Page 9 of Almost Paradise

“Are you living in some alternate universe where you told me you were pregnant?”

“Areyou?” He snatches my wrist, and I know there’s no way I’m getting away from him until he’s ready to let me go.

“You want to play games, Nia? Okay, let’s play. You seem to have forgotten who I am, so let me remind you. I tried to do this the nice way—”

“By barging in here, punching walls, and breaking my work laptop? You want me to lose another job? I don’t have a trust fund to hide behind, and I have a child to raise.”

“I’m talking now, so you better listen.”

“I don’t better do a goddamn thing,” I yell, but he continues as if he didn’t hear me.

“You will let me have access to him immediately. If you don’t, I will have a team of lawyers ready to take everything from you by morning. Do you hear me? I’ll takeeverything, including him.” My blood runs cold at his threat. I let out a guttural scream and smack him as hard as I can across his face with my free hand. He doesn’t move an inch. I don’t even think he blinks from the impact.

“I’ll kill you first, Paradise. Doyouhearme? I will fucking kill you before you can ever get close to my son. You abandoned him before he was born, and now you want to walk in here as if you didn’t reject the both of us?” I scream into his face.

“Why do you keep saying that to me? That never happened, and you know it. Cut the shit, Nia.”

We stare at each other, both of us breathing heavily. Neither of us ready to give an inch.

“You goddamn liar.” My words come out quiet but hostile. “You are psychotic.” The anger in his eyes dims and is quickly replaced by what looks like pain, but it soon disappears. “Let me go.” He doesn’t. We both stand there breathing as if we just ran a marathon.

The front door of the house opens, but he still won’t release me.

“Ni!” my brother Ray yells. “I snuck out of school a little early. Why is there a hundred-thousand-dollar car in the driveway?” I don’t answer, but I hear his heavy footsteps come down the hall. “Oh,” is all he says when he sees us. He looks from Drake to me and back to Drake. Ray shakes his head and lets out a breath. “Dammit, Ni. Of all the white boys on earth,” he mutters almost to himself.

“What did you just say?” Drake asks, clearly offended, but Ray doesn’t deign to answer him.

My brother’s never met Drake. No one in my family has. The only person who knew about him before I had to admit I was pregnant is my cousin Audrey. None of my friends met him either. That’s not what we were. We were two people involved in a physical relationship. That’s it. Ray has, however, looked him up on social media, but that’s no easy feat because Drake is not on social media. He never has been. The only way Ray can stalk him is from the Paradise Construction social media.

“Let my sister go,” he orders. Ray may not be as tall as Drake, but he’s over six feet tall too. He was a wrestler in high school and college and knows how to handle himself. He’s also not the type to let any man manhandle a woman, especially a woman in his family. “Do it before I break your damn hands.”

Drake doesn’t follow Ray’s orders. Drake doesn’t follow anyone’s orders, but I manage to yank myself away from him. He holds both hands up as if he comes in peace.

“I’m only here about my son.”

“You can’t be serious,” Ray scoffs. “You’re about three and a half years too late.” Ray stands between us, but he faces Drake. “You need to go. Right now. I will have no problem beating your ass if you even look in my sister’s direction again.” Ray has a calm way about him. He’s a deep thinker and rational. He’ll also make good on his threat.

For a moment, I panic. Drake was raised to think he runs the world. He has money, power, and influence. Ray does not. I try to go around my brother to get between them, but he presses his back to me, pinning me to my desk.

Drake looks around my brother and says, “This isn’t over. Remember what I told you.”

“Don’t come to my house and threaten me. Get out.” We stare at each other for a few more seconds before he walks out of my office and out of the house. He slams the door so hard, the entire house shakes. I only exhale when I hear a car peeling out of the driveway.

Chapter 7

Drake

“I want full custody, so get started on that,” I tell Wyatt. “And what about punitive damages? Isn’t that allowed for reprehensible behavior? What’s worse than keeping someone away from their son? Take her house, car, and I want one million dollars in punitive damages. Wait. Make it ten million. No, that’s not enough. One hundred million should do it.” I know she doesn’t have anything close to that, but I don’t care. I’m well past the point of being calm and rational.

Wyatt takes off his reading glasses and tosses them across his desk. He closes his laptop and puts his hands on top of it.

“You do realize I’m a corporate attorney, right? I’m not a family lawyer. I don’t handle custody cases, my friend.”

“I’m not your friend. I’m your fucking boss,” I remind him.

“Oh, get off your high horse, you rich jerk. You’re being an ass. That’s from friend Wyatt, not employee Wyatt.” I stand from my chair and tower over him. He leans back and sighs, completely unbothered. He has no wife, child, or girlfriend. He doesn’t even have a dog, so maybe he doesn’t have a care in the world, but I do. Every second that passes without my son is like a ticking time bomb. I’m almost ready to explode.

“You don’t scare me, man. I’m the same height as you. And you’re a week older, so I can probably beat your old ass if I must.” He can’t, and we both know it. We both also know I’m not going to do anything more than fuss at him. We’ve been friends since we were assigned to be roommates at Dartmouth. “Sit down and let’s talk about this like two rational people.”

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