Chapter 1

1

J anuary 2030 (6 years after the end of To The Moon)

“I’m just asking when you coming home?” Janay whined through the phone.

Flipping over on his back, Qamar laid the phone on his bare chest with a sigh before hitting the speaker button. “I am at home,” he teased, knowing it would get under her skin. “This where I live.”

“I mean, technically, you just a rolling stone—be jumping from house to house but you know what I mean, Q,” Janay sassed. She loved Qamar but his childish antics were a lot to deal with, especially in her current predicament.

Before he could respond to her, three taps laid against his bedroom door were followed by tiny feet and giggles. They didn’t give him time to call out to them before his beautiful daughter, Esmeray barged in with his mama right behind her.

“Daddy, you woke?” her deep, adultlike voice asked as she stood with her tiny hand on her hip.

“Hey, Es, girl!” Janay greeted his baby girl joyously.

Too bad, Esmeray wasn’t a fan. Her wide eyes rolled to the sky. “Daddy?” She pushed out his name, letting Janay know she was only concerned with her daddy. “You want pancakes?”

Qamar laughed, the sound rich and warm. “Yea, baby,” he said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He glanced at the phone, knowing he had to address Janay’s concerns sooner or later, but for now, he chose to focus on the simple, precious moments with his daughter.

Qamar’s mama, Stephanie, snickered at her grandbaby. “Girl, you are too much for me. Hey, Janay,” she called out to Qamar’s… well, she had no idea what Janay was to her son. All she knew was, the girl was carrying his second daughter.

Janay listened to the exchange; a soft smile formed on her lips despite her earlier frustration. She loved listening to Qamar with Esmeray and witnessing the tenderness and care he showed his daughter. It reminded her of why she fell for him in the first place, even if his wandering ways sometimes drove her crazy.

“Hey, Ms. Stephanie.” Janay tried her hardest to be liked by Qamar’s family. She wanted to be with him more than anything in the world, and the one way she could keep herself in his life was to merge their lives with the baby she carried and by being liked by his family.

Sitting up, Qamar reached out for his daughter who wasted no time jumping in her daddy’s bed. “Aye, Janay, I’m gone hit you back.”

“Okay but don’t forget to call me back.” She sounded desperate, and Stephanie hated that for her.

“Bet,” he barely got out before he ended the call. “Now, what you was saying?” He tickled Esmeray, causing her double over into a fit of laughter. “Speak up? You came in here wanting all the smoke, now you don’t have anything to say?”

“I—I can’t talk, Daddy! Ahh!” she yelled, trying her best to squirm out of his tickle attack. “Daddy!” Her tiny hands pushed against his chest.

“Daddy, what?” Qamar mocked her.

“Daddy, I can’t breathe.”

Stephanie snatched her grandbaby from Qamar’s hands. “That’s enough, Qamar!” she fussed. “My baby said she can’t breathe.” She coddled Esmeray’s head while rocking her in her arms.

Qamar kissed his teeth. “If she can talk, she can breathe… you just be going for anything, Ma.”

“Boy, please.” Stephanie waved him away. “But before I forget, you need to create a boundary with Janay if you ain’t trying to be with her like that.”

“I don’t like Janay.” Esmeray scrunched her nose.

Qamar gave her a look that only her daddy could give her. “Watch your mouth, Es. Ms. Janay is grown.”

Her eyes misted. “Sorry,” she hummed as her head hung low.

He wasn’t going for her fake apology. Esmeray was the girl version of him when he was a child. She was just as nosey and blunt. Qamar fully understood that but he wasn’t going to allow her to be disrespectful to adults. He didn’t have that guidance when he was growing up, so he was gonna make sure his daughter did. Stephanie had been absent, leaving him to be raised by his twin brother and sister. When his big brother, Lunar, died, Qamar really started to push the line of disrespect. Thankfully, he had two other older brothers from another mother but they were all kids raising kids. Now, everyone who had a hand in raising him were in better positions—financially, and mentally. So the torch had been passed to him. Qamar dreaded it daily. No one said it, but he knew they were so disappointed in him. He fathered a daughter when he was only sixteen and now at twenty, he had another one on the way by a different woman. He knew he was the family fuck-up.

“How is Janay and the baby anyway?” Stephanie asked, pulling him from his own self-pity moment.

Qamar reached out for his baby girl. “They doing good. Working a nigga’s nerves but healthy and shit.”

“I bet they are working your nerves.” Stephanie grunted. She never tried to judge him too hard because she had her own flaws. Like her baby boy, she too was a teen mother. Unlike him, she didn’t have the support system he currently had or access to the wealth he had access to either. Since she had pretty much left him to her oldest to raise, she gave him a lot of leeway and always overlooked a lot of his bad choices.

“You cooked for Daddy?” Qamar ignored Stephanie to ask his daughter.

Esmeray nodded, her big hair flopping in her face. She looked exactly like Qamar but had her mother’s dark skin. Qamar never loved Esmeray’s mother, Malaysia. He liked her a lot but his heart didn’t hurt when they split. Their co-parenting journey hadn’t been an easy road because they were so young. Now, they were on the right side of things. Malaysia lived her own life, never butting into his. Her only concern was her daughter who she knew Qamar would take great care of.

“Yes, me and GG made breakfast but it’s cold because it’s almost lunch. What we eating for lunch?” Esmeray asked. Her tiny self was always hungry.

Qamar chuckled as he made his way down the grand staircase to the kitchen. Luna, his oldest sister was an award-winning singer/songwriter and married to one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. It took much convincing but eventually, their mother agreed to allow her oldest to buy her a home that was way too big for her, but as luxurious as her heart desired. When Qamar wasn’t there, or at school, he was at another one of his siblings’ homes since he had a room in all their homes. When he rounded the corner, he spotted his mother’s husband, Griff. Griff and Stephanie got married five years ago. He treated his mother right and was a solid role model in their family. Qamar would always love and respect him because of that.

“Good morning,” Griff greeted, plating up some food. His brown eyes gazed at Stephanie and he blew her a kiss. “This why you snuck out the bed?” He walked over to grip her ass and kiss her lips.

“Eww.” Esmeray tooted her nose up.

Qamar tapped her. “What I told you about that? How is that your business?”

Once again, her eyes swelled with faux tears that still didn’t faze her father.

Satisfied with loving on his wife, Griff shifted his attention back to Qamar. “How long you here for?”

Before he sat at the island, Qamar placed Esmeray on her feet where she ran to her Papa. He laughed at how mischievous yet dramatically emotional his daughter was.

“I’m leaving tonight. Got a cool little college party I want to check out before our practice on Monday.”

“And how is school?”

His shoulders went up before dropping. “It’s cool. I could be in the league by now but?—”

“But you gone get that damn degree, Qamar,” Stephanie butted in. “You smart enough to do both… got enough money to do both too.”

There it was. The pressure his family put on him. Being the baby was cool until it wasn’t.

When it came to his soccer career, he’d been offered full ride scholarships to some of the country’s top D1 schools. With all the money flowing in his family, he declined the full rides feeling they were better suited for the less fortunate and allowed his people to foot the bill. He had more than enough of his own money, between his family putting assets in his name and the NIL deals, Qamar was good on money. Everyone expected so much from him because for his most influential teenage years, his family had money. He got the mother none of them got and the privileges all of them contributed to. Qamar’s projection in life was so damn high, it made his head spin.

Griff shook his head at his wife. He understood why they wanted their baby to succeed. At the same time, he knew how much anxiety that pressure caused Qamar. The boy was obviously struggling.

“I know, Ma. I’m going to finish.” Qamar licked his lips while holding his head down. “After I drop Es off, I might head back earlier.”

“Oh, here you go being all sensitive and shit.” Stephanie rolled her eyes. “You ain’t gotta leave early, and I won’t say anything else to you while you here. Lord forbid I have an opinion on something.”

“That’s where Es get that dramatic shit from.” Qamar smirked.

Griff added his two cents. “She gets it from both of y’all. Shit, her mama too.”

Everyone laughed at that, including Esmeray, who was tucked in her Papa’s big arms.

Stephanie hugged her baby boy. “I love you, Qamar.”

“I know, Ma. I love you too.” He kissed her cheek.

It was true. He loved his entire family. They meant the world to him. He only wished they would give him room to figure his own life out—do it his way, but maybe that was too much to ask, coming from a family of excellence.

His long legs stretched out so far, people had to walk around it to get to where they were going. Qamar couldn’t have cared less though. With his back slouched against the back of the leather couch, he kept his eyes trained on the brown skinned beauty who had commanded his and every man’s attention while her and her friends popped their asses to the raunchy music of some up-and-coming female rapper. The beer in his hands dangled between his legs. He was so laid back and chill. People around him thought he was cool beyond any reasonable doubt.

After spending a little more time with his daughter and mama, he dropped Es off and got on his flight back to Lynn Beach where his college was located and from the view in front of him, it was a good decision. Their family jet had him there in an hour and fifteen minutes.

“Bitch bad, huh?” Drake, his friend and teammate bumped his shoulder though his eyes were devouring the girl too.

Qamar clammed up when he called the girl out of her name. It was locker room talk but being raised by a woman, he wasn’t too fond of the term. As if he could read his friend’s mind, Drake put his hands up in surrender.

“My bad… I ain’t mean to call her a bitch. Know how you get, with your sensitive ass.”

A light laugh floated from his mouth. “You wouldn’t want a nigga calling your mama that would you?”

“Shit, I would fuckin’ agree.” Drake cackled loudly.

Once upon a time, Qamar might’ve felt the same ill feelings towards the woman that gave birth to him. Now, he loved Stephanie with his heart. She made mistakes just like the next person, and he decided to forgive her for them. It didn’t matter where they started but where they were, and Stephanie was in his corner backing him up a hundred percent.

With his light brown eyes still trained on ol’girl with her friends, he shook his head. “You wild, nigga.”

Socially, Qamar liked to stay to himself. He kept his business to himself, that included his family. Since his family had made it big and afforded him an elite lifestyle, he learned to not trust anyone outside of them. It took him some time, but after being stabbed in the back one time too many, he caught on.

“Why won’t you go talk to her?” Drake asked. His eyes locked in on her round backside that hung out of the denim shorts she wore. It was cold as hell outside but based on her outfit, you’d think it was a hundred degrees.

Ol’girl tried to balance it out by wearing pink leather boots that went to her thighs and a cropped green sweater that sat seductively under her full boobs. Any wrong movement and they’d spill out. Placing the beer to his lips, he gulped down all that was left. Finally, her eyes connected with his, filing him with a feeling of familiarity. His heart skipped a few beats before regulating back to normal when her gaze returned to her friends.

“Who is she?” Qamar asked, having never seen the girl around campus before.

Lynn Beach University was a huge campus so it wasn’t out of the ordinary to not know everyone that attended. However, the parties were usually filled with the same set of people.

“She’s a lady of the night.” Drake leaned back in his seat, satisfied that he not only knew someone Qamar didn’t but also because of what he knew.

“Huh?” Qamar was confused and didn’t know if he could take his partner seriously.

Drake was always on joke time, and Qamar understood that. Unlike him, his young friend didn’t have any children he had to grow up for. Drake also didn’t have the childhood Qamar had. It kept their opinions on opposite sides at times, which caused them to bump heads from time to time.

“You gotta pay to play… I know that ain’t your thing because hoes throw pussy at you daily but not that one. Her sexy ass asks for the money first. Ain’t no leaving it on the dresser at the end.”

Just as Drake was running ol’girl’s credentials down, play by play, one of the school’s star baseball players approached her. With a smile on her face, she shook her head no. That didn’t seem to move the jock because he continued to push up on her.

Qamar was on his feet before he could stop himself. His movements prompted Drake to rise as well. It was known that you protect the star on the team at all times. Qamar was the top collegiate soccer player in the nation.

“Five thousand,” Qamar whispered in her ear once he was close enough to do so. He didn’t care about Brenden standing there still trying to shoot his shot. “Meet me on the top floor of the garage.”

She nodded before he was gone.

Qamar moved through the party effortlessly with everyone parting as if he was some kind of god. To them, he was the only god on campus. The girls craved to be another one of his baby mamas while the men wanted to be him—the latter he was willing to relinquish.

“The fuck was that, Q?” Drake was right behind him with his hands in the air. “Where the fuck you going?”

“Go enjoy the party, Drake.”

A Cheshire grin spread across Drake’s dark skin. “Oh, you paid to play. My nigga!” He tried to dap Qamar up but was left hanging.

Qamar was never one to explain anything to anyone and the fact was… he had no idea why he did what he’d just done. He couldn’t give an explanation if he wanted to. Instead, he was on his way to the athlete’s parking garage.