Page List

Font Size:

“And I did it all for you!”And now we’re at guilt.

“Don’t lie to me! You did it for yourself! For the lifestyle that you’re afforded for keeping your mouth shut. The money that he’s been taking from me for years kept you happy as long as you kept me in line. Don’t lie to me! You put me down, you try to keep me in a box so the least you owe me is the truth. There has not been one moment in my life that you weren’t trying to use me to gain his approval. And for so long I was doing the same thing you were: shrinking myself to make him look better. Finding fault within my every action so that I could make his criticism of me feel less severe because I agreed. And all it did was damage my self-esteem and my mental health. Hell, I risked my physical health because I was letting him train me to death just to prove I could hang. I hope you enjoyed the years you had me under your thumb because they’re over. This is over. Whatever happens between you and him from now on, I’m not in it. Y’all have triangulated me into your fucked up relationship for too long and I’m taking a step back. Anthony cares about me. Told the whole world when he provided me shelter when cameras just wanted to capture my pain. And the man proves it every chance he gets. When the two of you tried to hold me back he gave me the peace I needed with no questions asked. So never try to tell me that love doesn’t exist because you haven’t experienced it. I have. Every morning I wake up with a smile on my face because Anthony Phillips gives me what you guys never would.”

“Are you done?”

I bit back what I wanted to say and huffed a laugh instead. “Yes, with you and with this. Don’t call me when shit falls apart. On top of your husband being a cheater he’s also a gambler. You were holding on to a man for a lifestyle he had to use your child to provide. And you alienated her. I hope the two of you can figure out how to make things work.”

“You’d let us lose the house?”

“No, but you won’t be living in it for much longer. Your husband signed the deed over into a trust for me to ensure that you couldn’t get your hands on it if you ever divorced him. It was also collateral for a small business loan I had to pay back for him so it’s mine in full. You all will need to find somewhere to go.” I knew the wheels in her head were running rampant with the information she either didn’t know or turned a blind eye to.

“You’d put us out on the street?”

“I’m not sure what part of cut off you didn’t grasp but I’m not joking. I’ll be selling it and if you all can buy it at market price, have fun. My things have already been removed and the home has been documented so any damage that is done will be on you guys if you try to destroy anything. And I will sue. You know Billy already has an attorney for me lined up.” I smiled thinking of the paperwork we’d gone over at lunch.

“I can’t believe that you would do this. And for you to think your father is broke is ridiculous.” My mother sounded so personally insulted at the idea her man was broke I had to clue her in on the life she seemed to happily float through on other people’s dime.

“Your charge cards, I pay them. I never told you because I wanted him to still keep his pride and stay off my back. I hoped that by letting him save face he would give me leniency but that stunt with Christopher was the end of that. His anger at my having to handle his responsibilities still hasn’t earned me therespect I deserve as the breadwinner in this family. Instead, y’all seem to think I’m beholden to you both and that ends today.”

“Aphrodite—”

I shook my head refusing to let her bait me into staying on the line. “Goodbye, Mother.”

I hung up the phone and felt lighter and also heavier at the same time. My sigh came from the weariness of my soul as I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling.

“You good?”

I jumped at the sound of his voice and looked at the door. Anthony’s concern was all over his face and I hated that he saw me allowing them to get to me again. “I thought you were gone.”

“It’s just a lift day so it wasn’t going to take hours. Told you that I had everything under control while you were worrying.”

I smirked thinking about our early morning session he referenced. He was making me cum and I was worried he wasn’t going to be on point today. “I was doing more than worrying.”

He nodded with an arrogant smile on his face as he dropped his bag on the floor and walked toward where I was on the bed.

“That you were. That pussy was weeping tears of joys and I was happy to be the reason for it. But don’t try to distract me from all that. Are you good?”

He lay down on me stretching out so his head rested on my chest. My hand immediately went to his hair and I rubbed my fingers onto his scalp through the carefully stitched rows.

“Yeah. I’m not worried about them.”

“Have they really been fucking with your money?”

I sighed again thinking about how much further ahead in life I would’ve been if I hadn’t been footing the bill for everything. At least my father treated his hos on his own dime. Mostly.

“Yeah, for a while now.”

“You sound calm about it. Stealing from your kids is like the lowest shit you can do.” His anger stemmed from watching ithappen to his brother and even facilitating it. I could hear the guilt along with the digs in his voice.

“I truthfully have just looked at it as the cost of them raising me and now I don’t have to think about hearing them scream about what I owe them.”

He lifted up on his hands with his chest hovering over mine. The cross he wore around his neck with his initials on it gave me flashbacks to this morning.

“Owe? Damn, I guess they didn’t break the mold when they made my mama and daddy. That’s definitely something Jill would say.”

“How do you handle it?” Anthony skated over the pain like it was a familiar friend never letting it slow him down or stop him.

“Don’t really talk to her like that to be real. She’s messy. My mama is my mama and I try to love her, but ‘Twan has been more of a parent to me than her or our sperm donor. We’ve been close all our lives so the shit I did really tore me up.”