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with Melvin, who had gotten a job with a local record company as a producer. Her stomach turned when she found a gold necklace on Malik’s dresser that was adorned with the name
Candice
. She picked up the necklace and went into the bathroom.
    “Malik, come here, please,” she called out as she put on the necklace.
    He came into the bathroom where she was standing by the toilet.
    “What’s different about me?” she asked with her hands on her hips, posing as he checked her out from head to toe.
    “I don’t know,” he said.
    “Do you like my necklace?”
    His eyes got big as quarters, and before he could do or say anything, she yanked the necklace from around her neck, breaking the clasp, dropped it in the toilet, and flushed it. He was still standing there paralyzed until he felt the pain of a wooden brush across his face. He immediately snapped out of it and grabbed her as she dug her fingernails into his flesh. He picked her up, threw her across his shoulder, carried her into his room while she was beating him on his back with her fists, threw her on the bed, and locked her in the room alone.
    “You lowlife piece of crap!” she yelled. “I knew the last time I shouldn’t have taken your sorry butt back. I hate you. You make me puke! You think you so fine. You a sorry dog, that’s what you are. I should have never come back. I threw my dang pills away to make sure I didn’t come back, but no, I listened to Raquie and Zach and Eli. ‘Give him another chance. He’s gonna make it up to you.’ Bump you! I should slice you up and give each of your women a piece of you!”
    Zakia stayed focused until graduation. Zach talked to Malik and advised him to stay away from her and to face the fact that it was over. There was no more coming back. Malik knew it was over for good this time. Zakia would be ready to move on after she graduated, so he reluctantly let go.
    After graduation, Zakia had several job offers in Baltimore, where she planned to stay. Although she had been nauseous, she had put off taking a pregnancy test. Now that she had her bachelor’s degree in marketing, she had to know for sure if she was pregnant, since she would not try to raise a child alone in a city that was not her home. As strong as she was, she couldn’t face pregnancy without her family in Richmond. She was ready to start her career, but the results of the pregnancy test were positive. She had to put her career on hold and move back to Richmond. She hated Malik with every fiber of her being, blaming him for this major setback in her life.

Chapter Five
    C ontrary to popular belief, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. Hate is love that has been hurt. Hate cares. Indifference does not care.
    Zakia hated Malik. However, after seeing Micah with his son, Jaron, she couldn’t fathom the concept of abortion for herself. She loved life too much and couldn’t bring herself to deprive an innocent child of his. The child she was carrying was innocent. She was the guilty one, and so was Malik. If they had to suffer the consequences of their actions, then so be it, but her child would not suffer. She wanted nothing to do with Malik, not even for her child’s sake, and believed that she could give the baby enough love to make up for his not having a father.
    Zakia could not stand to disappoint her mother. Alexis was truly devastated that her daughter had gotten pregnant before she could get herself established and instead had to come back home. She had gotten used to living alone. Zachary was working and out on his own. She didn’t hide her disappointment well, and Zakia vowed to be out of her mother’s house the first chance she got. Even though she received all the love and support she could ever need from her family and from the Execs as well, she felt like a failure.
    Ignoring Zakia’s request not to do so, Alexis called Malik to let him know that he was going to be a father. She believed a man was