As soon as Angie signed her name on the napkin, the door to Justin’s room had opened. A wide smile appeared on her beautiful face, when she saw Justin enter the room. “Hey.” She placed the napkin in her purse that was sitting next to her on the bed.

“Morning, gorgeous.” He said as he sat on edge the, bed facing in her direction. “What was that?” He pointed to the napkin that she had tucked away.

“It was a little something I wrote. I usually have a diary that I write in, but I don’t have it with me.”

“You write anything about me?” He smirked.

“Maybe.” She gave him a smirk of her own.

“What’d you write?” He inquired.

“I wrote that I finally realized that you’re the man I want.” She reached up to cup his cheek, rubbing his face softly.

He took her hand and kissed inside of her palm. “I love you, too.” He leaned forward and gently kisses her. “Look, I need to talk to you about something.” He said breaking the kiss, and holding her hand against his bare chest.

“About?”

He cleared his throat, “I have to go back to L.A. tomorrow. My mom and my record company has been getting on my case for leaving without letting anyone know. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. And I want to be here for you and the baby. And I know that this feels crazy, and completely rushed, and you can totally tell me no if you want. But I really want you to come to L.A. with me.” She looked at him shocked. She wasn’t expecting this at all. “Like I said you can say no…”

“Yes, I’ll go.” She answered quickly, cutting off his sentence.

“Really?!” His eyes brightened, as his smile grew really wide.

“Yeah. I need a change. And I want to be with the man I love.” She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck. “But I have some things to do before we go.”

“Anything you want.” He leaned forward to give her another kiss.

**

This was the moment of truth. It had to be now or never. She had to do this. No matter what, she needed to finally let go.

She drove the car into the driveway. She saw that his champagne colored Lexus was parked in the driveway. So, she knew that he was not at work. After placing the car in park, she turned off the engine. She took a deep breath before unlocking the car door and hopped out. She adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder. She closed the car door, and began walking up to the front door of the house. Once getting up to the door, she used her key to unlock the door. She opened the door, and walked in to see Corey sitting on the couch. His big brown eyes just stared into her hazels.

“Where have you been?” He said getting off of the couch walking over to her and grabbing her in a hug. “I’ve been so worried about you.” He rubbed her back, before realizing that she wasn’t retuning his embrace. “What’s wrong?” He pulled back to look down at her.

“Corey, sit down we need to talk.” She motioned toward the couch.

“Angie, baby…”

She sighed. “Corey, please…”

“Ok.” He complied walking over to the couch he had been sitting on for the past few hours. She followed him and sat on the opposite side. “Angie, what’s going on?” He reached in, gently rubbing her cheek, but she slightly pulled back. That kind of threw Corey off.

“I know you’ve been sleeping with Carmen…” She nervously began.

“Angie, I’m not…” He began to try to deny the accusation, but she had cut him off.

“Don’t lie, Corey. I also know about Elijah.” She placed her hands in her lap, looking down.

He was shocked that she had found out about that situation. “How did you…”

“Carmen confessed. I went to your office earlier to see if you were there, but obviously you weren’t. On, my way out, I ran into Carmen, and we talked. She told me everything, Corey. I know that her son, Elijah, is yours.” Angie looked away from her husband’s shocking stare.

“Angie…”

“No, Corey, don’t. Nothing you say is going to make a difference either. Corey, this isn’t going to work.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Us, Corey. I’ve done a lot of soul searching the last couple of days. You’re not what I need. And I am definitely not what you need…”

“Angie..”

“No, Corey, let me finish. We’ve been through a lot of stuff together. Some good. Some bad. But I’d be lying if I told you that I have been completely honest with you through this marriage.”

“Angie, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Hold on.” She got up from the couch and walked to the stairs where she ascended the steps. In the span of three minutes, she came waddling down the stairs and took her spot back on the couch. In her tiny hands held onto the one thing that no one in the entire world had even touched or looked at. “This is my diary. I’ve had this since high school, but I only started writing in it when we got married. I know it’s kind of juvenile, but it’s the only thing that kept me sane for the past three years. But,” she paused to look into his dark orbs, “I want you to have it.” She sighed, as she handed the purple leather book that she had kept her innermost secrets over to her husband, soon to be ex. He accepted it. “It will explain everything. Everything that I didn’t have the heart to tell to your face." She stood up from the couch. "About six months ago, I met someone. Someone who has changed my life in more ways than one. The night I met him I did sleep with him…” She could see the veins in Corey’s neck bulge. “But I hadn’t seen him after that until a couple of days ago. I’m not going to get into the details, because it’s all in here.” She pointed to the diary.

Corey looked down at the diary, and then peered back up at his wife. “This guy, do you love him?”

She nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “I had been trying to fight my feelings for him, for the past six months. Because I loved you. But now I know that things between you and me will never be the same.”

He just stared at her blank, trying to piece together everything that she was telling him. A light then had gone off in his head. “And you said this was six months ago. So, is the baby his or mine?” He said cringing at that thought.

Angie sighed heavily. “I’m so sorry, Corey.” She looked away, as the tears began to form in her light eyes.

He got up from the couch, and began pacing the living room floor. “Yo, what the fuck is going on?” He placed his hand behind his as he continued to pace the floor.

“I’m leaving for L.A. tomorrow. I’m already consulting a lawyer, and I have a meeting to discuss drawing up papers for legal separation as soon as I get there.” Angie continued, as Corey still paced the floor. “Corey I never meant for things to happen like this. But this is what I want. For the past three years, I’ve always done what you wanted. Been the perfect wife on your arm. Now it’s my turn. I guess I should give this back to you.” She reached over in her purse, and pulled out the locket that he had given her two nights ago. Corey immediately stopped and looked at her. She opened the palm of his hand and placed the necklace in the center. “And here.” She slid the diamond engagement ring, and platinum wedding band off of her left ring finger, and placed them in his hands also. She then closed his hand around it. “I don’t want anything from you. I’m not even taking a lot of my stuff. I will only be taking the important stuff.”

“Is this what you really want?” He looked down into her hazel eyes, and she just nodded. “I’m sorry that you feel this way. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be the man you needed. And I understand that you really hate me.”

Angie touched his arm lightly. “Corey, I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. Because I know that I’m not perfect either, but I just can’t keep going through this. You just need to worry about taking care of that son of yours.” She stood on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek.

She then headed back upstairs to what would now will be formally known as her room. She pulled out her Louis Vitton suitcase, that her sister had given her for Christmas last year, and laid it out on the king size bed. She began to toss all of the most important things in the large suitcase. Everything that Corey had given her she decided to leave them all there.

In the process of packing, she felt a presence behind her. Quickly, she turned around. She almost jumped out of her skin, with fright. “Corey, what are you doing?”

Corey swallowed hard, before stating, “I’m not giving you up without a fight.”

“Corey,” she sighed, “We just discussed this. I thought you were going to give me what I want.”

“I am not giving you a divorce, if that’s what you think.”

“Corey…”

“Don’t fucking Corey me!” The bass in voice carried throughout their bedroom. “You come in here and tell me that you fucked somebody else, and that the family that we are supposed to have doesn’t exist.”

Angie didn’t understand what was going on with him. She thought that he was going to let her go. “I’m leaving, Corey. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” She picked up her suitcase, but he snatched it from her hands and threw it to the ground.

“You’re not going anywhere!” The look in his eyes was pure evil. Angie had never witnessed this before. She had seen him angry, but never had he been this angry. She was terrified .

“Corey, you’re scaring me.” Her eyes became heavy with fear.

“Good. You should be.” He threatened her. He then reached down and grabbed her arm, lifting her toward him.

“Ouch! Let me go. Corey you’re hurting me.”

“I’m hurting you? What about the hurt you caused me?” He placed his hand on her stomach. “This was supposed to be our baby. Don’t you think that hurts me? To know that some other man...touched you only the way that I'm supposed to.” He tightened his grip on her arm.

"What about all of the women you slept with, huh? What about Elijah? He's not my son." His grip tightened even more as the tears began to well in her eyes from the pain shooting through her arm. “Corey, please let go.” She pleaded. She tried as hard as she could to pull her arm out of his grip, but he kept a firm hold on it. There was only one way that she knew would get her out of his grip. She didn’t want to do it, but he left her no choice. She then bit down on his arm forcefully, breaking the skin.

“Ahhh. Shit!” He screamed in pain which caused him to let her arm go. As fast as she could, Angie then headed for the door of the bedroom. She didn’t care what she left, she just had to get away. “Damn it, Angie!” He looked down at his now bleeding arm. He then began to chase after her.

Angie didn’t make it to the stairs before he grabbed her arms and forcefully turned her around.

“Corey, let me go!” She screamed, struggling back and forth with her husband.

The struggle, between the two, finally ended when Corey gave her one big push, and accidentally let her arms go. Angie stumbled backwards, lost her balance, and went tumbling down the stairs.

“Angie!!!!!!” Corey screamed. “Oh my God! Oh my God!” He ran downstairs to his fallen wife’s side. “Damn it. What did I do? Angie?” He lifted her limp body onto his lap. “Angie? Angie, please…damn it.”

**

It was going on two hours and Justin still hadn’t heard from Angie. He tried calling her cell, but it just went straight to her voicemail. He was starting to get worried.

“Still no word?” Trace asked walking into the living room of their hotel suite.

“No, man. I mean it shouldn’t have taken this long.” He stood up from the couch. “I should have went with her, Trace.”

“J, you’re probably worrying for nothing. She’s probably just stuck in traffic.”

“Maybe you’re right.” He nodded walking towards his room. He went and sat down on the bed. He flipped his phone over, and sighed when he saw that he didn’t have any missed calls. Using his fingers, he began to dial Angie’s number. The phone didn’t even ring, it just went to her voicemail. “Hey, Angie, it’s Justin,” he began, scratching the back of his head, “just call me when you get this, ok. I’m…worried.” He finished, snapping his phone shut.

Then something had caught Justin’s eyes. He looked over on the night stand and saw the black flip phone sitting next to the clock. He reached over and picked it up. He then realized that it was Angie’s phone. She had forgotten to take her phone with her. He flipped it open and found that the power was off. That’s why it kept going to her message. He pressed the power button on the phone. The phone powered up, and it didn’t even get all the way powered up before a call came through. The screen flashed Yanna. Justin remembered when Angie told him that she had a sister named Ariyanna. Maybe that was her. He pressed the send button.

“Oh my God, Angie where the hell have you been?” The girl on the phone started. “We’ve been trying to call you all night long.”

Justin cleared his throat, “Hello?”

The girl recognized that this was not the voice her sister, but of a man. “Who the hell are you? And what the hell are you doing with my sister’s phone?”

“My…my name is Justin. I‘m a friend of your sister.” He began.

“Ok, Justin, where is my sister?”

“I don’t know.” Was the only thing he could say.

“What the hell do you mean that you don’t know?”

“Well, she left about two hours ago, and I haven’t heard anything from her yet.”

“Left? Left where?”

“You don’t know anything about me? Do you?”

“If I did, would I be asking all of these questions?”

“Uh…no.” He chuckled nervously.

“Now where was she supposed to go?”

“Back home.”

“Hold on, Justin, I have another call.” He heard her click over. She was back in less than two minutes.

“Justin, you still there?”

“Yeah.”

“I found my sister.”

He was relieved to know that. “Well where is she?”

“Look, Just meet me at Grady Memorial Hospital.”

“What?!”

“Look, just meet me. Just call this number back when you get here.”

“Ok.” Justin said before he snapped Angie’s phone shut. Justin quickly jumped up grabbed his keys, jacket, and headed towards the door.

“Dude, where you going?” Trace asked noticing that he friend was rushing toward the door in a haste.

“I think Angie’s in the hospital.”

“What?!”

“I’ll call you to let you know the details.”

“Yeah.” Trace said as he watched his best friend walk out of their hotel room.