"Kay Kay, I'm riding with you," Synai said as she stomped over to her with an attitude. She had no words to say to Deonte right now and she wasn't hiding the fact that she was pissed with him.
Kaiah glanced up at Deonte and didn't miss the flash of hurt she saw in his eyes before he climbed in the car. While everyone else got in the car, Kaiah pulled Synai to the side to talk to her. "Synai, I know you're mad at your brother right now, and I understand why, but right now you have to push all that aside and be there for him. He's really hurting right now and you know better than anybody how close he and Carlos was. You know when it all boils down to it, we're going to be there for him no matter how pissed we are, so just ignore her and be there for him. Can you do that for me?"
Synai put her head down because she never thought of it like that. "You're right, forget her," she said as she hugged Kaiah and kissed her cheek before rubbing her belly. Synai ran and got in the car with her brother while Kaiah climbed in and sat by her daddy.
~ ~ ~
Everything was going fine and the funeral was lovely. Kaily held herself together as best as she could. They pulled up to the cemetery where Carlos would be being buried and they noticed a truck with a Georgia license plate. "Who is that?" Kaison asked.
Kaily looked up and let out a loud sigh. "That would be nobody but his crazy ass mama and even crazier sister. Just prepare for it to be some drama, and the way I'm feeling, I might go to jail today."
"Not today, honey," Stacy said. "You have two mommas right here that got yo back."
"And a little sister that will go to war with anybody," Kaiah said.
Senior, Orlando and Kaison just shook their heads as they walked over to the burial plot. Kaiah held one of Kaily's hands while Kaison held the other and Senior and Orlando stood side by side behind her.
The preacher said The Lord's Prayer and Kaily put her flower on his casket before kissing it and that was when she finally broke down. Senior pushed through everyone and took his oldest daughter in his arms. That just made her cry harder as they walked back to the car.
"I wonder what was the point in coming if they weren't even going to get out and say there final goodbyes," Kaiah said to Kaison.
"I'm with you twin. I don't know about you, but I smell some bullshit brewing," he said.
The ride back to Kaiah's was a quiet one. Everyone was stuck in their thoughts. Kaily couldn't believe that she had just said her final goodbye to the man that she had given her heart to. She was wishing that she could take back that last fight that they had. They both said some things that they didn't mean, but she never wanted him to go out like that.
She felt like they could have worked out any problems they may have had or he could have just come and talked to her about what was bothering him. She was now blaming herself for walking out and staying gone for days at a time instead of going home and trying to work out.
Kaiah and Synai changed into some more comfortable clothes before fixing everyone's plates. Kaiah noticed that Deonte wasn't anywhere in sight so she went to find him. She found him outside with Kaily, Orlando and some lady she didn't know.
"Hey, y'all can come eat," she announced.
She noticed the look of murder in Kaily's eyes and was trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Mama Netta, this is Kaiah, my wife," Deonte said and Kaiah shot him a funny look.
"Hmp, I thought you and Sherae were together." She rolled her eyes.
"Nope, legally he's still mines," Kaiah said, matching her attitude. She turned to her sister. "What's wrong, Butterfly?"
"She's the reason my son is gone, that's what's wrong. If it wasn't for her, my son would still be here!"
Kaiah quickly snapped her head around and looked at this lady like she had lost her mind. "Come again? Because I know I just heard you wrong." Deonte tried to grab Kaiah's arm and pull her back, but she snatched her arm away from him and gave him a look that said 'you know better.'
"Fuck you, bitch. I have nothing to do with what he did. Do you know how the fuck that felt to see him blow his fucking brains out in my face? No, you don't because you weren't there!" Kaily yelled as Orlando held her back.
"Who the fuck you calling a bitch? I know you not talking to my momma like that," the girl Kaiah assumed to be Carlos' said as she ran out the house.
"Hold on, baby girl. You running up on the wrong one," Kaiah said as she stepped in front of her.
"Kaiah, you're pregnant, chill out," Deonte said.
"Fuck that, you better get these simple bitches in check. This is my house and I'll be damned if I let somebody disrespect my sister in my shit. If they were so worried and concerned where they hell was they when I was coming out of pocket paying for shit?" Kaiah asked.
By now, everyone had come out of the house and was standing in the front yard trying to figure out what was going on. "What's wrong, Princess?" Senior asked.
"This old biddy blaming Kaily for Carlos' death. That's what's wrong. Then her orangutan-looking daughter call herself trying to run up."
"Bitch, what you just call me?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't speak monkey, but I'm sure you got the hint," Kaiah spat.
"Deonte, I think you need to check this bitch. She done disrespected my family too much," Sherae said.
Everyone got quiet and looked at Sherae like she was crazy. Kaison noticed this look come over his sister and before he could even get to her, all hell broke loose. Kaiah socked Sherae so hard that she lifted up off the ground. Deonte picked Kaiah up before she could get another swing in and carried her in the house.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? What I tell you about that fighting shit while you carrying my child Kaiah?!" he yelled.
"She asked for that shit Tae, if you knew how to control yo bitches I wouldn't have to go through this." Kaiah said as she paced back and forth. She was on ten. "Carlos ain't even been in the ground for two hours yet and he can't even rest peacefully without all the bullshit."
Deonte shook his head as he sat on the couch with his head in his hands. He heard a loud commotion coming from the front door and next thing he knew, Sherae had come storming through the door at Kaiah. She grabbed Kaiah by her hair from the back and pulled her down to the ground while punching her in the stomach in the process.
Deonte jumped off of the couch and punched Sherae off of pure reflex. He looked down at Kaiah holding her stomach before he could really process what was going on. "Oh shit!" he yelled.
Sherae grabbed her busted nose and started swinging on Deonte. He was about to backhand her until Kaison grabbed her. "Fuck this bitch and get my sister to the fucking hospital!" he yelled.
Deonte was silently cussing himself out as he scooped Kaiah up in his arms. He was praying that she didn't lose this baby because if she did, he would really be going to prison for murder this time.
12
Kaiah sat up in her hospital bed with an attitude. She looked over at the monitors that they had hooked up to her stomach to monitor her baby's heartbeat. They kept telling her to calm down and try not to stress, but that was hard to do when she had murder on the brain. She looked over at Deonte with a look of disgust in her eyes. She didn't know how she should feel about him right now. He had been here with her since he brought her to the hospital a day ago, but they hadn't uttered one word to each other.
“You can go home now, I don't need you feeling sorry for me,” she said.
He kept playing on his phone like he didn't hear a word she said. Kaiah tilted her head to the side. “Deonte, the baby is fine so you don't have—“
“Shut the fuck up Kaiah!” he snapped. “I don't care what you do or what you say, I'm not going anywhere and yo ass ain't either. I fucked up, you fucked, we fucked up together! That day I put that damn ring on your finger I said until death do us fucking part, death, Kaiah, so if you don't plan on dying right now, shut all that rah rah shit up. I know I seriously fucked up this time, but I'm going to fix it.
“Do you even realize how man
y times you done been in the fucking hospital since you've been pregnant? You be worried about all the wrong shit when you need to be worried about what's the most important. Now lay the fuck down, get some rest and stop fucking stressing my daughter before I have to fuck you up,” Deonte said before walking out of the room.
Truth was, he wasn't even mad at Kaiah. He was mad at himself for even allowing her to be in this position. He allowed his moment of weakness turn out to be more than it should have when he allowed Sherae in his bed. Shit went too far this time and she had disrespected his wife for the last time. Not only did she put Kaiah’s life in danger this time, but she also could have caused her to lose his child and that was unacceptable. “I need some fresh air,” he said out loud to himself.
Deonte went outside to his car to fire up a much needed blunt. His mind was all over the place, as were his feelings. He wasn't going to front like he didn't still love Kaiah or that he wasn’t miserable without her. He hated that their relationship was hanging on by a thread. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to be happily married and anticipating the arrival of their daughter.
He was scrolling through his phone and ran across some pictures he took of Kaiah the last time they were happy. He smiled at the memory of how they made love, which happened to be the night he got her pregnant. Next he came across a video. He pressed play and smiled as he recognized what it was.
"You love me?" he asked.
"Of course I love you, silly." Kaiah smiled.
"Let me hear you say it then."
"I, Kaiah Andrea Smith, love you, Deonte Martez Smith. You mean the world to me and I'll never love another the way I love you," Kaiah said before blowing a kiss at his phone.
That video ignited something in him. It was seriously time for them to get their shit together and stop playing around. If not for themselves, then the least they could do was get it together for their daughter.
Kaiah sat in the bed pouting. She wanted Deonte to come back just so she could cuss him out, but there was nothing she could say that she hadn't already said. She scooted down in the bed and let the tears fall as she listened to her daughter’s heartbeat. She was tired of doing this with Deonte. She loved him, but it seemed like they were more like strangers now than husband and wife.
She picked up the hospital phone and called her parents’ house. She didn't care which one answered, but she just needed one of them to talk to right now. “Hello?” Dolly answered.
“Hi Mommy,” Kaiah said as her voice shook.
“What's wrong Kay Kay? Me and your dad were getting ready to come up there.”
“I need a break. I seriously need one before I have a mental breakdown. Too much is going on and I don't know how much more I can take,” Kaiah cried.
“Calm down Kaiah and stop crying. It’s not good for the baby, especially right now. Just take a deep breath, everything will be fine.”
“Everything is not going to be fine, mom. Everything has been going wrong since two weeks after I got married. I didn’t even get to bask in my happiness before my joy got ripped away from me. Every time I try to be happy, I get hit with some bullshit. Then on top of that, I don’t even know how to be a mother. I’ve been stressing my baby out and putting her into some bullshit since I’ve found out about her,” Kaiah said.
Deonte stood in the doorway watching Kaiah pour out her heart to her mother. He was wondering why she couldn’t just talk to him like that and let him know how she was feeling instead of holding everything in and running away all the time. He walked in the room and sat on her bed. He took the phone out of her hand and put it to his ear.
“It’s cool, ma. I got it from here,” he said.
“Okay, just make sure she calms down before they never let her out of the damn hospital,” Dolly fussed.
“I’m on it now,” Deonte said as he hung up the phone. He and Kaiah just stared at each other while their daughter’s heartbeat played in the background. He reached up and wiped her tears away. “You know you look so much better when you smile,” he said.
“I don’t have a reason to smile.”
“Bullshit, you’re carrying our daughter and you both are healthy. That’s reason enough to smile.”
“Well that’s the only thing I have to smile about.” Kaiah sighed.
“What else matters?” Deonte shrugged.
“I just…never mind.”
Deonte wanted to shake her and make her spit it out because he was so frustrated, but he was going to leave it alone for now. He knew it would take some time for them to get back to where they used to be. It wasn't like he could just snap his fingers and everything would be back to normal.
There was a knock at the door. Deonte looked like he had just seen a ghost and Kaiah just rolled her eyes.
“You are one bold bitch to be coming here,” Kaiah sneered.
“I didn’t come here to fight with you Kaiah, I actually came to help you,” Naomi said nervously.
Deonte looked from Kaiah to Naomi with a confused look on his face. To his knowledge, Naomi was dead. He had no idea that she was alive and kicking. “Hold the fuck up, what is going on?”
“Oh, well as you can see, you little friend here is not dead. As a matter of fact, you can thank her for you being locked up.” Kaiah smirked. So much was going on that she never got the chance to tell Deonte that Naomi was alive and the one who had gave the police the video of him entering and leaving Shemar’s shop the night he was killed.
“What you mean?” Deonte asked, dumbfounded.
Naomi looked at Kaiah with pleading eyes. She wanted to be the one to come clean with him, but she didn’t want to do it this soon. Kaiah looked over at Naomi and sighed. It wasn’t her place to tell, so she wasn’t going to say anything.
“Don’t get quiet now. Y’all better tell me something,” Deonte said with authority in his voice.
“Fine,” Naomi said. “I was the one who gave the police the video of you going into the barbershop. I was parked outside of your house and followed you there. I honestly only did it because I wanted to pay you back and I wanted to scare you. I didn’t think it would be enough to incriminate you,” explained Naomi.
Kaiah saw the vein popping out the side of Deonte’s neck and knew he was about to explode. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it as way to calm him down. He shifted his eyes from Naomi to Kaiah then back to Naomi. He had a mind to knock her damn head off her shoulders.
“So how could you possibly help me?” Kaiah asked to calm the tension, plus she really wanted to know what Naomi could do to help her.
“I can help make your little advisory disappear,” answered Naomi.
“What advisory?” Kaiah asked playing dumb
“Fuck that,” Deonte interrupted. “Can you make yourself disappear too?”
Naomi didn’t say anything because she expected him to be mad at her, but that wasn’t here nor there. She came to offer her assistance.
“I did my research and I found out that Sherae didn’t run from California because her boyfriend was abusing her. She really left because she stole some drugs and money from him because he wouldn’t marry her so she wanted to hurt him. That’s the real reason she left.”
“Y’all females are so damn vindictive,” Deonte huffed.
“How do you know all of this?” Kaiah asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I told you, I did my research.” Naomi shrugged.
“Nah, that’s not good enough for me.” Kaiah shook her head.
“Because one of the girls I used to work at the club with befriended her and the girl talks too damn much. As a matter of fact, just yesterday she was bragging about how she tried to make you lose your baby just so she could have Deonte to herself because she felt like that was the only reason he was still paying you any attention. That’s how I knew you were here,” Naomi said honestly.
“That bitch is crazy as fuck, yo.” Deonte shook his head. He was regretting that he even stuck his dick in her. He was fee
ling the same way about Naomi, but at least she was turning out to be valuable.
“Look, I’ll give you some time to think about it. I will leave my number with you, so just give me a call whenever you’re ready,” said Naomi as she put a card on the table.
Kaiah looked over at Deonte with a side eye. “You sure do know how to pick them.”
~ ~ ~
Kaily laid in Orlando’s bed in a fetal position. Since Carlos’ funeral, she had been depressed. She was starting to feel as if everything was her fault, the fights, the arguments, Carlos committing suicide, Sherae and Kaiah fighting which resulted in her being in the hospital.
Orlando walked into the dark bedroom and opened his curtains. He had let Kaily have her time to herself for over a week and didn’t say anything, but enough was enough. It was no secret that he loved Kaily and he hated to see her hurt, but there was no way he was going to allow her to sink into a deep depression. He had made a promise that he was going to be there for her no matter what and he was going to make good on his word.
Kaily threw the covers over her head to block out the light and Orlando snatched the cover off her completely. “Get up,” he said in a tone that let her know he wasn’t playing with her.
“Leave me alone, Lando,” she whined as she buried her face in the pillow.
Without another word, Orlando scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bathroom. He sat her on the toilet while he started the shower. “Time out for this shit. I understand that you’re hurting and you are in pain, but I’m not about to let you go out like this. You think he would want you to be depressed like this?”
“Why do you even care?”
“Because I’ve loved you since I was fucking eighteen years old and when you hurt, I can feel your pain. This shit ain’t easy for me; watching you break down, screaming and crying in the middle of the night.”
Kaily just broke down. It seemed like every time he said something to her, she just started crying uncontrollably. She hated it but she didn’t know how to make it stop. Orlando sighed and undressed her so that she could get in the shower. He placed her in the shower and got undressed so that he could get in with her and wash her body.
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