“Son, first, let me apologize to you for the way you found out about your brother, Quinton,” she said. She paused for a moment, as she was already getting emotional. “You shouldn’t have had to find out this way. After I reconnected with him, I promised myself that I was going to sit you down and tell you. Each and every time I came close to telling you, I lost my nerve. You see, I wasn’t ready for you to hate me.”
She gave a long sigh, then went on. “Your father begged me to tell you, but I kept telling him I wasn’t ready. So don’t blame him for you not knowing sooner. Your father and I made a selfish decision, though it didn’t seem selfish at the time. We have lived with that guilt every day, and it destroyed our marriage. I turned to the church for support, and he sought comfort in other women.”
She took a deep breath before continuing. “Qua, I need you to believe me when I say that giving up Quinton was one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make. The second hardest thing was looking in his eyes and explaining how I had selfishly given him up, when, in reality, I should have sought help. I could have got government assistance or family support, and I sought neither. And for that, I’m sorry.” She began crying.
“Anita, I’ve been telling you for years to stop beating yourself up. We were young, and your family, as well as mine, turned their backs on our relationship, and no one stepped in to offer us any assistance. We now have to focus on forgiveness and make up for all the years we lost at being a family. We have a blended family now, and we could start with getting together during holidays,” my dad offered, but he knew good and well his wife wasn’t going to blend into the shit we had going on.
I got up to give my mom a hug and to let her know that I was sorry for the way I had disrespected her and that I had forgiven her. I also told her that I would have never looked at her differently if she had just told me the truth, because I loved her unconditionally. This made her cry harder. After she thanked me, kissed me all over my face, and thanked Jesus, like, five times, we sat around talking until it was time for my dad to fly out. Quinton and his wife were going to stay with my mom, and I was driving home to be with Jakiyah. Before I left, I promised my mom that Jakiyah and I would come visit when Jakiyah was feeling better, And Quinton and I exchanged numbers and promised each other we would keep in touch.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jakiyah
I had been back at work for about a week, and my patient’s wife was so happy to have me back. She said that the replacement aide had been lazy, and when she’d gone on errands, she wouldn’t return in a timely manner, the way I always had. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why some of these aides took this kind of job if they could care less about the patients. I would never mistreat or take advantage of any patient. And, God forbid, if my parents needed an aide, and one of them mistreated my mom or dad.
I had been off work for a good hour now and had stopped by the nail salon. When I was leaving, I ran into Keem. I didn’t stop to have a conversation, but I was polite and spoke to him but kept it moving. I didn’t care to hear him tell me how he was doing, nor did I care about Yessenia and how she was doing, so there really was no need to stop and attempt a conversation with him.
I already knew that she had pleaded out to fifteen to life, with the possibility of parole after she served the fifteen years. I didn’t agree with her sentence, because she had a possibility of living her life again, and my sister didn’t. The only thing that I was pleased about was that she had taken the plea and saved my family from the stress of a trial. My sister could rest in peace now that her killer was behind bars. She killed my sister, and baby Andrea didn’t even belong to Keem.
I was happy today was Friday, because I was having a get-together at my house tomorrow. I hadn’t done anything since the accident, and I was ready to unwind. It was just going to be me, Qua, Ty, Chanel, German, and some chick Chanel had hooked German up with. Yes, German was invited, and I know what you were thinking. I could admit that I had had a slipup when it came to him, but I had promised it would never happen again, and I meant it. German was a part of Ty’s life, as well as mine. He and I had always been friends before anything. My man trusted me and my word, so he wasn’t threatened anymore by German’s presence.
I had to say that Ty and I always used to get upset when my mother spoke about forgiveness, because we just didn’t understand. However, recently, she had preached that forgiveness didn’t excuse a person’s bad behavior, but it did stop that behavior from preventing us from trusting again. She had also said that once you let go and let God, the healing process began. As a result of her explanation, Ty and I had started attending church with her every other Sunday. But she made no demands on us, acknowledging that this was a start.
Baby Andrea was starting to walk and was saying a lot of words, but every time she called my mother or me Mama, it broke my heart. One thing was for sure, though: she had a lot of love surrounding her. And we made sure she knew who her mother was by talking about her and showing her pictures. Even if she didn’t understand right now, she would when she was older, and her mother’s spirit would always live through us.
I almost forgot.... If anyone cared about what happened to Tamia, she would be spending the rest of her days in a state mental hospital. I had always known something was wrong with her, but I had never known she had a documented mental illness. I still thought she had got off too easy for taking someone’s life, even if it was Andris’s life that she took. I decided to live by the words of the famous physicist Albert Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Jakiyah
One year later . . .
I was in a good mood today. I was excited about the road trip that we were taking this weekend with our friends to the house of Qua’s mom and her husband in Vermont. They were having a big barbecue celebration for the Fourth of July, and I couldn’t wait to get away, because work had been stressful. I hated to complain about work, but the family of this new patient that I had had for the past six months had been taking my ass through the ringer. Her grown-ass children still lived at home and did absolutely nothing for her but cause her stress with their dysfunctional relationships and lack of paying their way. There was always something going on, and as much as I felt sorry for her, I had had to complain to the agency that my life was in jeopardy while working at her home. I was praying that by the time I got back from this mini vacation, I would have a new case. I refused to go back to that situation.
“Hey, babe, what are you doing up so early?” Qua asked me, rubbing my protruding belly.
“Just making something to eat before we head out,” I told him, then kissed him good morning.
“Aw, my babe really does love me?” he teased.
“You have to know that I love you, because if I didn’t, I would not be carrying all this extra weight around,” I said seriously as I went back to finishing up my breakfast preparations.
It had been a year since all the craziness in my life began, and Qua and I had been living together for about six months, ever since the night he proposed to me. The night he proposed to me, I was already pregnant, but he didn’t know it. He surprised me with the proposal in front of all our family and friends at what I thought was baby Andrea’s birthday party. So I got him back by revealing that I was pregnant. When he heard that, he was crazy like a damn baby, because he was so happy. Ty and German would not let him live it down, and they clowned him the entire night. He wanted us to get married before the baby was born, which meant we had only a month or two to make it happen. It really could be done, but I just didn’t know if I wanted to get married while I was pregnant. So I had told him I would rather the baby take his name first, and then I’d take his name after the baby was born.
“Babe, you don’t hear me talking to you?” he asked me, snapping me out of my daze.
“No. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you. I was thinking about the night you
proposed to me and you crying like a baby when I told you that I was pregnant.” I laughed.
“Ha-ha. Not funny. I remember that you were crying too,” he said, grabbing me around my waist, as much as my belly would allow, and kissing me on my neck.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s eat,” I told him. I moved out of his grip, then brushed past him to fix our plates. He gave me a helping hand.
After we finished eating breakfast, I headed upstairs to finish packing before taking a shower and getting ready to go. We were picking up the others from my parents’ house because I wanted to see baby Andrea and my parents before I left for the weekend. Qua and I were both ready about an hour later, so I wobbled my behind to the rental, while Qua stayed back to get the bags and lock up. I called Ty to let him know that we were on our way and to find out if German and his girlfriend, Desirae, had gotten to the house yet. Ty said they had just got finished arguing, but they were there. I had to shake my head, as they had been together for, like, eight months now and that was all they did. Their quarreling made me hate to hang out with them most times.
“Everybody ready?” Qua asked me once he was in the car.
“Yeah. Ty said that they were. And he said that German and Desi was on that arguing shit again.” I laughed.
“I’m telling you, if they start that shit, I’m putting both of their asses on the side of the road, and I’m not playing,” he said seriously.
I laughed as I laid my head back against the headrest. I enjoyed the ride to my parents’ house in silence, rubbing my baby bump. When we pulled up in front of the house, German and Desi were out front, having a heated argument. I jumped out of the SUV and told both of them that they needed to cut that shit out in front of my parents’ house.
“Nah, we not having that shit, because we all about to be traveling together, and I’m not trying to hear no damn arguing all the way,” Qua told them.
“Whatever the argument is about, you two can squash it or catch us on the next trip,” I added as I walked inside, with Qua behind me.
“Why you got German and Desi out front, disrespecting the house with that bullshit?” I asked Ty, slapping him on the back of the head.
“Yo, chill. I just kicked both of them out of here, with that bullshit,” he said.
“Boy, you better watch your mouth,” my mom said to him as she walked into the living room with my li’l stinka.
“Hey, auntie baby,” I said. I picked her up and kissed her all over her face, causing her to laugh.
“Babe, I told you about bending down and lifting her up like that,” Qua fussed.
I paid him no mind, because if it hurt me to pick her up, I wouldn’t be picking her up, but I wasn’t going to say anything. I didn’t want to be arguing with him after I had just told German and his girl that we weren’t going to be having no arguing.
“Mom, we’re about to head out. Are you going to be good with baby Andrea for the whole weekend?” I asked her.
“Girl, please. I have her every day during the week, so what’s the difference because it’s the weekend? Get your brother, Chanel, Qua, and the fighting duo, and get out of my darn house,” she said, laughing. But she was serious, so we headed out.
Chapter Forty
Qua
The barbecue wasn’t until tomorrow, so before going to the hotel, we decided to stop by my mother’s house, just to let her know that we had made it and to say hello. I also wanted to know if she needed any help with anything or needed me to run errands for her before I went and got comfortable at the hotel. As soon as my mother’s door opened and I saw that it was Savannah who had answered it, wearing a pair of booty shorts and a tank top, I regretted stopping by.
Jakiyah already felt that Savannah wanted me; she’d stated that she could tell when a female wanted her man. I’d been constantly telling her that we were family. I grabbed her hand to calm her, because I could tell that she wanted to say something. It didn’t help that Desi had just popped German in the back of the head for staring. I couldn’t even say that what Savannah had on was inappropriate. After all, it was summer and today was a hot day. And in her defense, she didn’t know that we would be stopping by today, so it was not like she had dressed this way because she knew that we were coming.
“Hey, Mom.” After I greeted her, I introduced her to everyone, being that she didn’t know Ty, Chanel, German, and Desi as she hadn’t been at the engagement party.
“Hi, everyone. I’m Savannah,” Savannah said sarcastically when I didn’t introduce her.
“My bad,” I responded, getting a roll of the eyes from Jakiyah.
“Mom, we just stopped by to see if you need help with anything before we head to the hotel,” I said, ignoring Jakiyah and her little attitude.
“You guys don’t have to stay at the hotel. We have plenty of room here. And, Jakiyah, are you sure you’re going to be comfortable sleeping in those hotel beds?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be fine. And next time we’ll stay with you,” she promised.
“Qua, I don’t need any help here at the house. Savannah has been a big help, and Donavon is out picking up some things for tomorrow,” my mom said.
“Okay. So I guess we will see Donovan tomorrow, because we’re about to head out. It was a long drive, so we’re going to go to the hotel and chill,” I told her, hugging her.
“Okay. I wish you guys could stay longer, but I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow,” she said, walking us to the door.
After we had got to the hotel and everyone had separated and gone to their rooms, I noticed that Jakiyah still had an attitude.
“What’s wrong, babe?” I asked as soon as we got inside the room.
“You didn’t tell me that she would be here,” she said with attitude.
“Come on, babe. Don’t go stressing yourself with bullshit,” I told her.
“And it’s bullshit because . . . ?” she sassed.
“Jakiyah, this is a family barbecue for the Fourth of July. And being that she’s family, why wouldn’t she be here?” I said, getting upset. She was acting like I had some control over my mother and her husband’s guest list.
“Whatever,” she said, grabbing her bag. She went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
I swear, I wasn’t in the mood to go through this Savannah bullshit with her again. I was tired of stressing to her that Savannah was family and that was how I looked at her. I might have been caught off guard when I first met her, and I might have stared a little longer than Jakiyah had liked, but since then I had given Jakiyah no reason to think that I would even go there.
I hit Ty up to let him know his sister was tripping, and he thought the shit was funny, talked about how, as soon as he saw the chick, he put his eyes to the floor. This caused me to burst out laughing. I let him know that we would meet them downstairs, by the pool area, before I ended the call.
“Jakiyah, do you still want to go down to the pool?” I asked her through the bathroom door.
No response, so I moved away from the door and waited for her to exit the bathroom so that I could take a quick shower. She came wobbling out of the bathroom, like, twenty minutes later, wearing a sexy two-piece bathing suit with a sheer cover-up. She was looking sexy as fuck with her big belly and all, but I was going to play her game. I discreetly looked out the corner of my eye, not letting her know my ass was turned on. I walked by her like I hadn’t noticed all the sexiness she had going on, and she didn’t like it. I watched as she rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth before I closed the bathroom door. I came back out of the bathroom, wearing only my trunks and my Adidas slides, with no shirt on. I showed off my toned body as I strolled around the room like I was modeling, all the while smirking at her. This caused her to smile, and I walked over to her.
“You play too much move,” she said, pushing me.
“Nah, I’m not playing, babe. I need you to know that all of this belongs to you, so you should have no worries. I love you. That’s why I asked you to marry me and
planted my seed,” I said, rubbing her belly.
“I love you too, and I’m sorry, but I just don’t like that girl,” she admitted.
“Trust that you don’t have to worry about her, or any other female, for that matter,” I told her before kissing her.
Fifteen minutes later, everyone but Jakiyah was in the pool, clowning. Jakiyah sat on a chair, with her feet up, looking cute and causing me to lose my focus from time to time on the water volleyball game we were playing.
“Come on, man! You playing or what?” German barked after I missed a hit, letting the ball fall in the water.
We fooled around in the pool for another hour, before deciding to go change and go out to get something to eat. Jakiyah was tired, so she didn’t want to go and was going to take a nap, but she told me to bring her something back. I kissed her on the lips before heading out the door.
Chapter Forty-One
Jakiyah
When I woke up this morning, I was not feeling well, but I wasn’t about to let Qua be around Savannah’s ass without me being there. I knew she was up to no good. Qua could act as if he didn’t see it, but trust me when I say, “A woman knows.” And I knew she was feeling him and was not looking at him like he was family.
“Babe, Mom needs help setting up the backyard, so me, Ty, and German is going to head over there to give her a hand,” Qua said. He’d just come out of the hotel bathroom and was fully dressed.
I didn’t answer him right away, because this was the bullshit I’d been talking about. And don’t get me wrong, because I didn’t have a problem with him helping his mom. He had clearly asked her yesterday if she needed help with anything, and she had stated that she didn’t. Therefore, I could bet money that bitch had sent for my man. I promise you, six months pregnant and all that, bitch didn’t want to take me there by pushing up on my man, because it was going to be her ass.
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