Page 11 of We Could've Been
“From what the PI found. The lease in his name was signed four months after you two got married. I’ve drafted up the papers. When is he supposed to be back?”
“Two days.”
“What can I do until then?” Mr. Luther asked.
“Nothing. I’m calling the movers. Forward everything to the penthouse,” Cyanna directed. “This should be a clean divorce?”
“He can’t contest it. He’s been cheating. Call me if you need me.”
The call ended and Cyanna got busy taking out the trash. Well into the night, she piled his things up in the car he left in the garage. Every single stitch of clothing, books, trinkets, whatever. She drove in her pajamas to the address where he’d been playing house and parked it.
When morning came, she took her bags to her car, handed the keys over to the movers and made her way to the penthouse she inherited. How her father acquired all of these properties and still wanted to the politic his block was amazing. Even in his control, he still had a good head for business. Letting the firm fail was a way to keep the feds off of his trail. Product of an OG Azul Heart living a legitimate life was his ultimate dream. She’d done it. Cyanna could appreciate her accomplishments after she got over this sting.
She scrolled through her phone, reading the texts from Karys. One was important.
K: I’ll be back in a week. If he’s still around, I’m sliding that nigga out my way.
SEVEN
Karys
“You fucked that bitch in my house?” Yanieca screeched as he trekked down the stairs with his team-issued duffle bag flung over his shoulder.
He stopped midway and looked down at her. He was positive he told them to drive her right back to her house. From her scowling, make-up smudged face to the view of his front yard where she parked haphazardly on the manicured lawn and smashed the glass of the front door in with a rock – he had his answer.
“How you want me to get you up out of here? Hm? Throw your nutty ass out or have the law come get you? I’m not opposed to either,” Karys said. If anyone were to look at him closely, they would know his affiliation. Sapphire hooped earrings, the pendant that was once his father’s hanging around his neck, the blue clover bracelets around his tattooed wrists.
“Answer me. You fucked that bitch in the house we were supposed to make a home?” Yanieca sounded off again.
Karys wanted to be a gentleman about this break up. He wanted to give her the ‘it’s me not you’ speech, break her heartwithout the brutal blow. Like Cyanna, he’d been masking who he was for the sake of brand safety. He was an Azul Heart, inducted into the gang during his last year of middle school. The only thing that kept him on the straight and narrow was his father’s best friend. Cyan Brooks. Cyanna’s father. That bullshit of a prenup and trust was to keep his daughter from marrying a man affiliated like her father. Fear of watching his daughter go through the hell he’d put his wife through. From the reality his father had fallen too.
It was in him, and he kept it at bay. For years fighting it and it’d made him complacent. It had wasted valuable time he couldn’t get back. It made him choose women like this to occupy his time with. Denying who he was at this core made him fuck up and almost lose the only thing to keep his feet on the ground.
“I want you to look around, Yanieca,” he replied coolly. “This is her house. I fucked her in her house. You think you doin’ all that hootin’ and hollerin’ is going to make a nigga like me cower and do what, tell you some slick shit? Nah. I’m done with that. I’m done with you. Figured you’d get the hint when I had them take your drunk ass home.”
“I didn’t mean shit to you?” Yanieca asked, starting the lip quiver and the fake tears. “You can’t just break up with me. I might be pregnant.”
Karys laughed. A heart roar that vibrated the walls. “Pathetic and funny as fuck.”
He finished making his way down the stairs. His heavy steps stalked toward her and stopped within a foot of her. “Might be, huh?”
“Yeah,” she said, a lie he watched form.
“I’ve only entered one woman raw and she’s due to move into her house in a week. You? I never touched you without a condom that I brought; that stayed in my possession. Nice try.I’m assuming that with this break up, you’re going to quit again. Go ahead. They’ve already cleaned your desk out.”
“K-karys…why are you doing me like this?” she whimpered.
“I wanted to do this gently, like my representative. But this morning, I found out every time we were off, you and your little friend Jackie were fucking on each other and Damari. Stupid me for not thinking that if that nigga snaked me out once, he wouldn’t do it twice. I’m cool on you. So again, how do you want to get out of my girl’s house?”
Yanieca’s face fell flat at the realization that Karys clocked her bullshit. This ride to the top had come to a screeching halt thanks to his assistant who’d verified everything. She even went as far as calling the news a birthday gift.
“I’m on a time crunch; the faster you figure it out, the faster I’m on my way to Majestic Heights,” Karys added, looking down his nose at her.
“I’ll-I’ll leave,” her voice compared to earlier was smaller. Defeated.
“‘Preciate it.”
Yanieca took a last look around the space that could’ve been hers and dragged herself out of the house. She got into her car, backed up, and took the long ride back to her house where she should’ve stayed and avoided going toe-to-toe with him.
