Page 81 of Only for Me

"Fine, make it minimal. Confirm that Makari and I have a daughter, that we're together and request privacy. I want them to leave us the fuck alone."

"That's going to be hard to guarantee but I'll spin it and make some calls."

"I don't give a damn if it's difficult, Van. This is my daughter and her mother. I don't want them in the middle of a shitstorm." My tone left no room for an argument and she nodded, already typing something out.

"What about Ms. Phoenix? Are you offering her my PR support as well? My team can help manage her social media and prepare a statement."

"That's what she does for a living. I'm sure she'll want to handle that."

"I understand but she's likely never dealt with this type of attention from a personal standpoint. Her clients’ problems, sure, but not her own. It would be smart to let me cover her too."

"Aight, go ahead and prepare a statement but send it to me before you get it out there. I want to talk to Kari first."

"I'll have it to you before you get home, and stay off social media."

I nodded and left her office, knowing I wasn't going to do that. I barely used my accounts, but as soon as I got in my car I dug my phone out of my bag, powered it on, and was flooded with notifications. I even had texts from Makari with jokes and reels which had to have been before our connection was leaked. I navigated to Skroll and searched Baller Alert. The comments had congratulations, jokes about my player days ending, questions about whether or not being a father would affect my game, and those suggesting that I get a DNA test.

When it came to Makari they were going in, calling her a gold digger, opportunist, and hoe. There were so many comments about her trapping me and women saying she was going to pop out with a new body now that she locked down a baller.

I tried to call Makari and it went straight to voicemail, which wasn't a good sign. If I had to guess, she was already overwhelmed with notifications. I had no idea how I was going to fix this, but I had to get it done. There was no way in hell I was about to lose the most important two people to me before I even got a chance to appreciate what my life looked like with them in it.

Chapter 13

Makari

The pounding on my door had me peeling my eyes open slowly, attempting to pull myself out of the groggy state I was in. Avi and I spent the morning enjoying some much needed playtime, then I got a migraine out of nowhere, which had me taking the pills my doctor prescribed and laying down for a nap with Avi after we had lunch.

She was in her portable crib while I stretched out on the sofa. Now that my migraine was partially gone, having someone banging on my door was not what I wanted to wake up to. I took a minute to stretch, loosening the muscles in my neck and back before I reached for my phone. My eyes went wide and my heart began to race.

What the fuck…

My screen was flooded with missed calls and texts, accompanied by thousands of notifications from my social media accounts.

I cut my eyes to Avi who was just now waking up then swiped through my phone to pull up the camera because I could hear a lot of noise outside my house. There were people camped on my lawn with cameras pointed at my house. A van with Baller Alertprinted on the side was parked along the curb and so was one from Tattle Tales.

I jumped up from the sofa and hurried to the door, peeking through the glass panels, then stumbled back.

"Ms. Phoenix. Can we be the first to get a comment about your relationship with Omiri Hayes?"

"Did you intentionally hide his child?"

"Did you keep your daughter a secret to ensure you got a bigger payout after he secured his second Super Bowl win?"

This isn't happening. This cannot be happening.

My hands shook when I looked down at my phone to call Omiri but a call came through from Tiana. My phone was still on silent, which I did right before putting Avi down for a nap so I wouldn't be interrupted while I was trying to get rid of the migraine.

"I've been calling you for hours. Do you see this?"

"What I see is a bunch of people in front of my house with cameras. Fucking Baller Alert is here."

"Shit. They're at your house?"

"Yes."

"Have you been online?"

"No. I had a migraine so I took something then Avi and I went to sleep. I'm just waking up. What's online? Why the hell are these people at my house?"