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Last month, I’d rushed down there right when they closed. They’d refused to take my cash and so my nieces and nephews lived in the dark another night.
Fuck.
Two weeks they’ve moved around in a cold and dark apartment in South End. Guilt coursed through my veins. Here I was, traveling the world, staying in a room in Paris that was worth over seven thousand a night, and living in a mansion, while my family was barely getting by.
Mom continued to rant.
Chase remained standing in front of me.
I stepped around him.
He blocked me, wrapped his arm around my waist, and whispered in my ear. “How much do you need?”
“. . . you left South End and I understand why,” Mom continued. “But you can’t forget your family and where you came from. God gifts you with blessings so you can give back to those who need it, not so—”
“Mom, hold on.” I muted the phone and looked at Chase. “I’d rather not start borrowing money from you. I have this taken care of.”
The muscle in his jaw twitched. “So where would you get it?”
“Benny or Vivian.”
He laughed. “Don’t you think that’s a bit silly when your boyfriend is a billionaire?”
“You can pay me my salary when I earn it, but when it comes to my family, it’s my responsibility.”
He released me and headed to the nightstand. “That’s ridiculous. I’ll send Xavier over to your mother’s house and give her some money. How much does she need?”
It would be that simple.
I could just tell him the amount and she’d have it there in no time, but then how long would that continue?
Once my mother spotted a man showing up at her door in a limo with a stack of cash in his hand, my phone would never stop ringing. Even worse, it would get to the point where I depended on Chase to support my family and me. I’d witnessed men use the hell out of my mother and hurt my brothers and me. The entire time she allowed it just because she didn’t think she could financially survive without them.
“No. I can take care of it.” I walked to the bathroom to try to finish my phone call in private.
He seized my arm. “Why? Explain to me why I can’t simply give it to her.”
Mom and he are driving me crazy this morning!
“I don’t like to depend on other people to help me with my mom.”
“Too bad,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’d rather not have my woman race around town trying to gather a few hundred dollars that I could give her in seconds.”
“Why are you annoyed?”
“You look stressed out and I don’t like it.” He tapped my phone. “How much?”
“It’ll probably be around five hundred or so.”
“I have that in my wallet. Ridiculous.” He stomped off. “I can’t believe you would rather ask someone else for a few hundred when I have it.”
“If you give it to me, then I want you to take this amount out of my check on payday,” I said. “And I always go pay the bill myself so don’t worry about Xavier doing it.”
“You’re not going to South End.” His eyebrows furrowed.
“Yes I am. Stop worrying. I have four gorilla guards who monitor my movements.” I hung up on my mom. She’d just go on and on about what I didn’t do and how I hadn’t been there for her. I slid my pajama top off without unbuttoning it. “Besides, I have to go down to the utility company. The bill is in my and her name so he couldn’t do it.”
Chase’s eyes followed my movement and directed his attention to my nipples as they hardened from the cool morning air. “Why can’t your mother just pay the bill herself?”
