Page 66 of Forsaken Vows

I sank onto the couch—the same one where she used to lay with her head in my lap while I read briefs or watched the game.

And now she was pregnant by somebody else.

Telling me she was leaving me.

I just stared ahead, jaw locked, replaying the humiliation of seeing her swollen belly.

She had walked out without looking back.

Turned our marriage into a phase.

I clenched my fists until the cut in my palm throbbed in time with my pulse.

She would pay.

Maybe not today.

Maybe not tomorrow.

But the world had a way of circling back.

I had no plan. Just rage.

And sometimes, for men like me, that was enough.

Chapter 32- Zane

I hadn’t had my nails done in months. Not since before the morning sickness kicked in and life started moving fast and loud and messy.

Sam told me he was taking me to get them done. I knew he was trying to keep my mind off Mark. He’d called my lawyer the night after the restaurant incident and demanded I meet him before he would sign the papers. Neither my lawyer nor Sam thought that was a good idea.

We pulled up to a Black-owned spot in Tampa I’d heard about on TikTok.

Sam opened the door for me and planned to try.

The smell of lemongrass, peppermint oil, and cocoa butter hit me first.

I was waiting at the reception desk when Sam grabbed my face and turned me so I was looking at him. He smiled—that same cocky, melt-you-down smile he always had when he was up to something.

“What?” I asked, half-frowning.

“You said you wished you had a friend to go baby shopping with—for the baby, the shower, and all that…”

I blinked at him, confused. “Okay… and?”

“So why not the OG? Your day one?”

“What are you—”

“Look,” he said, stopping me mid-sentence, pointing toward the back of the shop.

I turned my head and saw her.

Tocara.

Thick and glowing, standing behind the reception desk like she owned the damn place. Big curls piled on top of her head, gold hoops swaying, her eyes locking on mine.

“Bitch,” she breathed.

---