by Cydney Rax
“Adina?” Kiara yelled as loud as she could. “It’s time.”
“Okay, friend.”
Adina had been sleeping on Kiara’s living room couch for the past few days just in case she went into labor. Adina rose up and took action. The tote bag that she’d packed for the hospital stay was ready and waiting next to the fireplace. Adina fled to Kiara’s bathroom and ran some tap water. She quickly splashed her face. She found a clean facecloth and wet it so she could mop it across Kiara’s forehead, which was beaded with sweat.
“Ain’t no turning back now,” Adina said. “You ready, Mama?”
“Let’s do this.”
Kiara waddled to Adina’s car and soon they were headed to the birthing center.
“I wonder what Myles is doing?”
“As long as he’s with his grandma Flora, he’ll be just fine. And he’ll be so excited to see his new baby brother or sister.”
“Yeah. But don’t you think he should be used to this by now?”
“You got jokes, huh?”
Kiara may have been trying her hand at comedy, but her stomach was twisted in painful knots. Her face looked puffier than normal and her ankles were swollen. Several thoughts raced across her mind as they arrived at the Sweetwater Pavilion entrance of Houston Methodist.
Kiara and Adina rode the elevator to the third floor and she was immediately admitted, since she’d pre-registered months ago.
“Are you ready for Rashad to see you?”
“Adina.” Kiara squeezed her hand so tight she flinched. “I-I’m scared. I don’t want to go under anesthesia. What if God decides to punish me for my sins? Or, if I live, what if the baby isn’t perfectly formed?”
“First of all, I can’t answer that question. Do I look like I’m best friends with the Lord? And secondly, you think the most morbid thoughts of anyone I know. Damn. Be positive, will you?”
“Okay, all right. Pray for me, Adina. Oops! Never mind.”
“Girl, as usual you’re tripping. I will do my best to pray and we’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, stay strong. You must face whatever happens like the resilient woman I know that you are.” Adina felt Kiara’s pain and she wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone.
“You need anything?”
“Just promise not to leave my side.”
“I got you.”
Kiara got prepared in the birthing room. Soon her doctor, Jimmy Wong, greeted her with a bright, encouraging smile.
“Hello, Kiara. You are one rare woman. These days, many mothers want to know the gender of their child in advance. But I see that you want to be surprised.”
“Humph. She’ll be surprised, all right,” muttered Adina.
“If it’s a boy,” Dr. Wong asked, “what will you name him?”
“If it’s a boy, he’ll be called Dietrich, which means leader of the people.”
The doctor nodded.
“And if I have a girl she will be named Jahzara, which is Ethiopian for ‘princess who is blessed.’ Her middle name is Alaine, which is Irish for ‘beautiful.’
“Beautiful princess,” said Dr. Wong.
“Exactly. We’d call her Jazz for short.”
“Got it. See you soon, Kiara.”
Right before she was ushered to the delivery room, Kiara grabbed Adina’s hand.
“Pray.”
Adina immediately bowed her head.
“Are you there, Jesus? Meet Kiara. Ahh, bring her baby to her. And let her see, and um, raise this baby. I guess that’s all. Amen.”
Kiara couldn’t believe it. “That sucked, Adina, but amen.”
Just as she feared, Kiara’s blood pressure was on the high side. She ended up having an emergency C-section. She was under anesthesia when the baby was taken from her body. While knocked out, she heard the surgeons talking about all kinds of things, but she wasn’t able to answer them. She was in a deep state of consciousness that made her feel like she was in orbit and soaring above the earth. But hours later, she finally came to.
Kiara’s eyes fluttered until she noticed Dr. Wong standing at her bedside.
“Good afternoon. Here’s your beautiful princess.” He handed her the newborn.
“Oh, my God, a precious little girl. Hey, Jazz.”
Kiara felt groggy and disoriented. But she visually checked the girl’s nose and ears, cheeks and fingers. She already knew it was Rashad’s child through pre-DNA testing, but she didn’t share the info with anyone.
Adina winked. “My prayer may have sucked but it still worked. Congrats, Mommy.”
Kiara struggled to smile. “Thank you. Everything is great. And I’m so happy this precious baby is mine. I always wanted a little girl.”
“And now you have one. I can’t wait to go shopping,” Adina said. “I’m going to buy her bows and ribbons and cute little shoes and dresses and—”
“Adina, I must tell you that this is Rashad’s child.”
She scowled but quickly recovered. “Doesn’t matter. I will still spoil my goddaughter.”
“What would I do without you? Thank you for being here for me in my most trying moments.”
“That’s what’s sisters do.”
“Yes, we are. We’re truly a family.”
Adina’s cell phone rang. “Oh, my goodness, look who’s calling me.” She held up her phone. The caller ID said, “Remy.” Adina answered and put the call on speaker.
“Hi there, daughter.”
“Whassup, Mama? Where are you?”
“I’m at the hospital. Kiara just had a little girl.”
“Cool. Tell her I said hey.”
“What are you doing, Remy?”
“Trying to do what folks do. Getting my little bit of education. I’m at school now in between classes.”
Adina felt so good. Remy had been staying with Marlon these days. The arrangement seemed to be working. All she wanted was for her daughter to live life the right way and for her to be safe and stay out of trouble.
“Well, I just want you to know that I’ve been helping out Kiara at her house. So if you need me, that’s where I’ll be. Maybe you can come over sometime.”
“I don’t remember where she lives.”
“I can text you the address.”
“All right. I don’t know if I’m coming by or not, but I will let you know. I gotta go. My world history class is about to start. ”
“Okay, Remy. Bye, baby.”
“I ain’t no baby.”
“All right, bye, grown-up woman.”
Mother and daughter laughed, said their good-byes and hung up.
The attending nurse interrupted them to monitor Kiara’s blood pressure.
Kiara felt happy and thankful for herself as a mom. But she was also glad for her friend. “Adina, if you could see the look on your face,” Kiara told her. “You’re glowing.”
“I think Remy is finally listening to someone. You know I think it has to do with Marlon having a serious talk with the girl, because Lord knows I wasn’t able to get through to her. But we’ll see. I’m just happy that she’s back in school.”
Right then Rashad strolled into the room. “Am I too late?”
“Oh, great,” Adina said as she protectively stepped closer to Kiara.
“Hello to you, too,” Rashad told Adina. “I’m both surprised and disappointed to see you here.”
“Shhh, a baby was recently born. No negative energy in this room, Rashad. My goddaughter is going to live a blessed, happy, prosperous and positive life.”
“Thanks, Adina,” Kiara whispered.
“You’re going to be the godmother? Says who?”
“Rashad, we can discuss this later,” Kiara told him.
“I’ll shut up about that for right now. Anyway, you look very pretty, Kiara. As hot as on the day you had Myles.”
“Oh, hush with all that.” Kiara blushed. “I’m sure I look a hot mess.”
“You look a beautiful mess. Well, enough of all that. Let me see her,” Rashad said. �
�And can you give us some privacy?” he asked Adina. “Every time I see Kiara for some reason you’re always in the area.”
“Get used to it. Anyway, you may see the baby. You’ve got fifteen minutes and not a second too long,” Adina said before she left the room.
Rashad silently stared at the bundle that was quietly lying on Kiara’s chest.
“She smells so good, just like her mama. May I please hold her?”
“Meet Jahzara Alaine,”—she paused—“Eason.”
“She’s mine?”
“Yes, Rashad.” Kiara handed the infant over to him. “Look at her, for God’s sake. Can’t you tell she’s yours by her features?” Kiara was tickled pink as she lay there and watched Rashad carefully examine the child. He inspected her fingers, her toes, the shape of her head, her ears, her feet, everything.
“She has a head full of hair, and look at those cute little lips and her hands. I think she has little fingernails already. She’s perfect,” Kiara gushed.
Rashad started rocking the baby in his arms. He stared at her with an emotionless look on his face.
“You’re sure that this baby is mine?”
“I’m positive. I-I had a pre-DNA test done weeks ago. And it was confirmed. No one knew the results except me.”
“You’ve been known she was mine? I don’t get it. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Oh, once you see the hospital bill, you’ll know exactly why.”
“I don’t give a damn about how much it costs. One more bill won’t make that much difference. Do you know how stressed I’ve been? Wondering if I am going to completely lose my family and everything I’ve worked hard for? Stressing if I was going to lose my wife to another man and worrying if she was having his baby?”
Kiara couldn’t respond. She knew Rashad. On rare occasions he grew emotional and reflective. She figured he was having a moment. She just hoped it would be a quick moment and he’d recover and behave rationally.
“Sorry about that Rashad. You don’t have to stress anymore.”
“Even so, I may get a second opinion. It’s important that I be sure.”
“Rashad, I’m telling you, she is yours!”
“All right, okay, she is gorgeous so she must be my baby daughter. Mine.” He stood and rocked Jazz for a while. The longer he held her, the better she felt in his arms.
He paused. “What does this mean?”
“It means you’ve added a new member to your growing roster.”
“Kiara—”
“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. And I’m so sorry that I went there because I love this little baby in spite of everything. But really, Rashad, I’m kind of physically and mentally wore out right now. And this isn’t the time or place for this conversation. I just had her, for God’s sake. I’m trying to make sure she’s healthy and breathing. And I want to get my rest and get some morphine or something because these incisions hurt like hell. Then I want to try and breastfeed Jazz if they let me.”
“I understand all that, but”—there was hope in Rashad’s voice—“I was talking about what happens after you leave this hospital?”
In Kiara’s foggy mind, she was screaming, Do you realize I just had an emergency caesarean? But she answered her own question. Nope, he doesn’t. He has no idea.
“Don’t even go there. The divorce is still on because you filed on me, remember? And I had to file a counterclaim because I don’t want you to try and change your mind. And even though we have a daughter now, I can’t forget that our union has been irretrievably broken in so many ways. Don’t you understand that? So as far as I am concerned at this very second, I’m thinking we can be co-parents and nothing more. Besides, Rashad, you’ve obviously moved on with that woman you chose to be with.”
“I didn’t choose to be with her. You made me leave our house.”
Kiara may have done wrong herself but she still hated that Rashad couldn’t admit his share of the blame. She felt he was right where he wanted to be and she was sick of his excuses.
“Rashad, I could no longer live with you with all the stuff you were putting me through. What did you expect?”
“But, Kiara, I never really wanted to go. I was all right with staying away for a few days or so until we both figured out what we really wanted to do. Personally, I wanted to try and work things out. But you never gave me the chance. You wouldn’t listen to me no matter what I tried to tell you. But now that I know that this is our baby, maybe that means we can have one last stab to do the right thing and make our relationship work.” He laughed to himself. “Myles is gonna be so hyped. He loves playing the big brother role. Teaching her how to fly his copters. Bossing her around but still protecting her like the little princess she is.” He stroked Jahzara’s cheek and thanked God for the little girl. “I’m grateful for all my children. No matter how they got here, they are mine and I love them.”
“Please be quiet.”
Kiara didn’t speak about it much, but it still tore her up that he already had another daughter with Alexis. She respected the little girl because she was a life that didn’t ask to be here, so Kiara wouldn’t fault her for that. She gradually learned not to blame Alexis for what happened. When she first met Rashad, Alexis may not have known he wasn’t single, but a married man always knows that he has a wife.
“If this is my last and final chance to tell you I’m sorry about the past and how much I wish I could have a future with my real family, then there it is. That’s where my head is right now.”
Kiara yearned for pain-relieving drugs and wished she had a pill that could make Rashad shut his trap. He just couldn’t seem to see the big picture. She felt painfully sore and desperately wanted to close her eyes and forget everything that was going on.
Right then Eddison popped his head inside the doorway. A bouquet of flowers was in one hand, and several inflated balloons were in the other. He stood there and evaluated the scene.
Kiara gasped at his appearing there without warning. She never informed him that she was on the way to the birthing center. She realized Adina must have given him a heads-up. Kiara’s original plan was to call him as soon as she came out from under the anesthesia, but then Rashad showed up.
Rashad glanced at Eddison, then at Kiara.
“Is this the guy?”
Eddison walked over to Kiara and leaned over to lightly kiss her on the lips. He mouthed the words “I love you.” He placed her flowers on the bedside table. He looked Rashad in the eye and extended his hand.
“Hi. I’m Eddison Osborne.”
“I don’t give a—”
“I heard you just ask if I was the guy. But I’m not the guy. I’m the man.”
“If you don’t get out my face with that bullshit.”
“Hey, man, show some respect to the woman and to the child.”
“Cornball here got the nerve to be on a righteous trip—”
“Oh, my God, please, Rashad,” Kiara said as she struggled to sit up. “Don’t do this!” Eddison rushed to her side. “Babe, don’t overextend yourself,” he told her. “You need your rest.”
Kiara noticed how keenly Eddison stared at her. He glanced at the baby then back at her. She saw desire mixed with hope flicker in his eyes. It floored her that two men in one day looked to her as their savior. She felt regretful that she hadn’t informed him about Jazz the second she found out. When she first got the DNA results, she wanted to tell Eddison but found it was difficult to form the words that could potentially break his heart.
“I’m sorry, Eddison, but—”
“Are you sure? Are you positive?” he whispered.
“Eddison, if I could change things . . .”
“Yo, did you not hear her? This baby is mine,” Rashad said.
“All right. But may I hold her?”
“Sorry for the letdown, but your services are no longer required, man. No surrogate fathers on standby anymore.” Rashad held the newborn in one arm and pointed to the door with his free hand. “G
o,” he told him.
“I’m not trying to start any trouble.”
“Too late for that. You need to bounce up outta here, my man.”
Instead of leaving, Eddison took a step closer. He wanted another look at Jazz. “I promise you, I only want to see the baby. Would it be all right if I held her, Kiara?”
“Of course it’s fine if he wants to hold her.”
“Nope, it’s not happening,” Rashad argued. “This baby is mine; that means I will get to decide what she does. As her father, I have a say-so and I want to start exercising my rights, right now.” Rashad stood his ground and protectively held Jazz closer to his chest.
For Kiara, her daughter’s first day on the earth seemed like it had gotten off to an interesting start. And she felt completely embarrassed, since the attending nurse had stood nearby trying to mind her business. She was busy reading charts, but the woman stopped what she was doing when she heard them bickering.
The nurse came over to Kiara. She gently smiled.
“Do you want to hold your daughter again, Mom?”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Rashad said, rocking Jazz in his arms.
“Rashad,” Kiara said, “why are you acting so possessive?”
“You know exactly why. Don’t you remember the way you’ve played me with Myles the past few months? You’ve dictated when I can see him. The exact hours I can see him. By law, you did not have the right to do that. And I don’t like how you put me in that position by using our son as a pawn. That will not be happening with our daughter.”
The nurse stepped in between them. “Shhh.” She hissed. “Whatever issues you have, this is not the time or the place. You all are going to have to lower your voices. Don’t think I won’t call security.”
“But I’m the father. If anything, call security on that guy. He has no good reason to be here.”
Kiara’s tiredness didn’t stop her from chiming in. Eddison joined her. Then Rashad had a few words to say. The nurse clapped her hands.
“Everyone! Calm down and watch your tone. Jazz doesn’t deserve this. Kiara is in recovery and this room must be cleared. Come on, give the baby to me right now,” the nurse pleaded with Rashad. “It’s time to take little Jazz.”
