Page 29 of Forced Matrimony With An Unhinged Menace 4

This man had gone from never really holding down steady work his whole first thirty years of life, from what I could piece together digging through old records, to becoming a licensed architect out there under that new name. It looked as if he was doing genuinely well for himself. He had a whole professional profile up on one of them networking sites, recent photos, current address, project history, all of it just sitting there in plain sight if you knew exactly where to look and how to dig for it. I guess he was finally comfortable that his new identity wouldn’t and couldn’t be found.

I sat there studying his face on that screen for a long minute, leaning in close, my eyes moving over every feature.

The resemblance to Demontae hit me clean in the chest.

Same jawline. Same set to his eyes, same intensity sitting behind them even in a professional headshot where he was meant to look approachable. I knew immediately, staring at that man’s face on my screen, that Kadeem needed this information right now, no matter what hour it was. I knew that this wasn’t just an address anymore. This was confirmation of everything this man needed to know. I knew that helping to locate him, it could mean that things between him and Zuri could be over soon. Here was living proof, staring back at me through a computer screen that this woman had cheated on her good husband and made an outside child.

My chest tightened up thinking about how I was supposed to hand this over. How I was supposed to be the one delivering proof of an affair that had the power to split up a 32 year marriage.

It was after four in the morning at that point, and part of me wanted to just wait till a decent hour to make that call, let the man get a little more sleep before I dropped this on him. But something kept nagging at me low in my gut, telling me this couldn’t sit overnight, couldn’t wait even a few more hours.

I got up off that couch and started pacing Nyla’s living room floor while Kadeem’s phone rang on the other end. My bare feet moving quiet over her hardwood, my mind running through exactly how I was gonna say what I needed to say.

He picked up right before it would’ve gone to voicemail, his voice thick and gravelly with sleep still heavy behind it.

“Sorry to call you at this time,” I said fast, before he could even get a full greeting out. “I know it’s early in the morning. I’m sorry to be waking you up like this.”

“No, you are perfectly fine,” he said, and I could hear him sitting up already, that sleep clearing out his voice fast, urgency cutting through it in its place. “You got news for me? Talk to me.”

“Yes,” I said, my heart pounding. “I do.”

“You got a secured line I can call you back on? From my other phone?”

I gave him the number to the encrypted app I kept loaded on my laptop for business dealings, the same one I used whenever I was moving information I didn’t want floating unprotected out in the world.

He called right back on that line within seconds, and I laid it all out for him, every detail I’d found over them four hours, addresses, the alias, the timeline of when he’d left and when he’d come back. After that, I sent him over the whole file I’d put together, organized clean the way I always did things when I was working.

“So this nigga’s been back in town,” Kadeem said, his voice going flat, dangerous in a way I recognized instantly, same exact tone Kaseem got when he was hurt but trying to keep his cool. “Right under my nose this whole time, and I ain’t had a clue. That nigga is ruthless, Tattiana. Real ruthless, and if he knew better, he would have stayed wherever he’d been hiding damn near 27 years.”

I didn’t know what to say back to that. Didn’t have the words for it. So I just let the silence sit there between us for a second, the phone warm against my ear.

“I know it’s not my place,” I said finally, my voice careful, “and I hope I’m not overstepping saying this to you right now. But my father used to always tell me that we’re all entitled to one mistake in this life. If you love your wife, and I know you do, maybe you can find it in yourself to let this be hers. You know, her one mistake.”

He was quiet for a long moment on the other end, long enough I started wondering if I’d said too much.

“You are a sweet girl, Tattiana,” he said finally, his voice softer now, something tired sitting underneath it. “And I never want you losing that about yourself, no matter what this family or this life put you through. But let me tell you something right now, something I need you to never forget for the rest of your life. People who genuinely love you, who really value their place in your life, if they truly value that, if they respect what y’all built together, you’ll never once have to worry about forgiving them for even one mistake. You know why? Cause they’ll never put you in the position of needing to forgive them in the first place. They’ll protect that love too hard to ever risk it.”

That landed somewhere deep in my chest, and it made my whole body ache with it.

I thought about me and my own husband, about every single bad choice I’d made by keeping things from him. I thought of all the ways I’d put him in exactly the position Kadeem was describing right now. All I could do was sit there in that dark living room, phone still pressed to my ear, and pray he found it in his heart to forgive me the same way I was sitting here begging Kadeem to forgive Zuri.

—

I ended that call, and not too much longer after that, I finally drifted back off to sleep, exhaustion finally winning out over everything else that was spinning in my head. I went to sleep with Nariyah on my mind, praying that Demon wouldn’t hurt her and that Kaseem would find her like he promised me.

I woke up a couple hours later to a FaceTime ringing loud, buzzing against the coffee table where I’d left my phone.

I looked over and the call was coming in from Kaseem.

I answered it fast, my heart already racing before I even saw the screen fully. I was hoping that he had some good news.

Nariyah’s face filled that whole frame immediately, her big bright smile taking up the entire screen, and my whole heart flooded with a relief so strong it damn near knocked the wind out of me. My husband had done exactly what he promised me he’d do. He’d saved her. She was safe. Alive. Smiling. No idea at all what kind of danger she’d been sitting in all night while I paced floor almost the whole time, worrying myself sick, imagining every worst possible outcome.

This man was the man of my dreams and I needed to save my marriage. When it came to me and what’s important to me, he went above and beyond.

That situation right there made up my mind completely. I wasn’t waiting another day to tell her the truth. Nariyah needed to know everything. I was done letting fear run my life, done letting other people’s opinions keep me from my own child. I was ready, finally, truly ready, to deal with whatever consequences came from finally claiming her all the way as mine. The way that it should have always been.

Not even a full hour after that call, Kaseem pulled up outside and dropped her off himself. Me and him exchanged a few tense words out front, both of us still upset from the night before. I could feel exactly how hurt he still was underneath all that control he was holding onto. I also knew that he wasn’t wrong to feel that way about none of it. But I wasn’t about to make this easy for him either. I wasn’t about to shrink myself smaller just to smooth things over quicker.