Chapter 7
dreaux davis
. . .
“Doe! I have it?” Promise asked, holding up a small bag of crackers. We had been smashing all types of snacks for the last couple of days. I needed to slow down since I hadn’t been able to make it to the gym. Between my busy schedule and helping with Promise, there hadn’t been time to do much else.
“You can have it, pretty girl.”
“Tank you, Doe!”
“Yooo! Where yo’ buff ass at?” My homie, Loyal, shouted as he made his presence known. My best friend, his brother, Justice, trailed behind him with a grin on his face.
“Nigga, fuck you! Don’t be jealous because you still have the same bird chest from sixth grade. You need to bring your ass to the gym more often wit’ yo’ lazy ass.”
They both shook my hand before taking a seat on the couch across from me.
Their eyes lingered on Promise, who sat next to me with her head resting against me as she watched her favorite princess movie.
We had watched it three times in the last three days, but she sat there, eyes locked on it as if it were the first time.
She would occasionally break her attention to offer me some of her crackers or ask a random question that made me smile.
“Umm, when did you get a kid? One of those bitches finally caught you slippin’?” Loyal quizzed, glancing between promise and me to see if we shared any resemblance.
“Bruh, fuck you. I don’t have any damn kids, and I don’t want to have any. Hell, you and Messiah have been popping them out enough for everyone.” I shot back.
“Fuck!”
The three of us focused our attention on Promise as she repeated the word with the same enthusiasm.
“No, no, Promise. That’s a bad word. You can’t say that.” The last thing I needed was for Peace to think I was being a bad influence on her little girl, especially when I had to plead with her to let my sisters watch her.
“Fuck, a bad word, Doe?” Her little face frowned as she processed my words. I laughed because of how cute she looked trying to make sure she heard me correctly. For her to be so young, she was smart as hell. It only proved that Peace had been raising her right.
“Yes, it’s a bad word, pretty girl.”
“Otay. Don’t say fuck. Dats a bad word, Doe.” Promise expressed with her finger pointed at me. Loyal and Justice burst out laughing as I got checked by a toddler.
“That’s right, pretty.” Promise was something else, and having her around brightened my days more than I expected.
“Well, since you haven’t told us who she is, would you like to explain why you called us over here.
You’ve been speaking in code for days, bro.
I thought you were in trouble or something.
” Justice stated, still observing Promise and me.
My shoulders dropped as I began telling the story of how I met Peace and her possible connection to them.
By the time I finished, both of them looked at me as if I had dropped a bomb on them, which was exactly what I had done.
“Wait a minute. So you’re telling me that you ran into a stranger at the store, gave her a job, and now you’re babysitting her kid?
Oh, and she supposedly is related to us?
I don’t even understand any of this. Where did she come from?
What does she want? How do we know this isn’t some ploy to get money or something?
I mean, what do you even know about this girl?
” Loyal fired off a bunch of questions I had no answers to.
Truthfully, I was still trying to figure it all out. Peace seemed genuine to me, but I didn’t dispute the fact that her story seemed questionable.
“Does she know what her father’s name was?” Justice asked.
“She had very little information about him. She mentioned that he had locs when she saw him, so I can only assume it’s Knowledge.”
“How old is she?” Loyal probed.
“She’s twenty-four. Which means she came right after Charity and Serenity.”
“Damn, this is crazy. You already know how they feel about their daddy. This is gonna crush them,” Justice remarked. I thought about the many ways things could play out, and none of them were positive.
“Wait. I think we’re jumping the gun here. We don’t have any proof that what she’s saying is the truth. For all we know, her momma could have lied to her about who her daddy is. People lie, DNA doesn’t,” Loyal vocalized.
“He does have a point. We need to dig a little deeper into this woman’s story before we bring this to the family. I understand that she may be looking for answers, but those answers could hurt the people we love.” Justice reasoned.
They weren’t wrong for feeling the way they did, but I felt bad for Peace. She deserved to know the truth about where she came from.
“What are you suggesting? I’m sure she could do a DNA test, but the best matches for her would be one of the siblings, since Knowledge is dead. How are you gonna get them to agree without telling them the truth?” I questioned.
“We can have Messiah do it. Rule is finishing up his Tour, so he’s our best option. Plus, you know he won’t say anything until we get the truth.” Justice made a good point. Messiah loved his family, so he would keep things quiet until we got the answers we needed.
“Well, let me check with her to see what she wants to do. If she wants to know the truth, then we’ll move forward. I just wanted to put y’all up on game because it shocked me.”
“We appreciate it. This is about to stir up some shit, that’s for sure. A part of me feels bad for Auntie E. She spent all of those years with Unc, loving him through all his bullshit, only for him to embarrass her and break her heart.” Justice sighed as he sat back on the couch.
His family was like a second family to me, so I understood exactly where he was coming from.
Elantra Graham was the definition of a loyal wife.
Everyone knew Knowledge cheated on her, but no one spoke about it in hopes of preserving her feelings.
Even as kids, we used to cover for him to protect her from the truth.
We were youngins, so all he had to do was pay us a few dollars or bring us snacks in exchange for our silence.
His sons grew to resent him, and they had every right to.
No child wants to see their mother being mistreated, especially by their own father.
“Doe. My cup.” Promise called out to me. I instantly hopped up to refill her sippy cup, then handed it to her.
“You seem to be attached to baby girl. Where is her father?” Loyal questioned. He was a jokester most days, but he was also a straight shooter. He wasn’t the type to mince words.
“It’s not that deep. I see how hard her momma is trying to get back on her feet, and I want to help.” I shrugged, grabbing a few crackers from the box I had sitting on the table.
“No offence, bro, but you’re an asshole. I’ve never seen you be nice to anyone outside of family.” Loyal challenged.
“That’s some bullshit. I’ll admit that I’m not the nicest mothafucka around, but I’m not heartless either. She has some shit to her, but baby girl is innocent in all of this. It’s not like I’m tryna fuck her or anything like that.”
“Fuck a bad word, Doe. Don’t say dat.” The fellas burst out laughing as Promise chastised me with her little finger.
“You’re right, pretty. I won’t say it again.” I assured her.
“Otay.” Promised replied, then returned to her show.
“I’m curious to see what her momma looks like.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was yours.
She looks like a mixture of you, Dominique, and Danae.
” Justice pointed out. When I glanced back at Promise, she did have some similarities.
It almost made me question whether Chop was lying about the DNA results, because she looked as if she could have been part of our family.
“Remember when I told y’all about that bullshit ass baby shower my aunt invited us to?”
“Hell, yeah. Every time I see one of Chop’s pictures, I laugh. Bro has been lame since we were kids. I don’t understand how any woman could take him seriously,” Loyal commented.
“Well, Peace is the woman who crashed the shower, and this is her daughter. She walked in and found out her cousin was having a baby with her man. Apparently, Lil’ mama had some secrets of her own because Promise wasn’t his.”
“Damn, that’s wild. How do you think he would feel about you helping his ex?” Justice asked.
“I don’t give a fuck how he would feel. He has a right to feel hurt if lil’ mama cheated on him, but the way he handled things made him a bitch in my eyes.
She took a charge for him, so obviously, there was some loyalty there.
Plus, I know for a fact he was fucking multiple bitches while they were together.
Hell, he never posted pictures of them, so he clearly had something to hide. ”
“Yeah, it seems odd to me. It sounds like the cousin was plotting against her from the beginning. I see why you want to help her because she must not have much of a support system,” Justice expressed.
I hadn’t brought up the baby shower incident to her since I knew it was probably a sore spot for her.
Chop had been posting pictures and parading his new woman around as if she were the greatest person he had ever met.
I could see right through the bullshit, but I chose to ignore it because he wasn’t worth my energy.
We continued to talk until their wives started calling to find out where they were.
It was odd being the only single one of the group, but I wasn’t interested in what they had.
Marriage had never been on the table for me, nor was settling down.
My life had enough chaos in it without involving a woman.
I loved being able to come and go as I pleased without having to explain myself to anyone.
“Alright, I’m about to get out of here. Tru is running a fever, and she doesn’t like anyone else to take care of her when she gets sick,” Loyal explained.
“You’ve got her spoiled rotten.” I shot back.