Page 5 of Justice II

“Are you planning to leave?” he asked.

I nearly spilled my drink. “Why would you ask me that?”

“You’ve been a lil off. You know you can tell me anything that’s on your mind. There’s nothing off the table when it comes to us.”

“I’m good. I’m still here.” It pained me to lie.

I took a sip of wine to buy myself a few seconds. Leaving had always been part of my plan once I saved enough money, but Storie had turned it into a deadline.

“I haven’t made any plans…” yet. The yet didn’t leave my lips but it was lingering there.

“Good, because I’ve been making plans for us.”

Justice set his glass on the table and turned toward me. I put my glass on the table in front of me and braced myself.

“I’m tired of sneaking around my own house,” he said. “I don’t want you slipping out of my room before sunrise or worrying about who might catch us kissing. I want to be with you for real, Skye, and I want us out in the open. Besides, they already know.”

“You want to tell your family about us?”

“Yes. We ain’t all that slick anyways. I’m grown and I’m not about that sneakin’ around my own house life. For what?” He smiled, but I could only stare at him. “I’m serious. I want to take you out without acting like you’re just Rita’s caregiver. I want you beside me because you’re my woman.”

Hearing him call me his woman should have made me happy. I had imagined what life could be if he knew the real me. I often imagined he knew me as Melody and we were living a life out of secrecy.

Ugh, why did he choose the night I was trying to figure out how to confess that Skye had never been my name?

“What about Rita?” I asked.

“I’ll hire another caregiver for the daytime, somebody she’s comfortable with who can take some of the pressure off you. You can still help her if you want, but I don’t want your job being the excuse we use to hide us.”

“She may not accept somebody else.”

“Then we’ll take our time and find the right person. You’re staying in this house. I’m trying to give you room to be more than the woman who takes care of everybody else.”

He had thought this through. While I had been counting down the days until Storie’s deadline ran out, Justice had been making room for me in his life.

“I also want to get away with you for a long weekend,” he continued. “We can leave Friday and come back Monday. My homeboy has a vineyard in Upstate New York that has secluded luxury cabins. I was thinking we take a private plane and spend the weekend there. I’ll send the girls to their aunt in Pittsburgh. Rita will be with Quest or Prime. We need some real time alone.”

As badly as I wanted time with him, I needed to end this. Our relationship would never amount to anything. I had to tell him the truth, but I was so afraid. I needed to get out of this house first and tell him over the phone or something.

The fear was paralyzing. I had to make some very hard decisions and that meant I might not be able to rescue my son Keenan from his father. My plan was to earn enough money, get him from his father and leave the country.

Justice’s strong hand extended to my knee, resting there gently. His touch sent a wave of tingles up my leg and to my inner sanctum. I was going to miss his touch. But I didn’t deserve it.

“I know finding Midnite like that messed you up. I’m sorry you had to see it, and I’m sorry I brought Kira around my family in the first place. But I handled her. You ain’t gotta worry about her no more.”

“What does that mean?” My heart sank to my belly. I could feel my stomach twisting in knots, tangled like natural hair that hadn’t been trimmed in years. Damaged.

“It means she has bigger problems than us now.”

“Justice, did you hurt her?”

“She’s alive, if that’s what you’re wondering. But her legacy is destroyed.”

No. NO! That woman didn’t deserve that.

“What did you do?”

“I made sure she regretted bringing harm to this family. She was a liar. I will crush anyone who brings harm to those I love.”