Page 72 of If You Love Me

“You and Mommy? You’ve never said I love you to each other in front of me.”

I sighed. “I know. Things are… complicated…. different now. I need to tell you something, baby girl.”

“What is it?”

“Me and Ms. Iona broke up. I won’t go into detail about why, but we aren’t getting married.”

She looked at me for a moment like she was contemplating her words. “Are you sad?”

“I’m… I’m sad because her feelings are hurt, but I’m not sad because we broke up.”

“Did you break up with her for Mommy?”

Well shit.SometimesI forget how mature she was for her age.

I shook my head. “No, but I can’t say that my feelings for mommy didn’t play a part in it.”

“You love her, and she loves you. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

I smiled. “No, there’s nothing wrong with that. I love your mother very much.”

“Are you getting back together?”

“How would you feel if we did?”

“Happy. I love Ms. Iona, and I would have been happy with her as my stepmom, but I’ve never had you and Mommy together. I want to know what that’s like. Like, would it be like watching Nana and Paw Paw or Mimi and G-Paw or Aunt Nina and Uncle Jaime? Sometimes, I dream about it; I just didn’t say anything to you about it.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause… even though you told me about Mommy when I asked, I could see it made you sad sometimes. I didn’t want you to cry.”

I reached over and grabbed her hand and kissed it. “You can always talk to me or ask me about your mom. I had a lot of years with her, so it was natural to be sad because I didn’t have her anymore. But we have her back. I’m gonna work very hard to make sure mommy knows how much I love her and want to be with her.”

“Okay… well can I still speak to Ms. Iona at school?”

“If she speaks to you and she’s nice, that’s fine. You just promise to let me know if she’s ever mean to you.”

She looked confused. “Why would she be mean to me?”

“Sometimes people don’t take breakups very well. I’m not saying shewillbe mean to you, but you let me know if she is. Understood?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

She relaxed into her seat and started playing a game on her phone. I prayed that Iona would act like she had some sense when it came to my baby. I was a calm man, but behind my kid, I would crash the fuck out. There would be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and nobody was safe when it came to this little girl. I just prayed it never came to that.

22

Iona

Three Days Ago

I couldn’t believethis bitch hit me.

I stood in the bathroom located in the teacher’s lounge, assessing my face. She caught me off guard, and under normal circumstances, I would have molly whopped a bitch. However, I was at work, and it would be frowned upon to be caught fighting with a parent. When I walked back into the building, it was clear that Myra, the secretary, had seen the brief altercation. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she kept her mouth shut as I walked past her.

“Stupid fucking bitch,” I mumbled, dabbing the blood from my lip. “You’re gonna put your hands on me? I got something for your ass.”

I tossed the damp paper towel into the trash. I’d stopped by my office to grab my purse with my makeup bag in it. Digging inside, I pulled out the maroon lipstick and applied it.

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