Haywood Millionaire Series: Box Set Books 1-5

by Zi'ere

  Inside of the den the boys, Trae and Taj were up to their chest in toys. Their onsies looked as if they’d had them on for a few days instead of just one. The diapers on their bottoms were also soaked from them not being changed in hours. Angel started to see red. Amaya knew what to do when her mom wasn’t around. Angel was beyond pissed. Rod remained speechless and led Angel to the kitchen. He didn’t have to say a word anyway. She saw the disappointment and respect for her leaving his soul with every second that passed.

  It was disturbing to him to see his oldest at a whole seven years old operating the stove while her five year- old sister Zina helped her fix them all something to eat. Amaya was cutting fruit with a knife that could be used to carve a Thanksgiving turkey. She was so busy fixing the twins plastic plates she didn’t even notice her mother and father standing in the door way. Grilled cheese browned to perfection like a gourmet cook with fresh sliced apples and milk was to be their meal. Amaya’s actions told her father that she was an expert chef.

  “So what I am seeing is that in the hours since you have picked up the kids from Steve and Jills- while I’m out busting my ass at work for our family, you’ve been in bed all day sleeping off the grand old time you had all night when my child was walking around the neighborhood before day in the morning. You tip toed out of the house as soon as you thought the children were asleep.” Rod crossed his arms across his chest.

  “So not only did you skip out without being an honest mother and gotten a sitter- upfront but you chose to let my children stay alone and basically raise themselves every day?”

  He was ready to hear the best lie she could come up with. That was another thing he’d caught wind of lately; Angel was a veteran liar.

  “You come home to find me in bed one time and now all of a sudden I’m an unfit mother? How about this housewife and maid that you have needs some ‘her’ time. Hell you chase four kids all day and we will see if your ass doesn’t need a nap too sometimes!”

  She pointed to herself in the chest.

  That was the best excuse she had for him.

  The children looked at their parents in what was becoming the new normal, screaming matches. The once compatible couple who’d never said a grievous word to the other were now at each other’s throats constantly. Rod tried to keep his voice down but it seemed as if Angel didn’t hear him until his booming voice could be heard down the street. He walked over to his oldest daughter and took the knife away from her since Angel didn’t see the need to do so.

  “Look at them! They didn’t just learn how to do this themselves today! This shit has been going on for a long time!”

  “I guess this shit is coming from your mama since she knows all my fuckin business!”

  “No! This is coming from the woman who took care of my kids while you were out shaking your ass or fucking in a presidential suite somewhere!” Rod didn’t mean to come off so angry in front of the kids but he had steam coming out of his ears.

  “You are not my fucking judge and you don’t have low jack on my pussy! So you can get the fuck out of my face and lower your damn tone!” Angel was surprised at Rod’s sudden attempt to have a backbone when it came to the things she did that were too real for tv.

  She was almost turned on to him sexually. Then she remembered the three way she’d done the night before. Her thighs and back were still very sore. Angel couldn’t fuck anyone right now even if her life depended on it.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell or teach you how to be a mother Angel!” He had to hit her hard.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about. I simply fell asleep for a quick nap. Where is that a crime? Taking care of four kids all by myself isn’t a cake walk Rod! And if the kids were hungry they could have woken me up, the same way you did! What is the big damn deal?”

  Angel considered that the only way to get Rod from hounding her would be to fuck his brains out. The more he talked the dryer she became. For the first time ever in their relationship, he was taking things to a new level. She didn’t know what the outcome of the day would bring but she had to do something to safeguard her home and kids. There was no way in hell she was leaving the beautiful home and move back in with her parents with four kids. With the help of child support and financial support from her parents, she could afford the house by herself in all honesty. Except for the big problem that she wasn’t exactly sure all the kids were Rod’s biological children.

  She’d kept a tight schedule at the time because she was making racks selling her most precious gift as a woman. When she found out she was pregnant with Amaya there were two other men including Rod that could have been the father. All three of them were paid but only Rod wasn’t married. The other two would kill her for sure if they were threatened with a paternity suit that would leave their wives embarrassed heading straight for their bank accounts. In Angel’s world your ability to keep secrets was also your ability to stay alive and making money.

  Thinking of Zina and the twins made Angel nauseous. There was no calendar to refer back to either time and she honestly had no idea where to turn. To her benefit she allowed Rod to feed them all in her womb so they came out looking and acting like him for the most part. Everyone was convinced except Rod’s mother. Angel had him pussywhipped by the time the kids came along so there wasn’t a thing Deloris could do that would make him turn his back on her or the kids. With him being as mad as he was in that moment, Angel couldn’t be sure what was coming next but she knew she needed to get prepared for all scenarios. First things first, this little argument needed to be over in that very moment.

  She looked Rod square in the eyes. “I know you heard me…what is the big damn deal? The kids are fine. You are home. Everything is all good.” Angel turned and tried to scurry off to their bedroom.

  “Are you serious right now?”

  Rod was dumbfounded.

  “Look my head is spinning. If that is all that you have to show me, I’m getting back in bed.” Angel walked off as if nothing was wrong.

  Rod didn’t know it then but she’d already found his replacement. Her mind was on her new man as she padded her way around her kids without even acknowledging them. She was too tired of playing something she wasn’t meant to be- a mother. Angel had played a good role for almost seven years. She simply felt she couldn’t do it anymore. It was time for her to move on with her life to do all the things she dreamed of.

  4

  By Wednesday of the next week Rod was in county lock up after being brought up upon charges of embezzling money from his accounting firm. Yes, he was guilty but not how he thought nor was it all by his lonesome. Angel was ready for him to leave but didn’t have any idea how she was going to afford the house payments unless she stole the money. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was the father to all the kids so pinning him down for child support was risky. And then there was the fact that they had not gotten married so there are no guarantees on what her financial situation would be without him.

  He had no idea but she’d run through her three- million dollar trust fund just before she met him. He was interested and the salary for her to move in with him. Rod trusted her too much when he didn’t even know who she was for real. There he was thinking his next walk was going to be down an aisle when it turned out to be chained to other grown men getting fitted for prison gear. Angel never even took the time to go to any of his court dates, she didn’t attempt to pay for a lawyer, or put a dime on his books. She considered it all payback for him judging her the way he had about her mothering skills.

  Angel had thought of everything but had forgotten one important detail to her plan: Deloris Westin, Rod’s mother. When things settled down and the court dates were over, there was nothing that could stop Deloris from coming to Angel’s home to promptly beat her ass. Deloris put a whippin on her so bad, Angel required stitches in her head and her right arm in a cast. Rod was his mother’s only child.

  Out of all the bad things she did, it was all in the name of giving her son
a better life and a start so that he could have the American dream. Deloris hated Angel from the first time she stepped foot into her home. Everything Rod didn’t see in her, Deloris did. She tried to give Rod the scoop on the cute and fine ass woman he was clearly pussy whipped with but his nose was so wide open he couldn’t hear a damn thing.

  “Rod you have been away at college and I have done everything in my power to make sure you don’t end up with a conniving and calculating cute ball of nothing like you seem to be so set on being with.” Deloris had said.

  “I know that you are always going to be protective over me Mom, but she isn’t like the rest.”

  “Rod I can pick up the phone and call at least five badder bitches than that one right now! They will be females that are ready to live a good life and get away from the harsh streets. That hoe is running to the streets not away from them!”

  “Mom, this isn’t your decision, it’s mine. I love her, there is nothing you can do about that.” Rod massaged the temples of his forehead.

  “When you see her for who she really is, you will realize what you are in love with ain’t about shit and all the bullshit, responsibilities, and possibilities of it all. You damn sure ain’t gonna be in love with her then- mark my words.”

  He watched his flyy and jazzy, yet still thoroughly hood mother put out her cigarette and walk away. He knew that was her sign that she was going to let him get his own ass spanked. Rod sat in his childhood living room and thought about Angel and the kids they’d had together. He’d made a promise to her that he wouldn’t leave her to parent alone. His mom was going to have to come around to the idea that Angel was there to stay- in his life and his mother’s.

  5

  Now that he was sitting in his cell with another grown ass man sleeping above him, he wanted to whip his own ass. Except now, it was too late. The only thing he could do was pray that his oldest was really listening to him on their daily phone calls. He prayed that this last year went without incident so that Amaya could adopt the other kids, washing their hands of Angel completely. His four kids were the only thing that kept him going every day. Angel was deleted from his memory years ago but what she’d done to land him here and take him away from his babies that needed him wouldn’t go unpunished.

  He smiled thinking off all the times his mom begged to rid them all of their problems. He had to be just as calculated as Angel had been. He had to wait until Amaya turned eighteen because the children living with his mom wasn’t going to be exactly perfect for the kids either. Since Rod had been away she’d turned up the volume on her hustle just to be able to send him money, pay her own bills, and help out with her only grand-babies. She was a real woman with not one legal bone in her body.

  According to Amaya they talked often. There was no telling what kind of hustles his mother was teaching his eldest daughter. Over the years he watched and listened closely as Amaya spoke of her interaction with his mother. He couldn’t say that his mom had taught her anything off the chain as of late. From what he heard his daughter was getting the support that she needed; physically, financially, and emotionally. His mom served as a sounding board whenever Amaya needed to distress. Still no matter what kind of stunt Angel had pulled on any given day, Amaya’s thinking and actions were the total opposite of her mother’s and that is exactly what he wanted the most. So he kept his mouth on hush and parented the best he could from his cell at college.

  After Rod was hauled off to prison that is when he found out all the things Angel had simply explained away before she did something sexual to him that made him forget his questions and concerns almost immediately. It broke his heart to hear his daughter tell him the real dealings Angel had going on when he was at work. Then there came the instances of whenever Angel would put him out and breaking up with him without notice for reasons she created with her own imagination. Things got progressively worse after he was incarcerated. It was Amaya’s story to tell and it damaged his soul when she finally decided to get it all the secrecy off her chest.

  6

  “Amaya!”

  “Yes Mama?”

  “I need you to watch your brothers and sisters for a few minutes. I just need to run to the pharmacy and pick of medicine for the twins. When they wake up, of course you have to change their diapers and then feed them.”

  “Do you remember how I showed you to fix their bottles so they won’t be all fussy?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Good. I will be back as quick as I can. You and Zina sit and watch cartoons okay.”

  “Yes ma’am.” I started to weep.

  “Maya don’t start that now! I don’t have time to pet your ass right now! I said I was coming right back! I need you to help me…damn! Don’t you want to be a big girl and help your mom?”

  “Yes.”

  I was sitting on the couch watching TV with my two year old little sister. At a smart four almost five, I didn’t think I should be responsible for the newborn twins my mother had just given birth to a matter of days ago. I looked at her from head to toe and smiled. She was so beautiful. Her bi-racial hair was full of healthy curls. It bounced around her shoulders like it always did when she’d just gotten it done. She was dressed in a button down blouse, a fancy belt, and pretty long pants with high heels to match it all.

  I had no idea who she thought she was fooling but I knew that she didn’t need to go to the pharmacy dressed like she was. Basically, I knew she was telling a real good lie about just going to the pharmacy, I couldn’t understand why she had to lie. Truthfully she might have been stopping by the drive-thru pick up window but it definitely wasn’t the only stop she was going to make. I shook my head in disgust and focused on my favorite cartoons again.

  She thinks that because I am a kid that I don’t know any better….stupid, stupid, stupid.

  This wasn’t the first time she’d left us all alone. It had been just me and Zina for a while. Then sometimes she would have the plans already made out that our God-mother that would come pick us up almost immediately after she had pulled a disappearing act. In my mind, I knew that our Nanny Steph wasn’t coming that day. That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t call her to snitch and help me with the tiny babies. We needed Steph to help out with the four of us because I couldn’t do it on my own.

  Angel was a smart, conniving, and calculating grown woman even though she hadn’t graduated high school after she’d gotten pregnant with me. She convinced our dad that she would be a perfect wife and mother, he fell for her lies immediately. At one point she was Mary Poppins but now she couldn’t even stay home and put forth any kind of effort to take care of her kids. I didn’t understand her thinking on how I would be able to get her job done and I hadn’t even started Kindergarten.

  7

  Angel kissed us all on the forehead which was weird in itself because she had never shown any of us any attention or affection unless she was putting on a show. She basically barked orders at me constantly because I was the oldest, while she sat on her ass. From getting her a beer from the fridge to fixing my own peanut and jelly sandwiches. I feel indifferent. I knew how to handle it all on my own. It wouldn’t be the first time Angel was missing in action and I was sure my mother was not going to change anytime soon.

  I had to be real with myself; there was a greater chance of the second scenario being true instead of the first. Amaya took better care of her siblings than their mom either did anyway. The kids actually favored their sister over their mom who they all called by first name only. That was the life we lived behind the closed doors of our beautiful home. In public, you would think she was mother of the year. And at four years old, I knew that phrase was bullshit if it had her name on it.

  I looked out the curtains as she talked on the phone and backed out of the garage to our massive home in her expensive car. That particular time Angel stayed gone for a week and a half without so much as a call to the house or anyone else. It started off good but after a couple of hours the twins had gotten fussy. I s
tarted to have questions and concerns about the twins, because it seemed to me that they really did need their medicine. They both had warm foreheads as they began to put in work with their lungs.

  I fixed their bottles and showed my baby sister how to hold the bottle for one while he was still sitting in his carrier while I held the other in my lap. After I got them full and dry, they went back to being pleasant again. My first mind was to call the police. Then I changed it quickly. I knew that Angel hated the police. She would be pissed if she found out I’d embarrassed her in front of our neighbors while she was away. No matter what we were going through as kids, I loved them all and I had to take care of all of us as best as I could.

  8

  I couldn’t call our Grand-parents because it would be World War III for sure when Grand-dad got done giving Angel the tongue lashing of her life. She would in turn take it out on us. At four I was aware of her bad temper when she was pissed off. That only left one more number to dial, so I did. I dialed the number I had etched into memory especially for times such as this. I called my God- mother after two days of no signs of Angel.

  “Hello my sweet sunshine Amaya! What are you up too baby girl?”

  “Nanny, Angel left me here alone with Zina and the babies. She said she was going to pick up the twin’s medicine and that she would be right back but that was two days ago.”

  “WHAT!”

  “I don’t know what to do. They really don’t feel good now. And me and Zina are hungry.”

  I heard her saying many not good things under her breath but I couldn’t manage to put together a full sentence.