“The second you step out, or I feel like you doing some shady shit, I swear I’ll kill you,” she told me, and I laughed.
“I’ll even give you my gun. Make it easier for you,” I joked.
“You laughing when I’m dead ass serious. Now that we’re giving this a try, and I know that we’ll be having sex, I’m going to get on birth control. I’ll try the depo shot since we both see that I can be real forgetful when it comes to taking my pills. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to pin all these babies on you,” she said.
“Don’t pump that shit in your body if it ain’t what you want to do. Don’t do that shit for me because I’ll strap up,” I said and lifted her in my arms.
She laughed while shaking her head.
“You say you’ll strap up now, but come two in the morning, and we want a quickie, you really think you’re going to get up for a condom? No. I’m getting on something, and I’m doing it fast. As beautiful as Tegan is, I can hold off right now on another one. Mommy gotta work, and I can’t do that, toting around a big belly. I just got back in the studio after months,” she told me, and I nodded in agreement.
“Ohhh, my Goddd. Look at the little babies. You would think that I would get used to seeing all these little babies coming in here every day, but I don’t. They get cuter and cuter each day. Hi. How are you, handsome? And now look at you. Oh God, I can’t with these little Gucci sandals,” I cooed as I walked into my last appointment for the evening, which was a set of twins, one boy, and one girl.
They were new patients, and after looking at their charts, I saw that they both were six months old. The mother was with them, and she was holding her sleeping son in her arms. I could see why the kids were so adorable because the mother was gorgeous. I read on the charts that her name was Askiya. She was in work clothes, which was a pink collared shirt, and the top of the shirt read, Sky’s Photography, so I assumed she had her own photography business.
I’d been in the office since 5:30 this morning, and it was a little bit after five in the evening. As tired as I was, those little patients were keeping me up and on my toes. I wouldn’t have the pleasure today of going straight home after work. My mom was meeting with her husband about the divorce, and she wanted my sister and me there for support.
This battle had been so hard on her. I couldn’t wait to go because I would speak up and say the things that my mom and my sister would be too scared to say. That man thought he could just say whatever he wanted to people, but I wouldn’t sit there today and allow him to disrespect my mother, and I say nothing about it.
“You want to babysit them? Girl, these kids keep me up all hours of the night. Well, it’s really my son. My baby girl is the cool one. She gets that laid-back demeanor from her father, and my baby boy gets that clinginess from me. Their father has to meet me here because he was on the other side of town, handling business. One of my clients bragged to me that you were the best doctor in Miami, so I decided to bring my kids here. I was looking for a different pediatrician for them anyway. The one we were going to before would have us waiting for hours. I sat in the waiting area just now for five minutes tops,” she told me, making me smile at her words.
I thanked her and then picked up her daughter, who was asleep in the car seat. This mom obviously had her hands full, so I was happy to help. Plus, my baby fever was through the roof, so I didn’t mind holding this gorgeous little girl in my arms anyway.
“What are you having?” Askiya asked when I laid little Jhaskiya down on the bed, so I could check her vitals.
“A baby girl. My fingers were crossed for a boy, but I’ll just take my daughter now, and then I’ll get my son right after,” I told her, and she laughed.
“Just like me. I wanted a boy because I have a daughter already. She’ll be here in a minute with my husband. She’s starting summer camp next week, so I’ll be back to see you then for her camp physical. Anyway, like I was saying, I wanted a boy, but God ended up giving me three. I found out that I was pregnant with triplets. Two girls and one boy,” she said, and then she got a faraway look in her eyes.
I immediately stopped what I was doing because I wondered what could have happened to her third baby. From the sadness in her eyes, I could tell it was still so painful for her to talk about.
“I lost the other one during labor. God, it still hurts me, but I’m slowly but surely getting over it. Besides, it’s a good thing that I didn’t lose them all. What’s your sign? I’m literally sitting here, clicking with you, and telling you my business. Girl, anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m secretive as hell when it comes to my business. Your aura is just amazing,” she said, and I smiled.
“I’m a Taurus. What’s yours?” I asked.
“I’m a Cancer. It now makes sense. My husband is a Taurus, and we are compatible as hell,” she said.
I was about to respond, but there was a knock at the door, and then it opened. A beautiful little girl, who looked to have been Khari’s age walked in, and a handsome man with beautiful dreads came in behind her. He had to have been her husband because this man looked just like the twins. Then, the little girl looked so much like her mother that it was scary.
“I heard you running your mouth all the way from outside the door, with yo’ friendly ass,” he joked, making both of us laugh.
“Huncho, hush! That’s Doctor Knox. The kids’ new doctor. I like her,” Askiya said.
He looked over at me and smiled. “I saw your picture online when I googled the office, and I kept saying that you looked familiar. I got it now. You Billion’s wife, ain’t it?” he asked.
God, his whole vibe reminded me of my husband’s. I think it was the way he talked. That Miami, southern drawl.
“Yes. Are the two of you friends?” I asked.
“We went to school together. That’s my nigga right there. Congrats on the marriage and the baby. I need to chop it up with my nigga Billion. I ain’t seen him in years, but he was locked up for a little minute, so that’s why we ain’t chop it up like that. So, what’s up? You going to say that my son is too chubby? Lil ass drinks titty milk all fuckin’ day. I want to make sure my wife ain’t overdoing it with the breast milk because I don’t want him to be getting all the milk, and my daughter don’t get nothing,” Huncho said, dead serious as he took their handsome son out of his wife’s arms.
Askiya rolled her eyes and shook her head, so I assumed this was a conversation they probably had daily.
“Little Jhaskiya here is 16.1 pounds, which is right where she is supposed to be. She isn’t underweight. She is good and healthy. Let me see Junior. I know he is off the charts, but that’s good. Don’t encourage your wife to stop breastfeeding them. This is the best type of milk for them. It helps the babies fight off different viruses and bacteria,” I said as I removed the clothes from his son.
He was lying on his back, with a head filled with curly hair as he looked up at me and cooed. I could already tell he would be something else in the future. I checked his weight, and he was 18.2.
“Tell the doctor how you be making Lil Huncho sleep in the bed with us. Doc, I keep telling Sky that shit ain’t good to be co-sleeping, but she be doing the shit anyway. Sometimes, I walk into the room, and she’ll be sleeping, with him on her chest, sleeping too. I love my kids to death, but I ain’t trying to have them sleeping in the bed with me at thirteen years old, so what we do right now will determine how our kids are going to be in the future. Ain’t it, Doc?” Huncho asked.
“Is that why you wanted to come to the doctor with me so bad? So you could just stand up here and tell on me? Dr. Knox, I know I’m not supposed to co-sleep with them, but I only do it on nights when I’m really tired. I’m working on it,” Askiya told me.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to laugh, but these two made me feel like I was watching a comedy show, so I was cracking up laughing. It was Huncho coming down there and snitching on his wife like she would get in trouble or something. It’s like he couldn’t wait to tell i
t all.
“Your husband is right in terms of the kids sleeping with you now. It will make it so hard for them to get out of the bed with you once they get a little older. I say this to all my mothers since this can increase the risk of SIDS. What I do recommend is using the bassinet and putting it right next to your bed. That way, it can kind of feel like they are still in bed with you. What else, Dad? Anything else that you need to snitch on your wife about?” I asked, making them both laugh.
“Nah, I think that’s it for now, Doc. Bae, tell her about your business. Doc, if you looking for somebody to take your maternity pictures, my wife does her thing when it comes to that. Best in the city. Nah, best in the fuckin’ world,” Huncho said, bragging on his wife… as he should!
Askiya reached in her purse and grabbed her phone. While she did that, I finished with the twins and jotted different things about them on their personal charts. I also got the immunizations ready for the nurse to come in and administer. Once I was finished, Askiya handed me her phone and told me to go through the album and look at some of the maternity pictures that she’d taken.
My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw how beautiful her work was. The underwater shoot she did is what had me in awe. There were different shoots with ponies, bathtub pictures, outdoor pictures, and I fell in love with each of them.
“Oh, my God! Girl, you are good. I wanted to take them a little after I turn eight months because I wanted my stomach to be a little bigger,” I told her.
“I’m going to give you my personal phone number. We gotta hang outside of your work hours. I like you,” Askiya told me.
“Bruh, you just fuckin’ friendly, that’s all,” Huncho said, making me laugh again.
I was supposed to have left a while ago, but I stayed with them for an extra ten minutes. It didn’t even feel like I was at work. I felt like I was around family, just hanging. I wasn’t deep into signs like Askiya was, but something had to have been right about what she said regarding our signs clicking because we were chopping it up like I had known her my entire life. I had never done this before with any of my patients’ parents because it was usually just business with us. I felt like I was around my sister, just having fun.
I wouldn’t mind forming some kind of friendship with Askiya because Twinkle was in fiancée mode right now in LA with Truth, and I hadn’t seen her since our gender reveal. She would be in Miami in a few weeks, though, because Truth had a game. We talked on the phone every day about all things that we would do when she touched down.
A little over an hour later, I finally pulled my car into the parking lot for one of the law firms that was handling my mother’s divorce. I was running behind, but only by like five minutes. My mom had already texted to let me know that everyone was there, and they were just waiting for me. I pulled my Tesla into a parking spot toward the front and stepped out, heels clicking as soon as they touched the pavement.
It was Friday, and on Fridays, I dressed down at the office. Today, I wore a brown and black Fendi shirt, and I paired it with skinny jeans. I wore heels most days at the office, but again, because I dressed down on Fridays, I paired my cute outfit with brown Fendi sneakers. Because the clothes from Fendi ran a little big, I still got my usual XS size in shirt, and I didn’t have to worry about it tugging around my stomach area, which was honestly getting bigger by the day.
I laughed, thinking about how my stomach was literally the biggest thing on my entire body. My Fendi purse was on my shoulders, and all day, I’d had my curly hair just hanging loosely. But when I got in the car after work, I pulled it up into a bun.
God, I hoped this went well. I had such a good day at work, although it was exhausting, and I didn’t need my mother’s husband starting up his mess and forcing me to go toe to toe with him. As I walked to the building, I texted my husband to let him know that I had arrived, and I would be home in a couple of hours.
Billion and I had made up, which was good because I hated being in the doghouse with him, although he had only kept me there for a few hours. Ladies, I’m not saying that head will make your man forgive you, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a good incentive. A week had passed since I topped him off, and he was still talking about how good my skills were.
I made it inside the office building and let the receptionist know why I was there, and she gladly came around and led me to the room where my family was. I walked inside, and it hit me that this was real; my parents were on opposite sides of the table. For so long, they had always sat beside each other. My father sat on his side with his lawyer, while my mother sat across from him with her lawyer, and Naomi on her other side.
The second I walked in, I heard the loud, annoyed breath that my father blew out.
“I just don’t understand why this is necessary. Me and you are getting a divorce. For goodness sake, is this a celebration for you? Why do you have to have guests?” I heard him ask.
I bet when Naomi came in, he didn’t have a damn thing to say about my mother bringing her, but the second I graced the room with my presence, it was suddenly a damn problem. Since this was about my mother and her finally getting her freedom, I wouldn’t respond to his ignorant comment because it was what he wanted me to do anyway.
“This actually is a celebration for me. I’m walking away from pure evil. By the way, these aren’t guests, Davidson. These are our children. The past few times that you and I have met up to resolve this, the things you requested for this divorce, and the things you were trying to strip away from me were absolutely crazy. So, I told the girls to come for moral support,” my mom said.
I spoke to her lawyer and his, and I gave both my mother and my sister a hug before taking a seat right next to my sister. The session started, and while they were talking, I went into my purse and pulled out a water bottle because my mouth was super dry.
“Okay, so the last meeting, we really didn’t leave on a good note, and that’s because my client wasn’t satisfied with the way that this divorce would be finalized. My client signed a prenup and was made aware that if the two of them ever parted ways, Pastor Davidson would be legally entitled to keep everything, but we need to come to a better understanding because some of the things that your client is asking for are a bit extreme. Her clothes… her shoes… her jewelry… even the new Mercedes Benz that was just purchased for my client on her birthday are all things that shouldn’t have to be taken away. It’s petty at this point. What else does he plan to strip from her? Her life?” my mother’s lawyer asked his lawyer.
I was biting my tongue, trying to keep quiet, but I couldn’t. Before anyone could say anything, I sat up in my chair and looked over at my mother.
“Ma, really? We can go shopping this weekend, and I can buy you anything you want! Mercedes doesn’t close until nine. It’s five minutes after seven right now. Sign your name on the dotted line, and I can buy you any car off the lot right now that you want! C’mon, ma,” I pleaded, pissed that my mother even had to beg to keep things that he knew damn well belonged to her. This man was so petty that it disgusted me.
“Nobody wants you to buy them anything with your husband’s drug money,” my father said.
“Hush, before I call him over here and have him beat you up! If memory serves me correctly, my husband told you to keep quiet when I come around! Please, please don’t say anything to me, because pregnant and all, it’s taking everything out of me not to fly across this table and smack you for stooping so low and trying to have my husband killed! You’re lucky that you aren’t in jail because that’s the route I wanted for you, but I was told by my husband to chill because he would rather see you lose it all, while you have your freedom as opposed to losing it all behind bars.
“You’re a hateful person, and we all know that the only reason you want to keep my mama’s clothes, jewelry, and the car is so you can exchange it for money. I tuned in to your little church service on Sunday, and for a second, I thought I was on the wrong website. I counted a good twenty people, and that
included you and the ten deacons you have. For someone less than an inch from losing it all, you still have a way of letting that evil seep right out of you,” I said.
As I talked, my sister had her hand on my thigh, squeezing it and trying to get me to stop before I took it too far. I eventually chilled, and that was only so we could hurry up and get to the part where my mother finally signed her name and parted ways from this fool.
“Normani, sweetheart, I get what you’re saying, baby. With my savings, I can buy myself anything I want right now as well, but this is all about principle. I’ve stayed with this man for years, accepted things that any sane woman would have walked away from years ago, but I didn’t. If I don’t leave this marriage with anything, at least allow me to leave with the clothes that I used to wear on my back, my jewelry, and a car that was given to me as a gift. What do you get out of holding onto those things?” my mother asked.
We all looked at my father, awaiting his response. When he sucked his teeth, I already knew that he was on the verge of saying something foolish.
“Woman, you have been screaming this same song and dance for months! If you wanted to leave so bad, well, why the hell didn’t you? Did I hold you hostage? What did I do to you that was so bad? What made you finally decide that you’d reached your breaking point and that you were ready to leave me? Please! I am dying to hear this!” he spat.
“Pastor Davidson, please calm down,” his lawyer said to him.
“Would you really want me to answer that right here? Right here in front of your kids?” my mom asked, and I could hear the pain behind that question.
I couldn’t help but wonder what she could be talking about, and judging by the look on my sister’s face, I knew she wanted to know too. My father gave my mother a look, as if he was challenging her, like whatever it was, she wouldn’t say it in front of us.
“You ask me when I reached my breaking point, and I’m just sitting here, trying to figure out exactly what time I should refer to. Then, you want to make yourself look like you are not sick in the head and try to say that you didn’t hold me hostage, but how many times was my foot almost out of the door, and you would threaten to kill yourself if I left? How many times was I ready to leave, but you have a way of making me feel guilty, telling me that I would be leaving you, just like your parents left you? Davidson, if I were you, I would watch your tone, because I’m sparing you for the sake of your kids,” she spat.
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