Imani's P.O.V.
"Ry, wake up. We're landing, you have to put your seatbelt on."
"mmhmm." She mumbled in her sleep as she tossed and turned making me lean over and buckle her seatbelt for her.
Just looking down at her belly made me emotional. I reached over and rubbed her full stomach thinking about the fact that I'm going to be a father soon. I don't think I'm ready but honestly, I don't know if anyone ever is. I'm stepping up and being the man I need to be but its a lot and I'm just trying to stay on track and not risk my future.
I know that if I relapse, Ryan won't let me see my child. It's fair and it keeps me on the right path because I want nothing more than to be everything my pops wasn't. Me and him are straight now, but it was tough growing up, I really used to hate him before I met him and we fixed things. I want my kid to know me from day one and know they can trust me and come to me for anything in this world. I see the way Aubrey is with Adonis and even the way my dad is with my lil sis and I want to be like that.
We landed and made our way through the private airport and into the waiting escalade.
"So, you're going to stay in our old place?" I asked.
"Yeah, thank you for understanding that I don't want us to live together again right away. I really appreciate how patient you've been with me. I love you, so much and I really want this to work. This time next year, I want us to be back together, running around in our back yard with our little baby. I just need time, baby"
"I love you, too." I said as I leaned over and kissed her forehead.
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Two Hours Later
We finally landed in Toronto and I dropped Ryan back at our old apartment. She's staying there until I find her a new spot with enough room for her and the baby. Because were technically not back together yet, I'll be staying at the apartment that the Raptors give all the players with their contract. It's nothing crazy but it really close to the practice gym so it helps to keep me out of trouble.
My phone buzzed and I saw it was my teammate Gary Trent, he was texting me saying he was at the practice gym now, reminding me that we have practice today. I got my bag together and headed to the gym. I was excited to get back in the gym and see the rest of he guys but I was also nervous about how they would react to me being back and what they're gonna say.
At Practice
"I know it's early, but this feels like a championship team! We got one of the stars of last years championship winning team back on the squad! Imani Smith! It's great to have you back with us."
"Thank you for having my back. It's been a tough road back since last season but I'm here and I'm ready to put in work and take us back to the chip!"
"That's what I'm talkin bout!" One of the guys yelled!
I was happy to be back and I was even happier to see that nobody was judging me for everything that happened in the offseason.
I made my way back to my apartment to eat and then get back in the gym for some weight training and then get back for my biweekly online NA meeting. These meetings aren't my favourite thing, but they are what I need to do. When I was in rehab they stressed how important NA meetings and having a sobriety sponsor is to staying clean long term.
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Aubrey's P.O.V.
With all the stuff going on with Liyah moving in with me, I haven't really had the time to talk to her about all the XXX stuff going on in court. My lawyer is supposed to appear in court to defend me next week and my girl doesn't even know what I'm being accused of. I feel bad but I just don't want her to look at me differently. I love Aaliyah with all my heart and it would break me if the look she has in her eye when she sees me were to fade. I have to tell her the truth, I just don't know how.
"Hey baby, I just came in from shopping...I have a surprise for you!" She smirked at me.
"Oh really? Let me see." I smirked back.
"Nope! You gotta wait until after dinner!"
Fuck! I was gonna tell her over dinner. I know for a fact she won't be in the mood after I tell her.
"I actually have something to talk to you about over dinner. I closed down 'The Nice Guy' for us. I figured we could use the privacy, and I would be nice to go over there one last time before we head back to Toronto for a while."
"Oh, ok. I guess I should start getting ready soon then."
"Yeah, imma head up in a minute." I told her.
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At Dinner
"So...what did you wanna talk about?"
"Baby, I love you and I've been meaning to talk to you about his so please don't think that this was something I was trying to hide from you.-"
"I know you killed X, or had him killed." Aaliyah whispered cutting me off.
"What?" I said shocked!
"I heard you in the basement talking to Oliver and Chubbs last week."
"Baby, I don't know what you heard but, that's not what happened. The prosecutors think I had something to do with it but it's not true. I wrote songs that's it! And the lyrics are being misconstrued and twisted to sound like something else!"
"So then what did you want to tell me?"
"My lawyer has to go to court next week in my defence. This is going to be all over the media and I need you to be prepared. They're about to say a lot of things about me that aren't true. You know me, probably better than most people. But I need you to know that what they say isn't true and you know who I am. I'm not some guy that's ego is fragile enough to have some young kid killed because he had an issue with me over some rap shit, that's just not who I am."
"I get it, I know you. But this kid posted that if anything happened to him you had something to do with it."
"And you believe that shit?"
"I don't know what to believe Drake! You've been keeping all this shit from me!" I said slightly raising my voice.
"Whoa! Relax. Don't start with all that Drake shit. The last thing I want to do it fight with you over this."
"I don't want to fight with you over this either but I can't help but think that I've been sleeping next to a liar every night. you knew that all this was happening and you didn't tell me until you absolutely had to. So what is it? Did you do what they are accusing you of or were you just lying to be because you could?" I asked.
"I wasn't lying to you, I just didn't tell you because I though the claims were so ridiculous that it would never get to this point. Of course I didn't get this kid killed. My issue with him was never that deep. I don't want you to think that I'm hiding anything from you ever."
"Really? Okay then from here on out I want to know everything. What else do you need to tell me? This is the one time you can tell me anything that I don't know or that you've kept from me and I won't't leave. I just want to know everything before I move in and we take this next step together."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I can take it, just be honest with me from here on out." I assured him.
Honestly, the fact that he keeps stalling is stressing me out. What could he possibly say?
"Okay. There's not a lot that I've kept from you, but there's a couple things I just didn't know how you were going to react to so I didn't say anything. The first thing is that, when me and Adonis came out to New York for Imani's graduation, the friend's apartment that we were staying in was actually Rihanna's. At the time we were still talking from time to time but we hadn't been sexual for a couple months at that point, it was strictly a friendship. I just didn't tell you because we were so fresh and I didn't feel like unpacking all that. I'm sorry that I never said anything, but, I just didn't know when the right time would be and I didn't want to fuck things up between us over something like that."
"Why would you even want to stay there? You have money, why not just stay at a hotel? I don't get it?" I exclaimed confused.
"It was more than just having a place to stay it was more so about the level of security that she had at her building. I was honestly just thinking about Adonis' safety. It was after that trip that her and I stopped speaking completely. Once I saw how hard I was falling for you, I just didn't feel the need to have her in my life anymore."
"So you've never cheated on me with her?" I asked. I had always felt in the back of my mind that if the opportunity came up he would cheat on me with her. Her place in his life has always been an insecurity for me.
"Hell nah baby, I get 10 times what I could ever get from her from you. What would be our most boring sex would probably the most freaky sex I had with her. Between the two of you its not even close. Please don't take the wrong she's just nowhere near as good as you."
"Okay, what else?" I said anticipating what he could possibly say next.
"Baby, really don't want you to flip out about this."
"I'll try not to." I said relaxed.
"Okay. When we were broken up after Imani was drafted-" "Babe, I don't care what happened when we were broken up. We weren't together." I said cutting him off.
"Babe just let me finish." He said looking down at his hands
"Okay."
"When we were broken up, I was working with 40 and chubbs a lot for new artists at OVO Sound. One of the new artists we signed is Naomi Sharon. A few weeks after we signed her, her fiancé posted saying that I flew them out to Toronto to work on some music and I slept with her behind his back. I never said anything publicly about it...but its true. I had sex with her multiple times while her and her fiancé were working on CLB with me. I know it was wrong, but I was in such a dark headspace after losing you that I didn't respect anyone's relationship. I couldn't care less about the fact that she was cheating on him with me. To be honest, I was drunk half the time."
"How many times?"
"What?"
"How. Many. Times. Did. You. Sleep. With. Her?" I asked slowly.
"I don't know. It was a lot. We had a lot of late night sessions together at SOTA and I was wasted and heartbroken a lot of the time."
"So you mean to tell me, that the woman that you signed to your label, and who you've been working with for months now, has had sex with you countless times and you're just telling me this now? What the fuck!" I said slightly raising my voice.
"I didn't tell you because things were finally going well for us and I didn't want this to set things back." He said with pleading eyes.
"So all these nights that you've been in the studio with her since we've been back together...did you have any type of sexual contact?" I asked on the verge of tears. It felt like he'd betrayed me by letting me be clueless to what he was doing with her in the studio since we've been back together. Had I known the truth I would never have been so chill about all his long late nights in the studio with her. He took advantage of how much I trusted him.
"No, of course not. Ever since we've been back together any time I've been in the studio with her Chubbs, 40 and Noel are always there.
"I want to meet her."
"Absolutely not. I think that's a terrible idea." He said.
"If I meet her and I feel like she's not a person that will be respectful of our relationship moving forward, I want her gone. I don't want you working with a person that I can't trust. I refuse to be the woman waiting at home stressed, wondering if her man is out there being faithful or not."
"Okay, fine. She's having an album release in two weeks, we can go and you can meet her there. I just want you to feel comfortable. You're my girlfriend and future wife, I'm only concerned about your feelings so whatever you want I'll do."
"Baby, I know I told you that I wasn't going to flip out or leave you, but this is a lot for me to take in."
"I know and I want you to know that even though I kept these things from you, I would never do no foul shit like cheat on you. I love you and I know you're my soulmate. I've done some real immature shit, but I'm pushing 40 and I'm ready to settle down with you. This next step of you moving in with me and Don is going to move us closer to starting our family together."
I didn't say anything I just moved closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder cuddling into him.
I love this man so much that it scares me. It scares me that no matter what he could do I won't ever be able leave him again. Our connection is too strong.
Imani's P.O.V.
"Imani, I know I said I wanted more time apart, but I need you back. I can't keep doing this by myself. Our baby will be here in a few weeks and I don't like the fact that we're not even living together." Ryan said.
"I'm ready. I know you haven't been around me long enough to see how much better I am but I'm better than I've ever been and I am ready for this next chapter."
"Good. I trust you, I just wanted more time to get used to having you back around, but unfortunately we don't have that time." Ryan was sitting next to me and I placed my hand on her thigh.
"My real estate agent actually called me a couple hours ago. He said he found a place that's perfect for us. If you want we can go see it?" I asked.
"I would like that." She smiled.
"Alright, let's go he sent me the address."
We got up and headed towards the house that would hopefully be our future home.
"Imani this place is huge! Are you sure this isn't too much space? We lived in a two bedroom apartment, this place is bigger than anywhere I've ever lived." Ry said.
"Honestly, I've never lived anywhere this big either but I figured with us starting a family, we need more space for the kids to run around. We need a backyard and big bedrooms and a play room for the future." I said kissing her cheek.
"I love it." She said as she turned to me and pulled me in for a passionate kiss."
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(A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please remember to like and comment!
Thanks for reading!)