Niggas don’t want to see this no mo’, she told herself. She chuckled at the thought. She had grown mentally, but she had made the mistake of thinking that Indie would always be around to take care of her. She had miscalculated his loyalty to her well-being; his being locked up wasn’t the only obstacle in their marriage.
YaYa picked up the phone and dialed her doctor’s number. There was something she needed to do. She couldn’t have this baby, not under these circumstances, and the sooner she terminated this pregnancy, the better.
10
“Perkins. Visitation!” a CO called out as he came to Indie’s cell. Indie stood and put his hands through the slit in the door. He would never get used to the feeling of handcuffs binding his wrists, and he winced as the guard applied them. The door opened, and Indie stepped through. Anxiety filled him. It had been an entire week, and he hadn’t heard from YaYa once. His calls went unanswered, and she hadn’t blessed him with her presence. He was glad she had come to her senses. All he needed was a chance to talk to her, to reassure her that everything would be okay. He knew she was angry about Parker’s presence at the hearing, but he was positive if she would just hear him out, he could make her understand. The last thing he needed right now was her acting up. YaYa was his rib. If she didn’t stand by him, things would fold. He walked into the visitation room and frowned when he saw Parker waiting for him. He sat down in the booth and picked up the phone as he looked at her through the glass that separated them.
“What are you doing here, P?” Indie asked.
“I came to check on you. I’m worried about you. King is worried about you,” she replied. “Don’t look so happy to see me.”
Indie didn’t miss her sarcasm. He knew he was being an ass. “My bad. I just thought it would be YaYa,” he answered.
“It always comes down to her,” Parker scoffed. She shook her head in disgust. “How about I leave and you wait for that selfish bitch to show up? I wouldn’t hold my breath.” Parker slammed down the phone and stood. Indie tapped the phone on the glass. She turned back and snatched up her line.
“I’m sorry, sit down. I’m glad you’re here.”
“I spoke to Einstein,” Parker said. “He told me they are leaning on you heavy because they know you’re connected to someone bigger. Someone named Z?”
Parker threw out the bait to see if Indie would bite. She still had no idea if her hunch was right, but when she saw the alarm on Indie’s face, it told her all she needed to know. He was normally composed, a brick exterior that was hard to read, and he recovered quickly, but she had already seen it. Her words had stunned him.
Fuck is she doing? She’s reckless right now, Indie thought. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do,” Parker answered. “I want you out of here, Indie. I know more than you think I do, and I don’t know what fucked-up code you live by that allows you to rot in here but I don’t live by that code. If it looks like you’re going to lose this case, I’m going to tell the feds what I know.”
“You don’t know anything, ma. You hear me? You’re Ray Charles to this shit,” Indie said. He put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion. Parker wasn’t from this life. She didn’t understand the position of danger she was putting everyone in by trying to save him. He was confused as to how she had been able to piece anything together.
Parker pulled out his cell phone and held it up for him to see. Indie lowered his head. Parker was smart, and he knew that once she locked in on something, she wouldn’t soon let it go. Parker wanted him to give up Zya, and if he didn’t, she would keep fishing until she could do it for him.
“Listen to me,” Indie said. “Don’t.”
Parker stood. “I love you, Indie, and if there is anything that I can do to get you out of here, it’s done. I don’t care about the consequences.” She hung up the phone before he could protest.
Indie stood abruptly, knocking over the chair beneath him as he called her name. “Parker!” he shouted. “Parker!” She didn’t turn back. She had said all she needed to say. She had no idea that she was playing with fire. She was too busy trying to prove that she was loyal to listen to reason. Indie hoped that she didn’t do anything stupid because if Zya got word, there would be hell to pay.
* * *
YaYa sat in the waiting room, nervous energy causing her foot to bounce constantly on the floor.
I shouldn’t even be here right now, YaYa thought. I shouldn’t tell him. I should just get rid of it and pretend like this never happened.
It was her body, therefore it was her right, but her soul told her to seek counsel from her husband. That’s what he was there for. That’s what she promised to do when they became one. As afraid as she was to tell him that she was pregnant and that it was possible that he wasn’t the father, she was more afraid of making such an important decision without considering him at all. YaYa couldn’t require honesty and transparency from Indie if she wasn’t willing to give those things back in return. So she was going to lay it all on the table, and they were going to decide together how to deal with this. She feared that if it was Ethic’s baby, Indie wouldn’t be able to accept it, but wasn’t that what Indie was asking of her? To accept a child that wasn’t hers? If she had to accept King, wouldn’t it be fair for him to accept the baby growing in her womb? It should be simple, but she knew that with men, the rules were different. His pride would be a major factor in the decision they made. He just might leave her altogether. It was a double standard, and she hated it.
“Why are we here?” Skylar asked.
“This is where Daddy is,” YaYa replied.
“Did he do something bad?” Skylar persisted.
YaYa held her breath. She didn’t know how to answer these types of questions. How could she make her daughter understand? YaYa didn’t even like the fact that Skylar had to come to jail to visit her father. She didn’t want to put that image of a black man behind bars in the mind of her child. Do I really want to bring another baby into this exact same circumstance? This is so fucked up, YaYa thought.
“Daddy made some mistakes, but we are working on making them right and bringing him home. He loves you very much and he misses you,” YaYa said. She had to smile to keep from crying, to keep her daughter from seeing her cry.
The visitation door opened, and YaYa froze when she saw Parker emerge. YaYa stood and instinctively tucked her daughter behind her, as if Parker were a predator looking to destroy them both. Wasn’t she, though? Wasn’t she preying on YaYa’s family, threatening to break up their marriage and take Sky’s father away? Parker was a side bitch with an agenda, and YaYa despised her.
The two women stood, staring one another down. Parker was braced for another altercation, and YaYa was ready to give her one. The only things stopping her were the little eyes watching her every move. Skylar would witness it all, and YaYa never wanted to be the type of mother who exposed her child to such things.
“Come on, baby. Let’s go see Daddy,” YaYa said calmly, but she was seething on the inside.
YaYa heard Parker laugh, and it took everything in YaYa to let her walk away.
There was nothing like the kiss of betrayal. Every time I turn around this bitch is around, and he’s entertaining the shit! She was incensed. There may as well have been smoke coming out of her ears. To be blatantly disrespected time and again was more than YaYa could stand. As she walked inside the visiting area, she made a snap decision. I’m not telling him anything, she thought. He would beseech her to keep the baby when really YaYa was already checking out of their relationship. She didn’t need one more thing tying them together. The abhorrence she felt for Parker was leaking onto Indie because he was allowing Parker to run wild in their lives. The bitch wouldn’t be so bold if he wasn’t putting the battery in her back. He’s playing both sides, and I’m not with the back-and-forth. He’s either with me or he’s with her. He got me coming down to this mu’fucka, following after her like he got it like that. I swear
to God, if he wasn’t locked up, I would kill him, YaYa thought. Her mind was racing, and she was so angry that she’d called him every name in the book before he sat down in front of her.
“Daddy!” Skylar exclaimed joyfully as soon as she saw Indie through the glass window. YaYa’s heart skipped a beat as she grabbed the receiver and sat down.
“Come here, baby girl.” She put Skylar in her lap. Her eyes watered as she took him in. “They cut your hair,” she whispered. Indie didn’t look right in the khaki-colored jail jumpsuit. It was the only thing she had ever seen him wear that he didn’t hang well. They had tamed him, her wild boy, her king. He was in chains, and it broke her. She couldn’t hold back the tears; the water would drown her if she kept them inside, so she let them fall down her cheeks. “Oh Indie…”
Her voice was like a Billie Holiday melody. With her presence, YaYa brought a sound track of love into these concrete walls. He had missed the shit out of her. “Don’t cry,” he whispered.
“Mommy, you’re getting the phone all wet,” Skylar said as she took it from her. YaYa turned her face to the side as she struggled to stifle her sorrow. The melancholy was killing her. It was so hard to face this moment … to give up on the past … to say fuck everything that they were.
“Hi, Daddy!” Skylar said into the phone.
“Hi, Daddy’s girl,” Indie replied. He could only half focus on Sky, however. His eyes kept drifting to YaYa. “You being a good girl for Mommy?”
“Yeah,” Skylar replied. “When are you coming home?”
Indie pinched the bridge of his nose as he lowered his head. He was ashamed of himself. His little girl wanted him, but he couldn’t even reach out to touch her. He sniffed and cleared his throat as he raised his head. “I hope soon, baby. I love you. Even when I’m not with you. You are always right here,” Indie said as he pointed to his chest.
Skylar pointed to her chest. “You’re always here too, Daddy,” she said.
Indie looked at YaYa. “Give Mommy the phone.”
Skylar handed the receiver over, and YaYa placed it to her ear.
“This thing with you and Parker is going to destroy you and me. I’m just warning you. She’s disrespectful. You’re disrespectful,” YaYa said. “You were arrested at her house, in the wee hours of the night. She’s parading around on your behalf like she’s your wife.”
“This affects her too, YaYa. I’m sorry. I know this is hard, but it’s not what it looks like,” Indie said.
“Do you love her?” YaYa asked. “Because she says you do. She says you told her you loved her. Is it true? Do you?”
“It wasn’t in that context—”
“Fuck your context! Do you love her? Did my husband say those words to another woman?”
YaYa was practically yelling, and Indie looked around in discomfort. YaYa could see him searching for an excuse, trying to shape his reply in a way that would make it acceptable. He wouldn’t lie to her. They both knew it. He had said it, and YaYa wasn’t looking for an explanation. The look of guilt on his face gave him away.
“Answer the question, Indie,” YaYa persisted.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Indie said. “I was trying to explain to her how much I loved you—”
“By comparing it to how much you love her?” YaYa finished for him. “Do you not understand that I’m entitled to your love? It’s all mine, every ounce of it belongs to me, and here you are, giving my shit away. Splitting your loyalty in half so that the next woman doesn’t feel slighted?” He had fouled her. He was out of bounds. There was no making this up. “If you had done this the right way, I probably could have stuck this out. We could have figured something out to make this work, but now I have no desire to be a part of an emotional threesome with you and Parker. Let me guess. You fucked her too?”
“YaYa…,” he whispered as he looked her in the eye. He wanted to break through the chains that bound him. He wanted to shatter the wall that separated them. YaYa needed to feel him. He couldn’t touch her. He couldn’t cast his love spell over her because they were disconnected. He knew that he was partly to blame. He had never created boundaries for Parker to exist inside. He had been afraid to, because Parker had control over King. If he made the wrong move or said the wrong thing to her, she could take him away again. So maybe he was a bit too friendly, maybe he did get dangerously close to a line, but he wouldn’t dare cross it again. He loved YaYa too much for that. He just wanted to be a father to a child that he had lost so much time with, and the only way to do that was to keep Parker in the loop. As he sat in front of YaYa, he realized that he was hurting her. That asking her to accept his baggage was too heavy for her. A better man would have let her go, but he was selfish in his affections for her. She was his. Plain and simple. He owned that pussy and he didn’t want to fathom life without her, but how could he stop her from leaving when he couldn’t chase after her? He was stuck here, in this jail, behind these walls, unable to fix the rift between them.
YaYa laughed as she shook her head. “You’re making a fool of me.” YaYa was in a state of shock and utter despair. She was grateful for this glass between them in this moment because had it not been there she would have surely socked the shit out of this nigga. Her outrage was immeasurable. “Since you love the bitch so much, she can have you.” YaYa dropped the phone and grabbed Skylar’s hand as she stormed out.
* * *
YaYa could barely breathe. It felt like her lungs were caving in as she picked up her daughter and practically ran outside. She was hyperventilating as she tried to stifle her cries. When she finally reached her car, she hurriedly put Skylar in the back, started the engine, turned on the air, and then stepped outside and closed the door. She turned her back to the windows so that Skylar couldn’t see her cry. She cried so hard that her entire body shook as snot ran from her nose. She wanted to ask, How could he? How could he love someone else? But she knew the answer to that because she had done the same. She had loved Ethic, and she couldn’t help but think that this was her karma for that. That’s how the universe worked.
It took all of ten minutes for YaYa to rein in her emotions. She wiped her face and then got back in the car.
“Mommy?” Skylar called.
YaYa didn’t turn around to face her daughter. She knew that her eyes were red, and she wanted to hide them.
“Are you okay?” Skylar asked.
“Yes, baby girl,” YaYa answered. Sometimes a lie was needed. “I’m fine.”
She put the car into gear and drove away without looking back. She didn’t know what this meant. Were they divorcing? Would she desert him in the middle of his trial? Was this the end? She had no answers to those questions. She just knew that things between them would never be the same. Their love had gotten them through a lot of obstacles, but this was a real-life problem. This had nothing to do with the streets or jealous enemies. It was a matter of trust and deceit, a matter of loyalty and indecision. Such problems weren’t easily fixed, and truth be told, YaYa didn’t know if she was open to repairing things at all.
11
“When is my dad getting out of jail?”
Parker froze when King asked her the question. It was something she wasn’t prepared to answer because she honestly didn’t know.
“That is what his lawyer is trying to figure out,” she replied. “He is trying to prove that Indie didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Is he a drug dealer?” King asked.
“Why would you ask that?” Parker responded.
“He’s in jail. That’s what black men go to jail for, right? Selling drugs. My friend at school has a dad that’s locked up, and he got twenty years for hustling,” King stated.
“Hustling? What friend is this? I send you to private school to get away from stuff like this, and this is what you come home with?” Parker asked. She was flustered and tongue-tied, unsure of how to answer his questions without completely lying to her son.
A knock at her door saved her from having to r
espond. “We’re not done talking about this. Take your homework to your room,” Parker said.
He did as he was told, sulking away from the dining room table with an attitude, and Parker shook her head. He was changing, and she knew it was because of the inconsistency of Indie coming and going in his life. She headed to the door and looked out the peephole.
“Samar?” What the hell is he doing at my house?
She pulled open the door.
“Hello, Professor Banks,” Samar said nervously. He held up a manila folder. “I have the information you asked me for.”
“How do you know where I live? We could have handled this in the morning after my lecture,” Parker said, thrown off by his presence.
“I looked you up. By your license plate number,” Samar said. “Can I come inside?”
Parker eyed the folder in his hand. “Samar, it’s not a good time. It’s late, and I think we should do this at school.”
Samar was on edge and fidgeting. Her internal alarm blared as she went to close her door. He placed a foot in the door and pushed it back open.
“You asked for this. You said if I gave you what you wanted, you would give me what I want,” he said.
“Samar, please take your foot out of my door,” Parker said. Her heart was beating with intensity as panic filled her.
Samar muscled his way inside.
“I did my part, now you have to do yours,” he said as he closed the door and pushed Parker against the wall. She could feel him hardening against her.
“Stop it,” she whispered harshly, not wanting her son to hear. Samar was already unbuckling his pants as he kissed her neck. The weight of him pinned her against the wall. “Please, stop.” Tears clouded her vision as she struggled to push him off of her. “My son is here! Please, don’t do this,” Parker pleaded.
“You’re a tease, aren’t you?” Samar accused. He slammed her against the wall so hard that the plaster crumbled behind her head.
The Prada Plan 5 Page 12
