Page 119 of Intercept My Heart

“Look, I told you that I was going to get your money, but you have to wait. I won’t have access to the full amount until after I get married.”

“Well, maybe your future husband is the person I need to be talking to. I told you, I need half now and the other half later. They are trying to put me in jail, and I’m going to need a damn good lawyer to get me out of the mess you caused!” Porschea spat.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve demanding the other half when you never even finished the job. I said I wanted them dead! Not only did you not complete the mission, you didn’t shoot the bitch. You’re lucky that I can’t sue you to get my first payment back.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know the truck was bulletproof! Hell, I’m the one who got shot by a kid. I put my life and freedom on the line, so you’re going to pay me.”

“And what if I don’t? It’s not like you can go to the police and tell them anything. Incriminating me will incriminate yourself as well.”

“Well, for starters, I could leak our messages to a blog anonymously. Or I could send them to your future husband. You know what? I’m sure he would love to hear the truth about what happened to your little girl.”

“Don’t you fucking dare. You swore that would stay between us and my father.”

“Yeah, but like you just said, you can’t sue me when you’ve committed a crime. I’m sure the judge would be more interested in hearing about how you got into that accident because you were sloppy drunk, and you paid the doctor thirty thousand dollars to pretend that your tests and tox screens were clean. You must have forgotten how much dirt I have on you.For years, Money has grieved the loss of a daughter that never even belonged to him in the first place. I still have a copy of the original DNA test as well as the one my friend forged for you. You don’t want to play with me, Harper. I’ll bury you and get a plea deal.”

“You wouldn’t dare! I already paid you for that, and DNA doesn’t matter. Milani was his in every way that counted.”

“What about you sabotaging his relationship? Does he know that you put that date rape drug in his drink so he would think he had sex with you? From what I heard, that girl was the love of his life, and she left him because she thought he cheated. Everything you have with him has been built on your lies, and my dumb ass has been along for the ride.”

“Iam done with this conversation. Regardless of your threats, I will be getting married in two days. I’ve worked toodamn hard to get this man to marry me. No one is going to get in the way of that. Not you, not those bastard sons or their mother. I’ll contact you once this is over to make arrangements for you to get your money.”

I nodded for the musician to turn the sound off. Harper stood in front of me with a face full of tears while her parents were on the side of her. Her mother also had a face full of tears.

“Umm, how would you like to proceed, Mr. Sutton? I’m going to assume we will be postponing the service for now,” the reverend questioned.

“Yes, sir. I’m really sorry for wasting your time. I’ll make sure you’re properly compensated for the inconvenience.” He nodded before he and his staff started packing their things. The crowd sat there confused as to what they should do, so I decided to put their minds at ease. Grabbing the mic, I stepped down from the platform so that Harper and I were face-to-face.

“To our friends and family, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but there will not be a wedding here today. The venue is open if anyone would like to grab some food. I would hate for it to go to waste.” Most of our guests got up to leave, while a few of the nosy ones remained seated. I honestly didn’t care whether they stayed or left.

“When I first met you, I felt something off about you, but I convinced myself you were harmless. I guess I underestimated you, huh?”

“Money, you have to listen to me. I’m so so?—”

“You’re what? Sorry? I know that wasn’t what you were getting ready to say. Not after the way you sat here and played God with my life. I don’t even know where to begin right now. In the beginning, I felt guilty for breaking things off, but you’ve been wreaking havoc in my life since the first day I met you.”

“You don’t understand! I wanted you to notice me, but you never gave me the time of day. No matter how hard I flirtedwith you, you kept curving me. I thought maybe you weren’t interested in girls until one of my friends showed me a picture of you withher. Once I realized you were one of the faithful types, I had no other choice but to take matters into my own hands.”

“Harper, maybe you shouldn’t say anything else. You already have enough incriminating evidence against you,” her father told her.

“Did you know? Was this all a big game to you all?” There used to be a time when I carried the utmost respect for Coach Monarch, but now I was questioning everything.

“Listen, son. I encouraged her to pursue you, but I had no knowledge of any of these other disparaging things we heard today,” he said. I could tell he was lying.

“Son, I’m so sorry for all of this. Harper suffers from mental health issues, so please understand that she didn’t mean to do any of those things. We’ve been monitoring her over the years, and I truly thought she was getting better, but I can see that we made a grave error in judgment. Look, I know some of the things she’s done were horrific, and we understand you may want to take legal action against her, but we can’t allow our baby girl to go to jail. Please, if we can maybe have a sit-down, maybe we can come up with some compensation.” I chuckled angrily at her mother’s suggestion.

“Your daughter destroyed my fucking life and kept me away from my kids and the only woman I’ve ever loved. You couldn’t offer any form of compensation that would make up for that.

“You can’t pay me for the time I lost with my sons, nor can you compensate me for the grief I went through over a child I believed was mine. My family has suffered from your daughter’s lies and manipulation, and I promise y’all better be lucky that I’m trying to be a changed man because, deep down, jail isn’t enough for her. I would suggest you get your affairs in order because my lawyers will be in touch with you shortly.” I glared atHarper as she continued to scream and cry. I walked right out of the church without speaking to anyone else. I needed some fresh air because it felt like I was suffocating.

The moment I pushed the doors open, I took a deep breath in. I couldn’t believe the way things unfolded. God answered my prayers in the craziest way, but I guess I should have been happy. The idea that I could have been married to that crazy-ass girl made my skin crawl. She lay next to me at night, knowing all the fucked-up things she had done to me over the years. They thought they were going to get over on me, but I would have the last laugh.

Vacation

“This is breathtaking. I always said I would put my feet in the sand one day, but I never imagined it being this beautiful.” I stood there, rubbing my belly. The doctor cleared me to fly, but this would be the last trip until our little girl was here.

“Yeah, I don’t care for the sand, but the views are worth every penny.” Dinero stood behind me, his arms wrapped around me. I was so excited to be here with him and the kids. This was our first official family vacation, but Dinero promised we would take one every year to celebrate our family’s reunification.

“How are you feeling?” he probed, kissing the side of my neck.

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