Man of the Year (Drake Story)

Chapter Syvogtyve

When I stumbled out of the room, my head heavy and my eyes clouded, I had to stop. Right outside of the East Wing’s door, I stopped. I needed to clear my mind, to make sure that what just occurred was real and to figure out what to do next. I had to go outside to Chicago. Yes, that’s what I had to do. I told him to wait for me, so now I had to go to him. Yes. That.

I left the house quietly, avoiding eye contact with the others. They were in the kitchen now, but I’m sure they still saw me leave. They didn’t ask where I was going - or at least I didn’t hear them - so I kept walking.

I got in the car with Chicago and rested my head on the dash. I bit down on my own teeth, trying my best not to cry again. Life would move on. This wasn’t the end. I wasn’t about to go crazy, and no, that wasn’t Drake in the corner of my eye. It was just my hallucination, induced by the new wealth I’d just acquired. It would pass.

“Where to, boss?” Chi asked. I raised my head.

“Amanda’s.”

It surprised me that he knew where that was. He didn’t even ask once for a reminder about directions, just followed the routine that he did only about four times before. I hadn’t even called to see if she was home, and this was a weekday. She could be at work.

Still, it didn’t hurt to check.

Again, I instructed my driver to wait and walked up to the house. I raised my hand to knock on the door, and I let it hover in the air while I considered what was about to happen. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. The option of going back to Drake’s house and accepting my gift was still open. I could be like the rest of them: evil and greedy. I could buy and sell the slaves. I could make my own fortune. I didn’t have to be the superhero.

But that’s what I was born for. To save the world even while my own was a huge, melting mess.

I knocked the door. Amanda, miraculously, was home, and she opened up sooner than I thought she would. She had some new, curly extensions in her hair. Her makeup was bright and so was her outfit. She looked so intensely happy, a perfect contrast to how I felt inside. She could tell. She frowned once she looked into my eyes, once she saw my emotion.

“Come in,” She stepped to the side. I walked into the house and stood in the living room. I couldn’t sit down, not yet.

“I wasn’t expecting you, Aubrey.” Amanda closed the door and joined me. “But you’re lucky, because it’s not a mess in here for once. What’s up?”

“Did you find him?” I asked her, only noticing how nervous I felt once I spoke. For some reason, I couldn’t pull my hands out of my pockets.

“Find who?”

“Makonnen’s biological father.”

She looked away from me. “Yes.”

I exhaled, with a feeling that I couldn’t identify as relief or disappointment. “And what happened?”

“He said that he didn’t—” She lay a hand on her chest, as if to calm herself down so she wouldn’t start crying. “—he didn’t want to have anything to do with Makonnen. He said that he doesn’t deny being the father, but he doesn’t have space in his life for a child, especially so unexpectedly.”

“So he won’t be in his child’s life at all?”

“I asked him that same question, and his exact words were: ‘Maybe, but not any time soon’.” Amanda told me. I could feel the anger gathering in my chest as I looked at her, how beautiful yet hurt she was. She didn’t deserve to go through this; no woman did.