Lies.

So many lies have encompassed my life within the past year. My older brother lied about why he was arrested; he went to the extreme and said it was for a DUI, turns out he failed to pay child support on a baby no one knew about. Morgan lied to me about why she wanted me to stay away from Prince when I first met him. Prince lied about the extent of the relationship he had between him and my sister. I LIED. I lied when I told him I was never pregnant.

Prince's nagging never left the back of my head. When my period started on October 17th, It was a light spotting but still I called that morning and scheduled an appointment that same day. After checking my hCG levels, she concluded that I was pregnant, but told me to come back a few days later. Two days passed and my flow was a lot heavier. When my GYN completed all of her exams, she told me that my cervix was dilated and my hCG levels had dropped, signifying I was having a miscarriage.

Naturally, I went home and cried. But looking into Noah's big bright brown eyes I knew I still had a reason to smile. I knew there was no reason to ever tell Prince about this. It's better to tell him there was never a pregnancy at all. It might kill him to know that after losing his son and another baby, that the life we created was no more. I lied to him in order to protect his heart and his sanity. I lied to him because I love him.

Prince's Perspective

   November 3, 1998

I didn't expect to hear anymore about my past affairs with Morgan after I confessed. But I got a call at 2am that night of Jasmin crying. Naturally, I grew concerned and asked her what was wrong and said I would come get her but she quickly dismissed me. She told me how her and Morgan got into a fist fight earlier and now she was staying at her parents house. When I pressed on about why, she shunned the question and said, "Did you love her?"

Confused I said, "Huh?"

"Don't huh me, you heard me did you love Morgan?"

Now, I knew exactly what caused this fight. Morgan opening her big ass mouth and Jasmin telling her about us. There was no reason for Jasmin to know the extent of what me and Morgan had. That relationship died a long time ago and I wanted it to stay dead. But Jasmin is smart and I knew if I tried to lie she would be able to see right through it.

"Baby, listen I—" Click.

Am I surprised she's upset? No. Instead of pressing on, I gave her the space she needed to cool off. It's almost been five days, by the end of the week I should be back in her good graces.

What I'm not looking forward to is the unleashing of the Kraken AKA Morgan. That girl is so damn annoying when she's pissed off. Dick was always my solution for her anger, however it can't be like that anymore. I put the final nail in that coffin a long time ago. Luckily I had an extra day to prepare myself since Morgan was on some bootleg getaway with her new boy toy.

The shrill sound of my phone brought me out of my thoughts. Pressing the flashing red button, my assistants voice rang through the receiver. "Sir, Morgan Wilson is here to see you."

"Send her in." Leaning back and kicking my heels up on my desk, just as my eyes had closed I heard the door creak open and slam shut. "Morgan, you got one more time to slam my damn door. I'm telling you right now." Resting my hands behind my head, I patiently waited for her to drill into me. As I heard her heels clacking closer to my desk, my eyes flung open when she pushed my feet off my desk. "You got some nerve—"

"I have some nerve?! You're the one banging my baby sister! Out of all the hoes in your little black book, you choose MY sister to help rebuild your harem?" Standing up, a hearty laugh slipped from me as I was amused by her wild accusations. A harem? I never had no such thing.

"Morgan, now you know I never had a harem. You act as if I became involved with Jazz as a personal vendetta against you. Here's the truth, when I first met her, some type of magnetic force drew my soul into hers. We clicked and we became friends. Over time we became really close and we eventually became intimate. It wasn't planned from the beginning, things just happen."

Crossing her arms, distrust was written all over her face. "Things just happen? So my sister just happened to fall onto your dick?"

Leaning against my desk, I sighed. "Morgan..."

"No! Don't 'Morgan' me. I want to know why my sister? I don't care what you do. I moved past 'us' years ago, thats why I can still stand to work for you. But WHY my sister?"

"Morgan, things just happen. I can't tell you why God chose to bring Jazz into my life, but she's here now and she's not going anywhere. I haven't told her yet, but I love her. And being frank, your sisters relationship is none of your business."

She scoffed at my answer. "Love? Prince you've always been the biggest bullshitter."

"You're not allowed to call me that."

"Oh, but let me guess she is allowed? Let me tell you something. You're not in love with her, you're in love with the idea of her. You meet this pretty, young, fresh thang. Ooo, but here's the bonus: she already has a baby. Here it is, a ready made family at your fingertips. I mean since Mayte was incapable of giving you one, you'd—"

"SHUT UP MORGAN!" Jumping up from my position, I jumped into her personal space causing her to stumble back a step. She had never seen me this angry and I could tell it frightened her. But she had it coming, always running her damn mouth. "Just shut up." Walking back over to my desk, I buried my face into my hands attempting to calm down.

I heard the cushion shift in one of the chairs across from my desk. "Look, I'm sorry I said th—"

"Morgan, you're not sorry. You've hated Mayte since the beginning of time. But I don't understand what you want me to do. Do you want me to break up with your sister? Break her heart? After I've been there for her, and Noah?"

"No, I don't know. It's funny because ever since May of '97, I could visibly tell how much happier Jasmin was. Not knowing, that brighter smile was because of you. Even though she put up a good front, before she met you that girl was in such a deep depression. Sometimes not even Noah could bring her out of it. You know one time she even took like a half a bottle of Xanax and chugged down some of my dad's Hennessy? Thank god, my mom came in and found her, put her in the tub and made her throw it back up. She was on a 72-hour psych hold."

A wave of emotions hit me, not only because I would've never imagined Jasmin was ever that depressed, but because her story sounded all too familiar to when I was so distraught over Ahmir's death that I took a whole bottle of aspirin and wine. Jazz knows how to bury her emotions deep down just like me. Maybe God bringing her into my life was his way of saying we were two broken souls that needed each other. I always knew something deep lied behind those enticing mahogany eyes, I just didn't know it was that. "Wow, why was she so depressed?"

Wiping a lone tear that had streaked her makeup, "It's not my place to say. That's a confession she will have to tell you, if she's ever ready. I guess I'll have to get used to the idea of you two, but just one thing."

"What's that?"

"I see your wedding band is missing. I know to the public eye, everything is all peachy between you and Mayte yet behind closed doors you find yourself lying in bed with Jasmin. If you love Jasmin, you wouldn't string her along with false hopes."

Making my way to the other side of the desk, I looked down at Morgan. "I love Jasmin."

For the first time in a long time, Morgan blessed me with a genuine smile. Reaching her hand out she said, "Look, I know now that my behavior was wrong. We cool?"

"Yeah were cool." Smirking we did our secret handshake that we hadn't done in years. "What about you two? She told me that fight got pretty ugly."

"Yeah, some nasty shit was said. We need to work on us, but we'll bounce back. She's my only sister." As she turned to walk out of the door, the look on her face told me she still had something on her mind. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Yeah shoot."

"You say you love her, but does she even realize that? How are you so sure she's even allowed herself to love you?"

A puzzled look dawned my face. "Morgan, why would you say that?"

Shrugging, she walked back over to me and whispered, "I'm just saying, she knows you still lay up with Mayte. Jasmin may or may not have found another man to lay up with while you are preoccupied. But you didn't hear that from me."

After the initial astonishment wore off, a pang of anger burned inside of me. The idea of Jazz being sexed down by another man made me sick. I knew if I called Jasmin this instant to question her, if she even answered, the conversation could quickly go south with my accusations.

Sitting back at my desk, I pondered. Could I even believe what Morgan was saying? After a few minutes, something struck me. That masculine voice I heard in the background when I was on the phone with her back in July. Is it the same guy Morgan spoke of? Has Jazz really been lying to me?