Page 25 of Dominated By Love

“I’m trying to tell you to make this shit right. I’m sure you rather hear this from me than her dad.”

“Sebastian is supposed to be my agent. I’m not worried about what he thinks about me fucking his daughter. I’m pretty sure if we went to him, he would say the same damn thing. We don’t need a baby. I got big shit coming my way. I’m not letting Sage or any other bitch get in the way of that.”

I didn’t mean to hit the boy. I didn’t even know I was hitting him until a group of people were dragging me off him and yelling about calling the cops.

“Bitch-ass nigga, I can’t wait to see Bash. I’ma make sure he drops your ass.”

The next morning, I married Sage with zero regrets. She apologized a thousand times and asked if I was sure even more times than that. I would have married her under any circumstances.

Say what you will about me, but I loved that girl from the moment I laid eyes on her. She was perfectly imperfectand beautiful beyond words. Even when she felt like she was damaged for life, I saw her for what she was worth. If I had to, I would spend the rest of my days making sure she knew that she was worth her weight in diamonds and gold.

I remembered how nervous and scared she was right before we made our vows. Even if she did it out of desperation, I took my vows seriously. Before we went and made things official, I went and spent half of my savings to get us a place where she could commute to school.

I was twenty years old, and she was barely twenty-two. It didn’t matter that we were young and dumb. I was determined to give her and the baby the best life I could. They would never have to worry about the man who thought they weren’t good enough for him. Two days later, we were in our apartment eating spicy ramen with chopsticks and planning our future. All we had was a king-sized bed and a head full of dreams. Even then, I knew that my career would take off exponentially. I wasn’t worried about anything but making my girl happy.

I was so happy that I wanted to yell from the rooftops that I had married the woman I loved. She wanted a little time to break the news to Sebastian, so I hadn’t said a word to Supreme either. I didn’t care if no one knew about us yet. I was just grateful that my princess was smiling again. I missed her smile.

My entire world came crashing down twelve days later when Jaylen showed up with some half-dead flowers and a healed cut under his eye from when I got on his ass. I wanted to kick my own ass for going to him to try to appeal to his better nature. A man who wanted to have his own child murdered didn’t have a better nature. What he had was a fear of being dropped from Sebastian’s roster.

I sat there watching and listening as he broke the news to Sebastian that he made a mistake when he hurt Sage, and hewould do everything in his power to make it right. I didn’t miss the look on his face when he found out that Sage was still pregnant. Apparently, she didn’t notice, or she didn’t care.

Either way, the day that fool came back crawling on his knees, begging for another chance, was the day my heart went on ice. The only thing she offered me was an apologetic smile. A few months later, I was served with annulment papers that I immediately set on fire. Just because Sage felt like she could trust Jaylen didn’t mean I could. I knew she would need me eventually, and I would be right there. It didn’t matter whose possession she was in. She was mine.

Once I made it to the park, I went for a two-mile run to clear my head. I tried to make sure I got in a few miles every day no matter what. Thankfully, there was a perfect spot near the house. It took about twenty minutes since I wasn’t in a hurry. I wanted to give Sage a little alone time before I went back home. Even after a short period of time, I missed the shit out of her, so once I wrapped it up, I hopped in my car, ready to get home to my girl.

Since I’d told Sage I would grab lunch, I called her to see what she had a taste for. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t have an appetite. Besides, Sage wasn’t vegetarian. I didn’t plan on forcing my eating habits on her, but I needed her to point me in the right direction.

When I saw I had three missed calls from her, I instantly went into panic mode. Three missed calls was never a good thing. I called her back, but she didn’t answer. I was only ten minutes from my spot, so instead of blowing up her phone, I made a beeline back to the house.

7

SAGE

The first thing I did when I woke up was call my dad to check in on JJ. That boy loved his pop so much that he forgot I even existed whenever they were together.

“He’s good, baby. You know you don’t have to keep an eye on him when we’re together.”

“I know, Daddy. Don’t let him have a whole bunch of junk, though. He needs to eat his vegetables.”

“Did I let you and your brothers eat a whole bunch of bullshit?”

“No, but you ran a strict program with us. JJ made you soft.”

“Girl, you know there ain’t nothing soft about me.” He chuckled. He was absolutely right, but he also knew exactly what I was talking about.

“Yeah, OK. Let me speak to him.”

After a brief silence and a whole lot of shuffling on the other end, my son came on the line. “Hey, Ma. Pops took me to the water park downtown. You know, the new one. Now we’re on the way to get ice cream and donuts.”

“Boy, stop telling every damn thing. I told you this was a boys’ day out.”

See what I was saying? By the time my baby came home, he probably wouldn’t have any teeth. You think his granddaddy gave a damn? As long as his oldest grandchild was happy, he was happy. I couldn’t have asked for a better village when it came to taking care of my son. I only wished that his own father had the same enthusiasm as the rest of the people in my life.

“Don’t eat both, Jaylen. Pick either a donut or ice cream. I know your pops might not care about diabetes, but I do.”

“Pops, what is diabetes? My mom says you don’t care about it.”

“Tell her you’re good and hang that phone up.”