by Love Belvin
“It’s another boy,” my father informed with confidence. “My loins reach that damn far.” He winked at my mother, then went back to cleaning NeNe’s face.
When my eyes returned to Bilan, she shoulder-bumped, gesturing that I share.
“Well, you’re both right. Apparently, I’m double-barreled.” I raised my wine glass and pulled a cheesing Bilan into me with the other hand. “A boy and a girl.”
“What?” my mother trilled.
“Twins!” Bilan shouted.
There was a mini choir of shouts around the room. Candy and her staff joined in on screeching cries and claps. Taaliba jumped out of her seat and pulled Bilan into her arms, rocking her side to side.
“I’m so happy for you!” she cried.
My mother was the next at our side. She yanked my neck down. “My heart can’t take it!” She had me in one arm and Sadik in the other. “Just don’t overdo it with her uterus. Give her some time after this one, okay?”
I laughed, watching Sadik trying to grab me. “Who’s to say she didn’t take the babies from me?”
“He may be on to something there,” Bilan chimed in. “There’s nothing like baggin’ an Ellis!”
“What’s begging?” Iesha asked, squeezing between adult bodies to hug Bilan’s growing belly. She did this often. “You two don’t have to beg. We’re gonna share everything.”
Bilan’s head tossed back as she hooted. “I have to hit that bathroom now.”
Taaliba laughed. “Oh, lawd! Let me see you to the powder room in case you have an accident on the way.”
The two found their way out of the circle just formed around our chairs.
“Come on, girls,” Monica announced. “Let’s spend some time with Daddy before we go.”
The girls didn’t take long to obey. Iesha took her mother by the hand and headed for the door. Ivana skipped behind. Monica grabbed NeNe from my father on their way out.
Stacy appeared right behind them. “Deek, your guests were just cleared by security and are approaching the house.”
I nodded. “Thanks.” Then I finally stopped ignoring my son and pulled him into my arms. I plopped his pacifier into his mouth, and that quickly, he lay his head on my shoulder to relax. “Queen, come to the foyer. I have something for you.”
“Ooh!” She breathed playfully. “I love surprises.”
My father waited near the door for his wife, his expectant hand extended for her. We all took to the foyer together, my parents fussing over Sadik. He was cranky, only wanting his pops. That could change as his food was digesting.
“That’s my hair,” queen observed during our stroll.
“But them my damn eyes,” my father challenged her. “And he gone thank his PaPa for ‘em when them girls start coming around.”
I laughed internally at them. Sadik lifted when his grandmother pulled his shirt down to cover his back.
“You think he’s running a fever?” queen asked.
“Nah.” I lifted Sadik in the air, checking him out. “He probably just wants a nice shit, a bath, bottle, and his mother’s chest to fall out on.”
“Mmmhmmm.” My father agreed. “That food you made him got him right, baby. He’s getting to the big leagues now; putting weight on his belly.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Ellis,” Stacy called. “The Rizzoes are here.”
My mother’s head whipped over her shoulder, her mouth hanging open as Catena Rizzo approached the foyer table where we stood. She held Liza in her hands, and my, had she grown in mere months. Marco Rizzo followed behind, hands in the pockets of his shorts. I could see his face healed, minus a few dark marks around his nose. I felt a tinge of guilt. That night, at his home, I’d taken my frustrations out on him. I could have been more diplomatic with my stance.
“Irene,” Catena spoke first, smile sincere. “Someone wanted to spend time with their Nana.”
My mother’s expression hadn’t change. “Liza?” Catena handed my niece over to her paternal grandmother. “I’ve missed you so much, baby.” She kissed her. “You’ve gotten so big! Soon, you’ll be running around with my big girls.” Marco stepped closer and placed a baby bag on the table. Queen asked with her eyes.
“I think it’s time for Liza to spend time with her other family, and especially with her father,” Catena explained. “Lia wants it, too. She’s working tonight or else she’d be here dropping her off.”
Yes, Lia had been working. She had to. Now with Rizzo dead, there was no substantial income providing for their family. I’d been told when Marco called me asking for a favor that if he didn’t get work soon, the money Rizzo had set up in life insurance wouldn’t last to keep up the taxes on the property. He shared that Catena used much of the policy to pay off their home and two cars. There was little left after that.
Marco had been let go by Abram Murphy, the newly appointed chief of operations at the Port of Paterson. Murphy had cleaned out a lot of nepotism at the port, specifically Rizzo’s family and friends, who held significant positions for decades without earning them. They weren’t responsible with them either. Marco was one of those fired. He had a family to provide for. He was forced to sell his home and move his family in with his mother.
So when he called me a couple of weeks ago with his hat in hands, I cut a deal with him. I gave him, his wife, and Lia modest positions in my warehouse at Ellis International. I was fair with their salaries, too, giving them full benefits and paid time off. It was the same deal I’d give to any incoming employee, only they didn’t earn it. But as Bilan said, it didn’t matter. “Like it or not, the Rizzoes will forever be connected to the Ellises because of Liza. They should be granted grace until they burn it.”
I kept Marco under my foot, never forgetting his words in that bathroom not quite two years ago.
“Like my father says, ‘if Lia likes to fuck niggers and is stupid enough to get pregnant by one, let it be one from a solid standing family. That’s what the Ellises are. And if she’s gonna do it with any of the Ellis boys, better it be that educated nigger than the crazy one!”
He now needed the educated nigger to make a living.
“Do you have a minute to talk about her care?” Queen asked Catena. “We can meet in the family room this way.” I could tell she was still stunned, possibly shaken.
“Sure,” Catena replied and began to follow her.
Marco was the last to take off. Stiffly, he paid an acknowledgment of a nod before he followed them.
“You see, baby boy?” My father lifted Sadik from my shoulder. “You always look a man in the face, even when they have you by the balls. Don’t do it like that weak muthafucka and have shifty eyes. Keep them straight and unflinching.
Behind them, I saw Tiffany click-clacking against the marble floors toward us. She beamed the moment our eyes met.
“I missed dinner. I’m so fuckin’ pissed,” she groaned.
My father saw her over his shoulder. As he turned, he greeted, “Hey, baby!”
She kissed his cheek. “Hey, Poppa Earl.”
“I was wondering what happened to you.”
“I know!” she cried regretfully. “I had a staff meeting that ran over. Some stupid muthafucka is letting bitches and niggas into Energy for free. I had to cuss everybody the fuck out tonight and let them know I’ll be hiring a new security team by tomorrow. Shit got heated before I kicked them all out.”
I stood there, waiting for her to acknowledge my son for the sake of lightening her language. I, myself, hadn’t seen or heard from her in months. It was almost as if after that red carpet photo-op, she stopped fucking with me. Tiff gave nothing as she turned to my father. As he bounced Sadik in his arms, his regard swung between her and me.
“You don’t see my legacy here, baby girl?”
“I don’t see but one.” Her tone cold.
My father scoffed the type of scoff he did when trying to pace his temper. “Baby girl, you can’t still be holding onto that.”
My face tightened. Tiffany
rolled her eyes, her attention finally falling to my son. Again, my father chuckled sans the humor. We’d had our father to son heart-to-heart around the time we found out about Monica’s affair. It was an organic meeting of the hearts. Our reaction to the breach of our home was met with the same passion. Days after, he’d called me down to his study to apologize for conspiring to kill Bilan last summer. The emotion he displayed while doing it would be imprinted in my mind forever. I’d never experienced Double E Bags apologize to anyone but my mother. But when he expressed gratitude for what I’d been doing to preserve him and this family over the years, nothing mattered but the health and well-being of my father.
So when he issued that flick of the single brow, I knew Tiffany had crossed a line with him, forcing him to clear the lines of boundaries in our triangular connection. “You’re crossing a line here, sweetheart.”
“I’m not. I’m finally getting the picture.” She pouted, profile still to me.
“So you getting that damn picture—or whatever you gone call it—makes you rude to my son?”
“I’m not being rude. I’m staying in my lane,” her voice cracked.
I snorted. “Someone gonna tell me what’s going on here?”
Tiffany faced my father, eyes on my son’s leg. She refused to look at me. My regard went to my father.
“Tiffany got a beef, saying she walked in on you and baby girl in the movie theater a few months ago.”
My face folded more. “And?”
“And she saw some shit you only show people if they pay or get off from just watching for free,” he expounded.
It took a few seconds for me to recall my time with Bilan that night in the theater house. My goddamn balls and heart were so heavy from missing her, who knew what Tiffany could have seen that night?
“Do you think I should apologize to you?” I asked, trying to understand her issue.
I may not have given one single word of apology for what I did with my wife on my family’s grounds, but I cared for Tiffany enough to attempt peace.
She didn’t answer. So stubborn and emotionally unintelligent in the moment, Tiffany tried to deflect by adjusting Sadik’s pant leg as he lay on my father’s shoulder. My fucking stomach dropped when she did that. I switched stances.
“Ummm…” I was stumped, not knowing how to say this and not be rude. It was enough that she had the ridiculous beef with me. I was sure this was her first time being this close to the baby. What gave her the balls to touch him? Shit. As innocent the act, she wouldn’t stop. “Uhhhhh…” My hand lifted in the air.
“Listen, baby,” my father began, and I so badly wished he shifted away from her just a foot or three. “You can’t do this. It ain’t right for you to be beefin’ with the man over what he do with his—”
His words were cut short when an object flew past my face and whacked Tiff’s head. I saw a small, gold padlock dangling from it and should have known. She stumbled back, trying to gain equilibrium. When it landed, I recognized the Tom Ford sandal I’d just bought for…
“I told you to never lay a fucking hand on my child!” Bilan shouted from behind me, tossing her other heel across the foyer. “TRY ME AGAIN!”
Taaliba was behind her, hands covering her mouth as she raced toward us. I grabbed Bilan before she crossed the foyer. Sadik began crying in my father’s arm from his mother’s alarmed shout.
I turned to my sister. “Get him and meet us up in our suite!” Leeb stumbled, but finally jumped into action.
When my father was relieved of the baby, he went to help Tiffany, who was bleeding somewhere on her face. I knew it was a matter of seconds before Tiffany would try to retaliate. Even Bilan was fighting against me, trying to get to her.
“Rory!” I shouted.
And as though it was unnecessary, Rory and Jamil were rushing toward us, assessing the situation.
“Oh, I’m about to fuck you up!” Tiffany finally came through. She snatched away from my father’s grip, something I didn’t want him doing to begin with. He didn’t need the physical toil. “Bitch! I’m ‘bout to drop ya monkey ass—” Tiff was jolted by Rory’s choke hold.
Thank you…
Rory’s move was precise and decisive, something that would save us lashings from Bilan later. We could both use the break. Rory for her blunder when dealing with Sofia, and me for not asking Tiff to remove her hand sooner.
I was able to hold Bilan into my chest from behind. “If you try and fight me, you’re going to hurt the twins,” I grounded in her ear. “You hurt them, Tiffany will be the least of your fuckin’ problems.” Bilan’s frame steeled in my hold. I turned her around in the opposite direction. Taaliba could be seen marching Sadik through the house to calm him. “Good choice, Nalib.”
I walked her down the hall until we reached the elevator. Bilan’s chest heaved, lips tight with venom.
“I told you to never—”
“I fuckin’ know!” I shouted. “But you have to trust me to do it.”
“You obviously took too long!”
My head swam in chemicals brought about in relief and worry. That could have been so ugly. “I was trying to be sensitive to her feelings because I just found out she saw us having sex.”
“Good for her stalking ass! She knew we were in the theater, and I dare her to lie!”
My head flew back. “You know she saw us?”
Heaving, Bilan shot me hard eyes.
The elevator door opened and I moved in closer to her. “Answer me.”
When I thought Bilan wouldn’t respond, she grated, “One of the best orgasms of my life happened while she watched.”
I sucked in a breath. Who was this woman?
Seconds later, Bilan stepped onto the elevator. My mind was so far gone, I halfway paid attention.
That was until I heard a familiar cry. “Sadik…”
She may have concluded her services with Carmichael to learn Bilan suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder with arousal and reactivity symptoms, but he said she was still capable of displaying the signs for a long while. He recommended a therapist for her to see to help with coping mechanisms. Those services wouldn’t begin for another two weeks due to scheduling conflicts. But right now, her eyes were heavy lidded, breathing choppy, and one thigh extended out, slightly raised beneath her maxi dress. I knew that look.
Shit…
I had the duty of fucking my wife on the elevator.
“This is going to be nice, Bilan,” my Aunt Astur commented as her eyes measured every corner of the unfinished kitchen. It was the final room of the new house I showed. “Big, too!” Her face brightened.
“I know!” Joslyn breathed out.
“Seven bedrooms, five and two half bathrooms, a television room, family room, dining room,” my cousin, Angela counted off verbally. “and this big ass kitchen, a full basement that’ll be designed for the kids, two offices, and the partridge in a pear tree all on eight acres.”
“Yup.” I nodded with pursed lips.
I hadn’t even shared what Sadik had planned to do with the land. He wanted to build a lake on the far end, a pool with a cabana closer to the house, and basketball and tennis courts. It was a lot, and I was anxious about it all. I’d never had a house built from the ground up, much less an estate.
“Seven bedrooms is a lot,” Joslyn noted with an indecipherable expression. “How many more kids y’all plan to have? Me and Teddy said two is enough.” Her expectant body language was unfortunate. She was comparing our lives.
Either way, that question caught me off. I laughed nervously, rubbing my belly. “I don’t know yet, but I think I can do this again.”
With hiked lips, Joslyn nodded, clearly processing that answer more than necessary. Pregnancy hadn’t been too unkind to me, considering I was carrying two. It certainly had been different from my first. I was more tired and way heavier. My nose had spread, too. That part hadn’t been fun at all.
“Don’t have too many,” Aunt Astur warned. “You do
n’t wanna lose that Yasin figure now!” She snapped a finger.
“Oh, hooya,” Mimi groaned, waving her mother off dismissively. “Sadik’s rich. She can pay for a new Yasin body.”
Brenda and I laughed.
Aunt Astur rolled her eyes, and mumbled, “You can’t pay for no Yasin body, girl.”
“So, what’s next for the house?” Aunt Franzel asked. “What will they do next?”
It was two days after Thanksgiving. Because the Ellises were still adjusting to Iban’s new condition, we decided to spend the holiday at Elliswoods Palace. My family was invited, and when it was brought up that the Ellises had been to the building site of Sadik’s and my new home, my Aunt Astur claimed to have felt slighted from not being included. Quickly, Sadik offered to have the house fitted for safety the first day my family was available. Today was that day. I was able to show them the main floor, basement, and some of the second level. The construction was behind schedule, something Sadik had been warning me of.
I thought to check my phone for missed texts or calls as it was a weekday, and work could have tried contacting me. I rolled my eyes when I noticed my phone had died. I sighed, noting I’d charge it in the truck. Today, I drove myself here. No security. No Rory. The property was in the middle of nowhere, making my biggest threat animals.
“Next,” I sighed again, upset that I didn’t think to charge it on my way here. “is finishing the roof and doing the exterior design. We went with a stone veneer. I’m so excited to see it come together.”
“Good for you, baby,” Aunt Franzel praised.
“All right, we gotta get ready to go,” Joslyn informed. “I have to pick up my kids soon.”
“Okay,” my aunts agreed in unison.
One by one, I hugged both aunts and cousins. Brenda lagged behind as usual. She waited for everyone else before approaching me.
“You mind if we chat for a minute?” I asked her. Everyone’s neck whipped to face us. My head cocked to the side. “Is it a crime to speak privately to my younger cousin?”
“Okay. Just making sure she ain’t in no trouble.” Aunt Astur issued Brenda a warning stare.