My Future Husband

Chapter 27

I wait for her to scream, for her to ask me what the fuck I’m doing with her best friend cowering against a wall and the only thing between us my sleeping son.

But she doesn’t, she just folds her arms over her chest and looks the girl up and down.

“I thought you fucking left. You should, the party’s over.” Excuse me?

Sasha doesn’t look at her, she just straightens out her dress and refuses to make eye contact with me, before slipping out of the room.

“I don’t know what you saw, but I wasn’t going to-”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t have stopped you if you tried. She has a habit of knowing how to hit you where it hurts.” I raise my eyebrows at her, but she just smirks, walking in with a pile of clothes and putting them at the bottom of the bed. “I don’t know how you feel about hand-me downs, but Demitri is growing like a weed, he hardly even got to wear these, so I thought you might like them for Teal.”

“Thanks, with the rate that he grows, I’ll take anything. Some of my favourite stuff growing up was what I got from my sister. My granny was all about the hand-me downs.” She smiles, leaning back against the closet and looking me over.

“I don’t know what to make of you.”

“Well I’m an open book.”

“Really?” She looks unsure.

“I heard what you and Leticia said last night in the hallway. About Kage taking custody of my son.” If we’re going to have an honest conversation, we might as well start there.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck.”

She drops her arms, shaking her head and stepping right up to sit on the edge of the bed opposite me.

“I’m sorry, he'd never do that.” She says instantly. “Laticia...I know she can come across as a bitch, and to be quite frank, she is one, but it's because she's had to be.” We both reach at the same time for the clothes, needing to do something with our hands and folding the little onesies. “Kage told you about Mum, right? About how she was hurt by her boyfriend?”

“Yeah, he told me. He said you had to pack up your whole lives, run away.”

“Yeah, but it was harder on her. Me and Kage, we were young enough that we didn’t see everything, but she wasn’t. She saw it all, tried to stop it, got hurt herself a lot. It made her angry, protective, maybe even a little controlling.” Funny, I’ve got a brother like that too. “She doesn't hate you, and she didn’t mean it about taking Teal, she just fears anyone that comes into our lives and can hurt us. Her instinct is to fight them, hit them first, see if she can make them run. She’s the most loyal person you’ll ever meet, if she's got your back then she will die for you, but she doesn't give it easily. It’s been hard for her, not being able to be there with Kage while he’s been with you, protect him, after coming so close to losing him already.”

I’ve been so focused on how hard this must’ve been for him, for Valerie, I hadn’t even considered how bad it would be for his sisters. If I’d been the one shot in the head, hiding out in secret from the mafia for months, Milo would’ve gone insane, Jay would’ve fucking crumbled.

Brie... she would’ve burned the whole world to the ground to get to me.

“I get it, I need to earn my place with her, I just don’t know how. She won’t give me a chance. I’m pretty sure she just wants to replace me with Sasha.” Alicia rolls her eyes, getting up and walking to my side, looking at the braids I’ve been tugging on all day.