Page 135 of I See You

“No, Ma. I’m not about to sit here and listen to this shit. She is not sorry. She knew exactly what the fuck she was doing when she fucked him. Did she tell y’all this wasn’t the first time? That it wasn’t a mistake?” Her words cut like blades, and the tension at the table thickened. Ariel sat frozen, tears still sliding down her face, but her silence screamed guilt. “Her and Braxton were fucking behind my back for a month. A whole month of her smiling in my face, hugging me, calling me her sister—while sucking his dick with the same damn mouth.”

Gasps echoed, and even her mother was stunned into silence. Sean looked like he’d just been slapped. Reign turned toward her daughter in disbelief. “Really, Ariel?” her father asked, his voicelow, disappointed. Ariel opened her mouth, but no words came. She looked like a deer in headlights, stammering, lips trembling.

Sevyn scoffed. “Cat got your tongue, hoe?” Her mother’s warning glare didn’t stop her. She turned to Dorian. “Let’s go.” They started to walk off.

Then Ariel’s voice cracked through the air like a gunshot. “I’M PREGNANT!”

Everything froze. Sevyn stopped mid-step, back still turned, fingers clutching her purse. The rooftop went silent. All eyes locked on Ariel.

Sevyn’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, her back still turned to the table. Her hands began to tremble as Ariel’s words replayed in her mind on a loop. I’m pregnant. It rang louder and louder, until it drowned out everything else. Slowly, she turned, and the stunned faces around the table blurred in her periphery. The only thing she could focus on was Ariel, standing there with guilt masked as sorrow, her parents shaking their heads in disbelief.

“It’s Braxton’s,” Ariel added.

And just like that, the last bit of strength Sevyn was holding onto evaporated.

She felt the blood drain from her face, her legs heavy as stone. She didn’t speak. Didn’t blink. She just turned back around and walked away, Dorian right behind her without needing a word.

Outside, they waited silently for valet. The wind was soft against Sevyn’s skin, but her insides were screaming. Her tears streamed freely now, no longer held back by pride or restraint. Not only had Braxton and Ariel betrayed her for a month, but now they were bound forever—by something Sevyn had always dreamed of having with someone she loved. And they took that from her, too.

She wanted to feel nothing. Wanted to be cold. Numb. But all she felt was the slow tear of her heart breaking in a place she didn’t even know existed.

“Sevyn…” Dorian said gently, watching her carefully.

Sevyn didn’t look at her. “I don’t want to talk. It is what it is,” she said, her voice flat but cracking at the edges.

Dorian exhaled, knowing that tone. It was the one Sevyn used when she was breaking inside but too proud—or too tired—to show it. She knew Sevyn would shut down and disappear into her thoughts, and she hated it.

Their cars pulled up, but before Dorian could say anything else, Sevyn moved. She got in, closed the door without a word, and drove off.

She had somewhere else to be—Jada’s soccer game. It wasn’t much, but it was something to focus on. Something to take her mind off the mess, the betrayal, the growing emptiness gnawing at her chest. Because if she sat still too long, she’d feel it all.

And right now, feeling anything was too much.

???

As Sevyn drove to the soccer game, her phone lit up with Hassan’s nameacrossthescreen.Themomentshesawit,herbrokenheart thumped hard in her chest. Without thinking, she pressed the green button.

“Hey, friend,” she said with a small chuckle, the weight pressing against her chest lifting just a bit. That light laugh at the end of her greeting warmed something deep inside her.

“You just gon’ call me that now?” he asked, his voice in that usual low tone—flat, but she could hear the quiet amusement behind it.

“So we’re not friends?” she replied, feigning a pout like he could see her expression through the phone.

There was a pause, just the sound of his breathing filling the silence. It wasn’t awkward—it was loaded. Familiar.

“Everything okay?” she asked, keeping her voice even, hiding every emotion clawing at her from the inside. She wasn’t in the space for a therapy session, not today, but something about hearing his cold, calm voice steadied her in a way nothing else could.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, cutting through her silence.

She shook her head, chuckling softly in disbelief. It didn’t matter how still she made her voice, how carefully she swallowed her pain— he always knew. Always felt it. And it scared the hell out of her every time. She was supposed to be the one reading him… yet here he was, doing the same to her without even trying.

“Nothing. I’m headed to a soccer game,” she answered, trying to keep her tone light, even as she wiped away tears with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“Send me the address,” he said, voice still even. Still emotionless.

But it made her blink.

“You want to come to a soccer game?” she asked, surprised.

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