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that long. He had tossed and turned a few times, but still, his sleep remained uninterrupted. 
    “Good point,” Nessa said, closing the door behind her.
    Sometimes my mind works so fast, I can’t even keep up. I had to tell Nessa I was talking about DaMarcus. What was I supposed to do, tell her I was talking about the chance I had with her husband? I was determined to sweep my past and my present with Dillon under the rug, and if he had enough sense, he would do the same. That had been our plan. My sister may come across as the good wife or the good doctor, but she has the potential to be a vengeful bitch. Trust me. She’s my mother’s daughter and my sister. That blood is definitely in our veins.

    Chapter 8
    Patrick…
    She Can’t Know
     
     
    Chance’s phone call came in the middle of the night, after I had finished my conversation with Jacoby. It followed his text asking me if I were asleep, and that he needed to talk. I hated phone calls or text messages that came in the middle of the night. They were never usually good news. Someone was either dead or had just gotten arrested. My conversation with Jacoby was still swirling around in my head, so falling asleep wasn’t the easiest thing.
    “This better be good,” I answered, pissed because the only time Chance ever wanted to talk at this three o’clock hour was when he wanted me to help him figure out how to wiggle his way out of some shit.
    I love my little brother, but I swear, sometimes I want to knock some sense into him.
    “If you’re sleeping, it could wait until the morning.”
    “Look, C. If it could’ve waited until morning, why the hell didn’t you just wait until then to text me? Stop playing games and tell me what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into this time.”
    “I need your help, bro. I got myself into some shit defending someone.”
    “You sound like a damn kid right now, Chance. What do you mean you got into some shit defending someone? Is this another one of you r piss-tailed girls?”
    Chance didn’t respond.
    “I’m tired of telling you, you’re an athlete, a goddamn professional. You need to be dating a lady, not some damn girl who’s going to be putting herself in a position for you to have to defend her. You have too much to lose. And who is this girl anyway?”
    “Does it matter ?”
    “It matters if you’re going to be getting yourself in trouble defending her.”
    You live by the woman, you die by the woman. This had been Chance’s mantra since the girls─and now the ladies─started paying him attention. And just like I had done, even as a spectator at his high school games, I was always defending him. He was always reacting first and thinking later, and when it was time for him to think, it was usually too late─the damage had already been done. He was hotheaded and hot tempered, two of the reasons I never told him what his father did to me. I also didn’t want him to look at me any different. I was the big brother he respected and came to for anything, and I didn’t want the news of what his father did to cause him to look at me as some fragile boy who couldn’t stop this man from raping me. If I have anything to do with it, Chance will never find out.
    “Her name’s Khoury Zeller,” he answered.
    I had forgotten what I had asked him. 
    “I hope you did a background check on this one, ‘cause you sure know how to pick ‘em.”
    “Thanks, but she’s…”
    “Chance, that wasn’t a compliment,” I interrupted.
    “I know, man. Look, Patrick. You know I’m not going to argue with my big brother. I need your help. When can you come?”
    “I’m in Atlanta right now.”
    “What’s in Atlanta?”
    “Business, man, and none of yours.” I wasn’t about to tell Chance about my shrink. I didn’t like keeping secrets from him, but that was just one of the many things he was never going to know about his big brother. I wasn’t having second thoughts about any of the things I had kept from him. I