“He said you were leaving with him.”
“That’s what he wants, but I told him no.”
“I told him we’re married and about the baby.”
I shrugged as I reached up to rub the back of my throbbing head. “He needed to know. I just wish I’d been the one to tell him. I wish I’d told him about…everything. Maybe that would’ve softened the blow.”
“I don’t think anything could’ve softened the blow for him if he likes to have control over you and your life, and from what I can see, he does. So, is this why you were afraid for him to know about us, why you wanted us to be a secret? You were afraid he’d hurt you?”
I shook my head. “I was more afraid of the consequences of someone finding out if he hurt me. Something like this could end his career, and that would kill him.”
Leland stared at me, had this look on his face like he wanted to respond to that but wasn’t sure if he should.
“I know that sounds crazy, but first and foremost, I’m his mother. I know it’s wrong for him to hurt me, but I still want to protect him. And you know he didn’t mean to hurt me tonight, right? That’s how it usually goes. He loses control and I get hurt. It’s rarely intentional.”
“I understand all that. I really do. But he won’t be hurting you again. I guarantee that, Kim, and he damn sure won’t be hurting my baby.”
I nodded, knowing there was no sense in arguing with him and believing he would walk through hell to protect me and our child. “Did you call the police?”
“No, but I should’ve. Hell, the nurses have been looking at me sideways like I did this to you.”
I frowned. “What?! Did you tell them that’s not true?”
“Yeah, I lied, told them I came home and found you like this, but they’ll still want to talk to you.”
“I’ll tell them I was feeling light-headed and fell. I’m pregnant, so it’s plausible.”
“You really need to be truthful, baby. I think maybe part of the problem with your son is he hasn’t had to deal with the consequences of his actions because you feel so guilty about everything. But baby, you don’t deserve to be hurt by him or anyone else.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “I know.”
“Hey, I’m here no matter what. I just want what’s best for you, okay?”
I finally let my tears fall as I said, “Okay.”
*****
Leland had a meeting about some restaurant he was considering buying the next morning, but I had to make him leave me. He wanted to stay, to watch me, make sure I was okay, and it took repeated reassurances that there was nothing he could do for me to convince him to leave. After all, I was well-versed in concussions and knew what to do—rest and take a Tylenol if I needed to, but I probably wouldn’t, because I hated taking medicine when I was pregnant.
Pregnant.
I couldn’t believe I agreed to have his baby, but I wanted to, and from the moment he asked, could think of nothing else but finally having a child whose father had some common sense. I kind of obsessed about it until I told him I would do it right before Thanksgiving when he was getting ready to leave for New York. He damn near crushed me to death after hearing the news, and I stopped taking the pill the next day. His young-ass sperm evidently hit the target a week later. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until right before we left for Mexico which was when I told Leland, and now, I was a little more than five weeks along, another reason he didn’t want to leave me. But I reminded him that this wasn’t my first journey down that path, either, and reassured him that Armand wouldn’t be coming around anytime soon. Like I said, he couldn’t deal with stuff like this.
Finally, he left, giving me explicit instructions not to go to work. Hell, I couldn’t even if I wanted to with the way I was feeling.
Around eight that morning, shortly after he’d left, I called King’s Dream, plugged in Peaches’ extension, and after her usual lackluster, “King’s Dream Community Center, Peaches speaking,” I said, “Good morning, Peaches. This is Ms. Kim.”
“Oh, good morning,” she said stiffly. Peaches was…Peaches, so I didn’t let the tone of her voice bother me.
“Hey, I won’t be in today. I had a little accident last night and—”
“Elrich needs to talk to you. Hold on.”
I frowned and muttered to myself, “Okay…”
The next voice I heard was Elrich’s. “Ms. Hampton?”
Since when did he start addressing me like that? “Um, Elrich? Is something going on?”
“You could say that. Mr. Daniels asked me to let you know you’ve been terminated. Effective immediately. Peaches will pack your office up, and you can come by anytime to pick your personal items up. Do you have anything in the break room we need to collect for you?”
“Um, excuse me? What did you just say?”
“You’ve been terminated.”
“My son fired me?”
“Yes. Effective immediately.” He sounded like he was really enjoying this.
I should’ve never booty-called his ass. Ever.
“I heard that part, Elrich! What I don’t get is why? You know what? I’ll just call him.” I hung up before Elrich could reply.
I wasn’t sure if Armand would answer his phone. He could’ve still been dodging facing knocking me out or just plain busy, but after a couple of rings, I heard his, “Hello?”
“You fired me?” was how I greeted him.
“Yep. Promoted Elrich to director.”
“On what grounds? Because I married Leland McClain?!”
“No, because you screwed him in the building. That’s gross misconduct. And don’t try to deny it. Elrich showed me the footage of y’all kissing and him carrying you to your office. Doesn’t take a genius to know what happened next.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the headboard of Leland’s bed. Elrich was really a rejected piece of work. “Armand, don’t do this.”
“You did it. Oh, and I had the locks changed at your place. Didn’t figure you needed it anymore since you’re married now.”
“What?! But my things are in there!”
“Your husband can buy you some more things. But if you change your mind and leave him, come to Miami, I’ll take care of you.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this!”
“I can’t believe you married him!”
“I married him because we love each other and he is the only man besides my daddy who never put his hands on me!”
“So you’re throwing stuff in my face now?!”
“No, I’m just stating facts! You gave me a concussion and instead of checking on me or apologizing, you fire me and kick me out of my home?!”
“That was an accident and you know it!”
“But are you not concerned about how I’m doing!? I’m pregnant!”
“You must be okay if you’re on this phone yelling at me, and I don’t care about that baby! You ain’t got no business getting pregnant by him anyway!”
“Boogie! What’s wrong with you?! You’re acting like a man I dumped instead of my son!”
“Ain’t nothing wrong with me but the fact that you won’t do what I tell you. Maybe now you’ll see I’m not playing! Maybe you’ll leave him alone before he hurts you!”
“The only person hurting me is you!”
His response was to hang up on me.
A few seconds later, my mother’s number popped up on my phone. I ignored her call and slid down in the bed. I didn’t cry, couldn’t cry. I just lay there with my eyes on the ceiling.
When Leland made it home and saw me lying in bed in a ball, he climbed in with me and asked, “You and the baby okay?”
I nodded.
“You talked to your son?”
I nodded again.
“You wanna talk about it?”
I shook my head.
He reached for me and I shook my head again. “I just need to be alone,” I said.
“No, you don’t. You need me to hold yo
u. Just…let me hold you, baby.”
When he pulled me into his arms, I didn’t resist him. Instead, I closed my eyes and leaned into him, letting him rock me to sleep.
30
After I convinced her to get out of bed that afternoon and eat the pizza I’d ordered, she finally told me about her conversation with Daniels and all the shit he’d done. To be honest, I was relieved. He’d just taken himself out of the picture in a major way and made room for me to do what I’d been wanting to do all along—take care of her.
Of course she was upset about the situation, as hurt as any mother would be, but she was also pissed that he thought taking things away from her—her job, her home…hell, the nigga even had her car towed out of the condo parking lot—would make her fall in line like a kid, like he was her damn savior. I mean, if I hadn’t thought to grab her cell phone and her purse when the ambulance came, she wouldn’t have nothing but the clothes on her back and the few items she’d left at my place. What kind of shit is that? I guess the motherfucker thought I was broke or wouldn’t take care of her. Well, he had me fucked all the way up. The plan was for her to move her stuff into my place anyway since we were married, but Daniels struck before we had time to do it. It didn’t matter. She’d get to refurnish my condo if she wanted, and then I’d let her pick us a house in St. Louis and in Houston and wherever else she wanted. I had been wanting to buy her a car damn near since the first time I touched her, already had one picked out. And she could max out all my credit cards to fill up my closet. Nothing was too much for her. I even told her I’d fund a foundation that she could run, her own foundation, and thanks to her son, I didn’t have to worry about her refusing my gifts or fussing about me buying them anymore.
After we ate, I ran her some bath water, helped her climb in, and was planning to bathe her into some gentle sex—because I wasn’t trying to hurt my baby. No more pussy smacking until my little one was out of there—when my phone started ringing and wouldn’t stop. I sighed and told her I’d be right back. I would’ve let it ring, but it was always in the back of my mind that something could be going on with Aunt Ever, since she wasn’t getting any younger and was non-compliant like a motherfucker when it came to handling her high blood pressure. Turned out, it was Kat, but that didn’t ease my mind with the way her marriage was going.
I grabbed my phone from where I’d left it in the living room and sat on the couch as I answered it. “Yo!”
“The hell is going on?! You’re married?!”
With my eyes stretched wide, I replied, “Damn, can you stop yelling?”
“Can you answer me, Leland Randall?!”
“Okay, Juanita. If you don’t sound like Mama right now…”
“Leland!”
“Yeah, I’m married!”
“And she’s pregnant?!”
What the fuck? “Wait a minute, how you find all this out?”
“No, the question is: why’d you keep this from me? Me?!”
“I was gonna tell you. We were gonna tell everyone…later.”
“What kind of shit is that? I got why she wanted to keep things from her insane-ass son, but now she’s making you hide stuff from your own family? I don’t like this and I’m beginning not to like her!”
“Hold up a minute, now! She ain’t never make me do shit! You know me better than that! I do what the fuck I want when I want!”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?!”
“Dang, Kit-Kat! Look, I ain’t even bought her a ring yet. It was my idea to wait to tell folks until after she had a ring. She didn’t make the decision to keep it secret.”
“What about the baby? Why didn’t you tell me she was pregnant?!”
“I don’t know. It’s early. She just wanted to wait.”
“Leland—”
“Kat, there is no anti-McClain conspiracy. It’s just that everything happened fast. We ain’t really used to none of this our self yet.”
“You should’ve at least told me and Ev and the twins! Ev is hella pissed at you right now! You know he thinks he’s your daddy!”
I sighed. “I know he’s mad, gotta be. I’ll talk to him, try to explain.”
“You better.”
“Yeah…so now you wanna tell me where you got your information?” I was sure Daniels wasn’t spreading the news, so how did she know?
“It’s all over social media. There’s even a picture of y’all leaving the hospital. You can see the bandage on her head. What happened to her?”
“A picture?! Look, let me call you back.” I didn’t have time to explain what happened to her and perpetuate the lie Kim told the hospital about her injury.
“Okay—hey, can I ask you something?”
Shit, she was not going to let this go. “What?”
“Are you happy? Are you happy with her? Are you happy about the baby?”
“I’m very happy with her. I love her, Kat. And the baby was planned, so yeah, I’m happy about that, too.”
“Good. If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you, because you deserve to get what you want. You deserve your own family even though you used to swear you didn’t want a wife and kids.”
“I honestly thought I didn’t, sis.”
“But she changed all that, huh?”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Well, I just hate that my family is falling apart at the same time.”
“Y’all aren’t gonna work things out?”
“No. I should’ve left years ago. I’ve wasted enough time trying to make something work that he doesn’t care about—sixteen years. I gotta move on and try to make a better life for myself.”
“You could always come here, make a fresh start. You can run your business from anywhere, and I could hire you to do something. Maybe you could be my assistant since Aunt Ever seems to think I need one, and honestly, I think so, too, with my career and all the business stuff I’m dealing with.”
She chuckled into the phone. “Imagine that, me running your life.”
I had to laugh at that, too. “Like you been tryna do for years.”
“Yeah. Well, let me think about it.”
“A’ight. I’ll hit you back later.”
“Okay.”
After we hung up, I went to Instagram to see what she was talking about, and yeah, the news about us was all over the place. According to Tea Steepers, a hospital source said Kim came in for treatment after she suffered an accident at home. The source also said I was with her and had informed them that she was my wife and that she was pregnant. This was all true, so that meant some nurse or something had violated our privacy in a major way.
The photos that were posted were of us walking out of the hospital, getting in my truck on the hospital parking lot, and driving away. Tea Steepers posted one of them side by side with a picture of Kim and Armand, providing proof of my “mystery wife’s” identity. My last IG post—a pic of me and Polo clowning around after a game—was full of comments either congratulating me on my new marriage and baby or congratulating me for getting the ultimate revenge on Daniels. Kim’s account was private, so I didn’t see too much activity on her posts, but I could imagine she had a million new follow requests.
I tapped out of the app, went and checked on Kim, who was still soaking in the tub, and then headed back to the living room to call my oldest brother and get that cursing over with. I’d call the twins and Aunt Ever later. I was pissed at the fact that the news was circulating without our consent, but glad everything was out in the open. We were finally free to be together on every level. The world knew I loved this woman, and there wasn’t anything better than that.
I was so proud of Zabrina, I thought I would explode! Well, either it was pride or the ten pounds I had gained two months into this pregnancy since Leland was under the impression that me going to my exercise class would hurt the baby. I wasn’t showing, but my hips were getting embarrassingly wide, much to his delight. Anyway, Zabrina’s six-week residency at Plush had become a full-time gig, and
Leland and I were there to watch her perform and help her celebrate. After all that mess with Boogie, I needed this night. I needed to have fun.
Leland bought half the tables in the club so anyone else Zabrina wanted to invite to celebrate with her could, and since Zabrina wasn’t quite the black sheep I was, it seemed she’d invited the whole damn family. Even my granny was there, a couple of tables over from where me, Leland, Zabrina, and her man sat.
“Come on, let’s do another one,” Leland said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
“You know what? I’m about tired of all these pictures,” I protested.
“It’s dark in here so the other ones weren’t that good. I’ma use the flash this time.”
“It’s dark in here because we’re in a nightclub, Leland.”
“I know. Smile.”
“Leland…”
“Do it for the ‘Gram, baby.”
I rolled my eyes and then leaned in close to Leland and smiled into the camera of his phone.
“Perfect! I’m about to post it now,” he said.
I rolled my eyes again.
Leland chuckled and kissed my cheek. “Stop pouting.”
“Girl, I cannot get over these rings. Damn, Mrs. McClain!” Zabrina shrieked, as she grabbed my hand and held it up to her face to get a closer look at the ridiculous diamond and platinum wedding set Leland bought me. “You walking ‘round wearing these without a bodyguard?”
“Shiiid, who gon’ fuck with her on my watch?” Leland asked.
“Damn, my bad,” Zabrina said, giving me a look that said his words had turned her on as much as they had me. “So, y’all picked out any baby names yet?”
“Yeah, Leland Jr. and Lelandria,” Leland said.
“I done told you hell no to naming my daughter that,” I replied.
“Come on, baby. You already said we could only have one. Let me name it.”
I leaned in, placed my hand on his hard thigh, and kissed his cheek. “Double hell no.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
He answered me by grabbing the back of my head and sticking his tongue down my throat. For a second there, I forgot where we were. I was damn near in his lap when I heard, “Ain’t that how you got pregnant in the first place?”
Let Me Hold You (McClain Brothers Book 2) Page 22
