Amari

"Amari, everything she told me lined up with what Justin told you. I don't think she's lying." Lana explains over the phone.

I sigh pulling staring down at my belly before glancing back to my phone. I was relieved that I finally had closure on this whole situation, but there was still a nagging feeling.

Why did I get like this?

It's like I wanted proof. I wanted to see what happened with my own eyes, but I knew that wasn't possible.

"Thank you Lana." I say quietly.

"Yeah. Don't mention..." She was cut off by the sound of a door opening and closing behind her.

"Whose that?" I ask pulling the phone closer to my face trying to see who it was.

"No one." Lana shakes her head shifting away from the door. "Here. Let me call you back. I have to deal with something."

"Okay..." I squint watching as a smile spreads across her face. "If it's one of those old men you don't have to be embarrassed."

"Amari!" She giggles.

Yep. It was a boy.

"You're embarrassing me. I'll call you back." She laughs blowing kisses to me and I hung up.

I sit up in bed fixing my shirt. I could hear footsteps rushing up the steps and Justin's younger brother, Jonah, arguing with Julia.

"Come on. Mom said go to our rooms." Jonah whispers.

"No. She said go upstairs. I'm upstairs." I heard Julia respond smartly. "Let me go."

I walk over to the door pulling it open to see Julia sitting on the steps staring down towards the kitchen. Jonah immediately grabbed onto my arm.

"Amari, tell her to go to her room." Jonah tattles kicking Julia.

"Why? What's happening downstairs?" I ask.

"I'm trying to see but Jonah won't shut up." Julia says quietly.

I pull my arm away from Jonah and begin to walk downstairs when I see Justin leave the kitchen shaking his head. His eyes land on me and he speeds up a little to help me down the last few steps.

"Come on. Let's go sit in the living room." He say softly. "Julia, Mom said to go to your room." He points at her.

"You people take things so literally around here." Julia mumbles standing up and going to her room.

"What happened in the kitchen?" I ask as Justin guides me into the living room.

"Nothing." He shakes his head. "Well, nothing important."

"Yeah? Then why is Julia being so nosey?" I ask teasingly.

"Because she's a teenage girl. I thought all of y'all were like that." Justin laughs and I nudge his side as we sit on the couch.

"Seriously. What happened?" I ask again.

Justin

I sigh glancing towards the kitchen again.

"I don't know." I shake my head lowering my voice so no one would overhear. "Get this. Out of all the people in the world, guess who shows up here with Conner."

"Who?" Amari asks looking over to the kitchen.

"Tyler." I say. "Apparently, Tyler and Conner share a Dad. I knew that Mom had Conner when she was still in high school. I even knew that when Conner was a baby, Grandma and Grandpa took care of him for a few years, but I didn't know it was because Tyler's grandpa forced her to get rid of him."

"I'm not surprised." Amari shakes her head. "Well, I am surprised that your Mom, of all people, would even consider getting involved with Tyler's Dad, but I'm not surprised about his Grandpa."

"Is Tyler's Dad really that bad?" I laugh a little. "Should we warn Conner?"

"I mean... It really just depends. Mr. Brooks has always been very strict and unapologetically rude, but I don't know how he was as a father. I'm not his daughter, I wouldn't know. Growing up, Tyler never really spoke fondly of his father but I always figured it was because they were always butting heads."

"You know, I forget that you two grew up together sometimes." I sigh wrapping my arm around her shoulder. "It bothered me so much at first, but now... I'm just kind of numb to it."

"Numb? Why numb?"

I glance over to Amari to see her already staring at me. I shrug my shoulders a bit not really sure how to answer that. I didn't know much about their history besides the fact that they dated and it didn't end well. I didn't know how they met or how they affected each other's lives before they dated. It just wasn't something Jessica encouraged us to delve into. Honestly, it just wasn't something I had ever been interested in hearing about. That is, until it was my history being brought into question.

"I just don't know anything about it, I guess." I shrug.

"Hm. Well, I don't think it's important." Amari says quietly as we both turn to see Mom, Conner, and Tyler leaving the kitchen.

Tyler pats Conner's back before turning to look over at me and his eyes trail off to Amari. He gives her a quick smile and wave before turning back to Conner.

"Just give me a call whenever you're ready to meet everyone. I'll introduce you personally." Tyler says to Conner.

"Yeah. Of course." Conner nods his head. "I'll see you later."

"Later." Tyler nods.

He glances over to Amari and I one last time before finally leaving.

"Got yourself a new brother, huh?" Julia asks coming downstairs.

"Two." Conner nods walking pass her and tugging at her ponytail.

Tyler

The drive home was exhausting.

6 whole hours of being bombarded with my own thoughts about Danielle.

I wanted to divorce her, I was standing on that, but would it really be for the best? A lot of the connections I had formed for my business I had been introduced to by Danielle's family. What would happen when we separated?

Danielle's mother was very spiteful and always seemed to have a way with her words.

I turn the music up not wanting to fall victim to my own thoughts gaslighting me, but that didn't help much. It only fed into the chaos.

When I finally made it home, I saw Danielle's car in the driveway and proceeded to drive pass my house and out of the neighborhood again. I couldn't talk to her right now. I didn't have the energy to do that.

I decided to go have a drink or two before going home to listen to Danielle cry about signing those papers. When I walked into the club, the music immediately engulfed me. I pushed through the crowd and over to the bar taking a seat and ordering my drink.

"Just can't seem to get away from you, huh?" I hear Jake's voice ask from a few seats down.

I turn around preparing to say something vile, when I notice that he's looking at a girl whose back was turned towards me.

Her curly hair fell to cover her shoulders and upper back while the tight fitted black dress hugged her waist and curves firmly, yet delicately. I took a sip from my drink deciding to watch the show.

"It's not like you're trying very hard." She laughs and I could tell she had rolled her eyes.

That voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't pin it. If I had heard it before, it must've been so long ago.

"I mean..." Jake trails off jokingly and she hits his arm turning to speak with the bartender.

From the side of her face, I recognized her. I stared at her for a moment a bit surprised by her having Jake as company. Maybe they were just catching up, it had been a few years.

"Come on. Let's go dance. I'll show you how to stay on beat." Jake says standing up and holding his hand out for her.

"You're gonna teach me how to stay on beat?" She scoffs taking his hand. "Okay, white boy. Because that just makes so much sense."

I hear Jake chuckle before leading her onto the dance floor. At least he learned to flirt a little over the years.

Lana and Jake? Together? I didn't think he was her type...