Page 34 of Pieces of Us

I nodded, roving my eyes over her frame. Morgan had always been thick, but she was stacked now. Her once long hair was now cut just above her shoulders. Those dreamy eyes were still bright, and her lips were still pink and plump. The diamonds in her ears had to cost a fortune.

“Who do we have here?”

“T-this is…my daughter Megan.”

Baby girl looked at me with those same dreamy eyes as her mother, but hers were the same color as…

“I’m sorry…Can I speak with you outside for a moment?”

“I—She caught a bug. I just want to make sure she’s okay and get her some medication.”

She was stalling. Why?

“It’ll only take a second.”

“I’ll be fine, Mommy. Go.”

Morgan hesitated a bit before she followed me out of the room. I led her down to my office a few doors down then closed the door behind her as soon as she walked in.

“Hemi—”

Before she could finish her sentence, I pulled her into my chest and held onto her tightly. My fingers nestled in her mass of hair to massage her scalp. Fuck, I missed this. I missed her in my arms. I missed kissing her plump lips. I just fucking missed her period.

But there was one thing I had to know…

“Tell me you wouldn’t do that shit to me, Mo Boogie. I need to hear you tell me that’s not my fucking kid sitting in that room.”

Morgan’s arms came around me in a tight hold as I felt her body quiver against me, confirming what my heart already knew.

This couldn’t be real. This had to be a dream. I pulled her back some as I gently took her by the chin, staring into those sad, dreamy, tear-filled eyes.

“Tell me, baby.”

Her eyes fell away before they closed, and she nodded. I stepped away from her, going to my window and staring out of it.

“I-I d-didn’t have a ch-choice.”

What did she mean she didn’t have a choice?

“You never did.Wenever did. Everything that could possibly come against us did. I loved you more than anything. We connected in a way that even after almost fourteen years of being without you, followed me into my adulthood.”

“I never stopped loving you either, Hemi.”

I turned to face her.

“Then why would you not contact me after finding out you had my seed? What am I supposed to do with this information, Mo? Does she even know I’m her father? Did you at least give her that since you couldn’t give it to me?”

“I couldn’t. After I found out, my father cast me away from the outside world. I was homeschooled for a year. After I hadher, I started college. He made me believe that it was a good idea to keep her identity a secret—”

“He had that much influence over you? The Morgan I knew would have never kept information of this magnitude away from me.”

“I was afraid, Hemi. He said that he would get you and your family locked up if I told you. I didn’t want that for you.”

“Fuck your daddy, Mo. Disrespectfully. I don’t give a fuck what he told you. He didn’t have concrete proof that my father was doing anything, even though that bum used to work for him. My father moves discreetly. It’s why he was able to do what he does for so long. He hung that shit over your head, making you believe that’s what he would have done, and that bum didn’t know shit. And now, I have a thirteen-year-old daughter that I’m almost sure won’t be receptive to me.”

My eyes traveled over her again, now spotting the ring that was mounted on her finger. I scoffed and chuckled.

“And you’re fucking married.”

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