Must Be Fate [COMPLETE]

A mistake.

I help Sharice into the passenger seat of the truck and pop the trunk for Mason to load the bags.

Crystal's got some fucking nerve bringing up her sister to me.

Of all the times I've been to this mall when I come home, I never run into them, but today just had to be the day.

"Bruh, you good?" Mason asks me.

"Yeah. This is why I hate coming home." I confess.

"F*ck them hatin h*es. You got Sharice now and I know she'll fit in fine here. Y'all are good together. Next thing you know, y'all gon be on Housewives." He jokes.

"Yeah yeah, don't forget to go get that laptop for me," I tell him dapping.

"I gotchu, imma run back in here for a few things then I'll meet you at your place later. Tell mom and dad I'll be over soon." He says walking away.

I hop in the driver's seat, and Sharice is playing on her phone. I start the car and turn on some music.

As I exit the parking lot and she turns off the music.

"Explain," she demands.

"What you mean?" I ask pretending like I don't know what she's referring to.

"So when we talked about these things a few weeks ago, you said there were no women I needed to know about, so how about we start there."

"It's not like that Sharice," I tell her, not wanting to go further.

"Like what? I didn't insinuate anything, I'm giving you the opportunity to tell me what it's like exactly."

I scratch my facial hair and stare at the road not wanting to go into it.

"Malik, I swear to God, I will get out of this car and by tomorrow morning it'll be like I never existed." She warns me giving me a look that could kill.

I exhale and look over at her. I can't tell if she means it.

"I used to mess with this girl, Mariah. Our families were really close so we kinda grew up together."

"How long were y'all seeing each other?"

"Almost 3 years," I confess.

"So y'all were serious?" She implies.

"We weren't. I slipped up one time and hit without protection and she got pregnant, and so we became serious...for the baby."

Sharice sits back in her seat and drops her face in her hands. "Malik, come on dude."

"Wait, just listen," I proceed "She had a baby girl. I'm thinking it's mine so I'm taking care of her, but my mom keeps saying, that's not my child. So we finally get a test. And my mother was right, she wasn't mine."

"How long ago was this?" Her expression softening as I spoke.

"We ended things almost 2 years ago. I missed the baby's birth because of work so she didn't put my name on the birth certificate, but she kept telling me I needed to add my name, so my mom said once they do DNA we could amend it, but then she wouldn't bring it up anymore. The baby was damn near 2 years old when Mariah finally agreed to the DNA test. Then she kept saying it was wrong. When I moved to California, she mysteriously knew who her baby daddy was. Her ex."

"Did you love her?"

"No! Not at all. I swear, I did not love that girl. She was a mistake I wish never happened."

"You didn't know she was sleeping with somebody else?"

"We weren't in a relationship so I didn't bother with knowing if she was until she told me she was pregnant. We had sex the one time without a condom when I was drunk so I accepted when she told me it was my baby."

"Okay."

Okay?