Chapter 13
“ D ior, do you think I’m cheating?” Andres asked, ignoring Layla’s smug grin.
“Yes, I do. You also said you’d never played before, so you lied too.”
Both he and Layla laughed heartily but Dior’s expression remained serious, making him laugh even more.
“See! You can’t get nothing past us,” Layla added.
“Nah, but it don’t even matter because y’all still playing like y’all a team when it’s supposed to be every man for themselves.”
“Forget that! I’m not about to let you beat both of us. We gon’ win some kind of way. Ain’t that right, Dior?”
Dior nodded, making sure the fake Monopoly money she’d caught Andres trying to steal was safely hidden underneath her arm.
The doorbell’s ring caused Layla to stand and leave Dior’s room to answer it.
At the sound of her and Carlos’s hushed conversation, Andres tried to talk to Dior to keep her from listening in.
It worked for a while until Carlos began to raise his voice.
As soon as he did, Dior began to rock and hum.
Not wanting her to get overwhelmed, Andres stood to see if he could diffuse the situation.
It seemed like every time Carlos came around he was on some bullshit, and Andres’s patience had run thin.
“Is there a problem?” Andres asked, making his way to Layla’s side.
“If it was, it ain’t got shit to do with you,” Carlos answered.
“Actually it does. Dior can hear you in here yelling at her mother, and the dis-ease is fucking with her peace. That has everything to do with me.”
“Carlos said his parents would like to spend some time with Dior,” Layla informed before Carlos could reply.
“I told him I would love that, but I wanted you to meet with his parents and go over there with us the first time and he’s acting like I’m asking him to cut off one of his balls.”
Holding back his laugh, Andres asked, “What’s the problem with me meeting with your family? If it makes sense, I can accommodate you, but it’s my job to help Dior with how she socializes and engages with people. That’s literally what I’m here for.”
“Are you sure that’s what you here for? Or are you here to fuck my wife?”
Andres chuckled as he removed his glasses and handed them to Layla whose pleas for him to let her handle it went ignored.
“First time we met you made sure to make it clear to me that y’all were separated, so whether I’m fucking her or not, that ain’t got shit to do with you.”
“Can we please just focus on Dior?” Layla asked, trying to step between them as she often did, but Andres pulled her behind him.
“If he doesn’t want me to go with y’all that’s cool, but he will have to have a full session with me and Dior so I can make sure he’s equipped to properly handle her moods. If she’s not used to being around his family, she will be uncomfortable in the beginning. What they say to her is very important, so she won’t shut down. They all need to be prepared.”
Carlos chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I shouldn’t have to take a class to spend time with my daughter.”
“You haven’t tried to spend any time with Dior this whole time, Carlos,” Layla stressed, voice raising slightly.
“And even before Andres started helping us, I had to beg you to talk to her and spend time with her. Dior’s peace has come from your presence, not your companionship. Now all of a sudden I’m supposed to just trust you with her?”
“This is what you’ve been asking for, ain’t it? For me to be more present.”
“And I appreciate that. I promise I do. I really want her to spend time with you. And your family. I’m simply asking that you all prepare first. That’s it.” Her voice cracked and Andres gritted his teeth to keep from speaking.
“You make little comments here and there that are hurtful. I know it’s not your intention to be hurtful but you’re ignorant to what Dior having A.S. really means. You expect her to talk to you like she’s a 100 percent normal teenager and that’s simply not the case. I don’t want you to get frustrated with her and say something that’s going to hurt her feelings and make her shut down.”
“I’m not going to baby her like you do. I don’t give a fuck what her doctors say, there’s nothing wrong with Dior’s brain. She knows damn well the difference between right and wrong and everything else. If you didn’t coddle and spoil her so much and let her get away with going against me, we wouldn’t have an issue with our relationship. You won’t let me talk to her and train her the way I need to, to make her respect me.”
“Train her?” Andres repeated.
“She ain’t no fucking dog, bruh. The fuck wrong with you?”
“Ma?” Dior called, slowly stepping into the living room.
“Can daddy leave? I’m uncomfortable.”
“See that? That’s that shit I’m talking about,” Carlos roared, stepping around them.
“What kind of child asks some shit like that?”
Before Andres could stop himself, the sight of Dior’s pacing and head shaking as Carlos walked over to her and told her not to talk about him like that had him grabbing his shoulder.
Carlos turned and swung but Andres weaved before connecting both fists to the sides of Carlos’s head.
As his large body fell backwards, Dior yelped.
The impact caused her to cover her ears as her rocking went into overdrive.
Dior went from crying to screaming to falling and curling up in a fetal position.
“Go get the noise canceling headphones,” Andres ordered, kneeling in front of Dior as she squirmed.
Layla kneeled next to him.
“Blow in her face gently and slowly to regain her attention. When she’s completely focused on you, slowly lower her hand from her left ear.”
Layla did, it took about a minute, but eventually, Dior calmed down enough to focus on her mother’s breathing.
Layla softly removed Dior’s hand from her ear.
“It’s okay,” Andres assured, voice low and soft.
“You’re fine, Dior.”
“Everything is okay, baby. We’re right here.”
Andres put the noise cancelling headphones over her ears and blocked her view of Carlos.
He helped her to sit up and he held her hand while she continued to focus on Layla breathing in her face.
When the rocking stopped, Andres lowered the headphones and Layla instructed Dior to breathe with her.
Andres wiped her face, continuing to repeat that she was okay and that they were right there with her.
Once she’d calmed down fully, they took her into her room.
Though she didn’t need to be alone, Andres wasn’t comfortable allowing Layla to be around Carlos when they heard him stir.
However, Dior was his main priority, so he let Layla tend to Carlos alone.
“Are you okay?” he asked Dior, to which she nodded.
Her body shrunk in shame.
Head lowered, Dior’s shoulders were hunched and her stomach caved.
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re safe. You’re not alone. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Dior nodded before hugging him.
Andres smiled softly and held her until Layla returned.
Her expression worried him but she remained quiet as she took Dior into her arms.
After putting the noise cancelling headphones back on Dior, Layla said…
“He said you can’t come to the house again. I told him that was impossible because you’re helping us and he said we can go too. If we’re not out within thirty minutes he’s going to call the police. He’s paying the rent and his name is on the lease, unfortunately, so there’s nothing I can do but comply.”
“She just had a meltdown, Layla. If you uproot her right now, she’s going to shut down. Just tell him I’ll leave and not come back.”
Her tears began to fall as she shook her head.
“I’m not going to let Carlos control us like this. If he wants to put us out, we’ll go. Can you follow us to my parents’ house?”
“Of course. If you’re sure that’s how you want to handle this.”
“I’m positive. I don’t know why he’s being such an asshole but I’m not settling for it.”
“You’re dealing with a man with a big ass ego, Layla. He’s been controlling this household and doing whatever the fuck he’s wanted for quite some time. Then I came in and started shaking shit up. He’s going to continue to act out until he gets what he wants.”
“But I don’t know what he wants. Obviously not me and Dior.”
“He may not want to be with you, but he wants you to himself. Here in this fucking house. While he does whatever he wants.”
Layla continued to wipe her tears before they could slide down her face.
“Well, those days are over. I meant it when I said that. No, I don’t want to uproot Dior right now, but I have to do what I have to do.”
“I’m sorry. I know you wanted me to let you handle him but I couldn’t take it anymore. When he started going over to her, I could tell she was overwhelmed and about to have a meltdown. Had I known he would swing I wouldn’t have grabbed him, but I didn’t know what else to do to stop him.”
Layla kissed the corner of his mouth.
“You have nothing to apologize for. You did the right thing. I hate that she saw that, but you protected her, and that’s all that matters to me. She’s calm now, and that’s the quickest she’s ever snapped out of a meltdown. That’s proof to me that your help is necessary. So if I have to leave our home to continue to make sure she gets that, it’s not even a question.”
Though Andres appreciated her words, he still felt like shit.
The last thing he wanted to do was put Dior in a position to where she saw that side of him.
However, if knocking Carlos out was the only way to keep him from saying something that was traumatic for Dior while she was already overwhelmed, Andres would have done it again.
He stayed with Dior while Layla packed them both bags, and now was the only moment he wished he had his own home instead of staying with his parents.
So far, he’d been enjoying spending time with them.
Now, he needed to start looking for his own place.
One with lots of space.
Carlos sat outside in his car until they left, and it took everything in Andres to not knock his ass out again when Dior said she didn’t want to leave her room.
A vital part of keeping her calm was making sure she felt safe and secure.
Layla had set up her room so that it was perfect for her and Andres got irritated all over again at the thought of her not having that security.
Her parents had begun to build a nice little setup for Dior.
So she wasn’t going to have everything that she was used to, but it was going to be enough to keep her mind occupied while her emotions continued to settle.
Once they had her taken care of, Layla walked Andres back out to his car.
He offered to stay for a while but Layla insisted that she didn’t want to take up any more of his evening…
like there was anywhere else he’d rather be.
“I apolo—”
Before he could finish, Layla was kissing the words off his lips.
Relaxing against his SUV, Andres wrapped Layla in his arms.
“Don’t say that again,” she commanded softly.
“It would have been a lot worse if you weren’t there.”
“We don’t know how seeing me act that way is going to affect her in the long run though.”
“You’re right, but what we know for sure is that Dior knows she’s safe with you. That’s all I care about.”
He nodded, accepting that he might just need some time to come to that same conclusion.
“If you need anything call me, otherwise, I’ll see you both the day after tomorrow.”
“Okay. Let me know when you’ve made it home safely.”
Andres placed a kiss to the center of her forehead before kissing her lips and releasing her…
which was a hell of a lot easier to do physically than mentally and emotionally.