“You can’t be serious right now. You got your wife living in a damn mini-mansion while you’re daughter lives in the middle of the hood. Mekhya sees you maybe twice a month, but you wonder why she doesn’t know you. You hate me and I get that, but why do you take it out on your daughter? It’s not her fault that you cheated on your wife and created her. Why does she have to suffer?” Shay asked through her tears.
“You need to be asking yourself that question. You’re the one that wanted to keep her. I gave you the money to make her disappear, but you had other plans. You thought that having my baby would change the way I feel, but the jokes on you. You’re not the first bitch to get pregnant by me. You’re just the only one dumb enough to keep it. Don’t fault me for your mistake,” Mekhi said as he took a seat on her sofa looking around.
Although the outside of Shay’s apartment didn’t look like much, Mekhi had to admit that the inside was clean and nicely decorated. It couldn’t compare to what he and Rylee had, but it was nice enough for Shay and her kids. She was doing much better than most single mothers with three kids. She had a decent place to live and a nice car to get her and her kids around.
“Mistake?” Shay asked snapping Mekhi out of his thoughts. “Is that what you think of your daughter?”
“Look, don’t try to make me feel guilty about this shit. I gave you the money to get an abortion, and you swore that you were doing it. You let your sister and cousins get in your head thinking that having my first child would be a guaranteed paycheck, but y’all got me fucked up.”
“It would be a paycheck if I put your ass on child support. Or how about I just tell Rylee about her step-daughter that she doesn’t know anything about,” Shay threatened.
“Bitch try me if you want to. I bet all of your kid’s gon’ be without a mama,” Mekhi swore. “And keep my wife’s name out your muthafucking mouth!”
Shay just looked at her daughter’s father in disgust, but she knew not to try him. Mekhi had put his hands on her more times than she could count and she didn’t want that to happen to her again. He put his wife on a pedestal, but he treated her and their daughter like shit. Shay knew that it was all her fault for trapping him with a baby, but their daughter still didn’t deserve how he treated her. He did beg Shay to get an abortion when she told him that she was pregnant, and that was exactly what she had planned to do. That was before some of her family members convinced her that having the baby would be more beneficial to her in the long run. Shay was skeptical at first being that she already had two kids with two different fathers. Once her sister and cousins convinced her of the amount of money that she could be seeing every month, the decision was simple. She lied and told Mekhi that she was going to have the abortion even though she didn’t have any intentions of doing so. Shay laid low for a few months until it was too late for her to have to abortion before telling Mekhi what was up. Of course, he was furious, but that was to be expected. His next thing was to deny her daughter, which he did up until the blood test came back telling him otherwise. He still refused to sign her birth certificate and give her his last name, though. He wasn’t even at the hospital when his daughter was born, and Shay soon found out why. It was just her luck to give birth to Mekhi’s first child on his wedding anniversary. He and Rylee were celebrating in Jamaica, and she didn’t talk to him for two weeks after Mekhya’s birth. It took him a while longer before he came to see her and Mekhya was almost two months old before Mekhi even laid eyes on her. From day one he admitted to Shay that he didn’t feel a connection with their daughter and nothing had changed since then. It was nothing new to Shay since she’d already experienced the exact same thing with the fathers of her other kids. Somehow she just thought Mekhi would be different. He’d always expressed his desire to have kids, but he wanted them to be with his wife and not her. One drunken night when Rylee was out of town with her family, Shay made his wish a reality. He usually strapped up every time they had sex, but she made sure that he went in her unprotected several times that night. He was so drunk that he didn’t even notice the difference. She had so many regrets and having Mekhi for a baby daddy was right at the top of her list. She was getting her payback, and it was worse than anything she’d ever imagined.
“Can you just give me a few dollars for some diapers, please? I’m tired of having this same argument with you,” Shay said in aggravation.
Mekhi reached into his pocket and pulled out forty dollars and handed it over like he was really doing something special. Whenever he had to give Shay anything he made sure to give her just enough for what their daughter needed and not a penny more. He made it clear that he was not doing anything for her or her other kids. Truth be told, he was barely doing anything for his own child.
“Where she at?” Mekhi asked referring to his daughter.
“Mekyha!” Shay yelled calling her baby girl into the living room.
A few minutes later Shay’s oldest daughter came into the room pulling her younger sister along with her. Once her sister let her hand go Mekyha grabbed onto Shay’s leg and looked over at her father. It was sad that she really didn’t know him, but that was his own fault. He would rather keep his daughter a secret to keep his wife happy, so she would probably never be comfortable around him. Shay had three daughters’ ages two, three and four and none of them had a relationship with their fathers.
“Y’all got her too damn spoiled. Come here and stop acting all shy,” Mekhi yelled with a frown on his face.
“She’s not spoiled. She just doesn’t know you. Coming around once or twice a month and screaming at her is not helping the situation either,” Shay replied.
“Whatever man. My ride is on the way back anyway. I’ll tell my mama or one of my sisters to come get her next weekend,” Mekhi said as he got up and walked out of the door.
Shay slammed the door behind him as Mekyha ran back into the bedroom by her sisters. Shay held on to her tears while Mekhi was there, but they started flowing the minute the door closed. True enough, it was her own fault that she was in the position she was in, but she still didn’t like it all the same. She was so tired of her baby being some dirty little secret, but there was really nothing that she could do about it. Mekhi’s family knew about his daughter, but since he basically took care of them, they played the game right along with him. They all loved Rylee to death, and they didn’t want to see her and Mekhi separate over his infidelity. His two sisters and their kids lived with their mother in Mekhi and Rylee’s old house. It was the first house that they purchased when they got married, but they’d upgraded since then and let his family occupy the smaller home. He also paid the bills every month so whatever he said is what his family did. His older brother, Kendrick, was the only one who wasn’t down with the games that Mekhi played. He thought it was selfish of Mekhi to do his only daughter that way and Shay couldn’t agree more. Although it wasn’t Rylee’s fault that Mekhi’s was doing his daughter wrong, Shay couldn’t help, but to hate her because of it. If she didn’t think that Mekhi would make good on his threats, she would have been told his wife about their daughter. Shay would have loved nothing more than to see Mekhi and Rylee’s happy home come tumbling down. He didn’t deserve happiness, and she couldn’t wait until it was snatched away from him.
Chapter 3
Zyra couldn’t stop smiling even if she wanted to. After five long years, her baby brother was finally back home where he belonged. Zyra knew that she was getting on Zyrian’s nerves, but she couldn’t help it. She kept hugging him and kissing his cheeks like he was a little boy. For five years she was limited to seeing him for two hours every other weekend, and their contact was very minimal. To have him in her presence with no guards and no time restraints was a dream come true.
“Leave that man alone and sit down somewhere Zyra. He can’t even eat without you wiping his mouth and shit,” Rylee fussed while pulling her friend away from Zyrian and his cousins. She dragged her over to where she and some of the other women were sitting.
; Zyrian and his guests were sitting at the table playing spades, and Zyra was clinging to her brother like she would never see him again. Rylee understood that her girl was happy to see her brother again, but she was getting on everybody’s nerves. She was the only female at the table and nobody even acknowledged her.
“I know, I’m just so happy that he’s home,” Zyra smiled.
“You and me both,” Zyra’s friend Brandy said.
Brandy had a huge crush on Zyrian, and it had been that way long before he ever went to jail. He had a girlfriend at the time, and he never gave her a second thought. Since Brandy grew up with Zyra he would always tell her that she was more like a sister to him, even thought she was older than he was. Brandy was a pretty girl with a thick build, so she knew that he had to be attracted to her. Damn near every man that she came in contact with wanted her even if he was unavailable at the time. Zyrian was just different from most men, and she had to take a different approach with him. He had a slick mouth, so she had to be careful about how she came at him.
“Your brother is very handsome Zyra,” Rylee’s cousin Amber acknowledged.
Amber was Rylee’s cousin on her father’s side and the only white girl in attendance. She never felt out of place, and they never treated her any differently. Well, Rylee, Zyra, and Nakia never did. Rylee’s other cousin, Nicole, on her mother’s side seemed to hate Amber, but she didn’t know why. She was always saying inappropriate things to her when Rylee wasn’t around, but Amber usually ignored her. Nicole’s sister Nakia was pretty cool, so Amber mostly talked to her if Rylee or Zyra weren’t around. Even Brandy seemed to have a problem with Amber, but they knew not to play with her whenever Rylee was present.
“Handsome,” Brandy frowned. “That nigga is hot.”
“Yes, he is,” Nicole agreed.
Rylee didn’t say anything, but she agreed with everything that was being said. Zyrian was that nigga in every sense of the word. If she wasn’t already married, he could definitely get it. Rylee was never the type to sleep around. Her husband was only her second sex partner, and he was also her last. As good as Zyrian looked Rylee would only admire him from afar. She took her marriage and her vows too seriously to ever cheat on Mekhi. She saw how Zyrian stared at her when Zyra introduced them, but she brushed it off. Even when they hugged it lingered on a little longer than it should have, but it was all innocent. They’d both heard so much about each other from Zyra that it felt like they were already acquainted. Of course, Mekhi was right there the entire time to make sure that every man in attendance knew that she was already taken. They were damn near joined at the hip until Buck pulled him away for a game of spades.
“I hope he’s not planning to go back to Dedy’s trifling ass,” Brandy said bringing Rylee back to the present and referring to Zyrian’s ex-girlfriend.
“You must be crazy,” Zyra yelled. “That was over before he even did his first year. That’s exactly why me and my mama went and put her ass out of his house. I would have been a damn fool to let her and another nigga enjoy something that my brother paid for while he was sitting up in jail.”
“And that bitch got like five or six kids now I heard,” Brandy instigated.
“I don’t know how many it is, but she got a few,” Zyra confirmed.
“Damn, she did it like that? He was only gone for five years,” Rylee said.
Zyra had told her all about her brother’s ex and how she played him when he went to jail. Thankfully she didn’t have access to his money or the house that he had just purchased one month prior. Not even two months in jail and Zyra was hearing that Dedy had other men coming to the house that belonged to her brother. Zyrian never even had time to furnish it before he got locked up, but Dedy had the nerve to decorate like she would be staying there indefinitely. Zyra and her mother put a stop to that real quick. They refused to let Dedy have that luxury. Zyra was pissed that Zyrian had put the Lexus that he bought in her name because she couldn’t take that back.
“She tried it, but I got her mind right real quick. Let her baby daddy buy her ass a house and whatever else she needs. Zyrian better not even try to get back with her trifling ass,” Zyra replied.
“Yeah, let him give a real bitch a chance,” Brandy replied while popping her thick, glossed lips.
“Brandy please, Zyrian don’t want your ass either. My brother is trying to get his shit together. He ain’t worrying about no relationship right now,” Zyra said.
“Nobody said nothing about no relationship. After being locked up for five years, I’m sure he need some pussy. And he can definitely get it,” Brandy laughed even though she was dead serious.
“Yeah, him and everybody else,” Zyra said making Rylee laugh out loud.
Brandy cut her eyes over and Rylee and scowled when she wasn’t looking. It was no secret that she didn’t care for Rylee, and she didn’t try to hide it. She made it clear from day one that Rylee was Zyra’s friend and not hers. She hated how she and Zyra had been friends since elementary, but her bond with Rylee seemed tighter. Zyra clearly favored Rylee over her, and it pissed Brandy off. Rylee was the kind of girl that Brandy hated anyway. A mixed breed bitch who thought she was better than everybody else. Rylee tried her best to seem like she was down, but Brandy wasn’t buying it. She had everybody feeling sorry for her because of the deaths of her parents and sister, but Brandy didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for her. Rylee had a good job and a fine ass husband who loved her to death. They lived in a big house, and he’d just purchased her a new car. In Brandy’s eyes she was doing better that most women her age, herself included. Zyra always said that Brandy was jealous of Rylee, but she would never own up to being envious of the next bitch. Especially one who was younger than she was.
“Shit, what the hell does he want?” Zyra hissed when she saw her husband walking towards their shelter at the park.
Everyone turned their heads in the direction that she was looking just to see who she was talking about.
She got up to meet him halfway, just so that he wouldn’t start anything while her present girlfriend was in attendance.
“You good Zyra? You need me to walk over there with you?” Rylee asked her best friend.
“Yeah, come on,” Zyra replied while Brandy rolled her eyes up to the sky.
Rylee and Zyra walked briskly over to where Tommy was all the while hoping and praying that he didn’t start any drama. Zyra knew that the men in her family would probably try to kill him if he did. Zyra had recently started dating a chick named Mica, and she and Tommy had passed words several times over the course of a few months. He was always popping up and showing out every time they had an event, and she just wasn’t for it at the moment.
“What are you doing here Tommy?” Zyra asked with her hands placed firmly on her hips.
“What you mean what I’m doing here? I’m still family right. I came to see my boy. I had to hear from somebody else that he was home,” Tommy replied.
“You can miss me with that family shit,” Zyra snapped. “We are not together anymore.”
“But it’s true, though. Like it or not I’m still your husband. No matter how many women or men you get with that will never change.”
“Yeah, only because you refuse to sign the divorce papers,” Zyra fumed.
“I’m so rude,” Tommy said ignoring what Zyra had just said. “What’s up Rylee?”
“Hey Tommy,” Rylee spoke without even bothering to smile.
“Look, Tommy,” Zyra cut in. “Zyrian is busy, but I’ll be sure to tell him that you came through. Maybe y’all can hook up next weekend or something once he gets settled.”
“Nah, I don’t need you to talk for me. I can go holla at him myself. What, you worried that I might say something to your bitch?” Tommy sneered making Zyra cringe.
She wanted to slap him so bad, but that would have only caused a scene. Her brother had just gotten out of jail, and she didn’t want to put him in a position to go back. If she hit Tommy and he hit her back, Zyri
an would beat his ass back to his car. Not to mention what her crazy ass cousins would do. When Zyra saw Tommy headed to where her brother was seated she decided to take matters into her own hands and put a stop to it.
“Zyrian!” She yelled calling her brother over to where she and Rylee stood.
Tommy stopped in his tracks and looked back at her with rage written all over his face. It killed him how Zyra always tried to make him seem like the bad person when she was the one who cheated on him. He could admit that he played a major part in the demise of their marriage, but Zyra still took things too far sometimes.
“It ain’t even that fucking serious Zyra,” he fumed while shaking his head in disgust.
“It’s very serious to me. I don’t even know why you came here in the first place. What part of leave me the fuck alone don’t you understand?” Zyra yelled as her eyes filled with tears of anger.
Rylee rubbed her friends back to soothe the pain that she knew she was feeling at the moment. Tommy always brought out the bad side in Zyra and Rylee understood why. He was a selfish bastard, and Rylee hated him just by the things she’d heard about him. She always remained cordial, but she had her girl’s back no matter how things played out. Zyra was pissed, but that was nothing new whenever Tommy came around. As much as she used to love her husband, she never thought she’d see the day where the mere sight of him disgusted her. Zyra couldn’t help, but to think back on when things went downhill in her marriage.
At only 16 years old Zyra was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was very rare for someone in her age group, but unfortunately, that was the case with her. After having her ovaries removed and going through chemo and radiation, she was able to beat the disease that so many others didn’t. Zyra considered herself blessed, and she didn’t take it for granted. She married Tommy, her childhood sweetheart, at twenty years old and things were going great. Although it wasn’t impossible for Zyra to have children, she knew that it wouldn’t be easy for her to do. She had already been told that a fertility specialist would be needed whenever she was ready to expand her family. Tommy had been her boyfriend since she was fourteen years old, so he was right there with her every step of the way. He was all for them seeing a specialist since he was more than ready to start a family. It was expensive, but their only option was to see a reproductive endocrinologist about possibly beginning in-vitro fertilization. Zyra was excited about everything until she was hit with yet another blow. While going through the process to begin treatments, she was told about the huge fibroids that were present inside of her young body. Zyra had them once before, but the doctors assured her that they had removed them all. Sadly, that was untrue, and she had to have a procedure to get rid of the few that remained. That was another disaster within itself. Apparently something happened during surgery that caused the doctors to make a last minute discussion in order to save Zyra’s life. With the risk of her almost bleeding to death, the doctors had no choice, but to give her a full hysterectomy, shattering her dreams of ever having children of her own. Of course, Zyra was devastated, but not more than Tommy. For weeks at a time, he’d shut down and go into a full state of depression. Zyra understood how her husband felt, especially since she felt the same way. They always had the option to adopt, but Tommy didn’t feel like it was same as having a child of their own. Zyra was fine either way, but she was willing to do whatever her husband was comfortable with. Their relationship seemed strained for a while, and Zyra didn’t know what to do. Tommy started complaining about their marriage being boring and for a while Zyra though he wanted out. That all changed one day, and Zyra soon found out why. It took him a while, but Tommy finally snapped out of the funk that he seemed to always be in. Zyra couldn’t help but notice the huge smile that adorned his face when he came home from work one day. She was about to ask him what he was happy about, but she didn’t have a chance to. She noticed that her front door was ajar, but before she had a chance to close it, in walked a tall light skinned women with short hair and a huge smile covering her beautiful face. Tommy saw the look on Zyra’s face, so he hurriedly explained to her why the other woman was there. Apparently she was his co-worker who he’d been confiding in about the issues that they were having in their marriage. Zyra didn’t like it, but she wasn’t going to say anything about it. That was until her husband told her the real reason that his bi-sexual co-worker, Mona, had been invited over. According to him, Mona was just what the two of them needed to spice up their now dull marriage. That’s if Zyra didn’t want to find herself divorced and alone. To say that Zyra was hurt was putting it mildly. She probably would have been more receptive if Tommy would have talked to her first before just bringing some random woman to her home for them to sleep with. That was the most disrespectful thing that he had ever done, and Zyra was done with him. She packed up her clothes and left him in their house to go stay with her mother for a while. Tommy thought that she was overreacting and begged her to come back home. He even had Mona to call her, trying hard to persuade her to go along with their plans. Mona was cool, and Zyra didn’t fault her for what her husband had done. They ended up talking on the phone almost every day for a month straight, and she was really a sweetheart. Finally, after almost two months of convincing, Zyra finally decided to go back home and give it a try. Tommy was ecstatic to say the least. He went all out and tried his best to make his wife feel comfortable. He had rose petals covering the floor with strawberries and champagne chilling on ice. The massage oils were strategically placed on the bedside table, and a box of condoms rested right next to it. Zyra didn’t have many rules, but she refused to let the act take place in their bedroom. Their house had five bedrooms, so Tommy had four more to choose from. Although Zyra was nervous, Mona made her feel so much better about everything. She talked to her the entire time and after a while, it was like Tommy wasn’t even in the room. Once everything was all done Zyra was eager to find out when they could do it again. Unfortunately for her, Tommy had no interest in a repeat performance. He’d gotten the threesome that he’d always wanted out of his system, and it was a wrap as far as he was concerned. But for Zyra, it was only the beginning. Mona had awakened feelings in her that she never even knew existed. She couldn’t stop, and Tommy and nobody else was going to make her. For months, she continued to see Mona behind her husband’s back and things were going good for a while. That was until Tommy followed her to the hotel one night and confronted the both of them. Zyra apologized repeatedly, and her husband was quick to forgive her. Sadly, that turned out to be one of the many times that she would get caught and have to beg for her husband’s forgiveness. She loved Tommy, but thanks to Mona she discovered her love for women as well. It was his own fault for begging her to do it, and Zyra didn’t see what the problem was. She never neglected him in any way, and they were still very sexually active. She had the best of both worlds, and she wasn’t ready to give it up. Even when Tommy gave her an ultimatum she continued to do what made her happy. He could have easily left on his own, but he stayed just to make life harder on her. He never laid a finger on Zyra, but the verbal abuse that he dished out was enough to drive her crazy. In Tommy’s eye, Zyra couldn’t have kids, so she wasn’t good for anything else. He kept reminding her that she was the reason that their marriage was falling apart, but she didn’t see it that way. It took a while, but Zyra finally got fed up and left her husband for good. She got a one bedroom apartment and went on with her life. She filed for divorce a short time later on when she saw that they couldn’t repair their union, but Tommy still refused to sign the papers. That was over three years ago, and they were still very unhappily married. He eventually had a heart and got himself an apartment, so that Zyra could move back into the home that they’d purchased. His only request was that Zyra didn’t disrespect him by bringing any of her women or men to the home that they once shared. That was no problem with her since she always rented a room whenever she wanted to have company anyway.
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