𝐎𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞

Chapter Forty-Eight

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Long after everyone had left, Matthew still heard the loud beating of his heart. When he retook the envelope from where he had placed it, he felt like he was opening Pandora's box, like he expected evil or curses to sprint out in the form of smoke. He was afraid yet relieved that his hands held the answers he sought. Hesitating when his hands touched the papers inside, he slowly sat down, pulling them out and putting them on his desk first without looking at the contents.

Suddenly, the air seemed different. Time froze, and Matthew stared at the papers for more than a minute, getting himself emotionally ready for whatever was inside. He knew that Imani had left for more than his money or the responsibility of being his wife. There was more to it than that.

Taking the papers off the desk, he scanned through the document without making any words; it was like his brain was trying to skim through to get the bad news first and end up with her identity.

Finally, he decided to read the document in the order it was been written.

Her name, which he already knew. Imani Elizabeth Stiles. Her mother died, but her father was in a penitentiary for murder—shocking, but that did not, nor would it have changed how he felt about her. Matthew realized that this was why she thought they couldn't be together—not his money, fame, or her level of education. Instead of relief, anger swept through him like a strong wind preparing for a heavy downpour. He was livid. But he continued to read the report.

Although her father never married to her mother, they lived together until she was six years which was when he was convicted, making Imani illegitimate, yet Matthew didn't see how that would matter to him. He didn't know who he was or whether he was legitimate either, and he did not care. While he read through her life, Matthew recalled once asking Imani why she had been a virgin, given what she did for a living. First, she had been angry with him for asking; then, she had shrugged and said lack of opportunity.

Of course that wasn't the reason.

Matthew remembered it as one of his favorite talks with her. It had been raw, honest, and witty. And although she had stood up, thereby ending it, she had said, in a soft voice, that she had always been afraid of choosing the wrong men as her mother had done.

He had wanted to know more, but Imani had brushed it with a joke about women falling in love with bad boys. He had known she wouldn't tell him anything else. The topic was closed, and there was no way of reopening it. Now reading it felt like he was intruding on her privacy, yet he couldn't stop himself.

From the paper, Imani's mother was a train wreck. She lived and had a child with a murderer—a man who'd killed twice while fully knowing who he was. It was mind-blowing, unbelievable that such two people came together to create a different human from them. Imani was caring, hard-working, loving, and protective. She took her responsibilities seriously, which is why her commitment to raising Jamie wasn't just because she loved him; it stemmed from her role as a sister, as the only surviving relative, but a few pages revealed Jamie's father was alive, a drug addict, but alive.

Matthew figured why Imani ran away from home after their mother's death was to avoid him as much as she wanted to avoid both her and Jamie ending up in foster homes

It was a depressing report, Matthew thought, looking over at the photos his team had taken of Imani and her brother. She had changed her hair again to wavy ash blond. She looked beautiful with a small bag over her shoulder with Jamie hoisted on her left hip. He couldn't see much of her because she wore sunglasses in each of them.

Putting the contents back, he wished she would be happy someday. They might never be together, but he wanted her to find happiness. He decided to stop reading; he had read enough. Anything else didn't matter.