Page 6 of Out of Bounds (Atlanta Demon Series #4)

Livid wasn’t even a strong enough word to describe how I was feeling.

On top of being pissed the fuck off, I was hurt beyond words.

After all of the things that we’d been through.

All of the years that we’d been together.

All of the memories we’d made—the children we’d procreated.

His ass went and fucked it up! And for what? Sex.

We had a family—five fucking kids to be exact.

And now, I was going to be the villain in this story because Kreed was getting the fuck out of the house today!

He has fucked up, and I was going to have to deal with the fallout because I wasn’t going to be sleeping in the same residence as his dog ass tonight.

As soon as I had my groceries bagged, I raced out of the store so that I could get home and confront my husband. I needed some answers, and I wanted them today.

When I pulled up to the house, Kreed’s truck was parked in the driveway.

Instead of getting out, I called his phone and waited for him to answer.

The entire drive home was spent with me trying to recall any moments when my husband was unreachable over the past few years.

I was trying my hardest to see if I could put together a timeline.

Surely, if the two of them were “together” as she stated, then he had to have told me he was somewhere doing something else.

It wasn’t making sense, and the feeling in the pit of my stomach knew that girl wasn’t making this shit up. The way she talked was as if he had truly broken her heart. Clearly, she’d been trying to tell me since the night I first saw her.

Now that I think about it, she was pregnant that night.

She wasn’t showing, but the timeline matches up with our run-in at the ESPYs.

This nigga had looked me in my face and swore up and down that he didn’t know who she was.

Hell, his phone showed no record of him being unfaithful, so after a while, I let the shit go.

Maybe I should’ve kept looking because, apparently, there was something there that I either overlooked or missed.

I was deep in my head when somebody started knocking on my truck window.

“Fuck you got going on?” Kreed asked after I rolled my eyes away from the phone and up to him. I must’ve been zoned out and didn’t hear him answer my call or notice him when he came outside.

Rolling the window down, I stared at his handsome face.

How could the man who owned my heart just up and break it like that?

Was I not enough? Had he gotten tired of the life that we’d built together?

What was it? Why work so hard for this just to turn around and throw it all away?

Did he not love me as much as he claimed he did?

Was I no longer attractive? What had I done for him to do this to me?

The longer I stared, the more tears welled up in my eyes.

Kreed stared at me quizzingly. “Sai? What’s wrong, baby?” he asked and reached for the door handle. Pulling on it, he opened the door and crouched down. “Why you look like you ’bout to cry?”

“Kreed. I met Ashton.”

The look of shock, guilt, fear, and confusion spread across his face instantly.

Kreed’s eyes darted nervously, wide and unblinking, as if he was searching for an escape that didn’t exist. His mouth was gaped open slightly, but no words came out—he could only stammer half-sentences and a weak ass, “I can explain.”

“Yeah...” I fretted. “Why?”

Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as his jaw tensed. The way he had them clenched, he was trying to will the truth from spilling out. “Masai.”

“Kreed, really?” I sobbed. “After everything that we’ve been through? We have kids... How am I supposed to explain this to them? What am I to say when they ask why we’re no longer together?”

“Baby, listen…” he mumbled as his shoulders slumped.

“Why was I not enough, Kreed? What did she have that I didn’t?

” Resting my head on the steering wheel, I wailed.

My chest was hurting so badly. It felt like somebody had reached into it and was strangling my heart.

I started to feel as if my lungs were on fire.

Clutching my chest, I coughed, trying hard to catch my breath.

Rising to his feet, Kreed reached into the truck and pulled me out of the seat.

When I was standing in front of him, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. When he spoke, his voice was softer and almost more hesitant—shaky even.

“Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out that way. ”

“Didn’t want me to find out that way?” I repeated. “How could you do this to me? To us?” I shouted.

“Baby, I know… I fucked up.”

“Kreed, you really had a child with someone other than me. I thought we were happy. I thought we were unbreakable.”

“Baby, we are…”

“No!” I shook my head in protest. Removing myself from his grasp, I looked up at him.

“You gave her something that was reserved for only me . I will never forgive you for ruining our family.” Rushing away from him, I ran toward the front door.

When I pushed it open, my kids were lying around the living room.

Maddie Claire immediately looked up at me. “Mom, why are you crying?”

My chest rose with a sharp breath, and without uttering a word, I turned on my heels and rushed out of the room.

Over my shoulder, I could hear Kreed telling the kids that I wasn’t feeling well and needed to rest. The lie just rolled off his lips, almost like it was rehearsed.

Apparently, he had a habit of doing that: lying.

When I made it to our bedroom, I kicked off my shoes and sat down in the chair facing the window.

I was there physically, but my mind and heart were elsewhere.

I’d sat in that position for so long that night had fallen before I eventually made my way out of the chair and slipped into bed.

Somewhere during the night, I finally drifted off to sleep, and when I woke up, the sun rays were beaming through the blinds.

Kreed had done a good job keeping the kids away because I wasn’t awoken by anyone asking me to cook breakfast. In fact, it was quiet; almost a little too quiet for what I’d just learned.

No screaming or broken glass shards lying around.

No dramatic exit or argumentative conversation.

Nothing. Just the sound of my shallow breathing was present in the house.

The world was still turning, even though mine had stopped, but the house felt as if it’d stopped with me.

Kreed was gone. I don’t know if he’d left for practice or if he was hiding from me.

Life was really serving my ass one big knock-knock joke.

I used to say all the time how much I loved the way football kept him grounded when everything else felt chaotic.

Now, it just felt like a convenient excuse.

It was something he could use when he was out doing God knows what.

He’d tried to come in and talk to me last night, but I remained mute.

Not because I didn’t have anything to say, but mainly because I refused to put on a show in front of my kids.

Somehow or another, his side bitch had gotten my number and took her time trying to prove to me that her feelings weren’t one-sided.

Swiping my phone up from the counter, I stared down at the messages full of screenshots of her “receipts.” The end of my fucking life is what they were.

Although the proof was right here, I didn’t need it.

His lack of attempting to deny it was telling.

I also don’t think I could ever get that guilt-ridden look of his out of my mind.

The way he just stood there, saying nothing, with his jaws clenched and eyes sympathetic, said everything.

I think that’s what hurt the most. Not the cheating, but the nothing.

No explanation why, even though I was certain there was nothing Kreed could say to fix this.

However, I would’ve taken anything in that moment because I was so desperate for some clarity.

I wanted, no, needed, something that would’ve put my mind at ease.

Something that would’ve given me the strength to fight for whatever this situation was.

We had built a life together, one that I could’ve sworn was solid.

Now, all I could think about was the nights I waited for him to make it home after being on the road. Internally, I was beating myself up because I stayed home with the kids and watched the game on television instead of traveling to them.

My loyalty was unwavering. I was the one holding him down, raising our kids, as he chased his dream.

I was the one who made our house feel like a home.

And for what? For him to throw it all away for some new pussy.

Destroying our union for someone who didn’t even know how he liked his eggs cooked in the morning or how he liked to fuck hard after a devastating loss.

This wasn’t just heartbreak; this was a blindside hit from the man who was supposed to love me.

A fucking helmet to the chest with no warning and no fucking mercy is what this was.

And the fucked-up part about it was that I still loved my husband. But now, I was unsure if that love was enough to keep me from divorcing his ass.