4: 4
Aaron froze for a second.
Then he nodded, certainty all over his face. "I will."
I laughed, out of nowhere. "Aaron, let's make a bet."
"About what?" he asked.
I looked at him and said it slowly, one word at a time. "I bet she won't marry you."
His face changed.
Just then his phone rang.
He pulled it out, and the contact name had already been changed from 'The One I Can Never Have' to 'I Finally Reached Up and Took My Star Down.'
My hand clenched tight before I could stop it.
He answered, and his voice went soft. "Les."
Her sweet voice leaked out of the earpiece. "Aaron, I got here early. When are you coming to pick me up?"
"I'm on my way right now."
He hung up, grabbed his coat, and headed for the door.
At the doorway he turned back to look at me. "I'm not the Aaron I was back then, the one so broke he couldn't even afford a meal when he was with you. She'll want to marry me."
My heart still gave that same helpless ache.
But it didn't matter anymore.
I went home and packed up everything that needed packing.
I was just about to pick my daughter up from school and go.
That was when I got the call from a police officer. "Is this Ms. Virginia Pruitt? Your parents have gotten into a conflict with someone. Please come to the ER at City Hospital as soon as you can."
Something turned cold in my chest.
I hailed a cab and rushed over.
The moment I arrived, I heard my mother's scream tearing down the whole corridor.
"Aaron! You think that just because we cut ties with her all those years ago, we stopped paying attention to her? Let me tell you, we know exactly what her life has been like these past years. She suffered all of that for you, she bore you a daughter, and now that you've made it, you throw her away and go running around with other women? Are you even human? Do you have a conscience? You think my daughter is someone you can just toy with—"
"She's easy?"
Aaron cut her off, contempt pouring out of him. "The second day we were together she slept with me. Isn't that easy? One month in and she was the one saying she wanted to marry me. Isn't that easy? Right after giving birth she came to a bar to pick me up and let another man run his hands all over her. Isn't that easy? A woman I married for thirty-three hundred dollars. Isn't that easy?"
"CRACK—!"
