A Rich Man's Baby

by Daaimah S. Poole

  Now that I was eight and a half months, I had contractions all the time, the fake ones called Braxton-Hicks. I was tired, I was ready for this baby to come out.

  My contractions came in the middle of the night. DeCarious felt me move and jumped up. I was mad this little girl would not come. We had been back and forth to the hospital with false labor. And they never kept me and sent me home. I was so damn frustrated. I wanted this shit to be over. I just started crying.

  “What’s wrong, Adrienne?” DeCarious asked.

  “I’m tired, I want this baby out of me,” I said as I sat up.

  “Come here, baby, it is going to be over soon. You want me to make her come out?”

  I told him to shut up. He kneeled next to my stomach and started talking to our baby. “Mommy wants you out, come on out. It is time to meet the world.”

  Through my pain I laughed at him. “You got a lot of people that want to meet you.” We dressed and drove to the hospital. This time they kept me.

  The next day, still no baby. She was not coming. The doctors kept saying if I didn’t dilate more they were going to have to give me a cesarean. I didn’t want that. I just wanted to push the baby out and get up and walk out of this hospital. But I was attached to all these monitors. Twelve hours later, I was stuck at three centimeters.

  “We are not going to wait anymore, we are going to do a cesarean,” my doctor informed me. As much as I was scared, I was ready for it to be over. DeCarious held my hand as they prepped me for surgery.

  Hours later my baby girl Malaysia Simmons was born; she was beautiful. She was a golden brown beautiful baby; she favored more of DeCarious than me. His whole family had been up to the hospital, and his mother was snapping pictures like she was the paparazzi. I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital.

  Chapter 59

  Dionne

  Every day I thought of Kevin at least twice. Something always brought my mind back to Kevin. If I saw a guy who favored him or a Tahoe riding down the street. It could even be a song. Everything in my life had a link back to Kevin. I wasn’t trying not to remember, but it was like I couldn’t forget. Right now I hated him. I hated him so much. How could he do this to me? He was still ignoring me. I thought about how I shouldn’t ever have left his side. I shouldn’t have gone to law school. I didn’t even like being an attorney. Terrance had been calling nonstop. I was still wearing his ring, but I didn’t want to talk to him, not until I got things back on good terms with Kevin.

  However, I was getting satisfaction out of stalking Kevin’s pregnant bitch. He made me really mad, but I didn’t want to take my frustration out on him. So I took it out on her. I’d been writing her letters and keying her car, hoping to scare her ass away from my man. Every letter I wrote her I addressed it “Dear Bitch.” Because that’s what she was, a stupid good-for-nothing bitch.

  Dear Bitch,

  Traffic is coming. Please go stand in it and make my life easier.

  Love,

  Mrs. Kevin Wallace.

  I’d done everything to harass this woman. I placed dead roses on her windshield and put R.I.P. there, and I even put bullets in her newspaper, with a note that said, “I have a bullet with your name on it.”

  I chuckled as I sealed the envelope closed. I’d been getting up, getting dressed, and leaving home, going past his house to see if she left. She hadn’t yet, and that made me so livid. Why had Kevin given someone who didn’t deserve it my life? She didn’t help him study, she didn’t go to his games with him, I should be in that house. I should be by his side right now. It really should be me.

  Kevin not talking to me made me crazy. I called Camille to talk to her. “Camille, I keep having dreams about Kevin.”

  “Please, just leave that whole Kevin situation alone.”

  “I am, but I need to ask you something.” I didn’t know what came over me, but I just felt tears dripping down my face. “Camille, why won’t Kevin talk to me? Why doesn’t he love me like he used to? I don’t know what to do. I mean, everything in my life is right. I love my life, but I just keeping dwelling on what if I went to Rome and how happy I would be right now. Like I would be just living a real lush life, and he has a new girlfriend and she doesn’t work and that should be me. Camille, I’m sad. I’m real sad and I don’t know why. I’m crying and I can’t stop.”

  “Please stop being emotional,” Camille sighed.

  “Camille, I feel like I can’t take it. Like I’m about to break, like the guilt and regret is so heavy like it is about to break me. I was supposed to go to law school, right?”

  “Yes, you did everything right. Calm down, okay? You are just a little stressed out.”

  “You are right. I’m sorry, I just needed to get that all out. Camille, I’m fine. I’m really fine.”

  “You sure? I’m worried about you.”

  “Don’t be worried. I’m okay.”

  “Okay, Dionne, call me if you need me. I’ll be up for a while.”

  Chapter 60

  Tanisha

  Everything was going wonderful with me and Kevin. I felt so much better without all the lies. But when you get rid of one problem, another one comes. I came out of my house one morning and somebody had written on my driver-side window in red lipstick, Watch your back, bitch! I looked around and then went back into the house and grabbed some window cleaner and paper towels. I was not amused. It was smearing and not coming off. I shook my head. I wondered how long it had been on the window; people were probably riding past and laughing. I knew these groupies be trying to knock you out of the box, but God damn. I got in the car and took it to the car wash. Then a few days later I started receiving crazy little notes with no return addresses on them. The first two I got I balled them up and threw them in the trash. Now I didn’t know what to do. I was not going to alarm Kevin, but the person kept calling me a bitch and she sounded like she might hurt me. I looked over at the one from yesterday. It read, Dear Bitch, You will never have his heart. I am his heart, his soul, and what makes him smile. I challenge him and he will love me forever. And it was signed Mrs. Kevin Wallace. I shook my head in disbelief. Whoever was doing this was very deranged and trying to upset me. I wouldn’t allow it to happen. They were not that tough, because if they were they wouldn’t be sending notes. Fuck whoever is doing this, I thought as I ripped up the letter in tiny pieces and threw them in the trash. I then walked to the front door to get the newspaper. I opened the door and reached down to get the paper, when bullets fell out. I jumped and picked one up. They all had my name taped on them. I collected them off the ground and closed the door. I had to call the cops and tell Kevin.

  Chapter 61

  Adrienne

  Ever since I had our daughter DeCarious had changed. He was back hanging with Rock hard, and he was cheating on me with this stripper. She had to wear like a size fourteen. He had pictures of her big ass on his cell phone and nasty text messages. I confronted him and he acted like it was nothing. It was amazing that DeCarious was just now starting to feel himself, and to make it all the more better, he was doing this while my mom was visiting.

  My mother had come to stay with us to help me with Malaysia. She left Pops with his live-in nurse. He had the nerve to not come home at all in two days and I was so embarrassed. I knew there was nothing wrong with him because his mother had talked to him; he just wasn’t talking to me.

  “Adrienne, where is DeCarious?” she asked repeatedly.

  “I don’t know, Mom, he gets drunk and sometimes stays over at his friend’s house,” I said, trying to save face. The truth was, when I caught up with him I was going to kick his ass.

  “Well, you shouldn’t allow that. You have a child now and he needs to be home with you and her,” she said, frowning.

  “I know, he’ll be here soon. You want some breakfast?” I asked as I tried to ignore my mother’s comments. I knew he should be home, but what was I going to do? He was feeling hisself and testing the waters of his fame. I was
so hurt he wasn’t answering his phone, and I just had to get out of the house. While Malaysia was asleep, I left. I was about to cry and didn’t want my mom to see that I didn’t have any control of my situation.

  I drove around and drove around. I stopped at Starbucks and got a coffee. I heard my phone ringing. I answered, it was my mother calling me. I thought something was wrong with Malaysia, but she was only calling to find out where the bathtub was so she could bathe her.

  I hung up and sipped on my hot coffee. I looked down at the cell phone and called DeCarious again, still no answer. I was about to lose it. He had never disrespected me like this, and now he wasn’t calling me. This was ridiculous; he was so excited about the baby, and now that the baby was here he was acting crazy. I called Tanisha to see if she could help me figure this all out.

  “Why you think he acting like that? He has just been borderline ignorant since she’s been born.”

  “Some men do that; they just want you to themselves or they can’t handle the responsibility. He is young and it probably is sinking into him that in a year, he has had a baby and a girl that he has to provide for. He is used to being carefree.”

  “You might be right. Hold on, that’s my mom.” I took my mother’s call.

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “DeCarious just came in.”

  “He did?” I said excitedly.

  “You want me to tell him anything?”

  “No, Mom, I’ll be there.” I got up and threw the remainder of my coffee in the trash. I clicked back over and told Tanisha I would call her back.

  I drove home as fast as I could. I stomped into the house past my mother and the baby. I tried to remain calm. I walked into the bathroom as he was stepping out of the shower.

  “You got to wash your dick because you been out fucking some fat, trashy bitch for two days. Why haven’t you been home?”

  “Get out of my face, Adrienne,” he said, pushing me out of the way.

  “Where the hell you been, huh? Why didn’t you pick up your phone in two days? You called your mother. Why haven’t you been calling me? Is your phone broke or something?” I said as I reached in his pants pocket to get his phone. He lunged toward me trying to get it back, so I threw it in the toilet and tried to flush it.

  “Fuck that phone since it don’t work,” I yelled.

  “I don’t believe you just did that. Now I really don’t have anything to say,” he said, shaking his head.

  “You do have something to say, you going to tell me what’s going on. What am I doing wrong? Make me understand.”

  He still didn’t say anything.

  “What is it, DeCarious? Why have you been acting crazy since I had the baby?”

  “You really want to know why I haven’t been home. I don’t think you want to know.

  “I do want to know.”

  “I haven’t been home because you are a fucking ho, Adrienne. I just found out my daughter’s mother is a fucking groupie whore,” he said as I was silent, and he walked up on me pointing his finger at my head.

  “Adrienne, motherfuckers talk, and they talking about me right now. I’m a motherfucking laughingstock.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You know Derrick Johnson?”

  “No,” I said quickly.

  “Yes, you do. How about Mark Owens?” he asked as he walked toward me.

  “I don’t know what you talking about.”

  “Don’t lie to me. Boy oh boy, I got me a winner right here. You know what I’m talking about, Adrienne, don’t act dumb. You don’t care, N-F-L, N-B-A as long as they paid.”

  “That’s not true,” I shouted.

  “Do I need to keep naming names? I heard you was a part of a little ho squad. I even saw pictures. You was with everybody all hugged up.”

  “So because I took a picture with someone in the club I was fucking?”

  “No, but you was. Somebody told me I should get a blood test on my daughter. Should I, huh? When Rock first brought the info to me, I was like, ‘Naw, not my shorty.’ I should have known better. My parents warned me about bitches like you. But I didn’t listen. You just don’t know,” he said as he acted like he wanted to hit me.

  I was speechless. I was speechless and stunned and didn’t know how to react. So I just kept denying it. “Fuck Rock and whoever said those lies. It is not true.”

  “Adrienne, it is true,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about, and if I did, it is in my past. This is right now. Right now I am your woman; we have a child. You going to listen to some shit somebody told you, or you going to be a man to your family?”

  He started laughing and said, “Baby, Malaysia is my family; you ain’t shit to me. I don’t know if I can trust you or if I even want to be with you.”

  I opened the bathroom door; the steam followed me. My mother was bouncing the baby in the living room and pacing.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I sobbed. I couldn’t hold my tears back. She pulled me into her chest. I cried a little and she grimaced at him as DeCarious walked out of the bathroom, brushing his hair up and down with a white T-shirt and shorts and flip-flops on.

  “Maybe you should come home,” she said as we went into the bedroom to talk.

  “Why?”

  “I’m not going to tolerate any man abusing you.”

  “He didn’t abuse me, Mom. He is just mad about something.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Mom, I don’t know.”

  “You have to know something. Something is going on. Listen, that doesn’t even matter. This little girl needs to be raised in a loving home, not with yelling.”

  “I know that, Mom, and she will be. I’m going to straighten it out.”

  I dropped my mother off at the airport. She kept telling me to come home, but I told her that everything was going to be okay even though I had no idea how I was going to get DeCarious back in check.

  Chapter 62

  Dionne

  My sadness had reached an all-time low. My comfort song had become “In My Mind” by Heather Headley. It was about a woman who didn’t get over her old boyfriend and she kept repeating in the song that in her mind she was still his lady. I was still Kevin’s lady too! I had so much work in front of me and didn’t care. I wanted to quit. Kevin was still ignoring me and I wasn’t answering Terrance when he called me. My train of thought was interrupted by someone saying, “Are you listening, Ms. Matthews?”

  “Huh? I am sorry, I was listening,” I said as I came back to reality. I had April Hubert’s mother in my office. I was defending April in an adult case; she had just turned eighteen but still was in high school and was about to go to trial for defending herself with a box cutter after she was beat up two times by the same group of girls. She cut one of the girl’s arms up so bad she needed ninety stitches.

  “I was asking you, do you think she is going to get off, or are they really going to send her to a women’s prison? It’s her first offense and she was defending herself.”

  “Miss Hubert, I will try my best. I don’t know what is going to happen. If she was a few months younger, we wouldn’t even be here; but they are not looking at her age, the courts are looking at her crime,” I said honestly.

  “But what do you think?” her mother asked

  “I’m not sure. I’ll do my best,” I said as I ended the meeting and escorted her out of my office.

  Judge DeLuca—some days were nice, other times a bitch. She had low tolerance for bullshit. She didn’t play with gun cases, murder, and rape. It was my first time going before her. I should have been excited, but I was so out of it. We selected a jury in a few hours. I was able to select seven women and five men. Two Latinos, five African-Americans, two Asians, and three whites. They were in their mid-twenties to sixties. I hoped they all would feel sorry for her.

  I gave my opening statement. Looking directly at the jury, I said, “Lad
ies and gentlemen of the jury, have you been scared to go to school? Scared to go to class because you might be teased or beat up? You haven’t? Well, April Hubert has and was abused by a pack of vicious girls for years. During this trial, I will prove to you that April Hubert is a victim, not a criminal. Yes, she did cut Jada Graham in her arm, but it was done out of pure fear and self-defense.” When I was done, I looked over at April’s mother to see her wiping away tears. I wanted the jury to see her too. And I caught a few of their eyes following mine to hers. I sat down and waited for the prosecution.

  Later, I began my direct examination of April Hubert. April was nervous and stuttering. I had to pull questions out of her and repeat myself. I knew the prosecution was going to pound her with his cross-examination, but he didn’t. He was so boring I didn’t even take notes. I began doodling that bitch Tanisha another letter. I wrote, Six million ways to die, choose one. I heard that in a reggae song before; it was funny. I drew these cute stick figures of women dying. One had a woman hanging from a tree, another had a woman burning in a fire yelling help, and the cutest one was a woman with a gun up to her own head. Under that I wrote, Go kill yourself, bitch. I couldn’t wait to send it to her.

  James wanted to help me go over my closing argument, but I wrote it last night and I was not changing it. I had something far more important to do. I had to go to the post office and mail my letter to Tanisha.

  “Are you nervous?” he asked as we walked back toward the courtroom after lunch

  “No, I’m fine. If she gets found guilty, she gets found guilty.”

  “What?” James said as he looked at me like I was crazy. I had to clean up what I just said. It didn’t sound so good, even though it was what I was thinking.