Page 57 of The Don’s Virgin Obsession

That’s what the subject line said.

Final month covered by St. Clair Holdings.

I read it three times before closing the laptop hard enough to make the wine glass beside it shake.

Four years with Vaughn St. Clair, and this was how the shit ended? A payment confirmation and silence?

No.

Absolutely the fuck not.

I got up from the couch and walked barefoot through the condo he once spent almost every night in. This place used to feel exciting. Toxic. Fun. Now it just felt empty.

That was the thing about Vaughn and me. We never had a healthy relationship. We had a consuming one. The type of love that made you check phones while somebody was asleep. The type that made you scream, fight, fuck, cry, then order food together an hour later.

We cheated on each other constantly.

Not even secretly after a while.

At one point, we got so toxic that we started bringing women into our relationship, trying to save it. That shit made everything worse. Vaughn would touch another woman while staring at me the whole time, and somehow that irritated me more than regular cheating.

We used sex to avoid real conversations.

Used money to avoid consequences.

Used drugs to avoid ourselves.

I went to the kitchen and poured more wine.

The memories just kept coming anyway.

The abortions.

The fighting afterward.

The crying in bathrooms while Vaughn sat outside the door, high as fuck, trying to convince me we were still good together.

We couldn’t even create life right together.

That relationship drained the soul out of me.

And somehow, it drained him worse, because he broke up with me.

People saw Vaughn now and thought businessman. Luxury developer. Millionaire. The nigga on podcasts talking ownership and generational wealth.

They ain’t know three years ago he was doing lines in private bathrooms between business meetings.

Functioning addict ass nigga.

Cocaine. Adderall. Weed. Sex. Money. Work. Women. Vaughn always needed something running through him, so he didn’t have to sit with himself.

That was why I laughed when I found out about him obsessing over Sade.

At first, I thought she was another random woman. Another pretty girl for him to look at for a few weeks.

But nah.

This one was different.