11
“D addy, what’s a gold-digging heifer?” Yasmine questioned, and Knox snapped his head in her direction. She sat beside him on the couch, her attention still on the educational game she was playing on her tablet.
“Where did you hear that?” he questioned instead of answering her immediately.
“From Molly. She babysat the other night and was on the phone after she put me to bed. I had to go to the bathroom and heard her say that mommy was a gold-digging heifer.”
Knox stayed quiet for a moment, letting the fact that he’d heard those words in his daughter’s sweet little voice sink in. He also didn’t know how to answer her. Knox didn’t make it a point of lying to Yasmine or telling her she didn’t need to know about certain things when she asked because he believed in open communication. He explained things to her in a kid-friendly way she could understand while also not taking away from whatever the subject was.
Knox chose his words carefully. “It’s a woman who likes money.” It was a simple answer, but it was the truth.
“I like money. That means I can be a gold-digging heifer, too.”
Knox’s eyes widened, and he was sure a look of mortification passed over his face before he could school it. Luckily for him, Yasmine finished the level she was on before she turned her attention to him.
“No, sweetheart. You cannot. It’s not a nice term, and Molly shouldn’t have said that about your mom.”
Knox wanted to add on even if it was true but refrained from doing so. He never spoke ill of Mia to or in front of Yasmine. Hell, he hardly ever spoke ill of her because, if he could help it, he didn’t speak about her often.
That was why Knox always tried to be honest when answering Yasmine’s questions. Making it too child-friendly could come back and bite him in situations like this if he didn’t explain it well.
“That means I shouldn’t say that?” she questioned, her brown eyes filled with curiosity.
“That’s exactly what it means. We don’t say things that aren’t nice.”
Yasmine nodded at him and turned her attention back to her tablet. Knox picked up his phone from the coffee table, intent on sending Molly a message. She’d been Yasmine’s babysitter for years. Even before he and Mia separated. She mainly babysat when Yasmine was with Mia, but on the rare occasion that Knox had to take care of something and he couldn’t take her, and his parents were unavailable, he’d call Molly to babysit.
He wasn’t upset by what Molly said about Mia or even that Yasmine heard her because she believed his daughter was sleeping. However, he wanted to let her know that he’d explained it to Yasmine and what he’d said so that they were on the same page if she questioned Molly later.
After sending his text, Knox glanced at the time and found that it was twenty minutes after eight. He placed his phone down and looked over to see how close Yasmine was to finishing the level she’d started.
“Yas, pick out your bedclothes when you finish this level,” he instructed.
“Okay, Daddy,” she responded.
While she finished that level, Knox went into the kitchen, grabbed a cup from the cabinet, and filled it with water. He went down the hall into Yasmine’s room and poured the water into the night light that sat on her bedside table. The lights were in the bottom under a thick plastic to keep them dry. It changed colors periodically, and a mechanism caused the water to bubble.
After screwing the top on it tightly, he went into her bathroom and started the water in the bathtub. Knox added some bubbles before leaving the room to take the cup back into the kitchen, passing Yasmine as she headed to her bedroom.
He grabbed her tablet and placed it on the charger before grabbing his phone, and then turning off the television and the lights. When he returned to Yasmine’s room, her clothes were laid out on her bed, and she was in the bathroom. He walked in and turned the water off while she stood on her stool and brushed her teeth.
“Do you need help?” he questioned, even though he knew the answer. Yasmine shook her head at him as he knew she would. She enjoyed being independent and doing things for herself. “Okay, I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
With that, Knox went to his bedroom. He showered while Yasmine took her bath, but had no intention of going to bed this early.
Once Knox finished with his shower and dressed in a pair of boxers and pajama bottoms, he returned to Yasmine’s room to find her sitting on her bed in her pajamas, rubbing moisturizer onto her legs.
“Did you let the water out?”
“Mhm, and I rinsed out all the bubbles.”
When she finished with the lotion, Knox took it and placed it back in the bathroom, turning the light off on his way out. He tucked Yasmine into bed, kissing her forehead before turning on her nightlight.
“Goodnight, baby girl.”
“Goodnight, Daddy.”
Knox turned off her light as he exited her room. He ensured the nightlight in the hallway was on before turning that light off and returning to his bedroom. Typically, he would have made Yasmine’s lunch before getting into bed, but since they were having nachos at school, she hadn’t wanted him to do so. He figured he’d watch television for a while to eat away at the night hours.
His phone alerted him to a message, and he picked it up, finding that Molly had texted him back, apologizing profusely because Yasmine overheard her. Knox told her it was fine before placing his phone back down. After all, Molly hadn’t lied, and he firmly believed that no one could be angry with the truth.
A iva glanced down at her phone as it rang to see her younger sister Tara’s name flash across the screen. Her eyebrows furrowed because the teenager typically preferred to text. It was seldom that she called Aiva. Picking up the phone, she brought it to her ear.
“Hey, Tara. Is everything okay? You rarely call.”
“Tara’s fine.”
Aiva gritted her teeth, and her first thought was to hang up the phone, but she knew he’d just call her back. She wished she’d listened to her first instinct and not answered the phone because Aiva could count on one hand the number of times Tara called her. However, she thought it may have been important.
“I’m at work. I can’t talk right now,” she responded to her father after a brief silence.
“I just want to talk for a few minutes. We haven’t spoken in months.”
He wasn’t wrong, and if Aiva had her way, they wouldn’t have spoken then, either. She’d been at her grandmother’s house, and Edison was there as well. The only reason Aiva entertained any conversation with him was that Kaley, her youngest sibling, was there, and she didn’t think being hostile in front of the nine-year-old was appropriate.
Aiva sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “What is it you want to talk about?”
“I just wanted to see how you’re doing?”
“I’m fine.”
Edison was quiet on his end of the phone, and Aiva assumed it was from how fast she’d answered the question. Or maybe he expected her to ask him how he was doing, and she probably would have if she cared. However, Aiva had stopped caring about anything that had to do with her father when he’d attempted to use her and Meila as pawns in his divorce proceedings with their mother.
It was compounded by the broken promises of still being in their lives and getting his act together. Yet, he constantly cheated on the women he was with and now had a slew of children. Aiva wouldn’t be surprised if there were even some he didn’t know about.
“Did Meila tell you about the gathering for my birthday?” Edison questioned after a few seconds.
“She did.”
“I was hoping all of you kids could come, and we could celebrate as a family.”
Aiva bit her tongue, trying to keep her following sentence from leaving her lips, but she failed miserably. “Do you plan on having your wife and both girlfriends in attendance as well?”
It was Edison’s turn to sigh. Aiva knew that whenever his love life was brought up, he got uncomfortable and fidgety. She didn’t understand why. If you were going to do the dirt, the least you could do, in her opinion, was stand by it, especially since he would not stop the behavior.
Aiva also wondered what the three women who shared him saw in him. She knew well that dynamics like that worked for people every day, but that was when they entered with a mutual understanding, and everyone knew what was happening. That hadn’t been the case with her father. None of the women knew about each other for a while, and there was damn near war between them when they eventually found out. Somehow, none of them left him.
She could understand them staying if they got along all the time, but it was a toss up about how they would act when Edison was present. It was clear when any of the women were around, the disdain for her father was apparent. So why stay? It was stupid, honestly, in her opinion, but to each their own. She got along well with her siblings’ mothers and that was enough for her.
“Aiva, you can’t fault me for staying cordial with the mothers of my children.”
Aiva scoffed as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Because he was not cordial with her mother. “Is that what your generation is calling cheating nowadays?”
“That’s enough, young lady. I am your father, and you will respect me.”
“I would if you respected yourself or the women you seem to use as breeding stock.”
This was why she didn’t speak to her father on the phone and preferred to delete his messages. Every time they had a conversation, she ended up saying things that were better left unsaid, but she could never help it. That child she was still hurt, and the adult she’d become was over it. She hadn’t lied to him, though. If he respected himself or even the women he claimed to love, then maybe she would give him a modicum.
“I have to go. I have a client coming in.” Before her father could respond, she hung up the phone and placed it on her desk.
Aiva leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples. She hadn’t been on the phone with him for ten minutes and felt a headache forming. It was enough to make her want to leave for the day. She’d lied when she told him she had a client. None were scheduled for that afternoon since she’d had a mediation meeting at one. It hadn’t lasted long, so she’d caught up on some other work instead of calling it an early day. Now, she regretted not doing so.
Turning her attention back to her computer screen, she finished typing up the proposal she was working on for one of her clients. She wouldn’t be submitting it for another two weeks, wanting to meet with them again before then in the event anything had changed. However, she figured getting it done early wouldn’t hurt because it would be easy to amend.
Once she finished, she shut everything down, grabbed her phone, and slipped it into her purse before leaving her office. She locked the door and went down the hall to Meila’s office. She found her sister on the phone, so she knocked on the doorframe gently to gain her attention, waving at her before leaving and saying goodbye to Finx on her way out.
Aiva would go home and get her gym bag before going to a small boxing ring a few blocks from her house. She always enjoyed pretending those bags housed Edison’s face.