A Rich Man's Baby

by Daaimah S. Poole

  “James, you know what I meant. I know I did the best job I could and I hope that they find her innocent.”

  “Whew, you scared me for a minute,” he said as I sat back next to April. The jury filed back into the courtroom and the lead juror stood up and said, “We the jury find the defendant not guilty on all counts.” April’s entire family began roaring with praise and excitement. James leaned over to me to give me a high five.

  “You won your first jury trial case.”

  “Thanks,” I said somberly.

  “We have to go celebrate,” James said excitedly.

  “No, I’m really tired. This experience has been really draining. I’m going home to get into bed.”

  “At least across the street at the Marriott.”

  “Maybe tomorrow, I want to get home.” I just felt so sad nothing could make me happy right now.

  The moment I was comfortable in my bed, I heard a knock on my door. I looked through the peephole and saw Camille.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “You don’t answer your phone so I had to come over here and check on you. We are getting you out of this apartment. You are scaring me. I’m telling you right now, if you don’t snap out of it, I am going to call Mommy and Daddy.”

  “No, don’t do that,” I said, trying to not look crazy.

  “Listen, call your man, get him back, forget about Kevin, and let’s go get some coffee and talk.” If only it was just that simple. I got dressed and went with Camille.

  Over my long talk with Camille I got everything out. I got so much out I was beginning to feel like a dumb-ass for even thinking about wanting to be with Kevin. She made a lot of sense. I tore up all the letters I planned to mail to Tanisha and realized it was over. I had too much at stake. If I was ever caught doing all this craziness, I wouldn’t have a job or career. I still wanted to talk to Kevin, just for closure, but if he didn’t want to talk to me there was nothing that I could do.

  The next morning, instead of my morning stalking, I went for a jog. The air coming into my lungs felt so good. I felt alive and happy. I came back into the house and Camille had text-messaged me:

  TODAY YOU LOVE LIKE YOU NEVER BEEN HURT.

  I read it and smiled. I was going to take her advice and call Terrance and tell him to come home and talk.

  When I called Terrance he was so happy to hear from me. I was ignoring him like Kevin was ignoring me. I invited him over to talk. Terrance was sitting on our sofa wearing black jeans and a green polo shirt and navy cotton jacket. I could tell he was waiting for me to say something. It was my fault and I had to remedy this situation.

  “Terrance, I am not cheating on you. I was just getting cold feet. And my job was just stressing me out. I still love you.”

  Terrance was not buying it; he looked at me like I was lying. “I know being an attorney is hard, but not that hard. I love you so much, Dionne, and I want to work it out with you, but you have to be honest with me.”

  “I want it to work too, and I am being honest,” I said as I looked him in his eyes and held his hand. He stared back like he was still suspicious. The silence of our stare was broken by my phone alerting me I had a text message.

  “Who is that?” he asked as he jumped up and checked my cell phone. Without getting off the sofa, I said, “It is Camille. She keeps text-messaging me telling me she loves me and sending me inspirational quotes.” He read Camille’s latest text, then threw the phone.

  “I’m sorry for checking your phone. I just really thought you were cheating on me. We are going to make this work,” he said apologetically.

  “It’s okay, you can check my phone whenever you want. I don’t have anything to hide.”

  Terrance and I decided we were still going to get married. There was no reason not to. Everything was planned and paid for. This was just a little bump in the road, but we weren’t going to allow anything to get in the way.

  Chapter 63

  Tanisha

  Adrienne called me all day long for advice. I couldn’t get caught up in her mess. She wasn’t handling her business properly. She was sloppy with it. DeCarious was young; he was very responsible and giving her the world, and she treated him like shit. Now she was getting a taste of her own medicine. I didn’t have time to hear her crying. I had my own issues to deal with. The crazy anonymous letters had stopped, but I was still scared and never told Kevin.

  “I have to get off this phone, Adrienne. No, I’m busy, the children are coming out here.”

  “Wow, so he really accepts your children. That’s great.”

  “Yeah, Adrienne, listen, girl, shit is getting crazy. Why the fuck did someone write in red lipstick on my car window, ‘Watch your back, bitch’? And somebody sent me a bunch of crazy letters.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, this shit is crazy.”

  “Who do you think it is?” Adrienne asked.

  “Well, Kevin told me sometimes female fans really go crazy. I don’t know what to think. Should I tell him?”

  “I wouldn’t because he don’t need that stress.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “You think it might be Tyrone?”

  “No, he still don’t know about any of this and I can’t make a police report.”

  “Just go get you some mace and I guess watch your back. I got to feed this baby, she greedy. Call me back later.”

  I went on with my day. I didn’t think fans were this crazy, but I wasn’t letting no stupid chick who wanted to be where I was scare me. I couldn’t complain at all. Kevin was the best thing that ever happened to me. He had been helping with Alexis, Kierra, and Jamil. We had been out a few times as a family, and we all attended Alexis’s graduation together. I hadn’t had to ask for anything. I was exhausted balancing two houses, but I couldn’t have everyone under one roof. After I had the baby in a couple of months I’d get everything together. I just wanted to enjoy Kevin before the season began again and he got on the road.

  Chapter 64

  Adrienne

  I was at my six-week postpartum visit. My doctor looked at my chart and said, “You are losing weight too fast. Please slow it down and let your body heal naturally. I see a lot of mothers trying to lose weight too fast. Concentrate on your health and the weight will come off.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said as she walked out of the room and she told me I could get dressed. But there was no way I was going to stop my dieting. I needed to look good for my man. DeCarious was treating me like I was his enemy. I still denied knowing what he was talking about. He brought us back to Seattle with him, though, and that was a good sign. Hopefully he still wanted me around. I felt like I had to walk around on eggshells with him. We took a blood test that confirmed he was the father. I never would have thought that this sweet man I met a year ago would be acting like this. If he wasn’t so big, I would smack the shit out of him.

  A few weeks later, I made no progress with DeCarious. I was at his house, but he was not sleeping with me or taking me out. He would come in and play with Malaysia and then sleep and talk on the phone in the other room.

  “Do you want me to go home?” I asked him, frustrated. I had had enough.

  “Adrienne, I don’t care what you do. Because whatever you won’t do the next woman will. You don’t know, I’m an endangered species. I’m a fine-ass young black man with financial security and I’m under thirty. So go home, I don’t care,” he said as he tapped my chin playfully while he laughed. The fact that he thought this was a joke infuriated me. I was tired of being nice. I had to strike back.

  “DeCarious, nobody wants your ass.”

  He gave me a smirk and then pulled out his cell phone and started scrolling through all these numbers. “Don’t nobody want me. Oh, really? That is a joke,” he said as he started calling people in front of me. He then started reading me his text messages. I tried my best to ignore him and his disrespect.

  “I don’t care,” I said, shaking my head.<
br />
  “You care.”

  “No, I don’t fucking care. They don’t want you. They want your money. You ain’t nothing without your jersey on.”

  “Fuck you, bitch. I’ve been getting bitches way before I started playing.”

  “DeCarious, you are a child and I’m sorry I even met you. You are a waste,” I said as I walked into the bedroom and began packing.

  “Don’t take anything out of my house. Leave with what you came with, you broke bitch.”

  “Broke bitch. I have my own money.”

  “Adrienne, you don’t have anything. Everything you own I bought you, and you ain’t shit without me. So either stick around so that I might forgive you, or go the fuck home. Either way hurry up and make a decision.”

  I chose to go home. I didn’t know who he thought he was talking to. Fuck him. At the airport I called my mother and told her I had left DeCarious. She asked me why I didn’t try to work it out with him. Was I supposed to? Should I have just been quiet just because he was still paying all the bills? Was he going to get better? How about if it didn’t get better? How about if it stayed like that forever? I didn’t have to deal with that, hell no. How could I let DeCarious go from treating me like royalty to this? I couldn’t, it was unacceptable. I did the right thing by leaving. He was not going to deliberately disrespect me. I looked down at my daughter asleep in the stroller and thought about it again. I guess I made the right decision. Now my daughter didn’t have her father, I thought. I was going home a party of two instead of one. That was okay, he would pay, because come Monday morning I was getting an attorney and taking his ass to the bank.

  Chapter 65

  Adrienne

  I moved back home. Lucky enough I was smart enough to stash some money on his ass. My mother did not raise a dummy. I went and rented a town house until I got the situation together with my attorney. But this was only a temporary stop because I was about to take DeCarious’s ass down. That was the goal anyway. I wanted him to buy me and his daughter a house, and I needed a new car to drive her around in. He had plenty of money, and he would be paying for his daughter every month for the next eighteen years. He tried to call me and offer me six thousand a month in support. And he said something about don’t get any expensive lawyers involved. He was crazy. I knew I could get at least ten to fifteen thousand a month.

  I went to visit Tanisha. Her situation was going so good. She was living in this beautiful house in the suburbs and about to have her baby soon. She looked cute pregnant; her stomach was round and perfect.

  “Hey, girl, this house is so fucking beautiful. Look at these floors. You are really living. Got one,” I said as I laughed and took off my sunglasses.

  “I see you still silly. Come in and have a seat. You lost a lot of weight fast.”

  I sat down and took Asia out of her car seat. “How did I lose all my weight so fast? A man diet. I don’t look like I just pushed out a baby. That’s why I know DeCarious was stupid for cheating on me. Only thing is look at all these stretch marks,” I said, lifting my shirt.

  “Ew,” she said as she got a good look at my scarred stomach.

  “Right, I’m going to have to get some surgery. I can’t take DeCarious; he is on some bullshit. His head is blown and I’m not for that shit. I got a lawyer that is going to stick it to his ass nice and hard.”

  “You should just take that six thousand.”

  “Please,” I said as I pushed my hair off my neck. “So, where Kevin at?”

  “Out at the gym.”

  “You are so lucky. Like he really dig you and y’all are on the same wavelength. When the season starts back up, I want you to put me down with one of his teammates.

  “I’ll see, but I think most of them are married or have girlfriends.”

  “That never stopped us before, right? We was having fun. All that led to all this. So, anyway let’s go hang out.”

  “Go out where? I don’t have time for that; plus, I’m showing.”

  “Not like that, we can go out and get something to eat.”

  “I can’t, I’m a homebody now. Adrienne, I’m trying not to mess up my relationship with Kevin.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said as I gathered Asia’s stuff. I resented the way Tanisha was talking like she wasn’t in the same position as me. We both started this journey together. Now she was trying to come at me like she didn’t plot on Kevin too!

  Chapter 66

  Tanisha

  In the middle of the night out of nowhere, I felt pain in my side and back. I sat up, massaged the cramp, and tried to lie back down. The baby wasn’t due for another month. As I stretched back out on my back, I felt a clear liquid that I couldn’t control drip down my leg. I was thirty-six weeks pregnant, and I knew it was time. I could feel the contractions coming steadily. I woke Kevin.

  “I think I’m about to have the baby,” I said.

  “Okay,” he said as he shot up and put on his jeans and shirt.

  He helped me up out of the bed. I wobbled to the bathroom. He walked in.

  “Kevin, I don’t think I can get up. I feel pressure like the baby’s about to come.” My stomach was tight and then it was over, but I knew another contraction would be coming soon.

  “Call the doctor,” I said. Kevin picked up the telephone and the doctor’s answering service came on.

  “Let’s just get to the hospital,” Kevin said as he helped me dress.

  We just made it to Lankenau Hospital when Jarell Andre Wallace said hello to the world at two forty-five AM. His head was partially out by the time we reached labor and delivery. I pushed two times and heard his first little cry. He weighed six pounds, three ounces and was twenty-seven inches long. Kevin didn’t get to film the delivery like he wanted, but he was so happy. He kept kissing and hugging me and the baby, telling us how much he loved us. I called home to tell Alexis and Jamil so they could come up to the hospital in the morning. Kevin called his mother and sister.

  I had my own private room, and luckily so, because it was filled with flowers and cards and teddy bears. Kevin was still on his cell phone telling people who Jarell looked like and snapping pictures of him. I was feeling a little sore, but for the most part I was okay. Kevin’s mother and sister were on their way up from Virginia, and a few friends had already stopped by.

  Chapter 67

  Dionne

  My phone alerted me that I had a text message. I knew it was some motivational nonsense Camille was sending me to keep my spirits up. No one ever texted me except for her and Kevin. I opened the text, and it was from Kevin. I put the phone up against my chest and prayed good news, good news. He must want to talk to me. The message read:

  TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY, PLEASE JOIN ME IN WELCOMING MY SON. JARELL ANDRE WALLACE WAS BORN TODAY, 6 LBS. 3 OZ.

  There was a picture attached. I scrolled down and saw Kevin holding a baby smiling, looking into the camera.

  Yeah, right, I know he didn’t have his baby. I had to call him just once more.

  “Hello, who is this?” Kevin asked. There was a bunch of noise in the background.

  “This is Dionne. Yeah, so your son was born. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks, I’m going to send you some more pictures of him.”

  “Okay, I’ll be looking for them. That’s good. Well, congratulations. I have to go.” I called him back a few moments later. I was trying to hold in how angry I was. How unfair it was for him to do this to me. I wanted to move on and be the nice good ex-girlfriend, but something inside wouldn’t let that happen. I had to say something.

  “Kevin, how could you?” I yelled in the phone.

  “How could I what?”

  “Have a baby on me.”

  “Dionne, you are crazy. That’s why we are not together.”

  “You left her for me.”

  “Dionne, you were about to get married first. I didn’t leave you for her. You left me, remember? Listen, I don’t have time for this right now. I’m hanging up.”

 
; Kevin hung up on me, and when I called back he didn’t answer. I started whimpering at my desk. I took a half day and went home and just cried and cried. I called Camille and just cried, “I feel sad, Camille. I feel real sad. I don’t feel like myself. Like I don’t know anymore. I can’t let it go. Why can’t he see how good I am? I’m beautiful and smart, and I’m the one for him.”

  “Because he is an asshole and you have somebody ten times better than Kevin. Terrance loves you. Dee, you are beautiful, smart, and talented. You can have anyone you want. You are a brilliant attorney. You have to move on and stop giving that man your energy. You just got Terrance back. Don’t mess it up for Kevin.”

  “But I want to be with Kevin. I miss him.”

  “No, you don’t. Remember, we talked about this? Now, where are you? Dee, you get one life; don’t waste it on him. That’s it. Think about it. Let it go, it’s over. You are losing your mind. Go take a shower and relax, okay?” Camille said.

  I listened to my sister’s words, but the more she spoke, the less I cared.

  I feel myself feeling sad again. Nobody understands that I love him. He was my first love. All this pressure, it is real. He had a fucking baby! How could he do that to me? How could he do me so wrong? I’m sitting here in the dark crying. I don’t feel all right. I want him to feel pain. I want him to hurt. I had different scenarios come to mind. What I could do, what I should do.

  I want him to die. I should pay somebody to kill him. His dumb ass picked this bitch over me. I am a total package. I feel like calling the cops and making something up so he can go to jail for a long time. I saw the news and it was a guy that looked like him. I should call the cops and say it is definitely him, and tell them that he is armed and dangerous so that they can storm his house and he can go to jail for a very long time and he won’t be with her.