Checking the time once more, it was exactly 7:00 p.m. Not trying to be or seem desperate, Mario waited ten more minutes before calling Angie V’s number. Unlike the other recent times, she answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Mario. How are you?”
“I’m good now. Where you been hiding at? A guy been trying to get at you for a gang of days.”
“I’ve been around. I just had some things I had to work out.”
Mario was happy to hear her voice as if they had some bond between them other than an evening of paid fucking at the Red Roof Inn. “Well, I’m glad you decided to get back. I been thinking about you a lot over the past month or so. You got a brother kinda feeling you. So when I heard you was sick I was like whoa.”
“Oh, yeah, well, please don’t worry about me. I’m good.” Angie V couldn’t front. Considering her situation, she was feeling some sort of way about him as well.
Mario cut straight to the chase before she tried to end their conversation he had waited so long to have. “Okay, Angie, a nigga wanna lay eyes on you. So is that cool or what?”
Angie V wanted to say no, but she didn’t. “Yeah, it’s cool. It’s just I don’t have a babysitter.”
“And?”
“And I don’t let just anybody know where me and my kids lay our heads at.”
“So I’m just anybody?”
“Ummmm, basically yeah, you are.” She laughed.
“Damn, girl, okay then. How we gonna play it? ’Cause I wanna holler at you for real for real.”
After a few minutes of them going back and forth, she gave in, giving Mario her address. Within the hour he was knocking at her front door with a pizza and hot wings in hand. After he met the kids and they ate, Angie V finally put them to bed. She was ecstatic that Mario and them got along so well. Trying to be a good mother, she hardly introduced them to men she had dated unless she felt they were about to be serious. Mario was the exception to the rule; well, kinda sorta.
With the kids tucked away for the night the two of them had a chance to talk. Before Mario knew what he was saying he’d told her all about his mother getting killed and him going to visit her grave for the first time in years. It goes without saying he left out the part about him having sex with Kat, his wife’s best friend. Mario also lied to Angie V, saying that the tattoo across his heart saying SASHA was for his deceased mother, not his wife, very much alive in prison. The one thing he couldn’t figure out and didn’t want to ask was how Kat and she were even connected. Mario didn’t want to ask and stir the pot of bullshit, so for the time being he just let it be.
Getting to know each other more and more, Mario could picture himself being with Angie V on a permanent basis. It was weird to him that because he saw her crying that day and it reminded him of his mother, he was willing to throw away everything that Sasha had built for them. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Mario had stopped shooting dice, drinking, and acting a fool. He fought hard to be the man his wife always wanted him to be; but in truth all along the dramatic change was for Angie V.
After hours of him being there, Mario had to use the bathroom. When he came out he took it upon himself to grab another soda out of the refrigerator so that Angie V would not have to get up. As he put his hand around the handle he was stopped by what was on the door. A decorative magnet held up a small black-and-white ultrasound. Mario couldn’t understand why Angie V would have this hanging on the refrigerator door of all places; and exactly who did it belong to? With the thin, glossy photo in hand, he returned to the living room. Going over to the couch where she was sitting and messing with the television remote, Mario plopped down.
“Yo, Angie, who this right here belong to?”
Angela Vega, mother of three, looked dumbfounded. It had slipped her mind that the first indicator ultrasound was even up there. The only people who knew she was pregnant were her doctor and her three small kids. She had not even revealed that information to the baby’s father, until now. “It’s mine. It belongs to me.”
Mario was confused. None of this made sense. She was knocked up by some nigga and she still had to sell him the pussy. His pipedream of maybe being with her had flown right out the window. “So, I mean, if you having a baby and whatnot, why you let me come over and chill with you? Ain’t your baby daddy gonna be bugging out? I mean, I would if my girl did some ol’ crazy disrespectful bullshit like that. And, damn, why you ain’t have that lame help you out on them bills? What kinda dudes you be rocking out with?”
Angie V allowed Mario to go on and on until he shut up. Making sure he was done, she finally responded. “First of all, I didn’t tell the father because I didn’t think he would care. Secondly, I know at the end of the day I’m the one responsible for my baby, not him. So if he even asked me to get rid of it and have an abortion I would tell him to just beat it because me and my kids will be just fine.”
“Don’t you think he should know just the same?”
“Yeah, I do.” She sat straight up, looking him in the eyes while taking the ultrasound out of his hands. “So okay, Mario, you’re going to be a father.”
It was dead silent in the room. Angie V waited for his response, but there was none. Mario just continued to sit there, jaw dropped open wide. He’d had different females back in the day try to put babies off on him, so he wasn’t quick to say anything. As his mind went back to the time they had sex, he distinctly remembered using a condom. He easily recalled tossing it down on the side of the bed. Taking all that in consideration, he finally spoke. “Look now, I like you and all. And I wouldn’t mind kicking it with you despite you got them three kids back there.” Mario pointed to the rear room where they were sleeping.
Offended by how he was speaking about her seeds, as if they were mere objects that lessened her value as a potential good woman or spouse, she went off. “See, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you in the first damn place. I know the circumstances of us getting together was really messed up right off rip. I realize that much. And the crazy fact that I got pregnant behind it made me salty at first too, because I definitely don’t need another mouth to feed; but the bottom line is I’m going to have this baby.” She placed her hand on her stomach, glancing down then back up at Mario. “And if you choose to be a part of your son’s or daughter’s life, then so be it. But if not, trust, I’ll make a way.”
“How you gonna make a way? Selling the next nigga pussy so they can be busting nuts all in my baby’s face?” Mario was now on his feet, caught up in his manhood and emotions. He didn’t know for sure if Angie V was running game, but he knew time would tell.
“Get the fuck out my house. I told you me and mines gonna be good, so go.” Her arm was fully extended with her finger pointed at the door.
Mario swiftly obliged and he left to get in his SUV. Before starting the engine, he sat there in somewhat of a daze. Where half of his mind said the bitch was lying and just running game, the other half was kinda happy knowing he was going to have a chance to be a father again. Going back and forth with himself, Mario seem to forget one important factor to the sordid equation between him and Angie V: Sasha, who had just lost their child.
After sitting in the vehicle a good hour or so, thinking, Mario made up his mind. Seconds later he was pounding on Angie V’s door. It took awhile, but when she did open the door dressed in nothing but her robe, Mario dropped to his knees, pressing his face and head on her stomach. “I’m gonna be here for you and my baby no matter what. That’s my word.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Months Later
Time seemed to fly by once Sasha had gotten her mind right and settled into her life at prison. She had made the best of it because she had no other options. Several times she pushed in her secured phone pin number and was going to try to call her husband, but she changed her mind. She had come to the conclusion, months back when Mario had cut her off, that he truly meant her no good. The conclusion was easy. He had set her up to take the fall so he could be free and liv
e his life. Dumbly she fell for it because of the power of love.
Fighting with those demons was hard sometimes, but nothing like what she had to experience behind the walls of the prison that she had called home over the past year. Having no visits since Regina had come early on in her short bid, Sasha came to grips that she was out in the world by herself. The couple of letters she’d written to her elderly parents went unanswered, but she attributed that to her older sibling being vindictive since she basically took care of all their wants and needs and personal affairs.
As Sasha waited to speak to the case manager, she felt a strong sense of relief; the day she’d been waiting for since receiving her Under the Door parole decision paperwork in mail call. The favorable decision rendered made her realize once again that God was good and the devil couldn’t hold her down any longer. She’d completed all the required classes she needed to take and now the only thing left to do was sign a few documents, making sure to cross the T’s and dot the I’s at that facility.
With the ride-out van filled with the other six inmates who were also going home that day, they were all transferred to the central release center to be processed out of the system and given instructions. After that was done, Sasha was given a debit card with the remainder of her account balance on it, fifteen dollars in cash, and a Greyhound bus ticket back to Detroit. She happily boarded the bus. No one knew she was coming home early, not her parents and Regina, not her best friend Kat, and definitely not her husband Mario, who’d left her for dead. Soon, they would all be surprised.
* * *
Mario had been living somewhat of a double life. Embracing the fact that Angie V was indeed carrying his seed, he did everything possible to make her sure her and her three children’s lives were great. Even though Sasha had somehow found a way from behind the wall to cut him off from her purse strings, he still was a hustler and he went back to selling pills. This time, however, he didn’t jack off his earnings on shooting dice and smoking weed; this go-around he helped pay bills, and he kept a smile on Angie V’s face by always coming home and doing right by her. It was getting late into her pregnancy and she could no longer work, which was fine by Mario. He loved that for once in his life he was the true breadwinner and not his woman. He appreciated all that Sasha had eagerly done to make his lifestyle gravy, but it crippled him as a man.
Angie V still had no idea whatsoever that Mario, her man and soon-to-be baby daddy, was married. Mario was always with her and the kids, spending most if not all of his nights over at her house. She had not one clue. Whenever he did say he was going home to check on his house, Mario had led her to believe he meant a small one-bedroom apartment he and his roommate shared, taking turns sleeping on the couch. Urging him to just give up that place and move in with her and the kids all the way, Mario reasoned with her that he would do just that as soon as the baby was born. In reality, he knew the clock was ticking and in six more months at least, Sasha would be on her way home and would force him out of the house they shared but she owned. Until then, he would play the game until it played itself out.
“Baby, I got a few moves I need to make; then I’ll be back.” Mario kissed her on the lips and then headed toward the door as Angie V sat on the couch with a big belly and a huge grin.
“Okay, Mario, but don’t forget I have a doctor’s appointment at two forty-five today and we have tickets to take the kids to the circus.”
“Damn, is that today?”
“Yeah, crazy, it is and the kids been looking forward to it all week so don’t be late. We can all go to the appointment together then go straight to the circus.”
“Okay, baby, don’t worry. I won’t be late.”
* * *
Sasha arrived at the bus station with no one to greet her. There was no welcome home or “Damn, I missed you.” Just as it was while she was locked up, she was on her own. Using her state-issued debit card in the ATM, she griped at the overpriced service fee before withdrawing sixty dollars. Still dressed in the beige prison gear she was released in, she held a medium-sized bag containing the clothes she wore when she was taken into custody, which were now much too small, and some legal papers, along with a few other personal items. The rest of her belongings she left to Trina.
Hailing a cab, she gave the driver her address after being asked to put a deposit up front. She knew it was the way she was dressed that made him leery, but so be it. She had seventy-five dollars on her person, so she was good.
Arriving home, Sasha was relieved that at least the home she’d work so hard to purchase was still standing. The grass was cut and all in all it seemed to be well maintained. Walking up on the front porch, she took the mail out of the box, which had seemed to pile up. Her SUV was not in the driveway, so she could only assume her no-good husband was out running the streets like he always did.
Going around to the rear of the house, she reached up over the frame of the back door, retrieving the spare key she kept there if she ever got locked out. Once inside, Sasha smiled. She had made it back home and through the storm. Gathering all the mail off the table, she took it along with the mail she’d gotten out of the box and started to go through it while running some hot bathwater. Bill by bill, bank statement by bank statement, Sasha grew infuriated. She could hardly believe how much of her money her supposedly loyal husband had jacked off before she put a hold on her accounts. When the water was finally ready, Sasha stripped, tossing her clothes in the corner. She slid down in the marble tub and exhaled. She would deal with Mario whenever he showed up.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Mario was trying to stay focused. Having made all his runs, he was tired but still had to keep it moving. Checking the time, he was running late to pick up Angie V and the kids, but he wanted to swing by the house and check on it. He hadn’t done so in four days straight since cutting the grass.
When he pulled up in the driveway, a strange feeling came over him, but he didn’t think anything of it as he stuck his key in the lock. Stepping inside, a familiar aroma circulated through the air filling his nostrils. Naw, hell naw, couldn’t be. I must be bugging! A few steps later Mario was standing in the middle of the living room face to face with Sasha.
“Well, hello, Mario. How you been?” she asked with a smirk on her face. A few pounds heavier than when she went in, Sasha looked him square in the eyes, letting him know she was not in the mood for any games.
“Sasha.” He could hardly get her name out as he was shocked and dumbfounded.
“What, Mario, no ‘Hey, wife, welcome home’? No ‘Thanks for going to jail for me while I run around and fuck other females who work at Walmart’? No ‘Good looking out for letting me run through a gang of your money for months on end’? Come on, baby, at least act like you happy to see a bitch!”
Mario still hadn’t moved from the spot on which he stood. He wasn’t expecting to see Sasha standing in front of going ham, at least not for some months to come. Yet here she was. “Damn, girl. When you get out and why you ain’t let anybody know you was coming home?”
“Anybody who? Not your sorry ass.”
“Damn, Sasha, why you going so hard on a nigga?” Mario barked back, trying to defend the verbal attack he was under, but just happy she hadn’t said anything about Kat as well. “You just getting home and already got me all fucked up!”
It was just like old times in their household. Mario would do or say things that were out of order and Sasha would have to cut off into his ass. Toxic as ever, the arguing went on nonstop for at least thirty minutes while Angie V blew up Mario’s cell. Well off into a hour of who did what and to whom, the arguing turned into a physical altercation. Seven punches, three slaps, an attempted kick to the groin, and Mario getting a huge glob of spit in his face, the husband and wife were soon embraced on the kitchen floor fucking like wild animals in heat. When both had exhaustingly climaxed, Sasha lay there, mad at herself for giving in to her overwhelming need for dick, while Mario plotted how to get out of the house and back to
Angie V, who had called and texted countless times.
* * *
It was daybreak and Sasha had not let Mario out of her sight. As much as she had planned to be done with him when she came home, it was like he was her addiction. She had fallen back in love with her husband just like that and she was willing to fight any bitch who even thought of coming between them. That included the mystery Spanish tramp she grilled Mario about, who he of course denied.
No doubt, there was no way in hell fire Mario could break the news to her about his “new woman.” Or the hurtful reality that they had a child on the way, especially since Sasha was so gung ho about making another baby all the time they were having sex throughout the night. Mario was torn. And at this point he had to get to Angie V and give her some sort of explanation for his twenty-four-hour absence and make things right in that household. “Hey, bae, I need to go take care of a few things real quick. I’ll be back soon.”
Sasha got up from the bed, wrapping the sheet around her naked body. Walking over to look out the bedroom window, she looked outside, overjoyed to be home. “Welp, that’s good and all, Mario, but you gonna have to find another way to do whatever it is that you do. I need to do some running of my own. So, bottom line, I’ma need you to run me my SUV keys, homeboy. Oh, and by the way the dick was good and I needed it for sure. But we ain’t done talking about how you played me when I was gone. Round two later when we both get back home, so get ready!”
Mario was angry he would no longer have a vehicle to drive, but what could he say? After all, the SUV was Sasha’s. He was just glad that while his wife was taking another bath he was able to sneak out the door and toss Angie V’s daughter’s car seat in the trash can next door before it was seen. It was not hard to notice that Sasha was not the same mild-mannered woman she had been before spending time in jail. Something told Mario to tread lightly. His wife was tired of his lies and manipulations.
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