I huffed and stepped out of the limo. Jacob’s arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into his chest.
“I won’t let this break us. It can’t,” he said with his face nuzzled against my neck.
“It has. It did. We are broken forever after this,” I said, trying to pull out of his strong, unrelenting hold.
“You must not forget that our love is stronger than Justine’s tricks. She has tried her best to ruin us the entire time I have known you. This is just another one of her schemes.” A couple stopped in front of us and Jacob sidestepped so he could allow them into the building. However, he didn’t let me go. “I don’t want to talk about this out here,” he said, grabbing my hand into his before I could get an inch away from him.
“I’m done talking, Jacob.”
“Let’s go to our room.”
“Your room. And if you need to be told in your room that it’s over, fine with me.” I walked ahead of him and onto the elevator.
“She snuck into our home when the power was out. I was half asleep and disoriented.”
“Oh yeah. When was this magical night that you caught dementia and fucked the shit out of Justine?”
“That’s not fair, Destiny. It was the night the power went out in the entire city, and you were out with Tasha and I couldn’t get a hold of you. I had been worried sick about you being out in the weather, but I talked myself into resting, telling myself that you were with Tasha so you would be fine. I was so happy when I sat up on the lounger after that nap and saw you walk into the room wearing your red negligee.”
“It wasn’t me, Jacob! You let her do this to us, again.”
“She wore your gown to disguise herself. She wore your perfume. She wouldn’t let me touch her, so I thought you were trying something different.”
He stepped close to me and I slapped him with all the dragon-fire burning through my spirit. “She’s a white woman Jacob and I’m black. That shit sounds ridiculous! Don’t you dare treat me like I’m an idiot.”
“Destiny, it’s the truth. When I went to flip the switch to see if the light was working, you, well she, halted me by placing a finger on my lip. It was pitch black in there. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. And then…then we made love in the pitch-dark room. I thought she was you, baby. She didn’t say anything…she just…the bitch tricked me!”
I slinked against the wall, barely able to think or feel, much less look at him.
He wrapped his arms around me to prop me up.
I wriggled to get away.
He would not let me break free.
“You can’t hold me like this forever, Jacob. At some point, I will get free and I am going to leave you. I will never forgive you for sleeping with her or keeping this secret, knowing what she has done to me. And you just went through with our wedding like nothing ever happened. Now, I have guards all around me because she thinks that you are hers.”
“Baby, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to see this pain-filled look in your eyes that you have now. Seeing it not only breaks you, but it breaks me, and we are stronger than that.”
“You’re damned right, it breaks us. How could you not know her body from mine?” I asked, pressing the point of him not appreciating me as intimately as I thought he did. It made me feel cheap, like I came a dime a dozen, and the feeling was nauseating.
“Ugh!” Jacob roared his outrage.
The elevator doors popped open to the floor he rented out for us. I stormed out into the hallway and he opened the door to the penthouse. His hand came crushing down on the wall.
“I’m livid for not knowing how to answer your question. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but I felt a bit woozy from my nap. I don’t know if I thought she was you because I was half asleep and it was so dark. She’s your height and weight, and the whole time I thought it was you. God knows that’s the truth. Not a day has gone back that I haven’t wished I could take it back.”
“But you can’t take it back, can you Jacob? You slept with the very woman who has spent the last year trying to kill me. Congratulations.” I pushed his chest. “I can’t do this, right now.” I ran to the bathroom, so he wouldn’t see my tears fall.
Jacob blocked me from closing myself in the bathroom. “Don’t lock me out. Please darling, don’t block me out.”
“I don’t have anything further to say, Jacob. Everything that has been done is done, on both of our accounts. Maybe this just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Destiny, don’t do this,” Jacob said.
“I need to use the bathroom in private. Can I do that, please?”
He stepped away, allowing me to close the door.
Thankful that he allowed me the time to wallow in my pain alone, I began to whimper.
“Baby, please, let me in,” Jacob pled.
Whimpers turned into weeping cries as I turned on the water in the sink to splash my face. “I can’t believe this is happening!” I said and cried some more. “Why Jacob, why?” I wailed, as the bathroom door came crashing open.
And Jacob was all over me. He forcibly turned me to face him and his lips crashed into mine. At first, I resisted him with ardent fervor, pushing him with all the strength in my body. I didn’t want him near me.
“Get away from me,” never met the sound barrier with coherence as he muzzled my demands with his overbearing lips.
“No…never. I’m never letting you go. I love you.”
"I hate you! I’m pregnant with your child,” I murmured against his lips that halted.
“Destiny, baby. You’re pregnant with my child?” He looked into my eyes that gave him the answer before he assaulted my lips again. “Junior and Montana are my kids, but I’m happy as hell that you’re having my first biological child.”
I wholeheartedly hated him for putting us in this position.
“Destiny,” he leaned his head back and looked at me again. “I will make this right.”
“How dare you get me pregnant only to let me down like this? I hate you! Our child has to be born without his father. Now, I have three children and two different fathers, and no husband.”
“I will be by your side every step of the way,” he said and the smile that played with his lips incensed me more.
He pulled me closer than close. His kiss was feral, his tongue dancing against mine, trying its best to remind me that we pledged to be soul to soul, heart to heart and body to body, forever and ever.
His arousal pressed hard into my waist, and treacherous juices gushed from my vibrating cove. Another renegade moan slipped from me. I hated…and loved him so much. In one swoop, Jacob picked me up into his arms.
My feet went flailing in protest of him trying to control a situation that he no longer had the power to control. I screamed and kicked, “No, no, no! Put me down,” while he apologized repeatedly from the bathroom to the bedroom.
He laid me on the bed and covered me with his tall frame. Jacob kissed me hungrily as he grinded into my pelvis.
“We’re having a baby,” he said with that brand-new father look on his face.
A mixture of hunger and disgust traveled through my being, with disgust fading with each passing second.
He disrobed me rapidly, then himself. Once we were free of any barriers, he held my hands high above my head, firmly pressing them into the mattress. His warm lips raked over the skin of my neck. He sucked my flesh into his hungry lips, leaving his mark without bias.
“I am not yours to leave marks on anymore, Jacob.”
My body betrayed my words as it came alive under his. Reckless moans slipped from the depths of my throat up through my lips as I undulated beneath him. He trailed kisses down my neck, chest and stopping at my stomach to lovingly kiss his seed, which was growing inside of me. He became relentless in his movements, circling his teeth around my nipples and biting down until I felt pain.
“I’m sorry, Destiny,” he whispered his hot breath in a trail to my mouth.
As much as I h
ated him, I couldn’t feel it at that moment.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t going to keep me, Jacob.”
He spread my legs wide, mounted me and entered me with one thrust, his shaft deep inside of me, punishing me for his transgressions. His lips forcibly took over my mouth as I lay helpless to the feeling of wanting my husband, but not wanting him all the same. He hammered into my tender flesh, exhibiting his need for what would be his one last time. His pounding drive into my aching pussy was enough to keep me completely submissive to his plunder.
Jacob growled from deep within and I couldn’t help but think about him in our home with her. So many tears flowed from my eyes and hit the covers beneath me wetting the bed with his senseless betrayal.
Jacob retracted from me, kissing my tears away. His breathing ragged, but the crease lines on his forehead ferocious.
His fist slammed down into the cottony sheets beside my head. He got up from the bed and pulled me up to hug me in his arms.
A flurry of “I’m so sorries,” and “I’ll never hurt you agains” brushed against my earlobe as I got dressed. Finally, I felt released from stronghold. Still, it wouldn’t be easy saying goodbye.
Chapter Seven
Destiny
Each passing day, I found it harder to forgive Jacob. I did go back to Miami with him, but after day three I moved out of our bedroom and into the guestroom. It took some hard negotiating for Jacob to let me leave our bedroom without protesting. He didn’t want me to leave our home altogether, so he gave me space.
However, three weeks after finding out that he slept with Justine, the Miami Herald printed an article stating that “Convicted Murder Justine Parker Claims to be Pregnant with the Heir to the Turner Enterprise.” I immediately began shipping my belongings back to Atlanta, after reading that article.
Justine had been sentenced to twenty-five years for the murder of her ex. DNA evidence and her lipstick being found on the scene was the nail in her coffin. Now, the murderous bitch was calling up news outlets telling them that she was pregnant with Jacob’s baby.
“Stay with me, Destiny. We can work this out,” Jacob said as he stood in the door of our master bedroom closet watching me pack.
I slammed my last suitcase shut with my mind reeling over how fast our love story had gone from everlasting to finished.
“Jacob, this is the end of our journey. Tasha’s on her way to take us to the airport.”
“Destiny, you didn’t have to get Tasha involved. I would have taken you or gotten someone to take you.”
“Well, I don’t need anything from you, Jacob! Not even a ride.” I had settled into the lifestyle where Jacob was taking care of me, but I had to go hard for myself and not depend on a man to do anything for me, from now on. What a wakeup call.
Jacob’s face didn’t show any emotion, other than the darkness in his sad eyes. “I know I have fucked up, and it may seem beyond repair, but I need you to know that I will never give up on us. By some stroke of good luck or good karma, we will be together again. We weren’t built to fail, so I’ll take this time as just a trial.”
“This is hardly a trial, Jacob.”
“But it is, Destiny, and you will see.”
“Okay, riddle me this. Who is going to take care of Justine’s baby while she’s locked up for the rest of her life…you? Definitely not me!”
Jacob didn’t have an answer for that question, and to be honest I don’t think it had dawned on him to think about Justine’s child.
I was right.
We were done.
If he was the father, he would be the next person in line to care for the child. He wasn’t the kind of man to neglect his responsibilities. Now, I was three months pregnant, making Justine’s supposed baby one month older than mine by pregnancy dates.
“All I know is that I love you…you, and the baby growing in your stomach. I don’t care anything about Justine.”
“But her baby, Jacob.”
“I love you.”
“Love isn’t supposed to make you cry, Jacob. I’m supposed to be happy, and I’m not. I can’t be with you until I figure out how to deal with everything that’s going on.”
“Destiny, don’t leave me. Do you want me to get on my knees and beg you, because I will?”
“No amount of begging will keep me here,” I said as the doorbell rang. “That’s Tasha,” I said walking toward the door.
Jacob caught me from behind and took my suitcase from my hand. “I’ll carry this for you. I don’t want you to hurt the baby.”
“Thanks.” I turned and walked away from him. “Junior, Montana! Come on, we’re about to leave now,” I said as I stopped by their rooms.
They ran out ahead of me and downstairs to meet Tasha.
At the top of the staircase, Jacob touched my arm.
I turned around to face him. “What?”
“This is only temporary. I’m coming for my family as soon as I can prove to you that I never meant to hurt you.”
I started to walk down the stairs, then rushed to reach the bottom, where Tasha stood boring holes through Jacob with fire and brimstone in her chocolate brown eyes. Upon making eye contact with me, she grabbed the kids hands and said, “Come on to the car with me.”
They broke free and ran over to hug Jacob’s leg and told him goodbye before galloping behind Tasha to the car.
I turned to face Jacob. I took one last look around the house that was almost mine. “For what it’s worth, I still love you and I always will, but Justine being pregnant with your child is more than I can deal with, now or at any time in the future.” And I couldn’t imagine helping Jacob raise her child, which would only be a month or two older than mine. “So, this is goodbye.”
“For now,” he said simply.
I reached my hand for my bag, but he refused to give it to me insisting that he take it to the car for me. I humped my shoulders and went and sat in the car. As far as I was concerned, it would be the last thing he ever did for me.
Chapter Eight
Jacob
Understanding is What I Need…
I woke up in the dead of the night to the sound of crickets chirping a melodic blend with the occasional frog croaking through my open window. I reached for Destiny as I had every night since she’d been gone. Her side of the bed was cold, and my hand came down to rest on her empty pillow. Not only was she absent from my bed, she was no longer in the guestroom. At least when she stayed in the guestroom, I could go stand by the door and feel her energy wafting through the air. Her essence vibrated through me in the spiritual sense, and that was enough for me. But with her gone, and hurt by my actions, I was slowly going insane.
I slid into my suede slippers and trekked along the mahogany wood of my lengthy, third-floor hallway. I peeked inside Junior and then Montana’s empty rooms, and it became excruciatingly real. My family was gone.
I had flown back to Miami hours ago, after a week of staying at the Marriott Atlanta. I tried to reach Destiny on a deep level to get her to remember me, the man she married. I wanted her to really think about if she felt I would cheat and risk losing her. I needed to get her to understand what happened, from my standpoint, but she wasn’t hearing to me.
In my mind, I kept thinking that if I didn’t know I was sleeping with Justine, technically I didn’t sleep with her. Justine’s bombshell about her baby beat my case to smithereens.
Destiny tuned me out. If she was hearing me, she wasn’t understanding how it could happen the way I said it did.
She moved back into her old house that to my chagrin hadn’t sold on the market yet. She would barely let me through the door, until I threatened to knock it down. I would never go that far. Just needed to get her attention.
Give me time Jacob.
Let me go, Jacob.
She kept asking me to just give her time and to let her go. I refused to do either. I dreaded being separated from her, and since she told me about my baby growing in he
r womb that dread went up exponentially. Her having part of me inside her was more reason I could never just let her go like she wanted me to. She was mine, the baby was mine, and there was nothing no one could do to change that.
The only reason I made the trip back to Miami without my family was to confront the people who meddled in my marriage and caused Destiny and I to come to this heart wrenching halt.
There were some bad actors from day one. If it weren’t for them needing to be addressed, I would have been in Atlanta groveling like a bitch, trying to prove to Destiny that she was the only woman for me, always had been and always would be.
My first stop after I got up and got dressed was my mother’s house. I went into the garage and hopped in my SUV. I had given Henry the day off.
Thirty minutes later, I pulled up to Mom’s freshly built village style estate. Construction was still happening on part of the mansion, but the landscaping on the front yard was complete with Miami palms strategically sculpting the driveway. She had spared no expense in building a home just as exquisite as the one my grandparents passed down to Dad; the one she had been exiled from because of her inability to be a compassionate, loving woman.
I parked my Lincoln in front of the walkway to the front door, hopped out and sighed. No man ever wants to have the kind of conversation I was about to have with my mother, but it was going down. I strolled to the door and rang the bell.
Surprisingly, it took Mom three minutes, which gave me plenty of time to think about how to broach the conversation with her.
“Why if it isn’t my—”
“She left. Are you happy?” I said before she could complete her sentence.
“Son…” she finished her statement and then asked, “Who left?”
“Destiny, she left me and she won’t be coming back, thanks to your and Justine’s constant games that you played. Now, the papers are printing that she’s pregnant with my child, which is probably just another level of the games she’s playing.” I glared at my mother. “Did you know about this?”
Loving Jacob Page 5