Picture Perfect

20.

She's wearing a sheer dress that's covered in stones that work together to conceal what needs to be left to the imagination, well enough. Still very risqué, I'm surprised her man let her come out the house like that.

If it were me, we'd still be in there, and that dress most definitely would've came right off and stayed off.

And she cut her hair. It's cute but I'm definitely concerned with the choice. Well, I'm curious. Is she grasping for something that isn't there and making physical changes to cope or fill a void? Is it a control thing?

Before she was killed, when the back and forth got really bad in her relationship, my sister cut and colored the hell out of her hair. She became this different person entirely. But she was still Karsyn to me. I still loved her.

The two of them walk in and separate almost instantaneously.

It's about 30 more minutes before Jabari gets Elijah to distract Garrison for a while by introducing him to a women's rights advocate. She's made up some idea for the two of them to partner on for the sake of his image.

When he's deep into the conversation, I watch and follow Samantha out of the main ballroom.

She takes the shoes off in the foyer and quickly disappears around the corner and into the furthest hallway. This side of the building is barely even lit. I catch her as she makes her way into the bathroom and as the door swings closed, I stop it with my hand and walk in.

She throws the shoes down and turns to face the mirror. She completely breaks down. I quickly close and lock the door behind myself.

I run over next to her and I lift her face up off of her arms that rest upon the counter.

"Hey, Samantha what's going on ma?" I try to catch her gaze but she's gone.

She just lets her head fall into my chest as I pull her closer to me. I rest my hand on the back of her head trying to not manipulate her hair too much. Though it's so soft, and it smells so good. And she looks so beautiful, even when she's crying.

Her phone rings. And she gets a text.

"Is this your guy?" Is the first thing she hears when she picks up, it's Elijah. I can't tell even though the music in the background is still very much the main thing being heard on the call.

She unlocks her phone and opens the message. It's a picture of some white guy.

Her breath hitches.

"Yes- how did you? That was so fast."

"Give me 24 hours and you're doing too much. Now you've got what you wanted, come have fun. Or... am I interrupting something?" She drags snickering.

Samantha looks at me and smiles. She takes my hand. "Kinda, keep feeding the dog some treats for me." She says hanging up. "Get him pissy drunk for me Eli..." she whispers staring down at her phone.

I furrow my expression starting at her.

"What was that about? Who is that?"

"Travis. I think he's my way out."

"What?"

"You said you trusted me?"

I remain silent unsure of what to say.

"What are you going to do?"

"Right now, I'm just going to spend a few minutes with you... I miss you."

"Damn, just a few minutes?" I smile leaning down to put my forehead to hers.

She laughs.

I take her face in my hands and softly press my lips against her wet glossy ones.