by B. M. Hardin
It wasn’t too big or too small.
It was cozy and the perfect house to raise a family in.
And I was hoping that somehow we could still somehow make that happen.
I sat at the counter, took a bite of my yogurt, and started to think about the future.
A house full of Dray’s babies was like Heaven on earth for me.
Nothing would be better.
Nothing would be sweeter.
We’d always said that we wanted a house full of kids.
I was used to it since I came up with a few siblings, so I wanted the same for my kids.
I think Drake’s reasoning was simple.
He was an only child and he hated it.
He hated the feeling of being alone in a sense and he didn’t want that for any child of his own.
But he had the right one because I would push out as many babies as he wanted me to.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Finishing up my snack, my phone started to vibrate.
It was Lee Lee.
I didn’t really feel like being bothered so I let it go to voicemail.
She was probably calling to complain about Vicki, again, and I wasn’t in the mood to hear it.
Just as I was about to stand up, the phone started to vibrate again.
But this time, it was Kane.
He was still calling every now and then as though I would ever answer any of his calls.
After that little stunt that he pulled that day in front of Jinx, I never wanted to see or speak to him again.
I wished death on him.
And I hoped that it was long, painful, and slow.
To be in the clear, I went ahead and told Drake what he’d said about the condom breaking, once.
I didn’t want to tell him but I figured that it was better to be upfront about everything so that Kane couldn’t use anything against me and so that Drake didn’t end up hating me even more in the long run.
I was sure that Kane was lying and that the baby was Drake’s, but telling him was definitely the right thing to do.
I just knew that it would push any hopes of us getting closer again, back a little more than I’d wanted it to, but it was better safe than sorry.
He would see that Kane was lying and that this baby was his, and then everything could go back to normal.
Kane stopped calling and then he sent a text.
I didn’t even bother reading it.
I erased it, left my phone on the counter and then headed back to the living room.
The doorbell ranged before I could take a seat and I answered it hoping that it was the movers with the rest of my things.
But I was wrong.
It all happened so fast that I didn’t see it coming.
The blows to the face caught me off guard, but I reacted to them instantly with my fists.
Only seconds into it all, I knew that the attackers were women; at least two of them were women because their hair slipped from under their masks and hood.
I fought as hard as I could.
I was swinging from left to right and I was fighting with everything that I had in me.
My fists were hurting but the pain that was coming to other parts of my body was so much worse.
I took three blows to the back of the head back to back and somehow I lost my balance and I went down.
I tried to fight on my back for a while, but it was no use.
At that point all I could do was ball up and try to protect myself.
The four of them kicked me, punched me, stomped me, choked me, pulled me by my hair and even taunted me as though it was a personal vendetta.
I guess maybe in a way it was.
I started to black out.
My eyes were closing, and I could feel warm blood coming from my nose, mouth and even from my head.
Finally they stopped and the last thing I heard was the tires screeching.
I laid there unable to move.
Unable to scream.
It was as though I was having a flashback from the prior incident at the condo, only this one was ten times worse.
I was in so much pain.
Did this really just happen?
I tried to scream for help again but I couldn’t even open my mouth.
Damn it.
Where was my phone?
Blacking out I remembered that it was on the counter in the kitchen.
Somebody help me…please.
~***~
My eyes opened only for a second.
I could see all of my sisters, my brother, Daddy and Drake.
Everyone immediately started talking all at once, but I couldn’t exactly make out what they were saying.
I heard them.
But it was as though I couldn’t register what they were talking about.
Though I tried to fight it, my eyes closed and everything became pitch black again, but my mind was still racing.
Somehow, I thought about my teens.
I’d always been a little mature for my age.
My mind developed a lot faster than my body did and I was always mistaken to be a little older than I actually was.
Most old folks said that I had an old soul and I believed them for the most part.
Anyway, I remembered being over at Drake’s one day.
As I stated Drake and I grew up together as small children and we were pretty much best friends.
We did everything together.
We shared everything with each other.
I was always at his house or he was at mine, until we started dating and once he started to get into trouble.
But I remembered talking with his Mom one day.
I was maybe about sixteen years old at the time.
What started out as a casual conversation, somehow turned into something else and she somehow went into depth about her marriage and about how unhappy she was and the fact that Drake’s father was unhappy with her.
For the most part I didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about but once Drake’s father came into the house and announced to her that he had sent Drake to the store for a few things, things got real; real fast, and real soon.
Basically, they wanted me to be a part of some kind of sexual act.
A threesome maybe.
I wasn’t quite sure.
At first I thought that it was a joke, but I soon found out that it wasn’t once his father sat close to me and his mother started to tell me that everything was going to be okay and rub my hair.
I was a virgin then, but she told me that it would only hurt for a little while and then it would feel good.
I remembered starting to panic, but just before I could, Drake appeared stating that he had come back to see if I’d wanted to walk with him.
I remembered the disturbed look on his face as I jumped up and ran to his side.
His parents acted as though nothing was wrong but as soon as we were out of the house, I told Drake what had happened and what had been said.
We were young, but he was so angry and he promised me that he would never let anything happen to me and that no one would ever hurt me.
He said that he would always have my back as long as I had his.
Needless to say, the very next day on their way to work, his parent’s brakes went out in their car and they slammed into an 18 wheeler truck, head on, dying instantly.
I’m not saying Drake did it but…I’m sure that he did.
His uncle had taught him so many different skills; from farming to mechanical work, so I was sure that he’d done the unthinkable.
He hadn’t thought about being homeless.
He hadn’t thought about becoming an orphan.
He hadn’t thought about the fact that those were the people who had birthed him, his loved ones---his parents.
He’d only thought about me.
And he’d gotten away with it.
We never discussed it but the fact that he didn’t even cry at the funeral had been my
confirmation.
He was guilty, and he didn’t feel bad about it either.
I knew then that he loved me more than I even realized and as scary as that type of love was for me back then, I needed him to feel just a piece of that for me now.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been out, but by the time I opened my eyes, the next time, only Drake was there.
He was in half a suit, with blood all over his shirt, so I figured that he had come home and found me on the floor, again, but this time beaten near death.
I started to recall everything that had happened all at once and I gasped as I touched my stomach.
“Moet, calm down.”
Drake stood up and came closer to me.
“Is the baby okay?”
He ignored me so I touched my stomach again.
“Answer me. Is the baby okay?”
He shook his head.
“No. You lost the baby and the doctor’s said that you will never be able to have children. It looked as though whoever did this to you, stomped you in your stomach numerous of times almost causing a few things to rupture. They thought maybe you were going to have a hysterectomy too, but they aren’t sure yet. The baby was gone before I’d gotten home to find you and got you here. There was so much blood everywhere. I’m so sorry Moe,” Dray cried.
Instantly, I joined him.
I was crying because I was hurting both physically and emotionally, but I was also furious.
Not my baby!
Why did I have to lose the baby?
Who would do something like that to somebody?
It just didn’t make sense.
And I could never get pregnant again?
This just could not be happening to me!
Before I could stop myself, I started to scream.
Doctors and nurse’s rushed in but I still kept screaming.
Drake tried to assist but nothing was working and I heard the doctor order a nurse to go get something to calm me down.
I screamed and cried at the top of my lungs.
“No! No! No! Not my baby! Why! Why!”
My cries were so agonizing that everyone around me, including the doctor was either shedding tears or just all out crying too.
My life sucked!
Why couldn’t I just be happy?
Why couldn’t things ever just go right for me?
The other nurse returned and put something into my IV.
I was still crying and screaming but a few moments later, I opened my mouth but nothing came out of it.
I wanted to yell but I couldn’t.
I wanted to scream but the instant effect of the medicine wouldn’t let me.
So I just laid there and quietly cried instead.
My baby was dead.
My little angel was gone.
They had taken my baby from me and any chance at a big happy family.
Who would do this and why?
Who would be so cruel?
And then it hit me.
Whoever did this to me was going to pay for it and I had a pretty good idea who was behind it all.
Jinx.
She’d threatened me and actually followed through on it.
She really believed Kane and that there was a possibility that this baby was his and kept her word with handling things her way.
And now I had to handle her my way.
She was going to pay for this and the only payment acceptable for her taking my unborn child’s life was repaying me with her own.
I wanted nothing more than her blood on my hands.
She was already dead and she didn’t even know it yet.
The doctor and nurses exited the room and Drake sat down beside me to hold my hand.
He was crying more than I was and as he started to breakdown, he started to talk to me and he told me that what had happened scared him half to death and he actually said that he loved me.
Seeing that he was losing full control of his emotions, he just got up and walked out of the room.
I wanted to react or do something but the medicine wouldn’t let me.
I just laid there.
And with thoughts of killing Jinx on my mind, soon it was lights out for me again and the best part about it was that I could kill Jinx over and over again in my dreams.
And I loved every minute of it.
Almost a week after the incident, I came home and I stared at the blood on the carpet.
That was the blood from my baby, or maybe it was from my head, my mouth and wherever else, but staring at it just made me relive the horror all over again.
I was just so angry and full of rage.
Maybe Drake should have come to clean it up before I was home but he had barely left the hospital the whole time, and when he did, it was only to run down the street to a department store to pick up a few things for him to change into daily after he showered.
He never left my side.
I’d come home on crutches, with casts and everything else.
They’d wanted to keep me a little longer but I refused.
Outside of the broken arm, dislocated leg, slight concussion, fist size knot on my head, fractured hand, black eye, busted lip and losing the baby…I was fine.
In all honesty I should have stayed, but I had enough medicine to last a lifetime and Drake vowed to stay home and care for me.
I just couldn’t stay in there one more day.
The police came and I gave them Kane’s and Jinx’s information.
I told them of the threat that she’d made towards me and I was positive that she was behind it all.
I didn’t know where she lived but I gave them Kane’s condo and the car lot and restaurant.
Though they were supposed to pull her in for questioning or whatever, she had better hoped that they locked her ass up.
That was the only way that she was going to be safe from me.
“You want to get comfortable in the bedroom? I’m going to clean this mess up,” Dray said.
I shook my head no and hopped over to the couch.
“Could you go bring me a glass of water so I can take some pain medicine?”
Drake nodded and headed to the kitchen as I tried to get comfortable.
I’ll admit, they’d beat me up pretty bad.
One of them even had on brass knuckles and I had bruises all over me as a result of it.
But on my Mama’s grave, if I ever found out who they were, I was going back to prison.
And this time I would be going with a smile on my face.
Dray returned with the glass of water and carrying my phone.
“Here you go. And this was on the counter,” he said reaching it to me.
I was surprised that it wasn’t dead from sitting there for days, but it only had about 10% of battery life on it.
I took the medicine and then I went through my missed calls.
Some had been from my sisters, Drake and even Kane.
I cringed at the sight of his name.
I headed to the text messages and saw that even after the one that I had erased from Kane, he had sent another one.
Instead of erasing it, this time, I decided to read it.
I opened it and my eyes became as big as golf balls as I read the text message to myself.
“Moet, I was trying to warn you. Whatever you do, don’t open your front door.”
What?
*************************
Chapter THREE
“Ugh,” Lee Lee groaned.
I looked at her and waited for her to continue.
The girls were taking turns coming to sit with me while Drake worked.
Though they all had their own careers and other things to tend to, everyone worked together to be there for me; though I insisted that I was fine and well enough to stay home alone.
“I wish she would just leave me alone.”
I was still quiet.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her or still love her as my sister, I just felt t
he need to watch her a little.
And besides, I already knew who she was talking about and from the looks of it, she had a lot on her mind and she was determined to get some things off of it.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.”
I figured that she wanted me to engage in conversation so I finally asked her a question.
“Who?”
“Vicki. I told her that the whole phase thing for me was over but she doesn’t seem to be taking it so well. She’s crazy. And I’m not exaggerating. She really is a mental case.”
I shook my head and proceeded to give her the “I told you so” speech.
Lee Lee had always been a lover of penis so I knew that whatever she was going through that had made her cross over to the other side was only seasonal or momentarily.
Dick had always been her favorite food.
And her giving it up…
Who was she kidding?
“Well what is she saying?”
“What isn’t she saying is more like it. She wants to know why and who and no answer I give her seems to be good enough. She calls non-stop. Comes over at all times of the night. She even came to my job. She just needs to go away.”
“You know, she didn’t strike me as being into women. I honestly thought she had a thing for Kane.”
“Oh she does. But that’s between you and I. She will never admit to it though. And of course, she can’t act on it because Naomi is her sister and all, but if she could, I believe that she would. The attraction that she has for him is clear. And supposedly, I was the first woman that she’d ever been with too. But I think that’s a lie.”
Naomi.
I hadn’t heard much about her and I definitely hadn’t seen her.
I was sure that she was still somewhere being Kane’s side chick. Or should she simply be called his baby mama?
I wasn’t sure how far along she was but she was probably big and pregnant with his second baby by now.
I briefly wondered if she had been behind the attack but I doubted it.
Hell, her concern was Kane; not Drake.
I was sure that it was Jinx.
And Kane texted me and tried to warn me.
Yep.
He knew his wife was up to no good.
But revenge was my middle name and she was going to get hers.
“You called me the day of the attack. What for?” I asked Lee Lee, just remembering that she’d called me only seconds before Kane did.
“I think I was calling to complain about Vicki. Most likely that’s what it was,” she said and shrugged.
