Page 29 of Her Loyalty

"Na' fuck it. I'a pay." He spat, looking over to me.

"Bitch don't wan' pay for you to graduate I'a do it myself. I don't give a fuck if I gotta hit the block everyday, every night."

"You graduatin' and that's it!" He spat angrily and I couldn't help but to cry because just like that he'd came up with a solution to fix my problem and here I was doing the absolute most. Cheating for nothing.

"You ain't gotta cry, baby. I ain't gon' nowhere." He tried to grab me and I shook my head, crying in my hands.

"I already told you that."

"No." I sobbed, pushing him away.

"That's not all." I went on and he furrowed his eyebrows, finally sitting down beside me.

"Aight. Go ahead, I'm listenin' ma."

Sniffing, I looked over to him as he pulled me closer, using the pads of his thumbs to wipe my tears.

"When she told me that she wasn't going to pay if I didn't leave you, I begged her not to be that way. I begged her." I explained and he nodded slowly.

"So she ended up giving me an ultimatum."

"She told me the only way she would continue to pay is if I left you and.." I trailed off, looking at him as he waited and listened.

I knew I was about to hurt him.

"If you left me and what, T?" He spoke sternly and my lip trembled, not able to hold on any longer.

"Baby, I cheated on you."

*

10.

Tiana

"Baby, I cheated on you." I blurted out in sobs and when I said it, the look on his face was unreadable. It was blank.

He said nothing as he sat there, just looking at me.

"Babe-"

"What the fuck you just say to me?" He finally spoke, slowly standing up to his feet.

Saying nothing at the moment, I pulled my phone out and scrolled to the messages with Connor and I.

The ones that Deja obviously already saw.

"Just look." I told him, simply giving him my phone so he could see for himself.

I felt ashamed as I looked down at my hands while he stood there obviously in shock. He then began to scroll through the messages and as he did I began to cop my plea.

"My mom told me that if I didn't get with the man she wanted me to be with then she wouldn't pay for me to graduate."

"So I got in another relationship a month ago with a white guy she set me up to date." I explained to him as he looked away from my phone and glared at me.

"But babe you need to know that I only did this to graduate and it's over now. I told her I wouldn't be with him anymore. I couldn't do this to you, to us." I pleaded, trying to pull him to me but he roughly pulled away, flaring his nostrils.

"Tiana." He spoke through gritted teeth, closing his eyes.

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