Page 72 of Widow Mayker

“Congratulations!” was his greeting.

No lie, I blinked back tears as my feet moved towards him. I took the flowers and teddy bear, then let him envelop me in a hug. “How’d you know?” I croaked against his broad chest.

“Because I know who my lady is…”

Lewis’s voice trailed off as he saw something over my shoulder.

“The fuck you lookin’ at?” he asked the guy standing on the sidewalk. He was a classmate of mine and was here to do a presentation also.

Ingrum chuckled. He’d tried talking to me once, but I shut him down so quickly that he and I never said a word to each other since then. He was nice looking, but Ingrum’s entitled personality wasn’t something I could ever tolerate from anyone let alone a man.

“Lewis,” I chided. His face was drawn up in a frown as he continued to stare at Ingrum, who found Lewis funny.

“Cartoon face lookin’ ass nigga.”

“Lewis…”

“Built like a minute lookin’ ass nigga.”

“Lewis…”

“Putrid smellin’ ass nigga.”

I burst out laughing, then caught myself. “Lewis!” I barked softly. “That man does not stink.”

His frown turned to me. “You defending him? Oh, you think he smells good?”

Smacking my teeth, I shoved the teddy bear back into Lewis’s hands and said, “Let’s go before you get me fired on my just got the job day.”

Reluctantly, he pulled his gaze from Ingrum and opened the door for me. Once we were both inside his truck, I took the time to smell the roses he’d gifted me. Aside from the way he almost cut up, it was sweet of him to show up unannounced, bearing gifts.

“Do you even work?” I asked him. He was always popping up on me at the slightest moment.

“I do,” he said. “Too fuckin’ much. Lately, I’ve been using more of my leave time.”

“Ah, okay. Do you foresee yourself doing anything besides being a detective?”

His eyes twinkled playfully. “Farm life doesn’t sound so bad.”

“It isn’t,” I seconded. “It’s a far cry from where I grew up and how I grew up. I’ve come so far.”

Lewis peered at the side of my face, and I knew he had questions. All he knew was that Antonias raised me. We’d never discussed the before Antonias raised me. If the way I ran out of Bell Oil, Enterprises just to call him didn’t warn me, I felt a way about Lewis. He was funny, smart, sweet, and I felt safe with him. Telling him about my past was almost inevitable.

“My name used to be Shyah Lovelace, and I was born in Miami. There were times I would cry myself to sleep because I knew the weekend was coming, and I didn’t have the sanctuary of the school to run to just so I didn’t have to be at home. From the time I was fifteen, I lived inside my parents’ attic. They kept me up there to keep me from escaping them.”

Lewis’s hand reached over to take my hand. Only then did I realize that my hands were a bit shaky.

“Days before meeting Antonias, I had made up in my mind that I would attempt to escape. At the time, I only had one friend at school, and she was just as terrified of her parents as I was of mine. Still, she had my back.” Gulping, I thought about Ray and wondered if she ever thought about me. Months after I was rescued, Antonias told me that Ray’s parents died. Ray was placed into foster care, and that was the last time she ever came up.

“The day I met Antonias was like a dream that I was too afraid to wake up from. He took one look at me and knew something was wrong.” Shaking my head, I blinked hard to fight the tears. “He whispered his number to me and told me that if I ever needed him to call him. When I got up the nerve, Ray let me borrow her cell phone, and I called him. I was so scared. My parents had cameras everywhere and I just knew that they were going to catch me. It felt like days, but it was only hours before Antonias showed up. I prayed the whole time and didn’t sleep a wink. When he called my name, and I saw that it was him, I could’ve fainted from how relieved I was.”

Lewis squeezed my hand and brought it to his lips. As he drove, rested his lips there for a minute.

“As bad as life was with my parents, what they had planned for me was much worse.” That part always caused me to shudder.

“Where are they?” he asked. Judging by the look in his eyes, he wanted nothing but harm for my parents.

“They’re dead,” I replied. “They’re where they belong.”