Twinkle laughed at what I said as she shook her head.
“Ima tell Billionaire you said that,” she joked.
“Girl, I swear I don’t care. It’s not even Sidnesha who’s the problem. Shockingly, me and her are actually cool. A few of those gift bags over there came from her. She dropped them off earlier this afternoon when she dropped off Lil’ Bill. Because I have a relationship with her son and he’s my stepson, it’s like I have to have a relationship with her as well. We talk, but often, it’s about Lil’ Bill, and she’s even given me advice when it comes to my pregnancy. I can tolerate Sidnesha, but Twinkle, it’s that damn Denim,” I said and rolled my eyes.
Twinkle looked at me with a shocked expression because this was new to her. I hadn’t said anything to anyone about it. Hell, I hadn’t even told my own husband, because I didn’t need the unnecessary drama.
“What? What the hell did Denim do?” Twinkle asked.
I sighed and leaned back in the chair.
“You know Khari is a sponge, and you have to be mindful of the things you say around her because she’ll go right back and repeat it. I was giving her a bath the other night, and she started telling me a bunch of things that she heard her mama say. It started out with her telling me how Denim hates the therapy sessions that she has to do, and then the conversation went all the way left, and she started repeating stuff that a five-year-old shouldn’t even be around to hear, let alone repeat.
“Basically, she heard her mother tell one of her friends that Billionaire and I are going to have one black ass, ugly baby. Something else along the lines of Billionaire only marrying me because he wanted to prove a point that he was over Denim and Sidnesha, and how he doesn’t love me for real. It was just stupid stuff that Khari was telling me, and I knew she was telling the truth because the things she was saying had to come from an adult’s mouth.
“Oh, and let me not leave out that Billionaire is cheating on me, and she’s going to beat my ass when she sees me for trying to take her spot when she was in a coma. Not sure when I’ll be around Denim because I haven’t seen her since yall’s grandmother’s party, but I plan to have a few words with her because I can’t let her think that it’s okay to disrespect me. The only reason I haven’t told Billionaire is that I know he’s going to go and confront her on my behalf. She already thinks I’m scary, so I’ll just handle this one on my own,” I said to Twinkle.
“Wowwwww, Normani. That bitch has some fuckin’ big ass balls! I guess after being in a coma for almost three months, that bitch is still the damn same. You would think that she would be appreciative of you being in Khari’s life because you have been the one keeping up with her hair, helping her with her homework, and dressing her. Leave it up to Billion, and he’ll be dressing her up like a little boy. She ought to be thanking you instead of being mad at you. That hoe is so fuckin’ jealous that it’s crazy.
“Only a fool would fix they lips to say that you and Billion’s baby is going to be ugly. Girl, that baby is going to be drop-dead gorgeous. I lowkey shouldn’t even be pregnant at the same time as you. I should have just let you bless the world with your beautiful baby, and then I bring mine in about two years later,” Twinkle joked.
“Twinkle, please! Your child will be beautiful as hell. Come on. Your cousin is ushering me with his hands, telling me to bring my ass on,” I said before standing up, and she followed me.
I walked over to where Billion was standing with his arms wide and walked into his embrace.
“What you was over there running your mouth about?” he asked.
“Nothing. Come on. I’m trying to see if I’m carrying your junior in my stomach,” I said, then pulled away from him and did a little dance. It was my happy dance because I was excited.
My husband looked over at me and shook his head.
“You gon’ be real upset when you find out that you carrying my daughter. They say when you fuck from the back, you can get a boy. I done had you down on yo’ ass, on yo’ stomach, against the wall, on yo’ side, you done rode me, so I really don’t know which position I scored with. Damn. That just means we fuck too much if I can’t remember.” He groaned and pulled me to him.
Like no one else was out here, he lifted me by my behind, held me in his arms, and slowly bounced me.
“Billionaire, stop! If you going to do all this, you might as well pull your dick out and fuck me! Put me down. It’s kids out here,” I said, half protesting because I really didn’t want him to put me down. I felt so comfortable in his arms.
“Shit. That’s what I’m trying to do. Come on. Let’s sneak out to the room that’s down here. I don’t even need a minute. I need like forty-five seconds with you. I hate when you wear shit like this around me. I get to tripping.” He groaned and then leaned his head in and bit me softly on my neck, causing me to let out a groan mixed with a moan.
I thought about the guest bedroom on the lower level of our home that we could use the back door to sneak in and get a quickie, but I also thought about how everyone would be looking for us. I had a way of walking funny after having sex, so I knew my walk would tell it all, and everyone would know what we ran off to do. My mama was there. It was one thing for her to know that I was having sex, but to be having sex while she’s not that far away from me, no, I couldn’t.
“Billion, put that girl down, so we can find out what my grandbaby is going to be! Come on, with your mannish ass,” his mama came over and said, making me laugh as I was lowered down to the ground.
Billion’s mother was in blue because, just like me, she was hoping for a boy. She was always going off about how Khari was the only granddaughter she would need because that little girl was a handful, especially with her mouth. It was half and half today because about 50% of the people there wanted us to have a girl, then the other 50% were hoping for a boy.
Never did I think in a million years that a big part of my life would be happening, like my having my first child, and my father wouldn’t be there to witness these precious moments. It just felt so weird that these people were there to support my husband and me, yet my father was nowhere to be found. The crazy thing is, he may not be a part of my life, but he always knew what the hell was taking place with me. Nobody from his church was there, so hopefully, this would be something that he wouldn’t get the privilege to know about.
I didn’t even want him to know what my baby looked like. That’s just how deep my hatred for him had been running these days.
“Trust me, Ma, she ain’t want me to put her down. You came one second too early. I almost had her agreeing to follow a nigga to the back room,” he said, and I playfully hit him on his arm because he was talking too much.
He was right, though; it would only have taken just a little bit more convincing on his part, and I promise you, he would have had my legs to the ceiling by now.
“Everything that you got two of today, like the crib, the strollers, you might as well keep all of it. There’s no doubt in my mind that right after you pop this baby out, another one will follow it within a matter of months,” his mom said, reciting what everybody had been telling us for a while.
When she left, my mom came over. I hugged her and kissed her cheek. She smiled big as she put her hands on my stomach and massaged it in a circular motion.
“I’m so happy, Mommy,” I told her, beaming with joy.
“I know you are. I can see it all over your face. I’m proud of you, Normani. You never let anyone steal your joy. Not even your own father,” she said, and her voice cracked.
“Don’t cry, Ma. We’re about to find out if I’m carrying your handsome little grandson,” I said and pulled her to me, not wanting to see my mother cry.
Life had been hard on my mother over the past few months. It was like she wanted to tell more of what my father had done, but each time I felt that she was about to tell the truth about my father, she would always hold back. It was something about him that we didn’t know. For example, a couple of months ago, my olde
r sister, Naomi, commented, “Ma, your marriage couldn’t have been that bad.” Mind you, Naomi only said that because my mom had mentioned that she hadn’t been happy in over a decade.
My mom responded, “My child, if only you knew.” Since then, I’ve been wondering what my mama meant by that, but she still hadn’t said it.
She’d already let me know that my father used to be abusive back in the day, but she didn’t go into detail. It seemed like she didn’t want to tarnish the image we had of our father more than it already was, which is why she wasn’t letting my sister and me in on certain things. She would rather suffer in silence. I just wanted her to gain her happiness back. So far, she had been doing everything that she talked about doing, like getting on a schedule to preach at local prisons a few days a week, and she’d even done it at a couple of shelters as well.
I wanted my mom to be in a place where she no longer had to be in any pain when it came to my father. That was why it meant so much for the church to hurry up and get remodeled. I wanted her to have something of her own and follow her passion because I knew how much my mother loved to minister and sing. My mom knew the bible like I knew medicine. Whenever someone was feeling any emotion, whether it was sadness, depression, anger, whatever, she knew exactly what scripture to reference.
She had gone long enough, standing in the shadows of my father. It was her turn to show out. I held onto her for a few more minutes, and then Billionaire’s mother took the microphone from the DJ and called my husband and me over because it was time to find out what we were having.
There were so many people crowded in our backyard, and everyone already had their phones in their hands, ready to capture this moment. My husband held the lighter, which he would use to light the box on the ground, which housed the fireworks. Khari and Lil Bill were standing beside me, both jumping up and down, ready to see if they were about to have a little brother or a sister.
“Okay. We’re going to count down. Y’all ready?” Billionaire’s mother asked over the mic.
Everyone screamed that they were ready, and then the countdown began…
“Ten… nine… eight…”
We finally got to, one and my husband lit the box. In less than a second, pink fireworks burst into the air. I released a spoiled scream once I saw that it was a girl, and I didn’t get what I wanted. My husband beat on his chest, and then he ran over and lifted me in the air, kissing me all over my face as he expressed his happiness. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted. I couldn’t even be mad that I didn’t get my handsome, juicy son because the excitement that came from my husband overshadowed all that.
I looked into the crowd of people, and everyone was pleased with the outcome. Even people like me, who were team boy, were happy about our daughter. My husband eventually put me down, and once he did, I hugged my mother, my sister, and everyone else. Fireworks were still going off in the background, making this moment so special for all of us.
Two hours later
“You should sleep real good tonight. You played your little heart out all night,” I said to Khari as I assisted her with putting on her pajamas.
We were in our bedroom, and I was sitting at the foot of the bed after I’d just helped give her a quick shower. Billionaire was behind me, lying on his side of the bed, skimming through channels on the television and calling out some of the most outrageous names he could think of for our baby girl. I wanted a unique name that many people didn’t have, and Billionaire was definitely going out of his way to give me some unique names, but I hated every single one he came up with.
I was already in my pajamas, and as soon as Khari left out our bedroom, I planned to crash and call it a night. I definitely did too much tonight, and I felt it all in my back and my feet. There were so many sweets at the gender reveal, and I indulged in just about everything there. This little girl was kicking up a storm, so I really didn’t think she would allow me to go to sleep so soon.
“Bae, what about Currency?” Billionaire asked from behind me.
Khari giggled as I rolled my eyes. She probably could tell that her dad was annoying the hell out of me with his names.
“Billionaire, no! I don’t like that,” I told him.
“What? Why not? Currency is pretty as hell, and it’s unique like you were saying. How many female Currencys you know?” he asked.
“None, because nobody liked the name,” I joked as I stood up from the bed and stretched.
Billionaire looked over at me and shook his head. He stood up from the bed in his gray pajama bottoms and his durag on his head. The man hadn’t stopped cheesing since he found out that we were having a little girl. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this happy.
“I’m about to take a piss. I’ll think of some more names while I’m in there. We’re going to settle this shit tonight,” he said before he walked down the mini hallway that led to our master bathroom.
The second he walked out of the room, a phone started vibrating on the bed. I looked down, and it was Khari’s cellphone ringing. Yes, this five and a half year old little girl had an iPhone XS Max. It was her mother calling her, and she was doing it via Facetime. Khari flopped her little body down on the bed and answered the phone for her mother while I straightened up the little mess in the room.
“Hey, Mama,” Khari answered, followed by a light yawn because her little butt was so sleepy.
“I thought I told you not to get your hair wet! That’s your problem now, you don’t fuckin’ listen. I specifically told your little ass not to get your hair wet!” I heard Denim saying to her daughter.
I bit my bottom lip, trying to hold myself back from walking over there, snatching that phone out of Khari’s hands, and saying something to Denim. Khari had gotten her ponytails soaking wet today in the pool, so I had to wash it for her while she was in the shower. Right now, it was plaited because tomorrow, when I took the braids out, her hair would go back to being curly. I just needed to do something quick with her hair tonight because she was tired, and it was way past her bedtime. Hell, it was well after midnight, which is why I was confused about why Denim was calling so late.
“Mama, I was in the pool with my big brother and my other cousins. They were playing so rough, and they had threw me in the pool. It was an accident,” Khari said in her little sleepy voice.
“Khari, I don’t care about all that. I told you not to get your hair wet. I’m picking your little ass up from over there tomorrow and—”
I quickly set down the items that were in my hands and placed them on the nightstand. I rushed to take the phone from Khari’s hand, and now I was looking Denim square in her face. When my face popped onto the screen, she sucked her teeth and instantly stopped talking.
“I know once I say my peace, you’re probably going to say something like this is your child, and I don’t have a say so in any of this, but technically I do because this is my stepchild. We had our gender reveal today, mixed with a pool party. Every single child in the pool today got their hair wet. My husband nor I knew that Khari wasn’t supposed to have gotten her hair wet. Had we known, maybe I would have tried to prevent that from happening, but I know that her dad wouldn’t have batted an eye to interfere with his daughter having fun with the rest of the kids. If you’re worried about her having chlorine in her hair, I’ve already washed and treated her hair for the night. She’s fine. Fine and sleepy. You can call her back in the morning at a more reasonable time, please. Khari, go to your room, baby,” I told her.
Khari quickly got down from the bed, kissed me on my cheek, and then she ran out of the room. When I finished my peace with Denim, I was about to hang up the phone on her, but then she let out a sarcastic laugh. I decided to entertain her for a little while because I wanted to see what she had to say next. From the looks of things, she was in her bedroom because I could see the headboard in the background.
“Bitch, you got a little peanut growing inside of you, and you think you are the spokesperson for mothers around the world? Lik
e I told you the last time I saw you, fuck you! Nobody was talking to your black ass anyway! I was talking to my fuckin’ daughter!” she screamed at me.
“You were talking to your daughter, cursing at her, like she was one of your homegirls, so I had to jump in and intervene! This may be my first child, but credit me, sweetheart, because I work with kids for a living. I can teach you a thing or two! While I got you on the phone, you need to watch what you say to Khari or watch what you say around her because she tells me everything that you sit so bitterly over there and say about me—”
“And I mean every fuckin’ thing I say! Hoe, I’m supposed to be scared of you?” she asked, and at the same time, Billionaire was walking into the bedroom.
He had a confused look on his face as he rushed over to me. He tried to take the phone out of my hands, but I pushed him back and ran from him because I was getting ready to finish her!
“You don’t have to be scared of me! All I ask is that you respect me! And to think that I actually spent the last few months praying that you woke up from your coma! You should have stayed exactly where the hell you were with your nasty ass spirit! You want to make me out to be the enemy so damn bad when you have bigger problems that you need to be worrying about, like learning how to fuckin’ walk again! You talking to me crazy, like I haven’t been the woman in your daughter’s life that’s been helping to look after Khari. Showing her how to sit with her legs crossed, teaching her how to pray at night, going over homework with her, and whatever else.
“You haven’t liked me since the moment you laid eyes on me, and I know my presence bothers you, but I’m sorry because I don’t plan on going anywhere. I’m going to be a part of your daughter’s life and your baby daddy’s life, whether you like it or not. Now, call Khari back in the morning. She’s going to sleep for the night,” I said and hung up.
Turned Out by His Hood Mentality 3 Page 14
