Vow of Convenience

Ch. 11

ZESA RUSSO

Earlier, I woke up with a brain splitting headache after being woken up by a call from Neviah. A friend I met while I was in college. We had the same major, but unfortunately; she had to drop out of school after her father passed away as there was no one to pay for her tuition. I couldn’t help her back then because my business was still growing and there was not much I could do. I had suggested taking a loan from the bank but she refused, afraid she would be unable to pay back later.

A year after she quit school, she became pregnant. Her boyfriend of three years was the father of her twins—Amaris, her daughter, and Asher, her son. He broke up with her when she told him about it. Since then, Neviah became a single mother who avoided any man that came her way because her mindset changed. To her, any man who came to her in the name of love only wanted to hit and move on. At the moment, she worked as a stripper at the club. It paid well, in her opinion.

Despite her constant refusal, I bought her a house and a car. What the kids ate and their school fees came out of her purse. I allowed her to have that much since she wanted to do something for them. So, when she called me saying she wanted to meet up since it’d been about four months since we saw each other, I went over. I needed a distraction to stop by self from thinking about Levi.

I sat in the yard, watching Amaris and Asher play while Neviah got refreshments. They were nine years old now. Their useless father really lost a lot after walking out on them. At this point, I couldn’t even call him their father. He was just a sperm donor.

“Aunt,” Asher called, approaching me with a ball in his hands.

“Yes, Asher?”

He held out his ball. “Do you want to play with me and Amaris?”

“Asher, leave Aunt Zesa be.” I looked over my shoulder. Neviah made her way toward us, her curled auburn hair moving gently in the breeze.

If there was any woman who I would agree was the most beautiful person I knew after myself and late mother, it would be Neviah. She had the body of a goddess capable of seducing any man or woman she wanted. She did not have Kim K’s body or any of those overly hyped body types. Neviah was a plus size queen with a heart of gold. My only other friend aside from Finn and sister who was out of the country.

She offered me a glass of refrigerated beverage. I happily took it from her. It felt great to see just how much happier she became after her children’s sperm donor left. Her once sunken and hopeless eyes were now filled with happiness and pride. She was a single mother, and she owned it like a queen. At first, she was ashamed and cared about how people saw her. I never understood it, probably because I was never in her shoes, yet I tried to help her break out of that cage of embarrassment. Having a child was not illegal. She had every right to hold her head up just like everyone else.

She sat down on the bench beside me and crossed a leg over the other. “You’re giving me that look again.”

“I’m just proud of you.” I smiled. “Very proud. You’ve come so far.” I averted my eyes to her kids. Her son and daughter took after the sperm donor with dirty blonde hair. Asher had his mother’s brown eyes, while Amaris had the donor’s green eyes.

She mirrored my expression. “I know.” She inhaled deeply and a bit of fear appeared in her eyes.

“What is it? Is something bothering you?”

She wrapped her hands tightly around the glass in her hands. “I met him at the club two weeks ago.”

“James?”

“James.” She confirmed with a sigh.

Rage filled my veins instantly. “Did he say anything? What does he want?”

She turned away from me and to her kids. “He wants to take them.”

“Excuse me?”

“Apparently, he’s been married for four years now and his wife has been confirmed to be barren. She cannot bear a child. He wants to take them as his own now, and tell her he adopted them. He’s even making preparations to leave the country with them.”

“You’re joking.”

She shook her head. “You know me. I don’t joke with my children. James really wants them.”

I got up. “Take me to him. I need to teach him a lesson.”

She held my hand. “I will not let him take them. Not after all he put me through.”

I downed the beverage in my hand and placed my glass on the tray she’d brought it with. Some men really had no shame. You got your girlfriend pregnant. A woman you said you loved and wanted to be with. And when that woman told you she was carrying your kids, you flew out of the country and your mildly wealthy parents shunned the woman. What made him think he had the right to come into their lives now to play the daddy role?

I sat back down. “What are you going to do now? Do you want to leave the country or something? I can handle everything you’ll need over there.”

“If there’s a reason I have to leave, it won’t be because of him. We have a life here, Zesa. I cannot just leave everything behind because a small dog barked.”

I gave a chortle. “Small dog indeed.” Much more serious, I said. “Let me know if he bothers you again. All I need is his address, and I’ll handle the rest.”

She narrowed her eyes, index finger pointed at me. “You must not kill him.”

“I don’t kill. But I can make him miserable to the extent he would not want to hear your name or theirs.”

“You’re so sweet.” She took a sip of her drink. “Tell me… How are things between you and Levi? Is he still into Nina?”

“He is.” I admitted. “But I don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

“Why?” she gasped. “Is she dead? How did she die?”

I laughed. “Who said anything about dying?”

She shrugged. “I mean, that’s the only thing that can make her leave him.”

“Money made her leave him.”

“What do you mean? Did she win the lottery?”

I tucked my hair behind my ear, thinking back to when she signed the contract in front of Levi. A truly wonderful moment for me. “I gave her money.”

“How much? A million?”

“Fifty million.”

Neviah’s jaw fell as she blinked like those creepy Barbie dolls. “What did you just say? Fifty million dollars? To that b***h?” she touched my forehead. “Were you unstable at that time? Did she have a gun pointed at your head?”

“No.”

“So why the hell would you give her that kind of money?!”

“For Levi to see just what type of woman he was in love with.”

“And did he see? You don’t think he’s seeing her behind your back?”

“Levi may be foolish, but if there’s one thing I know, he hates being made a fool of. He has pride, you know. I don’t think Nina can even face him. Even if she could, he would not meet her.” I reached into my purse when my phone began ringing. It was Levi. “He’s calling.”

“What the hell are you waiting for? An invitation?”

Before I could answer his call, it stopped ringing. “Give me a moment.” I stood up and went to the far end of the yard to call him, my back against the fence so I could still see them. He answered on the third dial.

“It was a mistake.” He said.

I’d expected ‘where are you?’ or even good ol’ fashioned ‘hello.’

“I’m at a friend’s place.” I told him, even though I knew he didn’t care. Asher fell down after trying to run away from his sister. She burst out laughing, also putting a small smile on my face. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I told you. It was a mistake. I wasn’t worried about you.”

My heart felt as if someone pricked it with a needle when he said those words. It wouldn’t hurt him to lie, would it? “Okay.” I hung up, annoyed.

He wasn’t worried about me, right? Fine. I made my way to Neviah and joined her on the bench before speaking. “Can I spend the night here?”

_

11.p.m and I’d gotten three calls and five texts from the man who implied he didn’t care about where I was or who I was with. I laid on the bed in the guest room of the four-bedroom house with my phone in my hand as I watched my phone ring and texts enter my phone. I guess he was worried, after all. It made wonder what would happen if he thought I was with a man. Would he care enough to want to know where I was? I knew I was desperate to get some sort of reaction from him, but I didn’t care. We were one week into the time frame I’d given him. There was no time to waste. His call came in again and this time, I answered with my free hand on my breast.

“Zesa, where the f**k are you? You said you were meeting a friend.” I started massaging my breasts through my bra, fingers kneading skillfully. My hand went underneath my bra and I pinched my n*****s. “Say something!”

I turned on the speaker so I could talk handsfree before placing it beside me on the bed. I slipped my other hand into my panties, rubbing my fingers hard against my c**t. When I opened my mouth to speak, I let out a moan.

“Did you just moan?” I bit on my lower lip. “Who the hell are you with?” he questioned, enraged. “Is it Finn?”

“A business partner.” My legs parted more as I slipped two fingers in, moving faster and harder, creating an immense amount of friction in my p***y. “We are talking business.” My muscles constricted as my fingers went in and out, sending my brain into overdrive. It’d been too long since I did this.

“You’re moaning for f**k’s sake, Zesa. Where the hell are you?”

“Fuck.” I arched my back and cried out as the organism rippled through me, wetting my fingers.

“Where the hell are you?!”

I picked my phone and put it to my ear as I tried to control my quickened breathing. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Levi. Good night.” I hung up and shut my eyes, satisfied with myself. He cared about where I was and who I was with.

I got out of the bed and went into the bathroom to clean myself up. As I stepped out of the bathroom, there was a knock on the door. “Are you asleep?” Neviah asked.

“No. Come in.”

She entered the room with two cans of beer as she eyed me. “What were you doing in here all by yourself?”

I took one can from her when she offered it to me, “I was playing mommy and daddy.”

“Did he call you?”

“Yes. I was too busy moaning.”

Neviah wiggled her eyebrows. “What did he say?”

“You’re moaning for f**k’s sake, Zesa.” I mocked, my voice octaves lower as I tried to sound like him. She squealed, going to sit on the bed. “He was furious, that’s for sure.”

“You could have asked me for a vibrator.” She opened her can of beer. “I would have given you one.”

I opened the can and drank from it. “If I had known m**********g was all it would take to get that kind of reaction from him, I would have done it a long time ago.”

I recalled the anger in his voice and, for the first time, I heard him swear. I guess I was taking off his garment of righteousness and bringing out the devil in him. Neviah grabbed my phone from the bed when it vibrated. I collected it from her and read the text I’d just gotten from Levi.

“Come back now.”