“What you mean?”
Sabine sighed, turning to Adair wondering if she could trust him with her secrets. Her father was a big deal in the political world. He was a state senator set to run for governor but who he was behind the scenes wasn’t what he portrayed to public. Everything was about his image.
“Can I trust you?”
“With your life,” Adair promised kissing the back of her hand.
The intensity and sincerity in his profession really made her feel that she could tell him her deepest darkest secrets and he’d guard them with his life.
“My…my daddy cheated on his wife and that’s how my mom had me. She was his dirty little secret that he tricked off with her for years. I honestly think they still mess around, but I mind my business because they’ve put me through enough drama.”
“Charles Knight?” Adair asked in shock. He’d followed her father’s career for quite some time, and he was the epitome of what he would’ve thought was a successful, wealthy, smart, black man. A well-respected prosecutor, turned district attorney, now state senator who practically everyone predicted had being governor in the bag. He was that popular and admired.
Adair was set to start law school after he graduated next year. Charles was a big inspiration and influence behind that; Sabine who was his child, verbally illustrated a much different person. They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, well in this case, their daughters. He would’ve never guessed the girl who held the beautiful smile that lit up a room with absolutely no rhythm was a side baby to a very affluent man.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Sabine shrugged, “it is what it is. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daddy but…what people see isn’t always what it looks like.I know Charles the father…my mother’s boyfriend,” she rolled her eyes. “Who she’s been a proud mistress to for years.”
“But…” Adair shook his head nixing off whatever thought he was about to convey.
“No, go ahead.”
“You’re always with his wife and?—”
“My other sister,” she finished. “Yea, I’ve been trained since I was little how to pretend for the media. In public, Karen is my mother. Me and Parthenia are the same age, but we’ve had to say we were a year apart.”
“So how old are you?”
“I’m twenty.”
“Wow.” Adair’s mind was blown. He did notice her profile said nineteen. “That’s some crazy shit.”
“Tell me about it…” Sabine rubbed her hands down her thighs now feeling exposed. “I think I’m gonna go.”
“No, don’t…” he grabbed her hand. “I’m not judging you, your dad or anything like that. I just woulda never thought that you were going through all that.”
“Why not?”
“You…you just seem perfect. Like you came from…perfection.”
Sabine fought hard not to blush. “I appreciate that but I’m far from it.”
They sat in silence but this time it wasn’t as comfortable.
“Do you wanna watch another stand up?” Adair offered and Sabine shook her head no. He didn’t want her to feel like he was judging her life because in no way was he in any position to. “My daddy went to prison when my mom was pregnant with me. We grew up poor as fuck…when I say poor, I mean poor. My mom was only fourteen when she had me and my granny, God rest her soul was thirteen when she had my mom. It was a nasty cycle, but…” he shrugged. “That’s life. I watched mymother struggle to put food on the table, clothes on my back and…that shit, it tore me up as a kid. Growing up, I had a lot of big homies on the block who looked out for us because my mom was a lil hoe and shit?—”
“Oh my gosh!” Sabine laughed covering her mouth. “Don’t say that about your mother!”
“Shit, it’s the truth,” Adair shrugged. “I love my mom to death, but she’ll tell you the same thing. It just was what it was…I think that’s why we stopped struggling so hard because she…she did what she had to do to feed us.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Aye, it’s life…when I turned sixteen, I felt like I was too old to be taken care of. Like I couldn’t sit around and let my mother pay my way.
“But you were a still a kid.”
“The mind, Sabine…” Adair gently poked her temple. “It’s the mind, the environment, upbringing, influence. I felt like I had to be a man at sixteen.”