Down With the King of the South 3

by Diamond Johnson

“I break condoms and then I replace them with other ones. If I ever slipped up and broke a condom, and some of my nut accidently slipped off in you, I always fed your ass a Plan B right after, so like I said, stop fuckin’ playing with me. Just because you don’t know who your baby daddy is, please don’t try and throw that shit on me. Get the fuck up while I’m still being nice and offering to take you home!” he demanded.

  I knew he was mad. I could feel it. I could see it.

  “You’re such a little ass fuckin’ boy! You’re always down to fuck, but you’re not down to handle your responsibilities,” I voiced, standing up from the couch.

  “I’ll be that. You’re trying to run game on a nigga, and you’re getting mad because I’m not falling for that shit. Who the fuck you think I am? Some square ass nigga? You can’t just open your mouth and feed me shit, telling me you’re pregnant, and I’m just supposed to take your word for it. If I didn’t know that you was fuckin’ other niggas, then there’s a slight chance that I would have believed you, but because I know I’m not the only nigga digging in your shit, it’s a different story. Let’s go. I done already gave this shit too much of my fuckin’ energy anyway,” he said.

  “You may not know your daddy, but it’s obvious that you take after his ass,” I voiced.

  I only knew his dad wasn’t around because I’d heard him say it before.

  “Okay. I’m still waiting on the part where you walk the fuck out the door, so I can take your dumb ass home!”

  “You’re a waste of fuckin’ sperm. Your mama was better off swallowing your ass!” I was saying anything to hurt him like he was hurting me.

  To find out that I was pregnant by this man, and for him to react like this was a pain that I couldn’t even explain to you.

  “Yeah, like you swallowed all of mine. Find your own way home, hoe. I ain’t taking you nowhere! Get the fuck out with that loose ass pussy,” he spat.

  “You know, I don’t even blame you. I blame your mama. That bitch ain’t never have a man around here to show you how to treat a woman. You done saw so many niggas dog her and her pussy out, that you think that this is the way to treat a woman!” I spat.

  “Get out, hoe! I’m warning you before I drag your ass the fuck out!” he threatened.

  “Drag me out like them niggas do your mama, right? How many times you done watched them niggas run trains on your mama, fuck nigg—”

  Whap!

  He ended up slapping the shit out of me. Everything that I said was true. When I met his mom for the first time a couple of months ago, I didn’t know her personally, but I knew the way people talked about her. They talked about the way she done fucked just about every nigga in Atlanta. Of course, when I met her, I wasn’t bold enough to tell Jabari to his face what people were saying about his mother, but now that the two of us were beefing, I didn’t care what I said.

  When he hit me, I could taste the blood in my mouth. I hawked up all the spit that I could get, and I spit blood mixed with spit at him directly to his face. I watched the way his light brown eyes turned black. Like I was a nigga, he punched me right in my mouth. I fought his ass back because fighting was nothing new to me. I punched, kicked, slammed, anything that I could do to fight back. In the end, I was dragged out of the house.

  For damn near thirty minutes, I sat my dumb ass outside on the porch, crying and in pain, and no one ever came to help me. The most pain that I was in was the pain in my lower abdomen, letting it be clear that I was definitely having a miscarriage. I reached my hand down and placed it between my legs. When I saw the blood that was on my fingers, I broke down even harder. I should have just left, because had I left, at least I would have still had my baby.

  The present

  Crazy how I still remember that day as if it were yesterday. I guess that’s the case because I never really got over it. I still feel like that was something that happened yesterday. Our child would have been thirteen years old. I never really got to find out what I was having because I was so early in the pregnancy, like five weeks, so I honestly just bled it out in clots.

  That night on the porch when Jabari dragged me out of his mama’s house, he left me no choice but to lay there and go through the excruciating pain of losing our child. If I had to explain any type of pain that I ever went through, that miscarriage was definitely the worst. I’m not even talking about the physical part of it either. It was the mental because I was still going through that. Jabari and I never got closure after that. I would call him after that, pretty much every day, just to let him know that it was his fault that we’d lost our baby, but nothing would get through to him. Pretty soon, he ended up changing his phone number on me. He was still in Atlanta, but I never saw him. That man was avoiding me like the damn plague.

  He ought to be happy that I didn’t tell the police on his ass. I wasn’t a snitch, and I just figured that God would deal with Jabari. Even after all of that went down that night, I still loved his hateful ass. I won’t even talk about how I secretly wait for him to call me and give me some type of apology for the things that went down that day. I’m not saying that I’ve been sitting by the phone for the past thirteen years waiting for a phone call, but if he were to ever call, I know for a fact that I would accept it.

  Of course, I’d been with other men after Jabari, but I swear that they don’t even come close to him in terms of looks, sex, all of that special stuff that a man like Jabari had to offer. It’s been over a decade since this happened, and before a few years ago, I had come to a point where Jabari was a thing of the past. It wasn’t until I started doing his mom’s hair, and conversation of him was brought up just about every time that I saw her, that I started thinking about him more than usual.

  She actually texted me that day and told me to come over when he and that bitch were in town. If things went left, which they did, she told me that we would stick to the story and pretend like I was just coming over to say hello. I liked Jabari’s mother because she honestly wanted to see the two of us be together. I was happy when she texted me earlier that day, letting me in on the fact that her son was in town. Physically, I hadn’t seen this man in years. He was pretty big on his social media, especially since he had the show stores and everything, so I often saw the things that he would post on his page, but it was a totally different thing to see him in person.

  I’d already known about his bitch being pregnant because his mom had told me, but I had to say that seeing her stomach in person, hurt me even more. Because I was still holding onto the past, I felt like she was carrying the brother or the sister to the baby that I would have had. I get it. Jabari and I were young as hell at the time and were both angry. That night, we both dished out a lot of hateful things to each other. Having to witness a man tell me that he didn’t want a baby that we conceived together hurt like hell, so maybe I did hit below the belt with some of the things that I said to him. It still wasn’t an excuse for a man to ever put his hands on a woman. Period!

  Although I was forced to have this story be a painful part of my past, I still had my successes too. Like, at the age of thirty-two, I owned my own home, my cars, and I had just opened my second hair salon. Let me clear something up because I don’t want to sound like a fuckin’ groupie. I did not open up shop down here to chase after Jabari. I was chasing after the money, but I’ll admit that Jabari was some of the motivation because I was told that a lot of people in Miami know each other, so I just assumed that he and I would run into each other one day.

  I had to lie to Jabari and act like I found out later down the line that my business would be right next to his. I knew about us eventually working next to each other months ago. I was able to pull up the property online, and the available space that I wanted was next to his business, so I jumped on it that same day, making sure that no one else took advantage of it. I wanted that nigga to wake his ass up every morning and have to face me. Even though I would be back and forth with shops between Atlanta and Miami, I still wanted him to have to see me.


  I wanted him to admit that what happened thirteen years ago actually did happen. We did have a baby together, and we did lose it. I bet he didn’t even tell his bitch about me. Probably didn’t even tell her that he puts his hands on women. I bet it was a lot of shit that he didn’t acknowledge to her, which is why, I was where I was.

  It wasn’t hard to find out where his bitch worked because I found her social media through Jabari’s page, since he was forever posting the bitch. In her bio was the name of the company where she worked, and I was able to pull it up on my GPS. It wasn’t that far from the apartment out in Brickell that I was renting while I would be down here.

  Most people would probably say that I was acting stalker-ish and that me and this woman didn’t have anything to talk about, but I begged to differ. We had everything to talk about! I wanted her to know that Jabari wasn’t the type of nigga that she needed to be putting on a high ass pedestal. He had his flaws too.

  It was going on two in the afternoon, and I could only pray that she was there. I didn’t know what type of car she drove, so it wasn’t like I could circle the big ass parking lot to find it. I eventually found a parking spot in the visitor’s lot, and then I got out. I wasn’t nervous or anything because I felt like I had a purpose in what I was getting ready to do. In no time, I was opening the doors of the huge building and greeting the receptionist at the desk.

  “Hello. Can I help you with anything?” the cute and very flamboyant male asked me.

  He had it going on with his nice, chocolate skin, his nails that were painted a yellow color, and even the clear lip gloss that he wore. I could tell that one of the things that this company offered was for their workers to be themselves. I say that because after damn near stalking Mahogany’s page, I found out that she worked for a fashion company, and the line was very creative and different. It dealt with a lot of loud ass colors and things of that nature.

  “Hey, yes, I’m looking for Mahogany. Is she in?” I kindly asked him.

  “Ummm, I know that she was in a meeting over an hour ago and told me to hold her calls. Let me call her office phone and see if she made it back,” he let me know, and I nodded. “First, can I have your name? I’ll need your I.D as well,” he said as he pressed a bunch of buttons on the phone.

  I gave him my name as I reached into my oversized Chanel purse and I set my ID on the table.

  “Ohhh, okay, you’re back, Mrs. Brooks. I have someone named Kenyatta Strong here to see you. Would you like me to send her back?” he asked.

  My heart went numb when I listened to him refer to her as Mrs. Brooks. Granted, I knew that the two of them had gotten married because it was on both of their social media, but to actually hear it in person just did something to me.

  “She wanted me to ask you why you are here,” he said, moving the mouthpiece away from his mouth. “Never mind, she says that I can send you back,” he said without even giving me the chance to respond.

  “Just take the elevator up to the third floor. Follow the signs once you get off, and it’ll lead you to her office,” he let me know as he handed me back my ID along with a visitor pass.

  I kindly took the two of them and did exactly what he told me. In no time, I was standing in front of the huge, double doors outside her office. A gold plaque on the side of the double doors read Creative Director along with her name. I used my fist to knock on the doors, and in seconds, I heard some moving around. It didn’t take long for the door to open.

  Just like the last time I saw her, my eyes went right for her stomach. At that time, her bump wasn’t that noticeable, but now it was huge. She was in a yellow work dress that clung to her pregnant body, showing her huge stomach that looked to have been weighing her little ass down. I wasn’t even sure how far along she was, but she was walking around in heels.

  One woman to another, Mahogany was beautiful. She had an exotic look about her, so that’s what put me out of her league. Granted, I knew that I was beautiful, but it was something about her. Maybe it was the pregnancy that caused her skin to be so flawless, her hair to be so healthy and full, and everything else she possessed that I thought was beautiful.

  “Jabari warned me about the crazy bitches from his past, but never in a million years did I think that one of his flavors of the month would pop up on me at my place of business. Can I help you with something? Would you like a job here?” she asked.

  She hadn’t necessarily invited me in, but she did open the door and walk over to her desk, standing right in front of it with her arms folded, so I used that as my opportunity to walk right on in. I could tell she was angry. Her skin was real light, almost white, so where she turned red in the face proved that I had her hot and bothered. As she spoke, I was paid attention to so many things. The wedding picture of her and Jabari that was right there on her huge ass desk, the other pictures that she had of the two of them, and finally, the big ass rock that was on her finger. I had to look like a fool coming there to exchange words with this man’s wife.

  “No, thank you. I own my businesses. My six-figure salary is more than enough for me,” I let her know, and she let out a laugh before nodding her head and pushing her hair behind her ear.

  The last time I saw her, her hair was curly. Today, it was full, looking like weave. The hair stylist in me would have loved to do her blow out, but from the looks of her hair, I could already tell that she had someone on the job who was taking good care of it.

  “Then my question to you again is why are you here? We have nothing to talk about. I know about you. You ain’t the baby mama, the ex-wife, so why do you feel the need to come down to my place of business and speak to me? I know just about every bitch from Jabari’s past, so you don’t have to come down here and try to convince me of anything different,” this rude bitch said.

  I mean, Jabari did say that she was crazy, and the fact that she let whatever come out of her mouth so easily without backing down, proved that to me.

  “I may not be the ex-wife or the baby mama, and that’s fine. I had my chance to be the baby mama, though, but he robbed me of that title—”

  “Bitch, please! That’s what this is about? You didn’t strike me as the type of woman who just couldn’t seem to let a man go. I knew it was more to it than that. He robbed you of it how?” she quizzed, cocking her head to the side.

  “I was pregnant with Jabari’s baby thirteen years ago. My baby was damn near beaten out of me by him. The child that I had could have been the big brother or sister to your little girl,” I let her know.

  I could tell by her facial expression alone that she was shocked to hear this. That right there proved to me that Jabari had never told her about what happened between the two of us in our past.

  “Was the baby his?” she asked me, and I sucked my teeth when she asked that foolish ass question. She sounded just like his ass, to the point that I almost felt like he had this bitch trained.

  “Did you not just hear me say that my child would have been the brother or the sister to your baby?” I asked, getting a little bit louder this time.

  “Oh, I heard you. What does this have to do with me, though? Why are you coming down here to my job to tell me this? Thirteen years ago, I didn’t even know Jabari. Didn’t even know that my husband existed at the time. When I get home, this is a conversation that will be had between him and I. You don’t get to see me showing my emotions, and if I have to, my insecurities as well. I leave that part of me for my husband to withstand. Was there anything else that you needed to let me know? This was pointless,” she said.

  “The miscarriage that I had, or your husband lying to you and not telling you that he was the cause of it?” I smartly asked her.

  “The miscarriage that you had with the child that we don’t even know if it belonged to my husband. Look, I won’t dwell on the subject too much longer because as a woman, I won’t dare speak on another woman’s miscarriage, especially when I’m walking around here now, pregnant with my own child. Whether my husband
lied to me or not, didn’t tell me certain pieces of information or not, I will deal with him on my time. I will handle him where I see fit. I was referring to you getting in your car, driving to where I work, just to come in here and tell me this information as pointless. Sis, you could have written me on Instagram or something. All the dramatics and the theatrics could have been saved,” she let me know.

  Jabari had a cocky bitch, and I bet it was his fault too. It was no telling the shit he was putting in her head to make her ass so damn cocky.

  “Jabari ain’t changed. He’s just older. Your pussy is still fresh to him, so he hasn’t gone astray yet. I’ll give him about another year. That’s when they usually start dogging you, by the time the baby turns one. Let’s see if that cockiness still exists by then,” I said and got ready to turn on my heels and leave, but when she let out a loud laugh, I stopped.

  “Jabari wouldn’t leave me if somebody put a fuckin’ bullet to his head and told him that he had to, so let’s get that understood right quick. I’ve tried to walk away from this man twice, and both times, I had him sick to his fuckin’ stomach. My pussy will always be fresh to him, and he knows that. We’re talking about a man who you haven’t seen in thirteen fuckin’ years. How the fuck do you know if he changed or not? A man who has his hands in all types of businesses. That don’t sound like change to you?

  “When you were fuckin’ him, he was selling dope, living in his mama’s house, and fuckin’ you in his car. Now, he’s living in a mansion, selling shoes out of his business, and fuckin’ me on thousand-dollar sheets. If he ever fucks me in a car, it’s not because he has to, it’s because he chooses to! You know little Jabari, small pockets Jabari, and the young Jabari who didn’t give a fuck about life! I know Jabari as my fuckin’ husband, I know seven figure a year Jabari, putting his money into stocks Jabari. I could go on and on, but if I stand here and tell you about all the shit my husband has, that’ll only make you crave him more. You don’t have to ever in your damn life worry about him dogging me. I’ll kill his ass before he even gets the chance to get the leash, now good day!” she said before walking away from her desk and going over to the door to open it for me, basically ending this conversation right here.