Page 35 of Rebooked For Us
I pressed myself against the wall.
“She’s got him doing pro bono work on campus. Got him questioning everything we built. You know what his grandfather left us? You know what it took?”
His mother’s voice came quieter. “Ruben, Ducane is grown. He loves her. If you push too hard, you’ll lose him entirely. Is that what you want?”
“I’m not losing my son to a girl with no people, no home training, no understanding of what this family requires.” Apause, long and deliberate. I knew he didn’t care for me, but the contempt in his tone sent a chill down my spine. “He’s going to propose. You know he is. And then what? We’ll be stuck with it and whatever comes with her. You think she understands what she’d be marrying into? What we need from whoever carries this name?”
“She makes him happy. Ducane is smart enough to know what to do with both.”
“Bullshit, she makes him soft. There’s a difference.” His voice dropped, but it wasn’t quiet enough. “You know what’s at stake. Ducane doesn’t get to throw that away because some girl from nothing made him feel like he could. He’s not ready.”
“You don’t get to determine what he’s ready for. He’s grown, and he’s going to end up resenting you. Just watch. And I think she’s a lovely girl.”
“If she gets pregnant, he’ll be slumming it for life. She brings no value to our boy.”
His mother scoffed, and I wondered what that meant, but his father was back ruling with an iron fist.
“It’s either Bianca or I’ll see to it that he’s nothing but a paper-pushing public defender. Talk to your son.”
I stood in that hallway until I couldn’t stand there anymore.
It. She. Nothing. Everything but my name.
I walked back to the living room, sat down at the table, and ate Christmas dinner with my man to the best of my ability. I laughed at the right times and jokes. I helped clear the plates. I hugged his mother on the way out, and she held me a little longer than usual. Leaving me to wonder if she knew I had heard and was sorry about it.
I drove back to my place with a broken heart and tears in my eyes. I remember parking and making a beeline for my apartment. I sat on my bed, phone in my hand, and knew what we had to do.
Loving the way we loved was going to cost him everything he had earned. I’d watched Ducane study until the wee hours of the morning, his whole college career. He had started helping those in need because he thought it would show his father that he was as smart as anyone else. He worked himself half to death trying to make that man proud, and they couldn't appreciate any of it because of me.
I prepared for bed, knowing one day he was going to see it for exactly what it was, treason against his queen. He’d pull a Prince Harry so fast. I loved that about him. Adored that about him. But I couldn’t let him burn it all down for me. His name. Everything his grandfather had left him. I wasn’t going to be the reason he lost that.
I loved him too much. So, I let him go.
I came back to the water, and Ducane was looking at me.
“Where’d you go?” he asked.
The water was warm, and the sun was still sitting high enough to feel it on our shoulders. We were far enough from everything that nothing could reach us out here.
“I heard them,” I said. “Your parents. That Christmas.”
He went still, chewing on his bottom lip. “We talking about the past?”
“Yeah. It’s the only way to move forward, right?”
“Okay. What you saying, Skye?”
“The night I ended it. I got lost in that big ass house.” I held his gaze. “I heard your father say some mean things about me. Probably true. According to everyone, I had too much influence on you, and you were throwing your life away following behind some girl from nothing.” I paused. “Your mother tried to quiet him down. She said you were grown and you loved me. That didn’t move your father. If anything, it just made him double down on his disdain for me.”
Ducane didn’t say anything.
“I stood in that hallway until I’d heard enough,” I said, tears welling in my eyes. “And then I walked back to the table and finished dinner as if nothing had happened. I decided to enjoy my last night with you because after the dinner, the move to Upland the odds were stacked against us.”
“You should’ve told me that shit, Skye. Fuck him. It was always fuck him.”
“That was the problem, Ducane. And then what? You give up your legacy, what you were due?”
“We would’ve figured that shit out. Thugged it out. You made a decision for me and forced me to accept it.”
