by K, S
Rob's lips twisted in bitter remembrance at how his wife told him having a husband and child wasn’t fulfilling to her anymore and she wanted to focus on advancing her career to the next level. She felt she couldn’t do that while still being a wife and mother because all of her attention would need to be focused elsewhere.
The entire time Rob was speaking, Jerra fought to hold back the tears. She wasn’t a woman who showed emotion easily outside the circle of her family and close friends. In fact, other than Darrell and DJ, her friends were her family. But sitting there listening to Rob, her heart swelled and threatened to burst. She had never thought about it in quite those terms. She always hoped and prayed that God would give her child a safe, loving home. Looking up at Rob, it was apparent Giselle had been blessed with just that.
"Thank you," she whispered in a husky voice before clearing her throat. "Giving her up was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do." Jerra could've added so much more, but she didn't want to get into the horror she'd lived through at Earl's hands. "Suffice it to say, I've felt so much guilt and uncertainty. In my head, I knew it was the right decision, but the day they took her away, I lost a piece of my heart."
Rob covered Jerra's hand with his and placed his arm over her shoulder. He dipped his head in order to catch her eyes with his. "You have nothing to feel guilty about. You did what was best for you and your baby. Don't ever feel guilty for acting out of love. Okay?"
Jerra blinked and inhaled a deep breath before nodding. "Thank you, Rob."
Chapter 26
Female heads turned as Darrell strode through the restaurant with a confident swagger evident in his step. Although casually dressed in a pair of indigo faded jeans, black leather boots and a white long sleeved shirt which he had rolled back over his forearms, he carried himself as if this was his world and everyone else merely existed in it. His demeanor wasn’t something that was learned or practiced; it had always been a part of him.
Even when he and Marcus were young and homeless, living on the streets of Philly without two nickels to rub together, an aura surrounded them that dared anybody to fuck with them. Now as men, Marcus was a successful and accomplished physician with a natural talent and Darrell was a wealthy businessman with razor sharp instincts which were respected in the business world.
They still both possessed that dangerous edge which neither hesitated to let loose if a situation called for it. Marcus kept it under control better than Darrell, but Darrell gave himself credit for having calmed down a lot since his younger days. Back then, he acted first and thought about the consequences later. That side normally didn’t come out unless somebody deliberately fucked with him or tried to play him for a fool – and Darrell Monroe was nobody's fool.
Today, he was having lunch with his friend and business partner, Carl Livingston. They’d just finished up a meeting with their accountant and decided to stop and have lunch before heading back to the office. Darrell's gray eyes lit up and sparkled as he listened to Carl relate the details of the disastrous date he'd gone on last night. The two men met four years ago when Darrell was part owner of Club Ecstasy. Shortly after marrying Jerra, Darrell sold his stake in Club Ecstasy as well as its sister club in New York, Club Fantasy, to his ace, Bryan Jefferson. When Darrell spoke to Bryan last week, though, Bryan informed him he was considering accepting an offer from foreign investors to purchase both clubs which would net Bryan a very, healthy profit. The news hadn’t really been that big of a shock to Darrell. He'd known Bry had lost his zeal for the club scene some time ago and was ready for a change.
As Darrell sat down at their table, he thought about that conversation with Bryan while Carl finished up a quick call. Things had seemed a little strange that day but Darrell dismissed it at the time because he’d been in a somber mood himself. The eighth anniversary of Roni's death was just weeks away. Even after so many years, being in the office at the club still held traces of her of presence, and it fucked with Darrell’s head.
Veronica Winston had been Bryan's cousin, but the two couldn’t have been closer if they were brother and sister. Darrell and Roni had been involved less than a year, but he’d fallen for her hard. Although she was much older than he was, the age difference hadn’t mattered in the least. They were proof that age had nothing to do with who you fell in love with. From the very beginning, the fire between them blazed white hot, and the passion, sweltering and sultry. Darrell had been with too many women to count, but had craved none of them the way he craved Roni. Her intelligence, sassy attitude, and beauty had shone through brilliantly, both inside and out.
Darrell smiled to himself as he reached for the menu the flirty waitress handed him. Her lips pushed out in a slight pout when he blatantly ignored her, still caught up in his musings. Yeah, Roni had definitely been nobody’s pushover. Above all, she’d been truthful and honest and kept it one hundred with him at all times, even when his youthful, hotheaded temper got the best of him. After the life he’d been born into, honesty and loyalty in his relationship was a must. The world was too freakin’ cold and unforgiving to have to worry and have doubts about the person he was supposed to trust above all others. When Roni died, Darrell didn’t think he’d ever find those qualities in a woman again. That is, until he met his baby. The smile on his face widened as he thought about his wife.
“What the hell are you over there grinning about?” Carl asked as he ended his call and placed his phone on the table.
Darrell glanced up from the menu “Nothin’ man.”
“Yeah right. All I need is one guess. She’s about 5’5”, creamy cocoa complexion, gorgeous dark, glossy hair and about 135 lbs. that fall into place on her frame like the perfect pieces of a jigsaw puzzle."
“Hey, hey, hey…” Darrell sent him a fake glower of warning. “You my boy and everythang, but when it comes to Jerra St. James-Monroe, I will whip a muthafucka's ass quicker than he can blink an eye. You can act brand new if you want to, but it's gonna get ya ass stomped.”
Carl burst out laughing and leaned back in his chair when he got the desired reaction he’d been gunning for. “I hear ya, bruh. If I had a good woman like Jerra, I would kill anybody stupid enough to even look at her crazy. ” The smile slowly slipped from Carl's lips. “Thought I had that once too, but guess things aren't always the way they seem, right?”
The amusement left Darrell's face as well. He knew Carl was thinking about his ex-wife, Levette, who had just gotten married to a record producer a couple of weeks ago. The ink was barely dry on the divorce decree when Carl found out she'd been having an affair for months.
"Carl, let that shit go. She ain't even worth the tissue you wipe your ass with, man."
"Easier said than done. It just seems as if this came from out of nowhere. One minute, I'm thinking we're happy, ready to start a family then she drops a fuckin' bomb on me sayin' she wants a divorce." Carl shook his head. "I tell you, no matter how many women I fuck around with to try and forget her, it doesn’t help."
Darrell wanted to be sympathetic and supportive to his friend, but to be honest, he didn’t get it. Yeah, he understood that Carl still had feelings for Yvette, but damn. The woman lied to him, slept with another man, and made him look like a fool while he'd been out there bustin' his butt to give her high maintenance ass everything she whined for. Bitch actually had nerve enough to say it wasn’t good enough but made sure she packed every piece of jewelry, fur, and clothing that filled up the two huge walk-in closets in their home before she left.
And then she took the top of the line, custom Benz he’d given her a week before she asked for the divorce too?? Shiiitt...
Darrell scoffed and tossed his menu on the table. Couldn’t have been him. He'd be damned if another man styled and profiled in something he spent his hard earned money to buy. Her gold diggin' ass woulda left the relationship just the way Carl found her – broke and without a got damn thing. Darrell didn’t know what he'd been thinkin', tryin' to wife a jump-off who’d been passed around
more times than bums on the corner passed around a forty.
Carl studied Darrell's face, accurately guessing his thoughts. "Look, I already know what you're thinking, but you got a good woman waiting at home for you every night. Jerra is one of the best. Not every man is that lucky, D."
Darrell sighed heavily and leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, I know. It's hard to even imagine goin' through somethin' like that. Man, I tell you, if Jerra ever did some shit like that to me, I would go fuckin' ballistic. They might as well get the metal bracelets ready because they'd find the bastard she messed around with ten feet under."
Carl laughed and nodded his head in agreement even before Darrell finished his last sentence. "Man, you ain't gotta preach to the choir. I already know how your crazy ass roll. Like I said, any man stupid enough to fuck with what's yours..."Carl stopped talking abruptly as he focused on something over Darrell's shoulder.
Darrell frowned when Carl blinked as if trying to make sense of what he was looking at. "What's wrong?"
Still squinting, Carl angled his head as if to get a better look. "Is that Jerra?"
"Huh?" Darrell twisted around in his seat and rested his arm along the back of the chair as he followed Carl's gaze. "Where? I just talked to her a couple of hours ago and she said she was spending the day with Keisha..."
Darrell scanned the restaurant and screeched to a halt at a table towards the back which was secluded from the rest of the patrons. Hell yeah that was Jerra - and she wasn't alone.
"What the fuck..."
Chapter 27
The room started to spin around in dizzy circles as everyone and everything around him faded to black. The only thing Darrell focused on was his wife sitting next to another man in an intimate setting, and the atmosphere surrounding their body language was suspect as hell. His heartbeat increased double time when he noticed the man covering Jerra's hand with his own, but when the bastard slipped his arm around her and tenderly caressed her bare shoulder, the gesture was like a matador waving a red cape in front of a raging bull. Without taking his eyes off of them, Darrell stood up so fast his chair toppled over and slammed to the floor.
Carl rose at the same time and grabbed his arm. "Darrell, wait! Calm down!"
Darrell jerked away from Carl's grip. "Oh, I'm 'bought to be calmer than a mu'fucka in just a minute."
"Maybe it's not what it looks like..."
Darrell glared at Carl with lightning shooting from his stormy eyes. "Not what it looks like, Carl? See, that's the difference between you and me. Even when all the signs were there, when your gut tried to tell you that something didn’t feel right you still made excuses for Yvette." Darrell pointed towards the table where Jerra sat with Rob. "I don’t know what’s goin’ on but somethin’ ain’t feelin’ right. And that muthafucka that’s got his hands on my wife? He’s a dead man!"
Carl called Darrell's name again, but Darrell only paused when he heard a familiar high pitched squeal. "Daddee! Daddee!"
At the sound of DJ's voice, Darrell swung around with the furious scowl still slashed across his face, and what he saw caused his blood to boil even more. Jerra had brought his son out on a rendezvous with her lover?? Oh hell nah! They may as well dig a grave for her too alongside that muthafucka she was hugged up with!
He took the few long, angry steps needed to reach his son and plucked him away from the young girl without a word. When DJ tried to throw his arms around Darrell's neck, Darrell held him back for a minute and ran his eyes over him to make sure he was okay then gave him a tight hug before switching his attention back to the girl. Who the fuck was this??
Darrell was livid, and his anger was so evident, she took a step back to get away from its heat. He was getting ready to ask her what in the hell she was doing with his son when the words literally stuck in his throat. A younger version of his wife was staring back at him with wide, frightened eyes.
What the…??
"Who are you!"
The demand came out brusque and harsh, and when Darrell saw her twist her trembling hands together in front of him, he tried to put bring his temper down a notch. She looked harmless enough, but damn! Shit was coming at him from all directions. First, he saw his wife cozied up in a corner with some other man and then he turns around and comes face to face with a girl holding his son who could pass for Jerra's younger twin!
When he continued to glare at her, she finally stuttered her name. "I...I'm Giselle. Giselle Valentine."
Darrell studied every inch of her face. With lightning quick precision, his eyes zoomed in on the tiny mole above the left corner of her upper lip and instinctively knew she was the same little girl in the picture who he'd thought was Jerra. Darrell's face reflected his shock as his mind desperately tried to make sense of this entire thing. As much as he racked his brain to come up with a plausible explanation, he kept returning to the same conclusion.
But...that couldn’t be it.
"How do you know my wife? Jerra Monroe."
Giselle nervously glanced towards the back of the restaurant but her father was still in deep conversation with Jerra. "She's my mother."
Hearing her confirm his suspicion shook Darrell to the core. He ignored the low curse that came from Carl, never looking away from Giselle.
"How old are you?" Darrell's voice was quiet, but intense.
"Sixteen."
Darrell quickly did the math. Sixteen. That meant Jerra had been pregnant when she left Mississippi...after Earl raped her. He briefly closed his eyes. Jerra's stepfather had gotten her pregnant.
A thousand questions assaulted his mind all at the same time – questions he had no answers to. He slowly turned to look in Jerra's direction.
But he knew who did.
Darrell glanced at Giselle. "Come on."
She made a wide berth around him and quickly walked to the table. Darrell and Carl exchanged a look before Darrell followed behind her, keeping his eyes latched on Jerra. With each step he took, he tried to rein in his temper. The only thing that stopped him from kickin’ ass first and takin’ names later was the fact that DJ was there. But he wouldn’t be forgettin’ this dude’s face. Best believe that.
Jerra suddenly became aware of Rob's arm thrown around her shoulder and his hand caressing her bare skin. Although the gesture was innocent and one of comfort, the picture they presented would look anything but innocent to anyone seeing them right now.
Uncomfortable with his closeness and the emotion she'd just shown, Jerra sat up and inconspicuously moved away. Rob dropped his arm but kept his hand on top of hers. Jerra was getting ready to slip her hand onto her lap when the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Frowning she raised her eyes, and that's when they collided with the angry, accusing glare of her husband.
Jerra had never fainted before in her life, but at that moment, she showed all the signs of doing so now. She felt lightheaded, her heart began to palpitate, and she was finding it difficult to catch her breath. Jerra fought the impending darkness with everything in her. From the tense set of his square jaw and tightness of his lips, Jerra knew Darrell was containing his anger by the thinnest of strings. Her eyes switched to DJ, then Giselle, who glanced over her shoulder to look at Darrell warily.
No! All she needed was a couple of more hours. She’d planned on telling him tonight. Tonight! This wasn’t how she wanted him to find out!
Oblivious to the impending danger he was in, Rob's hand tightened around Jerra's. "Are you okay? You look like you're going to be sick."
Jerra swallowed several times, unable to answer as Darrell stood in front of the table. When his freezing eyes shifted to their still clasped hands, Jerra sprang into action. She jerked away from Rob’s touch and bounced up out of the chair.
"Darrell!"
Rob finally became aware of the fact that they were not alone. He looked at Darrell then Giselle before he also stood up. "Honey? You okay?"
Giselle nodded but hurried over to her father's side. Rob's puzzlement deepened. His daughter
was clearly shaken and the only thing he could attribute that to was the man cutting his eyes at him with the sharpness of a switchblade. In a moment of clarity, Rob realized who he was – Jerra's husband.
"Darrell...honey...I...what are you doing here?" She cringed and wished in vain that she could take the question back the second it slipped past her lips.
Darrell's eyes narrowed to thin, cold slits.
An awkward silence fell around them. Seeing that Darrell had no intention of answering Jerra's question, Rob stepped forward to introduce himself. "Hello. I'm Robert Valentine. "
He offered his hand to Darrell, but when Darrell merely looked at it like he had shit smeared on his palm and insultingly glanced away with a sneer, Robert self-consciously dropped his hand back down to his side.
Jerra sent Rob a look of apology before she inched closer to Darrell. "I can explain," she whispered.
"Damn right you will.” His lips barely moved when he spoke.
"Darrell –"
“Mama…” Keeping an arm around his father's neck, DJ leaned towards Jerra and grinned. "Look Mama...Daddee." He jabbed a tiny finger in Darrell's chest.
Jerra gave DJ a tense smile and rubbed her forehead while taking several deep breaths. Switching to lawyer mode, she quickly decided that she and Darrell would have to discuss things later. Right now there was no other choice but to confront the issue at hand head on. "Darrell, this is Robert Valentine. And this..." Her face softened as her eyes went to Giselle. "This is his daughter, Giselle. My daughter."
Chapter 28
When she added the last two words, the expression she gave Darrell pleaded with him not to cause a scene, and that she would explain everything to him later. As pissed off as he was, the two of them still had that connection. He was going to go out on a limb and give her the benefit of the doubt - for now.