Black Rose (Book 1)

Chapter 20: It's All Love

Bernice

Last night before I went to bed Dave called me telling me what Mack said about Nyemiah. He said he was going to talk to her today, but I wanted to get to her first. I normally wouldn't do this, especially since they're not actually in a relationship, but I knew Nyemiah.

I went to Queens to her mom's dance school. It brought back so many memories being here. I asked if Nyemiah was here and they told me where. I walked into a dance room to see her cleaning the mirrors. She stopped when she saw me. "Bernice? What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk. Can we sit?" She nodded getting two chairs for us.

"What's going on?"

"David. He, um, found out some information about you and I wanted to talk to you before he did. Get your side of the story."

"What did he find out about me?"

"About you and Mack. It's hard to tell who's telling the truth when both of you told different stories. Dave can be really nosey, but he likes to know every detail about a person before he dates them. Mack had a different story of why you two broke up and it didn't make you look too good."

She sighed, "Look-"

I cut her off. "I'm not here for stories, lies, or explanations. Just tell the truth..Did you steal from Tristan or not?"

"Yeah" she said crossing her arms looking away.

"Where's the money? What did you do with it? Because you're clearly not in dance school. I thought that was your dream."

"It is my dream, but sometimes life gets in the way. I used it to move out on my own and out of my mother's. I used it to get a car. I used it to pay bills." How much money did she take from Tristan? That stuff isn't cheap. "I loved Tristan whether people believe it or not. I didn't mean for it to go that far, but when you're with someone with money you expect them to help, but he stopped. He felt used and maybe I was taking advantage, but I got used to it."

"I don't care about that. All I'm here to say is if Dave decides to continue to deal with you you better not use, steal, or cheat on him or I'll break your face! Tread lightly with this one, Nyemiah." I picked my YSL purse up and left.

I got in my car and before I pulled off I checked my phone. I had thousands of notifications on instagram for the same thing. I clicked it and it took me to a picture on The Shade Room's page. It was a picture of Trey walking into a place holding a females hand. The caption read:

Trey Songz seen out with that old thing, Mila. Are they back on? But what happened to Bernice Burgos?

I locked my phone groaning. I threw my phone into the passenger seat. I'm furious.

Dave

Today I had a meeting with Def Jam Records. The little amount of time I've been signed with them they've done a lot for me if I do say so myself. I sat down at the long table with one of the execs of the company.

"Dave, glad to have you back! I heard the mini tour went great." I nodded my head. "Good. We had you come in today because we realized it's really time to revamp your brand. We love what you had going before with the Who is Dave East? Campaign, which brought a lot of attention to you. The only problem is as of right now you really don't have a team. It was just you, Mass Appeal, and your manager doing this and he's now incarcerated. We're going to have to build you a whole new team from scratch. We need a permanent manager and not these temps, an assistant, wardrobe, road manager, a publicist, and a marketer and promoter. We give all our clients the opportunity to pick their own team. We highly advocate comfort before we spring strangers on you. Do you have anyone in mind for those positions? If you do we'll check them out and put them on payroll."