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.

Carter held out his hands trying to cool the raising tempers, "We can make this work."

"Why?" Mrs. Russell chirped eyeing him with hostility. "So, you can keep your ass on the side."

"You know what..." Safiya shook her head, mostly to herself. "I'll make this easy for us all." She yanked the diaper off the floor and lifted the carrier just as Ameera's whimpers graduated to a low, rhythmic cry. "You raise your kids and I'll raise mine," She twisted on her heels quickly before the tears flooded her eyes.

She stormed to the door with tears blurring her vision.

"Safiya!" Carter called as he jogged towards her.

There was no way she was about to stop and turn around. She wanted to get out of that house as fast as she could and be done with all of it. She yanked open the front door and her body froze at the sight in front of her.

A tear slid down her cheek as her lips pulled apart, "Nick." His name slipped breathlessly from her mouth.

"Safiya." He wafted his stunned eyes over her as lines formed in his forehead. "W-What are you..." His gaze slithered away from her to Carter standing in the foyer as still as a statue. "You didn't." His hand went to his chest as if he tried to stop if from breaking. "You got her pregnant." He took a tentative step back shaking his head with bewilderment staining his features. "You bastard!" He shouted before storming in the house, accidently bumping his shoulder against Safiya. "You cheating scum of the earth." He seethed at Carter.

"Son, don't speak to me that way." Carter ordered with his eyes narrowed as he glared at the boy standing inches away from him.

"Nick!" Mrs. Russell harked as she rushed to the hallway. "What are you—"

"You destroy everything for me!" Nick rebutted with a sneer as he clinched his fist.

The shouting and excitement produced a loud reverberating cry from Ameera sending Safiya hustling to the car. Safiya shushed the baby as she snapped the car seat back in place. "We're going home." She leaned in and gently kissed Ameera's soft forehead and them her pudgy cheeks. "Don't you worry, we won't be back." She stroked the baby's chubby belly then gave her another kiss on her button nose. Ameera's cries quelled as she sniffled with glistening cheeks. "That's my girl." Safiya pushed back her own tears. "My big girl." She got out the car and turned to see him standing there.

Safiya shut the car door, "I'm done." She yanked the driver's side door open.

"Did you sleep with my son?"

Safiya looked heavenward. "You've got to be kidding me." She matched her eyes back to him with a mirthless laugh. "After all that went down...those are the words your brain strung together."

"You're the one that wanted this." Carter sternly pointed at her. "What did you think was going to happen?"

"I thought you were going to be a man, be accountable for your actions not a coward ducking his head...letting someone else think for you."

"She's my wife." He explained with distressed in the slight wrinkles in the corner of his eyes.

"Yes, she is." Safiya nodded. She hopped in her car and slammed the door. He stood there as she stood the key in the ignition and turned the engine over.

Safiya pressed the button down on the door and the her window slid down, "This is your only warning." She kept her eyes forward. "You might want to back up." She shifted the gear in reverse and lifted her foot of the gas pedal. Carter hustled back, the tire barely missing his foot.

She maneuvered the car out of the driveway and once on the street shifted the gear into drive. She glance in the rearview mirror catching Ameera's wide gray eyes, "We don't need him." She placed her sight back on the road and feed the car some gas. "We'll be fine without him."

Will Safiya and Ameera be 'fine' without Carter?

What will Nick have say to Safiya now that he knows Ameera is his father's child?

Do you think Safiya should've taken Mrs. Carter's hush money?