Page 87 of A Street King’s Widow

“I was, and then Jaharee and I went to grab some food.”

“Are you staying tonight?”

“Yeah, I ain’t got nothin’ goin’ on too early tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

As she got the dishwasher set up, I went to shower. I left my phone on the couch. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Nikki had never been the type to go through my phone. She had asked questions, complained, accused me of being distant, but never crossed that line. After my shower, I threw on some sweats and went back to the living room where Nikki was sitting on the sofa. I patted the sofa down, searching for my phone.

“You move my phone?”

“It’s on the table,” she said, getting up to fold the blanket she was under.

As soon as I picked it up, the screen lit up. I had no new notifications.

“Did you look through it?”

“Shameek, if I wanted to go through your phone, I wouldn’t need to sneak and do it. I moved it because I sat on it. If there’s something on there you’re worried about me seeing, that sounds more like something you need to deal with than something I did.”

I was acting paranoid, and I just knew she picked up on it. She knew my ass well. Hell, I had enough secrets to make anyone paranoid.

CHAPTER 25

RAYA

My mornings were the same since Ryleigh was in school. I would get up and get her dressed, fix her something to eat, and drop her off. Then I would bring my ass back and try to search for a job. Because I didn’t have experience in the jobs that I wanted, no one would hire me. I refused to take my ass and be anyone’s waitress or cashier. Not after carrying Rah’s fucking baby for nine months. After I put applications in, I would start cleaning up for the day. Ryleigh’s room was always the messiest because she would have dolls and toys everywhere. The place wasn’t decorated the way I wanted, but at least it looked like somebody actually lived here. If someone was to come over, they would think I had my shit together. That was the point. Nobody needed to know I had been moving money around every month trying to make it stretch.

The house was more expensive than I thought once everything started hitting at the same time. Mortgage, lights, water, internet, lawn service, groceries, Ryleigh’s school, my car, insurance, and all the other little shit that didn’t sound like much until it piled up. The monthly money Rah left for Ryleigh was more than enough had I stayed my ass at the condo. It just wasn’t enough to live the way I wanted to when I first heard the numbers that day at the reading. I had one bad assumption. Shit, I had a few. The biggest one was thinking that trust was somehow going to become accessible once I did the test. I thought that shit was going to unlock the millions. Instead, I got told the trust was strictly Ryleigh’s when she came of age. The shit made no fucking sense to me.

I was at the island and going through the mail. Most of it was junk. Then there was a thick envelope with my name on it. I almost threw it away.

“What the fuck is this?”

I opened it right away. By the time I got to the second paragraph, my stomach dropped to my ass. Notice of Default and Demand for Payment hit my ass as I sat there and read it over and over again. Then the last line: potential foreclosure proceedings if the past-due balance isn’t resolved. I stared at the paper like maybe reading it again would make the fucking words change.

“Are you fucking serious right now? I don’t need this right now.”

I flipped the page, and the amount I owed wasn’t impossible, but it was enough to fuck me up. I had been behind and I knew it. I was sending in partial payments, thinking it would give me more time. Apparently, the bank did not care about my assumptions. I snatched my phone up and opened my banking app. The number sitting there looked even worse after seeing the amount on the notice. I could pay some of it. I could probably borrow a little something from Kam, but I already knew what she was going to say. She had been telling me to get a job or downgrade. All the responsible shit I didn’t want to hear. I looked around the kitchen and immediately got pissed. The house was supposed to be proof that I could give my daughter the same kind of life everybody else in Rah’s family had. Averie and Kyenna had nice shit. The Kings had houses lined up behind that damn gate like they lived in their own city. And here the fuck I was getting letters threatening to take mine. I grabbed the notice and went straight to my contacts. Lloyd answered after a few rings.