Before he got the chance to respond to me, his phone began to ring. Because I was sitting in his lap, I could feel the vibration through his jeans. I watched his actions. I watched the way he dug into his right pocket, and instead of pulling the phone out to answer it, he just declined the call with the side button. Not even a second later, his phone began to ring again.
“Who’s calling you, Jacob?” I wanted to know.
“I’m not sure, but whoever it is, I’ll just call them back. We’re having a discussion right now,” he sounded so guilty. Very guilty.
The phone began to ring again, and this time, I was quick to reach inside of his pocket, and right there, the name, ‘Gabby’ appeared on his screen. I didn’t know who Gabby was. Jacob and I have been together for about three years now, and in that amount of time, I knew all the women in is family, and even the couple of female friends that he had. I never met a Gabby before.
“Who the hell is Gabby, Jacob?” I screamed at him, holding his phone in my hands, ready to answer it myself if he wasn’t going to start talking, and tell me who this woman was that was calling his phone.
His face turned beet red. The sudden change in his color told me everything that I needed to know. With the phone still in myhand, I launched it at him, and stood up from his lap. I placed my hands on my hips, tapping my right foot, prepared for him to tell me what the hell was going on.
“Amina, I swear I love you?—”
