For Keeps Read online

  Copyright © 2017 by Tiffany Patterson

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at [email protected].

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  A special thank you to There For You ([email protected]) for editing.

  Prologue

  Destiny

  “I look like shit,” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the woman with the vacant, dark brown eyes in the mirror. The deep-set bags surrounding my eyes, my skin that was usually a glowing mahogany looked ashen, and the deep frown that I couldn’t turn upside down even if I wanted to, all served to make me unrecognizable to myself. Inhaling deeply, I pushed myself away from the mirror and granite countertop in my bathroom and thought about stumbling to the kitchen to make a sandwich. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. The rumbling in my stomach was a sure sign that it’d been at least twenty-four hours since I’d nourished myself. But the work to trudge all of the way down to the kitchen, take out the food to make a sandwich, and then actually eat the damn thing felt like too much effort. I’d much rather go back to bed.

  Slowly ambling my way out of the bathroom, I trekked across the bedroom that I’d always thought was too damn big for just two people. Along with the house. But my husband, Darryl, would always remind me that he’d purchased an eight-thousand square foot home for all of the children we would fill it up with one day.

  “Bastard!” I cried out, as the thought of children had me nearly crumbling to my knees, while clutching my abdomen. I just made it to the bed as I collapsed in a heap of tears, cursing Darryl as I wailed. I cried myself to sleep for probably the hundredth time in the last three weeks.

  I don’t know how many hours had passed when a loud ringing sound jerked me awake. Looking around the dark bedroom, it took me half a minute to realize the ringing noise was that of the doorbell.

  “Who the fuck?” I cursed, slamming my head back against the pillow and covering the other side with another pillow to seal off the noise. Whoever the hell it was would get the hint and leave. But after what seemed like an eternity, the ringing didn’t stop.

  “This better not be Darryl again!” I huffed as I pushed myself up and out of the bed. I had to hold on to the cherrywood bedpost to steady myself. Days of not eating were obviously catching up with me. Yet, the ringing of the bell persisted. Pushing my disorientation to the side, I moved out of the bedroom and down the hall toward the staircase.

  “Darryl, I told your sorry ass to stay the hell away from me!” I yelled as I descended the steps, moving quickly to the door. Through the glass door I could only make out a figure but was too filled with rage to clearly see what was in front of me. That is, until I yanked the door open so quickly and harshly that I startled the person on the other side—the one who’d been ringing the goddamn doorbell like a lunatic. It wasn’t Darryl.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “Where is he?” the woman snarled down at me. She had at least four inches on my petite five foot, three inch frame.

  I was too stunned to even make a move when the woman quickly moved past me, stepping around me, inside my house.

  “Darryl! I know you’re here! You can’t keep running from me!”

  Her yelling finally snapped me back to reality and I swiftly spun around in her direction.

  “Bitch, who the hell do you think you are walking up in my house like you’re crazy?”

  “I’m your husband’s baby mother!” she shouted back at me.

  I whirled backwards at the same time my eyes dropped to her midsection. For the first time since this little encounter began I realized what was happening right in front of me. I blinked, hoping beyond hope my tear-swollen eyes were just deceiving me. They weren’t. This woman had to be around six months pregnant. For the past three weeks I’d been living in my own personal nightmare and I was certain it couldn’t get any worse … until that moment.

  My body began shaking with all of the pent-up anger I’d been feeling for weeks. When my gaze lifted and the smug smile across that bitch’s face grew as she rubbed her belly, I couldn’t refrain any longer. I lunged at her with every intention of wiping the look of superiority off her face. However, just before my fist connected with her jaw, I was pulled back against a hard chest, strong, familiar arms bracketing my body. Revulsion shot through me.

  “Gina, what the hell are you doing here?” Darryl shouted at the woman while still holding me back.

  “Take your goddamn hands off of me, Darryl! I’ll kill both of you in here!” I yelled and fought to get free of his grasp, but my small, malnourished body was no match for his six foot four, athlete’s grip.

  “Calm down, Destiny.”

  More nausea consumed me when his lowered tone made its way to my ears. It’s the same tone he’d used to console me on many occasions throughout our almost eight years of marriage.

  “Get your fucking hands off me!” I screamed again.

  “Tell her the truth, Darryl! This is our baby!”

  I lunged again, but Darryl held firm.

  “We don’t know whose baby that is. Get out of my damn house!” he yelled at her, still struggling to hold onto me.

  “Let go!” I managed to turn around to face Darryl, doing my best to attack him instead of the whore behind me. After all, it was him I was truly livid with. Him, who’d betrayed our marriage vows. Him, who’d destroyed everything we’d built together. And him, who’d killed our baby.

  “You dirty son of a bitch! I hate your fucking guts!” I yelled as I kicked and tried to knee him in his dick.

  “You need to leave!” he shouted above my head behind me. “I need to talk to my wife.”

  “I’m not your fucking wife, you lying piece of filth!” I barely registered the woman’s words as she moved from behind me toward the door. I was sure she said something about coming back or getting what was owed to her and her baby. I didn’t give a shit. She could have it all. As far as I was concerned, I was done.

  Not until the door slammed did Darryl release me from his arms.

  “Destiny, you have to calm down! The doctors said you needed to rest.”

  “Fuck you!” I yelled, lunging at him again, pounding on his chest only because I was too small to accurately reach his face. “You got another bitch pregnant while … while …” I panted, suddenly feeling woozy. I grabbed for the wooden bannister to keep myself from falling.

  “See, you probably haven’t eaten in days. You look like you’ve lost ten pounds since getting out of the hospital. You need to take care of yourself.”

  “Ha! Like you took care of me?” I snapped back. The only reason I didn’t try to take his head off again was because he had the decency to look ashamed. I stepped back, staring at the man I’d once loved with my entire heart. The man I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with. The man who’d asked me to be his wife when we were just twenty-one years old, and I hadn’t hesitated in agreeing. His normally neatly trimmed beard was overgrown, his clothes were disheveled, and the bags under his eyes mirrored the ones I’d seen under my own when I’d looked in the mirror. But none of that made me feel even an ounce of pity. He deserved to be living in his own personal hell. I didn’t. I’d stayed true to my marriage vows. He hadn’t.

& nbsp; “You killed us.” My grip tightened around the bannister. “Everything we built is dead. It was all a lie.”

  “Our life wasn’t a lie!” he retorted. “I’ve loved you since I was nineteen years old.”

  “Is that what you tell all those other bitches you’ve fucked over the last eight years? Did you laugh with them about how naïve your fucking wife was to think big time NBA star Darryl Wright could ever be faithful?”

  “I never—”

  “Never what? You lied to me all these years. I invested everything in you! I gave up my dreams and career for you! And for what? This big ass house that was built on your bullshit!”

  “Don’t say that.” He stepped closer.

  “I might be half your size, but if you take another step closer I will take your fucking head off!” I snarled at him.

  Though an unfaithful, lying, cheating bastard, Darryl wasn’t a fool because he didn’t take another step.

  “All I see when I look at you is death and destruction. You destroyed everything we had and killed our baby in the process.” I stared at him with all of the disgust and hatred I felt at that moment.

  “Destiny, baby, I’ll spend the rest of my life making this up to—”

  “Shut up! I don’t need or want anything from you except for you to sign the divorce papers my attorney sent to you.”

  “I’m not signing those.”

  “The hell you won’t!”

  “Those papers say you don’t want anything from me.”

  “And I don’t!” I reiterated. “Trust me when I say you’ve given me plenty!”

  His honey brown eyes widened. He obviously understood my reference. Darryl had given me the sexually transmitted illness that ultimately killed the baby I was six months pregnant with.

  “I don’t need anything else from you. Not your lies. Not your money. Not your fucking house. And most certainly not you! Sign the papers and we’ll end this fucking sham of a marriage and I will move on with my life! Now get the fuck out!” I yelled at the top of my lungs before turning and charging up the stairs.

  “Destiny! Don’t do this! You’re being selfish. What about your mother? She’s going to need money to—” Darryl couldn’t get the rest of his sentence out before I’d turned, ran back down the steps, and slapped the taste out of his mouth.

  He stood there, eyes wide, hand to his cheek, staring at me, as if he couldn’t believe that I’d just hit him.

  “Don’t ever mention my mother again,” I stated through gritted teeth. “You didn’t give a damn about her health before and you damn sure don’t give a damn about her now!” I knew Darryl. Not as well as I’d obviously thought I had, but I knew him when it came to money. He saw money as a means of controlling. He didn’t give a shit about my mother or her health condition. He only cared in terms of how he could use my love of my mother to control me into taking something from him. I didn’t need shit from him. Not alimony, not the big ass house, not a lump sum. Nothing.

  With one last look I turned and headed back up the stairs and locked myself in the bedroom before finally crumpling to my knees in the middle of the floor. Right on top of the pile of dirty clothes that’d accumulated there over the previous three weeks. These would be the last tears I’d shed over Darryl Wright and the deception he’d spun over my life to make me believe that our marriage was real. These very likely wouldn’t be the last tears I’d shed over the baby I’d lost.

  However, when I was done crying that time around, I would pick myself up off the floor, call my cousin and best friend, Resha, who I just knew was anxiously waiting by her phone, to come get me. She’d been staying with me ever since I left the hospital but I couldn’t take her hovering. It had been a week since I’d sent her back to her apartment, telling her I’d call her when I needed her. That didn’t stop my bossy ass cousin from coming by a few times throughout the week and calling daily, but at least it’d given me some space.

  By the time I got up off of that floor, I wasn’t healed by any means but I was ready to end this chapter of my life.

  Chapter One

  Destiny

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  “Ugh!” I groaned as I rolled over in my queen size bed, swatting at the alarm that rested on the wooden stool I used instead of a nightstand. I knocked it to the floor, effectively silencing it. With quiet once again filling the room, my eyes drifted closed and I fell back into a dreamless state. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last.

  “What?” I groaned into my phone that began ringing some thirty minutes later.

  A deep chuckle moved across the phone lines. “I’m going to make a morning person out of you yet.”

  “Grr!” I growled at the cheeriness I heard in my personal trainer’s voice. “JT, I am going to kick your a—”

  “It’s too early for such a beautiful woman to use such foul language.”

  “Whatever,” I grumbled at the same time I pulled the covers away from my body and sat up, stretching my free hand over my head.

  “I knew you’d sleep in. Let’s go! Meet me at the park in twenty minutes!” Click.

  I pulled the phone from my ear to see he’d disconnected the call, and rolled my eyes at the time. It was five-forty in the morning. Nobody should have that much energy at that ungodly hour. Pushing out a heavy breath, I rose from the comfort of my warm bed and grabbed the workout clothes I’d carefully laid out on my windowsill the night before. This was my usual routine, two out of the five weekday mornings. I’d set my alarm in hopes I would get up early enough to beat JT’s call but always fell back asleep, leaving my personal trainer to call around five-thirty to wake me up and make sure I made our six o’clock appointment on time. Since it was summer, JT and I were meeting at a local track instead of the gym.

  I quickly brushed my teeth, carefully placed the sweatband around the edges of my hair to keep them laid as I worked up a sweat, changed into my workout clothes, and grabbed an apple to eat as I made the ten minute walk to the track. In all, I was out of the door in ten minutes, leaving me to arrive at the track at six on the dot.

  “Thought I was going to have to make you run an extra lap for being late,” JT chuckled.

  I rolled my eyes. “You wish.”

  JT’s forehead wrinkled some more as he let out another laugh. I found myself smiling as well. JT was extremely handsome with his five-eleven, solid build, tanned olive skin, and dark hair. He’d been my personal trainer for close to six months, and as far as trainers went he was one of the best.

  “What am I in for today?”

  “We’re going to incorporate some strength training with some HIIT and bodyweight training. Think you can handle that?” He nudged me with his elbow.

  “I think I can manage.”

  Over the next hour I worked up a sweat as I squatted with a thirty pound sandbag, did countless wind sprints up and down the football field encased within the track, and countless shoulder presses, back rows, and more with the kettlebells he’d brought.

  “Your form is looking good,” JT said smoothly as he spotted me while I did a two armed back row with the weights.

  I glanced over at JT whose eyes had narrowed. “Easy there, tiger,” I warned causing another chuckle from him. We’d been down that road once before and we weren’t going back.

  “Nice workout. You still feeling the tenderness in your hamstring?” he asked as he stood above me while I laid on the ground and he stretched my right leg.

  I shook my head. “Not since I took that week off and iced up like you advised.”

  “Good.” He nodded. “Switch legs.”

  I lowered my right and lifted my left for him to stretch. Five minutes later, I was back on my feet, feeling loose and ready to head home to start my day.

  “See ya’ on Thursday.” JT waved as we parted.

  “Thursday.” I said and headed in the direction of my condo. Once home, I swiftly stripped out of my sweaty workout clothes and made my way to the shower. I took my time getting out, dreading the new client I’d agreed to take on that day. Reluctantly, I picked out my white and black polka dotted silk blouse and paired it with black pants and my sky-high Kessie pointy toe mesh boots. Hell, if I was going to take on a less than desirable client, I was going to at least look cute doing it.

  After tossing the boots into my bag, I put on my pair of black flats to walk the mile distance to the space I rented for my office. I grabbed my premade oatmeal and banana muffins made with agave instead of sugar, slathered on some crunchy almond butter, filled my coffee mug and was out the door.

  “Five, four, three, two, and ... one.”

  Bring!

  “Hey Resha,” I smiled and answered, not needing to look at the screen to know who was calling.

  “Hey, girl. On your way to work?”

  “Where else would I be going on a Tuesday morning at eight a.m.?”

  “Don’t get cute.”

  “I was born cute.”

  “True!” Resha answered and we both cracked up at our usual conversation opener.

  “You work out with that fine personal trainer this morning?”

  “I did.”

  She sucked her teeth. “As gorgeous as he is and you keep him on your payroll to have you running some damn laps. I’d have that man yelling my whole name.”

  “Resha!”

  “What?” she questioned innocently.

  “I don’t mix business with pleasure. Besides you already know what happened the one time JT and I actually went out on a date.”

  “Yeah, I remember. He talked about his ex the entire time.”

  “Yes. Good thing they got back together.” JT was certainly a flirt and loved women but he was also deeply in love with his girlfriend.

  I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, what’re you up to over there? Still scoping out locations for your fashion week event?” Resha was a successful fashion blogger and co-host of our weekly podcast, Fashion and Finances. She and I had both grown up with a love of fashion, and within the last five years we’d decided to combine my love of personal finance and money and her love of fashion to create a podcast that spoke to women. She was currently in Europe for the next few months working with a few designers to host events and drum up promotion for their spring and summer lines.