A Necessary Struggle: Spring Semester

Chapter 38: The Other Woman II

Safiya sat in the middle of the pearl loveseat without resting her back against the tufted cushion. Carter didn't speak to her when she entered the white sitting room, which was just a couple feet from the front door, his eyes matched hers with tight lips then once his wife sat beside him, he abruptly shifted his gaze out the massive windows.

"Would you like some tea," Mrs. Russell dryly asked gesturing to the dainty gold tea set on the coffee table.

Safiya slowly shook her heart filling her stomach somersault, "No, thank-you." She lowered her gaze to Ameera who was staring up at her with big, searching eyes. Safiya knew soon the little girl would be fully awake and want all her attention. "I just want to discuss what needs to be discussed." She crossed her black jean covered legs, "Clear the air." Those words left a bitter taste in her mouth. They felt too generic for a situation of this magnitude but her brain wasn't operating to full capacity and she was tired from her shift at the boutique.

"Straight to the point." Mrs. Carter slapped her hands together causing Carter to jerk his attention away from the foliage out the window and back to the matter at hand. "Good." She crossed her legs under the white flared skirt, showing a sliver of her fawn thigh. "We're here...in this very messy situation because my husband...and I use the term extremely loosely."

"You..." Carter snorted as he sat with his back pressed against the chair and his leg crossed over his knee. "You use it loosely. I'm not the one that got us here."

Mrs. Russell's thin cheeks blushed before she twisted her neck towards Carter, "I didn't sire a child, now did I."

Carter and his wife glared at each other with indignation until he dropped his sight to the rug covered pine floor.

"I didn't come here to be apart of yawls martial issues." Safiya clenched her hands together summoning all her strength to hold the woman's heated gaze. "To be honest I didn't know he was married." She cut her eyes over at Carter. "Cause if I did I wouldn't have hook—" She swallowed that statement not wanting to share that much with a woman she just met. "I would've shut him down."

"Really." Mrs. Carter inquired with disbelief, her pecan eyes darting to the yellow blanket draped over Ameera.

"Really." Safiya repeated steeling her tone, a little embarrassed that the woman would categorize her as someone that didn't respect the woman's code. "I don't like to tangle myself in dramatic situations."

"I'm glad you said that because Carter and I came to a mutual agreement last night." A constricted smile claimed her lips as she uncrossed her legs and scooted to the edge of the chair. "To make sure things are untangled as smoothly as possible we've decided that he will give you a stipend of fifteen hundred every month and in return, you'll keep this all to yourself."

"Keep this." Safiya's tilted her head, her ponytail falling over her shoulder. "By this do you mean my child?" Her voice deepened with gall. 

"She doesn't mean it that way." Carter said then turned to his wife. "Right?"

Sylvan remained silent.

"I don't want your money. I want her to have a father." She peeled her eyes away from the woman and placed them on Carter who was staring off. "You said you wanted to be her father." She pointed at him.

"I—" Carter started only to be abruptly interrupted by his wife.

"Our duty is to our children..." Mrs. Russell affirmed raising her voice prompting sniffles from Ameera. "Our children that we had in this marriage. You are not his wife." She shook her head with vigor. "He owes you nothing."

"He doesn't owe me anything but he owes her!" Safiya loudly declared, as she quickly stood. Her raised voice drew whimpers from Ameera as she begun to lightly kick her feet.