Naughty No More (21 page)
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said.
I rose up and she got out of bed. Still dressed in her lace nightgown, my eyes dropped to her visible ass and sexy body underneath. I wanted to make love to her so badly, but I had to be patient. She closed the bathroom door, but I could hear her coughing. After a few more coughs, I listened to the water run for a while.
“What was up with that?” I asked as she came out of the bathroom.
“After using the bathroom, I brushed my teeth.”
“I'm talking about the coughing. That's the third time you've thrown up. You're not pregnant, are you?”
Nokea walked over to the bed and sat on it. “No, I'm not.”
“How do you know? Have you taken a pregnancy test?”
“No, but I can't be. The doctor said the chances of me getting pregnant again were slim, and quite frankly, I don't want another child.”
My eyebrows rose. This was breaking news to me. “I can't believe you just said that. You know how much I . . . We've wanted another baby. Why the sudden change?”
She looked at me with a blank stare. “Because I don't want another child, Jaylin. Two is enough.”
“Like hell. You promised me another child and we never gave up hope after what the doctors said. You even said that you were willing to keep trying until it happened.”
“Yeah, well, I don't feel that way anymore.”
I was getting angry, so I had to calm myself. “Why and when did this change take place? Does it have anything to do with what has happened between us?”
“Jaylin, look, I don't want another child. What more is there left to be said. If I am pregnant, I don't know what I'm going to do.”
“What!” I yelled. “I know damn well what you're going to do. You gon' have our baby, that's what.”
“Don't raise your voice and demand anything from me. You're in no position to tell me what I should or should not do with my own body. If I don't want a baby, I don't have to have it.”
This was a touchy subject for me and it was hard for me to hold my peace. “Now, you know what? You're about to piss me off. The only reason you would not want to have this baby is if it were not mine.” I paused and my thoughts made me frown. “Did Shane come inside of you at that motel? You both said he didn't, but baby, please don't lie to me. If he did, I need to know.”
“No he did not,” she spoke with assurance. “I didn't start throwing up until a week after your midnight drunken visits. I've been sick ever since and I would hate to have made a child with you during that time.”
“Well, you know how potent my mad sperm can be. It gets me every time. Both LJ and Jaylene were conceived that way.”
“No they were not. LJ was conceived during sex at my house, and I was the one mad because, prior to that, I'd seen you and Scorpio having sex in the shower. Jaylene was conceived the first night I came here and we were both happy about seeing each other that night. So there.”
“That's your take on it. When LJ was conceived, I was mad at you for holding back on the pussy and the tightness of it frustrated me. And, the night you came here, I was happy to see you, but I was angry that you'd married Collins and had my ass confined to the bed while soaking in my tears.”
Nokea sadly looked down and was quiet. “Thinking about things, we have really caused a lot of hurt to each other, haven't we?” she said. “More so you disappointing me, but I've had my share of doing the wrong things to you too.”
I kneeled in front of her, holding her hands together with mine. “I agree, but by far, our good times outweigh our bad times. Our love for each other continues to prevail and I can't stress to you enough that if you're pregnant, there's no way in hell you're not having my baby.”
“Jaylin, I don't even know if I'm pregnant. You're getting ahead of yourself and I don't want you to be disappointed if I'm not.”
“Of course you are. Why else would you be throwing up?”
“Because I've been sick. The stress I've been under can cause my body to react in such a way.”
“Yeah, well, when are we going to find out? Call your doctor and set up an appointment. Better yet, let's go get a pregnancy test.”
“I will do all of that, when the time is right. For now, I need for you to do some things for me.”
“What?” I asked while still holding her hands.
Nokea was hesitant to talk, but she sternly looked into my eyes. “I don't trust you anymore, and the love we have for each other is not good enough for me. I now know that every time things don't go your way, you're going to run out of that door and do whatever it is that feels right to you. For your own satisfaction, you will risk losing your family and I never want to feel what I felt while you were away. Your children needed you and I had no answers for them. You did not take into consideration what I was going through here without you, and staying away for that many days made things worse. There has to be some changes in this marriage. Cooking me breakfast and telling me you're sorry is not enough for me to have another child. I don't . . .”
I stood up, pulled Nokea up to me and held my arms around her. “Whatever you want me to do, I will do it. I will do it because I love you and you know my children mean the world to me. If you're pregnant, don't deny me my child, Nokea. I can't explain what took over me, but I'm more than sorry for what happened. Ju . . . just tell me what it is that you want me to do.”
Nokea touched my eyebrows and straightened them. She then placed her index finger on my lip. “Hear me out and don't say a word until I'm finished. As soon as possible, I want your name removed from this house and mine put on it. Every savings and checking account that you have separately and jointly with me, I want them put in my name solely. All of your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate deals and any additional investments that you have, I want to be the overseer, and arrange it where any money made on those accounts belongs to me. As for your children, I want you to agree to, and legally put it in writing, that if we ever divorce for infidelity reasons on your behalf, I get sole custody. For any other reason, of course, we share joint custody. Lastly, the three million dollar deal you just made, if it hasn't been paid out yet, I want the check written out to me and deposited into my account. You can keep any credit cards that you have and the cars can remain in your name. I'm sorry that it has to be this way, but after all that's happened, I can't afford to let you walk out on me and our children and leave us with nothing. Right now, all I have belongs to you, and if you pull the rug from underneath me, I'm screwed. I trusted you before, but I can't trust you now. This is the only way I'll feel comfortable with this marriage and the only way I will ever consider having another child.”
I looked at Nokea with a stoned face and didn't know what to say. I had already released my arms from around her. When I finally opened my mouth, all I could say was, “Are you out of your mind? The money issues can be negotiated, but I'm not about to give up custody of my kids. I can't believe you stepped to me like that. You know damn well I'm not going to agree to no bullshit like that.”
Nokea sat back on the bed. “If you love me, and your intentions are to remain faithful to me, then the issue with our children should not be a problem for you at all. However, I can understand your frustrations, if you feel as if Scorpio should be able to walk back into our lives without any repercussions. Even though I understand her way of thinking, I'm not going to stand for her to come back again. Like I said, this should be easy for you and I'm a bit worried about your concerns.”
“Fine, Nokea. I'll agree to the issue with our kids, but what about you? What if you commit adultery?”
“I'm not the one who can't be trusted, you are.”
“Oh, I doubt that. You've got some skeletons too, but I just haven't found them out yet.”
“If I did, I'm sure you would know about them by now. Besides, I have nothing to hide. You're the one who got caught with your pants down, not me.”
I walked to the other side of the room and thought about Nokea possibly trying to set me up and leave me broke. “Are you trying to break me? Why would you want all of my money like that? If I agree to your request, don't you know what that leaves me with?”
“It makes you a very rich man, like you've always been. I'll never deny you any of your money, Jaylin, because you've worked hard to build on what you have. On the other hand, I can't say that you won't deny me. You reminding me that
you
pay the bills here and this is
your
house was a wake-up call for me. The risk I'll take, if I don't do this, is not a risk I'm willing to bear.”
you
pay the bills here and this is
your
house was a wake-up call for me. The risk I'll take, if I don't do this, is not a risk I'm willing to bear.”
“So, still, it sounds like you want to leave me high and dry. I don't like that.”
“Jaylin, what's mine is yours. You're still in control of your own destiny. If you love me, I don't understand why you're giving this much thought. It's simple. And, if the shoe was on the other foot, I'd hand everything over to you on a silver platter.”
“Well, the shoe ain't on the other foot, damn it. You got me in a bind and I need some time to think about this.”
“Take all the time you need. But, the sooner we can come to a resolution with this, the happier I will be and we can focus on repairing our marriage. You want that to happen, don't you?”
“You know I do, but I got a feeling that if I take too much time with this, that baby you're having will never see daylight. Nokea, I swear to you that if you have an abortion, I will never, ever forgive you.”
“Don't base your decision on me being pregnant, because I told you that I didn't think I was. You're giving us false hope and I don't want to disappoint you again.”
Thinking hard, I told Nokea I'd be right back. I couldn't help but walk down the hall and shake my head. I stand to lose a lot, but the big questions were . . . was Nokea worth it, did I trust her, and could I agree to never react as I did this time around? I went into my office and closed the door. I sat at my desk and picked up a picture of my kids. After gazing around at the many pictures of me and Nokea, I reached for the phone to call Frick.
His secretary answered.
“James Frick, please,” I asked.
“He's on another call. Who shall I say is calling?”
“It's Jaylin Rogers and, uh, tell him to hurry and wrap up his call. This is important.”
“Hold on, Mr. Rogers.”
A few seconds later, Frick got on the phone. “If you're in jail, I can't help you,” he said.
I laughed. “You'd better be able to help me, but this time, all I need is your advice, and possibly, a contract.”
“I'm listening,” Frick said.
I broke everything down to him. Once I finished, he was very quiet. He cleared his throat. “Are you even considering something like that? Jaylin, that's a bad move. You've worked too hard to get to where you are. I like Nokea a lot, but she shouldn't be requesting that of you. I guess it all boils down to trust. Can you trust her?”
“Yeah, I trust her. And, Nokea knows that I will seriously hurt her if she ever denied me my money. Our children, I'm not too worried about them because I won't have a problem being faithful to her.”
“You just told me that, less than a month ago, you had sex with another woman. Are you sure this is something you want to do? I think you need to take as much time as possible to think about this. You are worth millions and I'd hate to see anybody walk away with it. I'm not comfortable with drawing up a contract of that nature, but it's your call. I will add every clause possible to protect you, but again, I don't like it.”
“I'm not too thrilled about it either, but it's what my wife wants. I told her I'd do anything to make this work and I meant it. Start putting a contract together for me and call me once you have everything in writing.”
“What about your will? Any changes need to be made to that?”
“Nope. Nokea is my sole beneficiary and Nanny B my contingent. I don't think any changes need to be made to it.”
“Okay, then what if anything happens to Nokea? Everything you own could be tied up in probate because your name isn't on it. Now, I can make you the executor, but you still might have some issues. As for the accounts, you'd have to stay on as the secondary account holder. This will allow you to withdraw from the accounts, but Nokea can stop access to you at any time. By the way, does Nokea's will list you as the beneficiary too?”
“Yes. That's all taken care of. Just make sure all of those accounts are set up where I can still get to my money.”
“No problem, but I will have to get you to sign off on numerous papers. How soon do you need to get this done?”
“As soon as possible. Once you have everything ready, can you bring the papers to me so we can sit down with Nokea and discuss everything? Possibly within the next two or three days?”
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