“Wow, I thought we were better than that,” I said. “Why every time you get pregnant, it take some crazy shit to happen for me to find out?” I questioned.
“It don’t,” she whispered.
“Bullshit! The day you walked in my house waving a gun is the same day I found out you were pregnant with Romell. The same day I came down here to save yo ass, I found out you were pregnant with Amyricale, which happens to be the same day she was born. Then now, it took for you to damn near lose the baby for me to find out about it. What type of bullshit you be on?”
This shit was really bugging me out. I don’t know whether to be happy or mad about the situation. There is still has a chance for survival, but she told have told me as soon as she found out about it. Five months though?
“I’m sorry,” she broke down crying.
No matter how mad I am, I don’t want to see my baby cry. I wiped her tears away and kissed her. “Don’t cry. You know I hate seeing you cry,” I said.
“I’ve just been so stressed out lately and I haven’t had time to even really take care of myself because since I’ve been out, I’ve been taking care of everybody else,” she said.
“I know, but I need for you to take care of you and the baby. Don’t be eating nothing that’s gon have you blood pressure sky high and don’t let nothing stress you out. Not the kids, not the family, hell not even me.” I smiled.
“I love you,” she said, looking me in my eyes.
“I love you more.” I kissed her again. I rubbed my hands on her belly. “See, I knew something was up because the other day, I noticed you was getting a little gut.” I smirked.
She laughed and hit my arm. “Shut up.”
“I got you something,” I said.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I teased.
“Mykelllll,” she whined.
I laughed at her, “I can’t tell you, it’s a surprise.”
“I guess,” she sighed.
The kids walked back through the door and I smiled looking at my family. Adding one more wouldn’t hurt.
Ramone
I didn’t know what’s wrong with Le’Lani, but she had been on some bullshit since I went down to Florida. Every time I stepped in a room, she would get up and walk out; every time I tried to talk to her, she would ignore me. I’ve been calling her to see if I could get my daughter but she acted like she couldn’t answer the phone. I knew she back in Michigan because Mykell already told me. What the fuck is up with her?
I was shaken from my thoughts by my girl Maya. “What you want to eat sexy?” she asked.
“Surprise me.” I smiled.
Maya has been a big factor in my keeping my mind off of Lani and her bullshit. She’s mad at me like I’m the one who went and got pregnant by another nigga. I mean, I know I’m wrong for telling her to get out, but I was hurt. Now she wanted to act like we couldn’t even be friends, despite the fact that we were together for a minute and shared a child together.
I was sitting in the kitchen with Maya when my phone started ringing. It was a number that I didn’t recognize but I went ahead and answered it anyway. “Hello?”
“Is this Ramone Peake?” a man asked.
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“This is Dr. Lansky from Henry Ford Hospital,” he said.
“Okay, how can I help you?” I questioned.
“Well Mr. Peake, I’m calling in regards to a paternity test you had done here. I was informed that one of my nurses mixed up some results behind some form of payment. Now, I can assure you that type of behavior is not acceptable and that nurse has been punished and no longer works here,” he said.
My head was spinning. The only person that I had recently had a DNA done on was Zyla and that was almost two years ago. “So what are you saying doctor?” I asked confused.
“I’m calling to tell you to disregard the results for a…Zyla Moore because they are inaccurate and if you would like, we can do another test and I will do it personally, myself,” he informed me.
“Uhh…Thank you. Is it alright if I call you back? I need some time to think this through.”
“That will be no problem at all.”
After I hung up the phone, I was stuck on stupid. My mind drifted back to a conversation I had with Ladybug when I was in Florida.
Ladybug was sitting in the living room watching TV. She held a sleeping Zyla in her hands and when she noticed me, she told me to come over to her.
“What’s up, Ladybug?”
“I need to show you something that kind of freaked me out.” She moved one of Zyla’s ponytails from her left ear and showed me a moon shaped birthmark that resembled the one I have. I stared at it for a few, but then shook it off.
“That’s crazy huh?” she asked.
I sighed. “That don’t mean nothing, Ladybug. Ranyla doesn’t have one and I know for sure she’s my daughter,” I said.
“I’m saying Mone, maybe you need to get her tested again. That’s kind of hard to explain. Why you two have the same exact birthmark in the same exact place?” she said.
“I know but we already tested her and the results proved that she was 99.9% not mine.”
“But Mone—“
“Drop it Ladybug.”
Now I sat there thinking I should have listened to my sister. I tried dialing Lani’s number one more time, but I still didn’t get an answer. I knew the two people I could talk to if I couldn’t talk to anybody else.
* * *
I pulled up to Pops’ house and was happy that my dad had beaten me here because I needed to talk to the both of them ASAP. Pops must have heard me pull up because as soon as I pulled up, he opened the front door for me.
“Wassup Pops?”
“You tell me. You said it was very important so let’s not bullshit and get straight to it,” he said. My dad sat up on the couch, giving me his undivided attention.
I took a deep breath before starting, “Okay, so I got a call from the doctor at the hospital that Zyla was born at. He tells me how once of his nurses confessed that she was paid to mix up the results of the DNA test. He wants to disregard the results we have and come do another test,” I said all in one breath.
They both sat there looking at me like I was crazy. They were driving me crazy, I needed one of them to say something and say something fast. “Well…” I said.
My dad was the first one to say something. “I’m saying, do you really want to open that door again? How do we know that somebody else won’t fuck up the results?” he asked.
“That’s the same thing I was thinking, but the doctor assured me that he would be handling it personally if we chose to do it.”
Pops decided to speak this time. “Have you talked to my daughter? I think this could either put your mind at ease or cause more of a strain on your relationship.”
“I’ve been calling Le’Lani for a week straight and she won’t answer. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but she needs to get over it real fast because I’m tired of playing these games with her.”
“I’ll talk to her; in the meantime I just need for you to figure out what you want to do if you don’t already know,” he said.
Right then, my mind was all over the place. This situation was the exact same thing that tore us apart. If I found out that Zyla is actually mine, will it bring us back together? Do I want us to get back together? Will she want to get back together? This is starting to be a little too much for me.
Pop-Pop
I need a damn vacation. These kids are going to send me to an early grave. I noticed a gray hair growing the other day and that is not acceptable, I’m too young, fly and sexy for all that. My kids are in a lot of shit right now from paternity issues to being stalked by lawyers; on top of that, MJ’s ass possibly could have made me a GREAT-grandfather. What type of shit is that? It was so much easier to deal with these issues when we all lived in the same place, but Neicey and Mykell just had to run the
y asses down south.
The one I’m worried about the most is my baby girl, Le’Lani. She liked to go MIA, not answer her phone or call nobody for weeks at a time and I didn’t like that shit. I told her a long time ago that nigga wasn’t no good for her. I know I have to let her make her own mistakes and learn from them but what she needs to realize is, I’m her daddy and I wouldn’t lie to her. She can talk to me about whatever is going on, but she would rather be a hard ass about it. She reminds me so much of her mother, it’s crazy.
I grabbed the phone and dialed her number hoping that she would answer. It rang five times and right when I was about to hang up, she answered.
“Hi daddy,” she said softly. That sent up a red flag because Lani is the farthest thing from quiet or soft-spoken.
“Oh, so you know who I am? And you recognize my number?” I asked sarcastically.
“Don’t go there daddy, I’ve been meaning to call you. I’ve just been real busy, but then I got a crazy ass phone call so I’m stressed.”
“That phone call is what I want to talk to you about.”
“How do you know what phone call I’m talking about?” she asked.
“Ramone came to see me. So what are you going to do now that you know what happened?” I asked.
She sighed. “I already knew,” she admitted.
I took the phone away from my ear thinking I heard her wrong. “Say that again?” I said.
“Zamier told me he paid to have the results mixed up a couple of weeks ago.”
I thought that my daughter had officially lost her damn mind. I took a deep breath to keep me from saying everything I wanted to say. I felt my temper rising, so I changed the subject. “When you coming to see me?” I asked.
“I promise I’ll come see you when I get the time,” she said.
“Well damn, I have to make an appointment to see my own daughter now?” I asked, half-jokingly.
“Daddy,” she whined.
“Alright Le’Lani, I’m just messing with you. Call me when you can,” I said.
“Okay daddy, love you.”
“I love you too.”
I just shook my head. I wasn’t too worried about what’s going on with her because sooner rather than later, it would come to the light and I had a very funny feeling that the shit was going to hit the ceiling fan.
Lani
It had been a living hell since I’d been back in Michigan. I really wished I would have listened to Mykell when he told me not to come back, but there were just some things I had to take care of before I just up and moved down there. At least I haven’t seen or heard from Zamier since I’ve been here and that’s a plus. My brother had thought I ran back up here to be with him but I had to let him know that that was not the case.
Since I’ve been back, the girls and I have been staying at a hotel. Since Nyla is older, she liked to ask a lot of questions, she wanted to know why we’re not staying at the house and I kept having to tell her that we weren’t staying here that long, so this was only a temporary thing.
We had just left from getting the girls some ice cream and I was running low on gas so I stopped by the gas station. Ranyla just insisted in going into the gas station with me so that she could pay and feel like a big girl. I took her out and grabbed Zyla. While I was unbuckling Zyla, I heard Ranyla scream.
“Daddy!” I looked up to see her running to Ramone. He looked shocked at first then smiled when he noticed his daughter. I rolled my eyes, I don’t need this shit right now. I took Zyla out and put her on my hip. I looked up and noticed some light skinned chick standing extra close to Ramone and grinning at Nyla.
I walked right past him like he didn’t exist and went to pay for the gas. From inside, I could tell Ranyla was asking him who the girl was. I wanted to know myself but I already knew our daughter would give me the run down. After I was done, I walked out and tried to walk past him again but he stopped me this time. It was the middle of November and too chilly to be standing here socializing.
“Nyla, hug your daddy bye and get in the car,” I said, not looking at him.
Zyla smiled and reached for Ramone and he reached his arm out for her but I turned her from him and walked away, headed towards my car. Ain’t no way in hell I was going to let him touch my daughter after all this time when he was acting funny towards her and mistreating her. Now that she could possibly be his, he wants to hold her. He can go to hell. I thought as strapped Zyla back in her car seat.
“Le’Lani!” Ramone said, walking up to me with Ranyla in his arms. I ignored him and walked to the pump to get my gas and leave.
“Nyla, I said get in the car. Tell your daddy you gotta go,” I said.
“Bye daddy,” she said sadly.
“Bye princess,” he said kissing her. She got out of his arms and got in the car.
“Lani look…” he started but stopped when the girl that was standing by him earlier walked up.
“Hi, I’m Maya,” she said and reached her hand out. I looked at her hand then back at the monitor making sure I didn’t go over my amount. “So you’re Lani, huh?” she asked like she was amused.
“It looks that way, don’t it?” I said, looking her up and down. My eyes shifted to Ramone and he was standing there looking like a lost puppy. After I was done, I walked past both of them and got in the car. I tried to shut the door but Ramone grabbed it.
“I want to see my daughters Le’Lani,” he said.
I laughed. This nigga is a trip, now all of a sudden Zyla is his daughter. “You mean daughter? You see Ranyla right now don’t you? As far as Zyla goes, she has a daddy and don’t need another one. Now move, I have some place I need to be and your girl is waiting on you,” I said, shutting the door and pulling out of the gas station in the Beamer he bought me without looking back.
As soon as we got back to the hotel, I called Mykell and vented. He’s the only person I’ve been talking to because he’s the only person that knows my situation. He’s been making good on his promise by not telling anybody. I know it’s killing him not to say anything, but it’s for the best.
“I’m telling you Kell, that nigga ain’t shit!” I fumed pacing back and forth.
“Lani, calm down. You said it yourself that he didn’t introduce you two; she had to do it herself, so what that tell you?” he asked.
“That tells me that his ass was stuck on stupid because he wasn’t expecting to have to tell me. Nyla already told me that the bitch introduced herself as her daddy girlfriend. I’m not even mad about that because I’m not even feeling him right now. I’m mad because he went crazy on me for moving on with Zamier and moving in with him, but he goes and gets a new bitch.”
“Baby girl, listen to me, she is only a temporary thing. You know all you have to do is play yo role and that nigga will be yours again.”
I took the phone away from my ear and looked at it crazy, thinking Mykell could see me. “Mykell, did you not hear me the first time I said it? I do not want him; I’m so over him and his shit right now.”
“Whatever, but look, Neicey want y’all to come down here for Thanksgiving. She wants the whole family down here so that means you too. That’s only four damn days away so bring ya ass down here, Le’Lani. I don’t want to have to come show my ass,” he said.
I laughed at his goofy ass. Leave it up to him to say something to make me laugh when I’m pissed. “Alright I’m coming….I love you Kell,” I said to my brother.
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Mykell laughed. “Naw but I love you too, knucklehead.”
After I got off the phone with my brother, my phone started ringing again. I looked down to see Zamier’s name pop up. I thought that was weird because I haven’t spoken to him in weeks. Against my better judgment, I answered it. “Hello?”
“He’s gone Lani! They fucking killed him!” his voice boomed through the phone.
“Wait, slow down. Who are you talking about?” I asked, confused.
“They fucking killed Marco and I did
n’t even have a chance to save him,” he cried.
“Calm down, where are you?” I was really concerned. I had grown real fond of Marco. He was a great friend to Neicey when she needed him and he was a real cool down to earth dude.
“I’m at the house. I need you Lani, I fucking need you,” he cried some more.
I sighed, I was conflicted. I wanted to stay far away from him as possible. It won’t hurt to see him for a few minutes. “I’m on my way.” I had plans of going in, saying some kind words and getting out.
* * *
When I got to the house it smelled like a damn liquor store. All the lights were off and it was pitch black. I was carrying a sleeping Zyla in my arms and Ranyla was holding my hand tightly. “Mommy, I can’t see,” she said.
“Hold on baby.” I went to turn the light on and damn near jumped out of my skin when I saw Zamier sitting on the couch cradling a Hennessey bottle. I walked upstairs and laid Zyla down then turned on cartoons for Ranyla in their old rooms.
I came back downstairs and could tell that he was drunk already. The bottle was more than halfway empty and I didn’t want to get too close to him because his ass turns into a different person when he gets drunk.
Before I could even open my mouth, Zamier spoke. “They shot my damn cousin down like he was a damn dog. He wasn’t doing nothing but minding his own business and they took him from me. I couldn’t even react because by time it started it was already over,” he said looking at me. “I would have been able to react if my mind wasn’t fucked up,” he said, getting up and dropping the liquor bottle in the process.
“What are you talking about?” I asked getting defensive.
“If yo ass knew how to act instead of being so fucking stupid, my mind would have been right,” he said as he lunged towards me. I tried to run but he grabbed me by the hair.
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