My Sister's Husband

by Ambria Davis

  As I made my way to the hospital, Sky called me. Knowing that she was probably bitching about me not coming home again, I sent her to voice mail. I really didn’t have time for her mouth right now. I needed to be straight for when I had this talk with Brinay. I’m guessing she didn’t get the hint, because she called back. Just like before, I sent her call to voice mail, but Skylar wasn’t letting up. By the time I pulled up to the hospital, she’d called me fifteen times. Knowing that she was going to keep on calling, I powered my phone off. Even though I didn’t want to, I didn’t have time for it to be constantly ringing once I was in the room with Brinay. Lord knows I wasn’t trying to mess anything up. I needed to be extra careful when dealing with her. She was delicate. If my phone rang twice without me answering, she’d flip. That was my fault, though! Nay was never that type of chick. I made her like that, and I’m sorry for that.

  After getting myself together, I got out of the car and went straight into the hospital, headed to the elevator, and up to Brinay’s room. When I walked in the room, I didn’t see her, but my son was lying there in the crib. I walked over to it, picked him up, and took a seat in the chair next to the bed. I sat there admiring him. He was so tiny and yet so handsome. I hadn’t held him for the past few hours, and that killed me. Therefore, I knew me being away from him for a long period of time was going to have me feeling some type of way.

  “Hey, little man,” I said, placing my index finger in the palm of his hand. He closed his hand around my finger and held it as he slept. My heart beamed. I still couldn’t believe that I was actually a father. I was about to get up and look for his mother when I heard the toilet flush. Moments later, the bathroom door swung open, and out she stepped.

  “Damn, you scared the hell out of me.” She jumped back holding her chest. “Next time, make some noise or something when you come in the room.”

  “My bad,” I said, laughing at her dramatic ass. She stood there staring at me as I held my son in my arms. Her mind looked as if it was rolling a mile a minute. I wanted so bad to know what she was thinking about, but I didn’t want to push her. I was going to wait until she was ready to say what she had to say.

  “Tae,” she said softly, after standing in the same spot for several minutes.

  “What’s up?” I asked her. She looked at me before she walked over to the bed and climbed back in.

  “Do you love her?” she blurted out.

  “Love who?” I asked, confused.

  “Sky, Tae. Do you love her?” she asked again.

  “Why are you asking me that?” I asked, getting mad. If I knew she was going to call me here just so she could question me about this shit, I wouldn’t have come.

  “Because, Tae, I need to know,” she said, looking me in the eyes. I could tell that it was bothering her and that she really needed to know. I don’t know why, because she should know that all of my love belongs to her, and her only.

  “No, I don’t love her.”

  “Well, tell me why you married her then, Tae,” she said. I noticed that her eyes were teary. It hurt me to know that she was hurting because of me and something I did.

  “Honestly, I bought the ring for you. I was supposed to break things off with Sky and propose to you, but—” I said, stopping myself.

  “But what?”

  “But she asked me to go on vacation with her to Jamaica, because her boss had given her an all-expense trip for a week. I didn’t want to go, because I already knew what I was planning on doing, but she kept asking and begging me. I gave in and went. One day while we were there, she went through my suitcase and found the ring. I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t for her, but the look on her face when she saw it was of pure happiness. I knew that if I told her that the ring was originally for someone else, she was going to be devastated. Instead, I proposed to her, and she suggested that we get married on the beach the following day. I didn’t want to, but—” I explained. The look on Brinay’s face as I went over the details on how I married Sky hurt my heart. “But I had no idea that you and her were sisters. Hell, I didn’t know you was from Miami. I’m sure you knew that the day you came over to your father’s house with Kourtney.”

  “You had to know that it killed me when I found out that you and Skylar were married. I loved you with everything in me. You were the man that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. When I found out I was pregnant, I was beyond excited, and I couldn’t wait to tell you. Then you started playing those games and not answering the phone. My gut instantly told me that you had another woman, and no matter how much I wanted to be wrong, I knew I was right,” she said, her voice cracking up. “I never in my life thought that I would’ve experienced this amount of hurt again. I shielded my heart from love from a man because of what happened between my father and me when I was young. I never told anyone this, but when my father sided with my sister and her mother over me . . . that shit hurt me deep. From that moment on, I made a vow never to let a man break my heart again. Then you came in, and I decided to give you a chance, because I thought you weren’t like the rest of them. You hurt me, Tae, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to recover from that.”

  “Ma, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you . . . never. I wanted to tell you about Sky, but I couldn’t. I knew that if I would’ve told you about her, you was going to leave me and I couldn’t have that, because I was in love with you. I decided to break things off with her and keep it all the way 100 with you. Like I told you, I bought you that ring. I wanted to settle down and make you the woman of my life, but everything went wrong,” I told her honestly. I knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but at least I was being real.

  For a minute, we both sat there staring at each other. Even when she was sick with her hair tangled all over her head, she was still beautiful. I honestly regret the day I messed shit up. If only I could go back and change the day I got married to Sky, everything would be all right.

  “So what are we going to do?” she asked, surprising me.

  “I’d love for you, me, and baby Dontie to be a family, but that’s up to you.”

  “Tae, honestly, I’m still in love with you, but everything is still complicated. If we be together as a family, what will our family say? You’re my sister’s husband. How are we supposed to be together peacefully without all of those interruptions?”

  “I’m happy to hear that you’re still in love with me, but as far as that other shit goes, I really don’t care. I’m not fucking the people in your family, and you’re not fucking the people in my family, so what they say or think don’t matter. As far as Skylar, I’ll gladly get my lawyer to draw up some divorce papers and serve them to her tomorrow,” I said, dead ass. I’d move a fucking mountain right now if it meant that I could be with her.

  “Are you sure you want to be with me, Tae?” she asked.

  “What the hell kind of question is that? You know there’s only one woman I’d rather spend my life with, and that woman is you,” I answered.

  “Okay, well, if I said that I wanted to be with you too, then what?”

  “I’d say we are going to be a family. As a matter of fact, the minute you get out of here, I’m moving you in with me and my son,” I told her.

  “Moving me in where?”

  “In the house that I bought for us after we were supposed to get engaged.”

  “What about Sky, Tae? Isn’t that the house you all stay in now?”

  “No, Nay . . . Sky doesn’t know about this house.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I told you before . . . that was the house that I bought for me and you. I wasn’t going to move her in, when I had no intentions on her being there in the first place,” I said, just as baby Dontae began crying.

  “Give him to me. He’s probably wet and hungry,” she said, ignoring what I just said. I handed him to her and sat down in the chair. I watched as she changed my son. I smiled slightly. It was a warm feeling watching the one you love, the one who had given birth t
o your seed, doing things like this. Most niggas made babies and got ghost, but not me. I wanted to be there, to be able to see and do things like this. I wanted to stick by my baby mama through every step of our child’s life. “Are you going to at least think about what I said, Nay?”

  “Think about what?” she asked, playing as if she was dumb or something.

  “About us being together as a family.”

  “I’m fine with it, but I doubt that my sister will be,” she said, turning to the TV.

  “But I just told you that I really don’t give a fuck about her. I shouldn’t have married her. I was supposed to marry you. That was a mistake. I bought the ring for y—” I began, but she stopped me.

  “For me, yeah, I get it, Tae. You don’t have to keep saying it,” she screamed, scaring the baby. She began rocking him until he had quieted down. “You repeating the same thing ain’t making this any better now. I hear what you saying, and I know you say you love me, but your actions be confusing me.”

  “Ma, I love you, ain’t no confusing that,” I stressed. I was getting tired of saying the same thing repeatedly myself.

  “Okay, Tae,” she said, blowing me off. I got up from the chair and went to sit next to her on the bed.

  “Look at me, ma,” I said, because she had turned her head away from me. She ignored me, so I used my hand to turn her head myself. “All that shit in the past is gone. We’re going to be together, ma . . . me, you, and Dontae. You don’t have to question shit else about me and where my heart at, because I’ll be 100 percent devoted to you and our son.”

  “You really mean that?” she asked. There was uncertainty written all over her face, but I know in due time, all of that was going to change. We were just going to have to take this one day at a time.

  “Yes, I do,” I said, giving her a long, passionate kiss that spoke volumes. “I’m going to make you my wife when all of this is over and done with.”

  “I love you, Tae,” she said with so much passion, I knew it was nothing but the truth. She leaned in and gave me a kiss before she placed her head on my shoulder.

  “I love you too, ma,” I responded. Pulling out my phone, I took a quick selfie of the three of us, because this moment was worth a picture. I set the picture as my screensaver before I placed the phone back in my pocket. “This is exactly how I want it to be, just the three of us. Nobody but us . . . no distractions, no nothing, just our little family.”

  “It will be, just as soon as you handle your business,” she said, with a little hint of an attitude.

  “Get up for me,” I told her.

  “Where are you going, Dontie?”

  “Chill out, ma, I’m not going anywhere,” I said, pulling my phone out. I looked for my dude Chris’s number and dialed him up.

  “Yo, Chris,” I said when he answered the phone.

  “What’s up, man?” he asked.

  “You remember that thing we talking about the other day with that homie, Randall?”

  “Yeah, why? What’s up? Don’t tell me you having second thoughts?”

  “Hell, no,” I replied. This nigga was crazy. There was no way I wanted to stay married to Skylar’s ass any longer than I already was. “I want you to put that plan in motion and draw up them divorce papers for me today.”

  “All right. I’ll call up old dude and start on them papers right this minute. It shouldn’t take me that long,” he said, just as the phone beeped. Pulling it away from my ear, I noticed that it was Skylar calling. Ignoring her, I went back to my call. “You want to go with the same angle we discussed the other day, or do you have something else in mind?”

  “Yeah, let’s go with what we talked about the other day. I want to see her face drop when she finds out I know,” I told him. If everything goes as planned, this was going to be over faster than it began. “Thanks, man, I appreciate it.”

  “You know you my nigga, man. Besides, I’m only doing what you paid me to do.”

  “Yeah, I know. Call me when you’re done so I can come through and pick that up.”

  “Okay. Holla at you later, man.”

  “All right . . . one,” I said, hanging up the phone. I placed the phone back in my pocket before I walked back over to the bed.

  “What was all of that about?” Brinay asked, looking at me sideways.

  “I know you heard me say something about divorce papers. So what do you think?” I said, sitting back down beside her. She kissed my cheek before placing her head back on my shoulder.

  “So how long do you think this is going to take?”

  “With the information and connections that Chris has, I doubt that this will even take a month.”

  “Are you serious? I know people whose divorce lasted for a year or two.”

  “Well, mine won’t. My boy Chris is A-1 when it comes to getting things done.”

  “Okay, but please don’t do anything stupid,” she said to me.

  “I won’t be doing anything stupid. We’re just going to—” the door opening suddenly cut me off. I stood up immediately when I spotted Skylar walking through the door, followed by her parents. Brinay’s eyes grew wide before they turned a dark color. This was my first time noticing that.

  “Well . . . well . . . well . . . If it ain’t the big happy family,” Skylar said, walking over to the bed. “I knew I was going to find you here when you didn’t answer the phone. You’re spending quite a lot of time here with Miss Thang, aren’t you?”

  “I just dropped by to check on them. I was actually on my way out,” I said, attempting to leave.

  “I bet you was, huh, Tae?” Sky asked sarcastically, cocking her head to one side. “I’m going to need you to stay here. I have something to tell you.”

  “What do you want, Sky?” Brinay asked, rolling her eyes. She and I both knew she was about to come with her bullshit.

  “Bitch, first of all, don’t speak my name. I knew you were a slick bitch from the moment my father walked in with your Little Orphan Annie-looking ass, all of those years ago. I should’ve treated you like the skank you were.” She spoke with venom in her voice. Brinay didn’t say anything. She placed the baby back in the crib before she sat all the way up, as Sky continued. “Bitch, if you wanted my life, all you had to do was say it.”

  “Look, bitch, I have no idea what the fuck it is that you’re talking about or referring to, but know that I was never a hater. That was all you. What the fuck did you have for me to hate on anyway?” Nay retorted.

  “I had everything, while you had nothing. Most importantly, I had a father when you didn’t, and when your mother died, I had a mother too. You’ve always wanted everything that I had, and I see that that jealousy shit followed you into your adulthood.”

  “First of all, bitch, like I told you before, I was never jealous of you. I mean, why would I be? I look better than you do, I’m smarter than you are, and I’m prettier than you are. So again, tell me why I’m jealous of you. If anybody was jealous, then it would be you. You’ve always felt the need to compete with your little sister, but you couldn’t,” Brinay said, letting her have it.

  “You and your mother tried desperately to break me, but you couldn’t. Then when I told my father about it, he ignored me. He never believed anything I said. It’s because of your lying-ass mother that he and I don’t have a normal father-daughter relationship.”

  “First of all, little girl, you can leave me out of this. This isn’t about me. This is about you and your little whorish ways,” Skylar’s mother said to Brinay, while her father just stood back, taking it all in.

  “Bitch, this has everything to do with you.”

  “You will not speak to my mother like that, and she’s right. This has nothing to do with her,” Skylar told Brinay. “But it has everything to do with you and my cheating-ass husband.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about, Sky?” I asked, finally speaking up. I was tired of all the riddles they were in here speaking.

  “How long have you and my siste
r been messing around behind my back?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked her. She took a folder out of her purse and removed an envelope. She opened it, removed a few pieces of paper, and handed them to me. “Here. Explain this shit to me, because it’s still a little mystery to me.”

  Taking the pictures from her, I noticed that they were pictures of Brinay and me. Some were new, while others were old. There was information on me and a few other things, along with information on Brinay. I wanted to ask her how the fuck she got this, but that wasn’t the issue right now.

  The cat was out of the bag. She now knew about Brinay and me, but I really didn’t care. I handed the pictures to Brinay, and her facial expression told a different story.

  “Okay, so you know about me and Dontie. So what?” Brinay said, shocking the hell out of everyone in the room.

  “So this is true?” her mother asked. I pulled out my phone and sent a message to Chris, telling him to get the information he had gotten for me the other day and bring it to the hospital right now. He texted back okay, as I walked over to a now-screaming Dontae. I picked him up and gave him his pacifier. He immediately stopped crying.

  “Yes, it is, and so what?”

  “You don’t see a problem in this?” Skylar’s mother then asked. “Is he the father of that bastard baby?”

  “Yes the fuck he is, and you have one more time to call my baby a bastard . . .” Brinay replied, just as Brandon, Chance, and Kourtney walked in the room.

  “Hey, sis,” her brother said, walking over to her. “What’s going on?”

  “Hey, I know you,” Skylar said, looking at Brandon.