Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA
"Malik!" Brooklyn said, surprised, then she took in the look on my face, my arms crossed over my chest and her expression shifted from surprised to wary.
"You called my wife."
"Why would I call her?" she asked.
"Because you're trying to hurt her."
"Now you're being ridiculous, coming here and making wild accusations."
"Am I? What other woman would call Jade and say nasty things?"
"How do I know, Malik? Did you string any other women along besides me?"
"You're delusional if you think I was stringing you along. Had I made you promises of someday or possibly, that would have been stringing you along. You knew what this was and wasn't from the start. When we talked about moving our friendship to a dating one, I was very clear and upfront about what it would not be or ever would become, and you said that was fine as long as we could still be friends when we stopped dating."
Her face was tight with anger.
"So let's not rewrite history. You had the choice to continue or not. You chose to go into it with your eyes wide open. You chose to continue seeing me after you told me you loved me. You don't get to have it both ways -- you don't get to play victim when you could have chosen to end it at any time and you deliberately made the decision to continue. You aren't some starry-eyed teenage girl being taken advantage of by an older man here. Quite the opposite, in fact. But now you want to say I was stringing you along when you made choice after choice to continue the limited relationship I laid out for you from the very beginning. And because you don't like my decision to have nothing more to do with you, you go after my wife like a coward instead of coming at me."
"You wouldn't take my calls or return my texts!"
"So you call my wife to harass her?"
"It got you here, didn't it? You couldn't keep avoiding me."
"Friendships end. People break up. Couples stop seeing each other. Just because you date a man or have a friendship with a man doesn't give you the right to go after his wife. Most people accept that something has ended and move on because there's never a guarantee that things are going to last forever -- especially when you've been told that up front. Those that don't accept or can't accept the end to a whatever kind of relationship become stalkers. You made a mistake when you went after my wife."
"What? You're going to show up and yell at me every time I call her?"
I smiled. "You're already on probation for harassing my wife once. I talked to each member of the review board after I didn't get anywhere with HR, and I tried to get more than probation for you. I failed in that attempt, but maybe now they'll take me seriously."
"With no evidence? Good luck with that."
I held her eyes while I called to my brother who was hidden behind an SUV. "Did you get all that Nasim?"
He stepped forward. "Every word."
"You can't record me without my permission!" she objected.
"Actually," I said, "this isn't one of the sixteen states that requires two-party consent to be recorded. So, we're good. I spoke with HR earlier and they said I needed proof. So I got it."
"Don't do this, Malik." Now she looked genuinely afraid.
"You have to decide what you want more. Your career or harassing my wife. Don't call my wife ever again, don't ever contact her in any way, don't ever contact me and I won't take this to HR. You do, and I'll blow up your career and your reputation."
YOU ARE READING
Malik and Jade
RomanceI thought our arranged marriage had turned into love for both of us. I discovered how wrong I was the day I gave birth to our premature son and found my husband taking comfort from another woman. The woman he loved.
