Page 110 of The Compass Series

AALIYAH

“ A aliyah, what are you doing here?” Marie asked as I stood on her front steps. “Are you okay? Is it your heart…?”

I hadn’t seen her since she appeared at the hospital. I haven’t even digested the information that she was my biological mother completely, but I wasn’t standing in front of her for me. I was standing there for Connor.

“I’m fine,” I coldly stand, wrapping my arms around my body. “Can I come in?”

“Yes, of course.”

She stepped to the side, allowing a pathway for me, and I walked into her home.

Over the past few years, I’d spent a lot of time inside those walls.

I dreamed of all of the family gatherings we’d share together in this home.

I thought about all the holidays we’d have together.

Funny how it was best sometimes when dreams didn’t come true.

If I would’ve ended up marrying Jason, my world would’ve ended up being a true tragedy.

“Can I get you something to drink? Water? Tea?” she offered. Her hands were shaking. Clearly, her nerves were eating at her. A part of me felt a flash of guilt, but I couldn’t feel bad about her being uncomfortable. I needed her to be uncomfortable for what I was about to request of her.

“No. I’m fine.”

She fiddled with her fingers and pushed out a smile. “I didn’t know if I’d be able to speak to you again after the last time. And after Damian took over my position, I wasn’t allowed to see you.”

“Of course, you weren’t. Only friends and family were allowed.”

That stung her.

“Well, what did you want to speak about? Do you want to continue our conversation?” she asked.

“No. Not now. I’m not here for me. I’m here for Connor.”

“Connor? What does he have to do with anything?”

“He has everything to do with this. Walter is threatening to take over Roe Real Estate, and I need you to stop him.”

“What?

“Don’t play dumb, Marie. We know everything. Walter told Connor about how he was planning to take over the company and buy Connor out down the line. I need you to tell him not to do it.”

“I’m sorry, Aaliyah, I have no clue?—”

“I never asked you for anything,” I cut in. “I never asked for anything, and you used me to get what you wanted these past few years. So you owe me. I need you to do this for me, Marie.”

“Wait. How would Walter be able to take his company? None of this makes sense to me.”

She looked completely stunned by the situation at hand, but I couldn’t tell if she were just acting surprised. That was the thing about catching people in lies—once they told the truth, you’d always doubt it.

“Is he here right now?” I asked.

“Yes. He’s in his office. I can’t believe that he’d do that to Connor, though. Even with everything that happened between you and Connor and Jason, I can’t believe that Walter would do this.”

“How well do you know your husband?” I asked.

There was a hesitation in her eyes as I asked her the question. She parted her lips to speak and paused for a moment before she cleared her throat and hollered, “Walter. Can you meet me in the living room?”

“Woman, you know I don’t like you hollering in the house like that. What is this about?” Walter grumbled, walking into the living room. The moment he saw me, his eyes narrowed. “Aaliyah. What are you doing here?”

“Trying to settle an issue,” I explained.

Marie turned to Walter and stared at him, seemingly baffled. “Is it true you are trying to take over Connor’s business?”

Walter’s thick eyebrows furrowed. “You called me in for this nonsense? I don’t have time for this, Marie.”

Her mouth dropped, stunned. “Why would you do that? Why would you try to take something that boy created?”

“I created him. Anything he has is because of me, which gives me the right to take it away, too.”

“You didn’t create him,” I snapped toward him. “Connor created everything about Roe Real Estate. You simply profited from him being good at what he did.”

“He might have been good, but I’m better, little girl. And honestly, I don’t even know why you are here having this conversation, seeing how it has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me. I love him, and I am here to fight for him.”

Walter rolled his eyes. “You love him for now. Wait until I take everything from him. You think I don’t know what kind of woman you are? You’re a poor girl who falls for rich men to find an easy way out of life.”

“That’s not true, Walter. You know Aaliyah’s a good woman,” Marie said, backing me up.

“I thought that before she was so quick to jump into bed with another man after my son,” he spat out.

“He stood me up on my wedding day! After cheating on me God knows how many times. And somehow, you are making me the bad person for falling in love with a man who treated me right?”

“He couldn’t have treated you that well if he only wanted you after you had a new heart,” he said coldly.

“Walter!” Marie cried, but I didn’t let his words anywhere near my emotions. I knew he was simply a cruel man who did and said cruel things.

He waved her off. “Oh, save the hysterics, Marie. You don’t need to keep acting shocked by anything I’m saying. You knew who I was when you married me. Which is why you thought you had to keep the fact that Aaliyah was your daughter a secret.”

Just like that, the air was knocked out of Marie’s lungs as she stumbled backward. “You knew?”

“You really think I’m an idiot and couldn’t put two and two together?

I allowed it because I figured it could’ve been good to show our knucklehead son in a good light and marrying Aaliyah would’ve done that.

I weighed the pros and cons of the situation and came to realize that it was the right business move to make. ”

“You’re an evil man,” I said as my hatred built for him each passing second.

“Yes, well, at least I didn’t leave my daughter at a fire station in order to stay rich,” he said, rolling his sleeves up. “Are we done here?”

Marie had tears of horror rolling down her cheeks, and a part of me wanted to comfort her. But then again, she knew who she married. She knew who she crawled into bed beside each night. She made her bed, and now she had to decide for herself if she was going to sleep in it or move along on her own.

“We aren’t exactly done yet.” I pulled out my cell phone. I made a quick call and when the person on the other line picked up, I said, “Hey, yeah. It didn’t work out, so you can come in.”

Within seconds, Damian walked into the house without knocking and came over to me holding a stack of paperwork in his hands.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Walter asked, his brows lowered. If he should’ve been intimidated by anyone in the world, it was Damian. Connor bathed in kindness and love. But Damian? He could kill a person solely with a look.

“Just a bit of good cop, bad cop,” I explained. “You should’ve really worked with me—I was the good cop.”

“And I’m the bad,” Damian said, dropping the packet on the coffee table.

“You really think I should be afraid of you and your tough-guy act? You’re a child. Nothing you can do…” Walter picked up the files, and when he opened them, he paused his words. “Where the hell did you get this?”

“I’m the grave digger,” Damian calmly stated. “I dig shit up.”

“We are going to need you to do is sign all of Roe Real Estate over to Connor. You’re going to give him total control over it all, and you aren’t going to try to cheat him out of anything,” I told him.

“Otherwise, I’m sure the FBI would be interested in your whole money laundering issue,” Damian said.

“Money laundering?!” Marie gasped. It was becoming clearer and clearer that she knew nothing about what was going on with Walter and the life he seemed to be living behind her back.

Walter looked devastated by the fact that Damian caught him in a handful of scandals, some that would’ve easily landed him in prison for a very long time. Luckily, we didn’t want to destroy him. All we wanted was for Connor to have everything he worked so hard for.

Walter grumbled a bit and paced as he flipped through the pages. Then, he looked over to me. “I’ll have my team draw up the contracts to have everything transferred over to Connor.”

“Including the Queens property,” I said, knowing that Connor deserved the location that he’d fell in love with for his dream to come true.

“Fine,” Walter muttered, unamused.

“And one hundred million dollars for him to invest into said property,” Damian stated.

I tried not to react to such a high demand as Walter’s eyes bugged out.

“That’s ridiculous!” he shouted.

“Page five. Do you really want that coming out, Walty-Walt?” Damian dryly asked.

Walter flipped to page five. The look of shock hit him hard as he closed the packet. “Fine. Deal.”

Damian smiled. He actually smiled a big, bold grin. “It was great doing business with you, Rollsfield. I hope you have a good, fucked-up life. Come on, Aaliyah, let’s hit it.”

As we turned to leave, my eyes locked with Marie’s for a moment. I saw the sadness in her eyes. My heart tugged a bit, but I wasn’t ready to deal with what that tugging sensation stood for. I wasn’t ready to deal with her hurts while I was still licking the wounds of mine.

Damian and I stepped outside, and I looked at him, a bit confused. “What was on page five?”

“Let’s just say it involved his pool boy in the Hamptons and plastic hot dogs.”

Well then. I’d rather not know any more details.