A Woman's Worth (2 page)

Chapter Two

Tiffany

I woke up in sunny Miami, Florida with the sun shining and the wind so cool and breezy. I threw my robe on and looked out the window with Madison on my hip. She was smiling and I could tell she was going to love our new life.

My first order of business for the day was to get a new phone contract of my own
. Reshawn had been blowing up my phone all night and day. Apparently, he must’ve come home to an empty home and immediately thought we were kidnapped. He called my phone, over and over, leaving countless voicemails.

I answered one his calls and told him Madison and I were moving on to bigger things
in our lives and if he wanted to see Madison he would have to wait a while until I was settled. Then, we could establish a routine where he could see her. Until then, he was not to contact us point blank period. He cursed me out, calling me an ungrateful bitch. I hung up and turned my phone off.

I decided to stop by Tyrisha’s house
for the day. I hadn’t seen her since my baby shower and I missed her so much. I couldn’t wait to catch up. I texted her when we arrived at the hotel. She told me to leave the hotel and come stay with her, but I was used to having my own space.

Besides,
this hotel was top of the line. I had a two bedroom suite with a kitchen, washer and dryer, and a wraparound balcony. It didn’t hurt that they charged me by the month, so I was good. This would be home until I found a better place.

I got
Maddie dressed in a cute pink and gold D & G summer dress with her gold gladiator sandals. She sat in her playpen, trying to take her sandals off while I got dressed.

I put on a cute white BCBG maxi dress
, a pair of black Valentino studded flip flops and paired it with my black and white tote bag. I applied a little bit of makeup, put a few loose curls in my hair and sprayed myself with Marc Jacobs’
Daisy
. I grabbed Madison and the keys to the 2013 Bentley I was renting for the week. I looked and felt good. I knew me and my Maddie-boo was killing it.

***

I pulled up to the security booth of Tyrisha’s gated community of La Gorce Island in Miami Beach. I was stunned that she moved down there three years before and I didn’t get a chance to go down to visit her — not once. I thought my mini-mansion in Great Neck was nice, but these houses in La Gorce Island made Great Neck look like the pink houses in the Brooklyn projects.

A big Spanish man
, whose name tag said Frances, opened the window.

“May I help you?
” he asked cheerfully.

“Yes
, I’m here to see Tyrisha and Antonio,” I said.

“Name
, please, and ID? “

“My name is Tiffany Mitchell
,” I said, handing him my ID.

“A
New Yorker… You’re a long way from home.”

“Yes
, but I’m hoping to become a Floridian soon.” I giggled.

“Enjoy your stay
. Pull up and I will buzz the gates open.”

“Thank you.” I smiled
, pulling up to the gates.

He opened the gates and I thought the outside of the
entrance was pretty, but the houses were beautiful mansions with manicured lawns and high price trucks and cars. I continued driving, looking for Tyrisha’s address. When I found it, I yelled, damn near startling Madison, who had fallen asleep.

The house was a huge Spanish style villa mansion
. It was tan with a brown stucco roof and big brown door with a square big enough to stick your hand out for a peep hole. I grabbed Madison and walked passed a
Mercedes SLC Coupe
in a candy apple red.

“
Damn, auntie is doing well for herself,” I said to Madison.

Madison laughed, making spit bubbles, entertaining herself, and wetting her bib.

I knocked on the door
and waited a while. Finally, a tall skinny black man opened the door.

“How may I help you, ma’am?” he asked, smiling.

“By first not calling me ma’am. Tyrisha is expecting me.” I laughed.

“Tiffany, is that right?”

“That’s me and this is Madison.” I said
, bouncing Madison on my hip.

“Okay. Walk down the hall, have a seat in the family room, and I will go get Ms. Tyrisha,” he said, walking up the circular stairs in the foyer.

I walked down the hallway
. This mansion was something out of the movie
Baps
. It was beautiful from the décor to the furniture, to all the pictures of Tyrisha and Tone. They were living — traveling to places like Italy, Rome, Puerto Rico, and Bahamas. They were enjoying life while I missed out because I was home being a faithful to a man who didn’t deserve it.

I
sat down and placed Madison on my lap. She started tugging at my shirt which meant it was time to eat. I satisfied her by giving her a treat I had bought while at the airport. She loved them. I made a mental note to find them online and order her some more.

“Yasss
, you’re finally here, boo,” Tyrisha said, walking in the family room.

She was carrying a lil’ something extra—a baby bump.

Tyrisha was 5’7
” with big breast and small waist. She had chocolate skin with hazel almond shaped eyes. Tone always said the reason he got with her was because she looked so much like Kelly Rowland. She was stunning and glowing with a maxi dress accentuating her protruding belly. She had on the latest Chanel sandals.

“Tyrisha
, you’re pregnant? Why the hell you didn’t tell me?”

Just looking at her
worried face, I could tell it was going to be about some drama. So, I put Madison on the carpet. I needed her to fill me in.

“
’Cause it’s not Tone’s,” she said, looking down at the floor.

Chapter Three

Tyrisha

Keeping my pregnancy from Tiffany ha
d been the hardest thing for me. I was nearing my eighth month in my pregnancy and I still didn’t know what to do.

Around a year ago
, Tone got a new connect down in Little Haiti with some guy named Moses. Tone never brought business home, but Moses was a business man as well.

Looking at his sexy ass
, I was hooked. He had that kind of swagger to him that drove me wild. He was 6’3” with a dark Caesar and a pair of thick lips. I could imagine myself fucking him. He had a toned body with a six pack that was outlining his suit. His arms were big and buff. He could be on the cover of GQ, if you asked me.

One day
, Tone was working late at the office and he left a package at the house for Moses. He gave me clear instructions. I had to hand him the package myself, not to leave it to the maids. So, there I was — home cooking in my booty shorts, dancing to Drake’s “Started From The Bottom”. That song summed up my life to a tee.

Moses walk
ed into my kitchen. I could’ve killed Jonathan, our butler, for not announcing his arrival.

“Something smells good
,” he said, taking a seat at the counter.

“I’m just cooking for Tone
. Whenever he decides to come home.” 

“I see work
’s occupying his time lately. He couldn’t even meet with me to make a business exchange.” He chuckled.

“Sorry
. You know how Tone is with his businesses. He puts his all into it. I'm sure that’s why you got in business with him,” I said over my shoulder, while looking for my seasoning in the cabinet.

“Well
, at least, I’m in company of a beautiful woman, so that makes it better.”

“Thank you
. You’re not too bad yourself,” I said blushing, knowing it was wrong to be in the kitchen I shared with my boyfriend, flirting with his business associate.

It was wrong but it felt so good.

Tone had been putting in extra hours at work and was hardly home. He barely paid me attention, and in between both our businesses we were like two ships passing in the night. So, some male attention was what I needed right about now.

“I’ll go get your package
. You can wait in the formal living room,” I said as I walked in the direction of Tone’s office.

He walked to the living room
. But the way he walked was like he had no care in the world; yet he was the shit at the same time. With his
Blue Jean
Versace cologne lingering in the air, my panties was soaking wet.

While
I went to retrieve his package, I was instantly interrupted by a beeping sound in Tone’s desk. Being nosey, I opened his draw and found another cellphone.

“What the fuck this nigga got another phone for?”  I look
ed in his phone and went immediately to his text messages. It was a number saved under Mez with a baby and bottle emoji, My jaw almost hit the desk as I read it,

When can you come and spend time with me and AJ?

Who the fuck was Mez? Who was AJ?

I was go
ing to get down to the bottom of it. I was going to hand Moses the package and go back into Tone’s office to do some detective work. Since his office was off limits and he wasn’t home, I was going to take full advantage and go through every square root of his office like I was a detective solving a case on Law and Order.

I walked
back into the formal living room. Moses immediately figured something was wrong ‘cause I looked like an angry mad black woman. I handed him his package as he looked at me strangely.

“What’s the matter? You look like you lost your best friend,” he said, touching my cheek.

I could
’ve melted from his touch.

“Well, if you only knew,” I sighed.

He handed me his business card
. “If you ever wanna talk about it, you have listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.”

I smiled and walked him to the door.

I wound up using his card. I called him up and now, approximately eight months later, I was pregnant with his child. I didn’t know how I was going to explain this to Tone. The thought of what his reaction would be when
our
baby came out looking black instead of mixed, was something I didn’t want to think about.

It really shouldn’t have mattered because
Tone had knocked up a stripper named Mezzie from the
King of Diamonds Club
in Miami for the second time. She already had their one year old son whose name is Antonio, Jr. and was now five months pregnant with their daughter.

She and her son are living in a nice condo down on Miami Beach
. Tone was paying for her rent. She was riding around in my old Audi convertible. Shit, it didn’t matter because I decided to upgrade to my
Mercedes SLC Coupe
.

He
even had the nerve to give that bitch a black card. She was charging like it was going outta style. This bitch was living the life off of my man and my money. Little did she know, I was making just as much as Tone, if not a little more, from a small, New York sneaker store I invested my money in.

I found
out all this information that day I went snooping in his study. I know now why he never wanted me in there. I had been so stupid. He had the title to my old car, which he was supposed to sell to his so called friend, but he clearly didn’t. The money orders were made out every month to that apartment that bitch stayed in, which he managed to put in my name. Never again will I be so stupid to sign my name on something without reading it. I basically cosigned for that bitch and that bastard to be staying up in my shit.

I didn’t know who to call
after it was all said and done. Tiffany was in New York with her own problems, so I didn’t want to bother her. I called Moses and he came to comfort me. Ever since then, we’ve been fucking.

I was in love with him
and that led to me getting knocked up by him. Moses was excited to be a father and wanted me to leave Tone, but I couldn’t leave the one person who took me out the hood, gave me a career a beautiful house, and had me driving the newest whips. Moses could do the same thing, probably more, but it was the loyalty that prevented him from doing so.

I knew I had only two months
before giving birth. Moses said he wasn’t going to let me pretend like this was Tone’s baby much longer. He very much wanted to be a part of his child’s life and made it clear if I didn’t tell Tone, that he would.