“The second you pick that phone up, you betta pick up the want ads and get a job to pay your bills. ’Cause you won’t get another coin from me.”

“And I’ll take you right to court.”

“Do you, ma!” He laughed. “They can only base it against my reported salary. Go ahead, so you can get less than a quarter of what I give you now.”

His words silenced her instantly.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he taunted. “Say something else, and watch me take your ass to court for custody. You barely raising them, always leaving them with some teenager while you out gallivanting … I guess it’s hard being a mother when you in your second childhood.”

Ria was on pause for real now; she had run out of slick comebacks. Chaz didn’t say anything else. He didn’t want to give any more of what little energy he had to battling with another female. The Hennessy along with fatigue were weighing heavily on him. He soon dozed off into a deep, much needed sleep.

Around 1:30 AM, Kisa rolled over in bed and felt that her husband’s body was not there. She opened her eyes and sat up to survey the room, then called out, “Sincere.”

There was no response. She retrieved her BlackBerry from the nightstand. When Kisa saw the time, she caught an instant attitude. Sincere had promised that he’d be home by midnight, and he had not even bothered to call. Dealing with renovations on their recently purchased four-thousand-square-foot brownstone and overseeing the daily operations of the spa rendered Kisa exhausted most evenings. Many nights Kisa slept so soundly that she didn’t notice that Sincere was coming in between three and four. Now that the renovations were complete, along with the bulk of the interior designs, Kisa hadn’t slept as hard.

Before calling Sincere to curse him out, she got up and searched each floor of the three-story brownstone. He wasn’t there. Kisa called his phone a few times but didn’t get an answer. She returned to bed and awaited his call.

Thirty minutes went by, and Kisa’s phone had yet to ring. She was steaming. He thinks it’s a fucking game, she told herself as she scrolled through her phone, stopping at Eisani’s name. Kisa sent her cousin a text: Where you at?

We’re at Mansion, Eisani replied.

Kisa texted back: I’m about to come through.

After a quick shower, Kisa put on a pair of black short shorts, a black lace push-up bra, and a sheer black peasant top. She completed her outfit with a pair of fuchsia Louboutin peep-toe stilettos. Kisa quickly but flawlessly applied her makeup, unwrapped her hair, and headed down to the brownstone’s underground garage.

Kisa cruised toward downtown in her 645i with the top down, blasting Fab’s From Nothin’ to Somethin’. With the wind blowing through her hair, she contemplated not even returning home. That’ll teach him, she thought, smiling. At a stoplight Kisa looked down at her phone. Sincere still hadn’t called back. I’m definitely not going home. Kisa really wanted to cut her phone off because she knew that would piss Sincere off, but she kept it on. She knew in her world an emergency was always around the corner.