Page 70 of Desire
“I don’t feel like looking through all of this. Whose number is it?”
“The number and Flikstagram account belong to Iris Montclair.”
“No shit!”
“What?”
“Yes, and just to be transparent, my guy could only connect it to her because she slipped up and sent a message from that account on her real phone last night. He worked backward, and it all came together.”
“Baby, can you make Quinton a to-go plate?”
“Umm, yes.”
“Thank you. We’ll be outside.”
They left me in the kitchen, and I remained seated for a minute, stunned at the information we’d just received. I couldn’t help but wonder if Iris’s threat was harmless or if she would actually attempt to harm me.
Quinton left, and Desire and I returned to the kitchen to finish the conversation we started at the park. After Iris’s popup visit yesterday, the thought of her being the person behind the message settled in the back of my mind. However, I was unable to come up with her possible motive.
“Did he tell you what the last message said?” Desire asked.
“It’s one of these screenshots.” I fumbled through the papers until I found it. “I’m coming for what’s mine.”
“Another threat. Do you think she’s a danger?”
“Did you see how she behaved yesterday?”
“I did, but it seemed like her behavior was from a place of hurt. What really happened between you?”
I hated to relive it, but I couldn’t have Desire looking at me sideways and believing I’d make a habit of keeping things from her.
“I changed and left out a few things about my relationship with Iris. She’d only keep the baby if I promised to marry her before the baby was born. I offered to take full custody because, as I told you, I wasn’t interested in marriage, but she wouldn’t budge. I didn’t want her to have an abortion, so I proposed, and she began planning the wedding.”
“You proposed?”
“With a fake ring and all because I had no intention of marrying her.”
“That’s wild! How did you keep this out of the blogs?”
“Iris agreed not to use my name on any of the paperwork regarding the wedding. She’s from a conservative, prominent family who hates everything about me, and she didn’t want them to find out we were engaged and try to stop her from marrying me. It was before I was in office and during the end of the campaign. My opponent was so cocky and sure he’d beat me. He stopped campaigning and looking for dirt on me by that time.”
“You got lucky.”
“Once Azaria was born and word had gotten out that I had a child, there was speculation about who her mother was. Some thought she was me and Tammy’s love child, while others thought I adopted her to help my image for the campaign. Once I took office, I was asked about Azaria at a few press conferences, and I told them I was co-parenting with her mother, and she wanted to remain anonymous. God has looked out for me more than I can ever explain.”
“You got that right.”
“Anyway, going back to the fake proposal, Iris forged ahead with planning the wedding. She picked out a dress and a venue and had gone taste testing for cake. The whole plan was to lead her on until she was too far along to abort the baby. I felt I had no other choice.”
“Aziel, that’s horrible, but I understand your perspective.”
“I have no regrets. I support a woman’s right to do what she will with her body. However, in a situation like this, when the baby is being used as a bargaining tool for blackmail, men don’t have many options. I did what I needed to do so she wouldn’t kill my baby.”
“A child should never be used as a pawn. I’m sorry you were put in such a terrible position.”
“Me too, but again, I don’t regret how I handled it. Whenever I look at Azaria, I know I did the right thing. When Iris picked a wedding date, I began to panic. I had two companies to run and was trying to win the mayoral seat. The last thing I had time to do was participate in planning a wedding that would never happen. Somehow, I convinced her we should wait to get married until she had the baby, and we could have a destination wedding on the island of her choice. She fell for it hook, line, and sinker. A few days before her due date, she overheard me talking to AJ on the phone.”
“What did she hear?”