Her Worth

Eleven

"Hey, N'ijah." Naji grabbed the bag from the heavily pregnant woman and walked her inside, showing the fancy apartment he was living in for the time being.

"If I knew this is where you lay your head, I'd be coming here more often." N'ijah joked, wiping away the remaining tears coming from her face. Naji noticed and grabber her hand, coming in closer to her.

"Says the rich woman."

"Not very rich anymore." Naji pulled back and gave her a weird look. A pregnant woman, in my house, crying. What could be the reason? And then he noticed the ring she usually had on her finger was gone, nowhere in site. Shit.

"I'm sorry." He came to embrace her, trying as best as he could with her enlarged stomach sticking out from her front.

"It's fine. It's not like it wasn't bound to happen anyways." She revealed. Their relationship had been rocky ever since her miscarriage, but it had never blown up as much as it did now. N'ijah, even though she didn't want to, still carried a false hope that maybe Jamari and her might get back together, but she knew they wouldn't. She wouldn't allows herself to be caught up in his line of bitches.

"Would you like anything?" It was then N'ijah noticed that Naji was shirtless, and dammit he looked good. N'ijah's ring finger suddenly felt very bear, even though she had taken her ring off a long time ago.

"No, I'm fine. You can go back to whatever you were doing, don't mind me." She tried to hide herself from him, but Naji had known her for too long.

"Tell me what's wrong." He almost demanded, a dead lock glare spelling tension out with a pen. N'ijah almost gave in, but held her own. That was, until he came a little closer and started to caress her face.

"What's going on?" The tone of his voice broke something in N'ijah, and she finally allowed herself to cry while being in Naji's arms. She told herself she wouldn't let herself cry, but in the moment, she broke the emotional dam that was holding her back, and all her tears came flooding out.

...

N'ijah woke up the next morning in Naji's bed, with Tylenol and a glass of water in the nightstand with a note next to it. For the woman who wouldn't stop babbling about how she wished we were still friends. N'ijah groaned as she remembered how vulnerable she was with him last night, and almost wished she hadn't said a word.

Almost. N'ijah recalled his smile and kind words as she poured her heart out to him, and the way he would sympathize when she was sad and make her laugh when he felt she was uncomfortable. A...blush scorched her cheeks as N'ijah heard the door open. Fumbling, she fell backwards onto the bed as Najib opened the door to check on her.

Still as shirtless and hot as he was last night, Naji chuckled as he saw the squirming figure of N'ijah try to hide from him. He closed the door behind him, giving her the illusion that he left as he quietly crept up to the bed.

As she poked her head out of the covers, she almost had a heart attack at the sight of him in front of her.

"Morning." Naji said, in that deep, rumbling morning voice he always had, ever since N'ijah had known him. Usually, it did nothing, but this time, it made N'ijah's blush increase by ten percent. As she was trying to get the man out of her head, said man came even closer to her.

"Breakfast?" Nodding her head in reply, Naji held out his hand and gently guided N'ijah to his kitchen, where two plates of eggs, bacon, and toast were sitting, waiting to be eaten.

"You made this?"

"I can cook. Sometimes." He spread his hands our over the very mediocre spread of food, making N'ijah giggle a bit.

"Really? So, if I came here for dinner sometime, you'd make something for me?" N'ijah leaned forward, amused at his expression, and absorbed in their little moment. That bubble popped as her baby kicked, hard.

N'ijah almost doubled over in pain as he kicked twice more. She couldn't even get a word out to signify what was going on; the pain was taking her down.

"I guess little guy wants to come meet me soo, huh?" He joked. His cold hands touches her stomach, making the baby drop kicking so hard.

"How does he like you more than me already?" N'ijah sighed out, Naji's smirk as wide as it could be.

"I am the Baby Reader. Babies love me." She snickered.

"Remember that kid that puked on you? Yeah, that's what I thought." N'ijah retaliated, and the expression on his face made N'ijah's bringing up that memory just that much sweeter. N'ijah enjoyed Naji's company.

And maybe just a little bit more than that..

...

Weeks passed. Houses sold. Settlements and alimony given. As they didn't have a prenup, Jamari had to give her a share of everything, which neither him nor Desiré was happy about. At the end of it all, N'ijah walked away from the courtroom with half of Jamari's fortune, half of his shares, and 1/4 of his company.

And more money was coming her way, as her boutique's grand opening was soon. Badly enough, though, the media has gotten wind of "America's Top Couple's" divorce, and now almost everything they did was televised or recorded. Seeing as both N'ijah and Desiré now had the same last name, N'ijah choosing not to change hers until after the divorce was finalized,  people started to get suspicious.

N'ijah, ever the good person, changed her last name, and made an official statement that the two had split due to "differences", which was a terrible understatement, but the media ate it up.

"What I've learned is, life goes on, and people change as they grow. We changed, but in different ways." N'ijah said in an interview, trying to steer the conversation from Jamari to her. It only lasted a few more questions until it was clear they wanted N'ijah to lie in Jamari's name, or even to defame it, but she wouldn't. She felt free now, and didn't want to link her name to his ever again.

N'ijah wanted to start realizing her worth.

.

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Hey y'all 🤪
Sorry for the late update 😭
This chapter was kinda a filler, so it's shorter, but I really like it
Your thoughts? Tell me what YOU thought
This story MIGHT NOT ME long, so stayyyy tuned to find out

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Xoxo, Mika 💗