1. Makari Phoenix #2
“So you’re saying if Sia truly is pregnant you wouldn’t be in the child’s life?”
“I’m saying that isn’t my fucking kid, and if it was, she would get exactly what she wanted from me, a few commas in her bank account to make that shit go away.”
That interview was why Omiri didn’t know about Avi.
It went viral the day I’d gotten a positive pregnancy test and I accepted this as the universe’s way of telling me I was doing this on my own.
There was no way in hell I would subject either of us to that type of scrutiny.
The reminder of the man Omiri was sank into my chest and helped me relax.
Even if he truly did remember me and assumed Avi was his, there was no way he would do anything about it.
He didn’t want kids and I refused to be a headline.
No woman in their right mind would be naive enough to mistake what a man like Omiri would think if she suddenly appeared months after a Super Bowl win claiming to be the mother of his child. Sia was proof.
Gold digger.
Groupie.
Opportunist and liar.
I didn’t want Avi to be defined by a decision I made or who her father was.
She and I would have a normal, quiet life, away from the spotlight.
Over the past year I’d worked with enough athletes and had witnessed firsthand how women who got involved with them were laced in the media and how fans attacked them when their beloved superstars were challenged by women who had every right to demand their support both physically and financially.
The players were granted a pass and the women were condemned.
Yeah no, miss me with that bullshit. I could do this on my own, I was doing this on my own. It wasn’t perfect but Avi and I were good.
In my room I stripped Avi down and removed both packages from the bag.
Deciding to start with the Advil, I measured out the proper amount and placed the dropper in the corner of her tiny little lips and grinned when she started smacking.
With milk being the majority of her daily intake, my little muffin was loving the sweetness of the orange flavor.
It was also time for a bottle, so I carried her into the kitchen and bounced her in one arm while I removed a bottle I’d pumped earlier that day and dropped it into the warmer on the counter.
Once it was done, we settled on the sofa and I smiled at my baby while she sucked it down like she hadn’t been fed in days.
After a diaper change, she was satisfied and drifting.
I carried her back to the room and carefully placed her in the portable crib near my bed and prayed she slept long enough for me to get a few hours of sleep.
I was exhausted and had a busy day ahead of me.
After Avi was settled, I decided to dump a load of clothes in the washing machine that I could transfer to the dryer once I was up in a few hours.
I wiggled out of the sweat bottoms and yanked the hoodie over my head, leaving me in just the oversized tee and spandex shorts I slept in.
Before I dropped them into the hamper, I shoved my hand into the front pocket of the hoodie to get my wristlet and my heart stopped.
No, no, no…
Panic pushed through my veins again as I grabbed my phone, pressed the flashlight button, and began searching my room to see if I dropped it. I grabbed the bag sitting next to the medicine I’d purchased, clearly noting it was empty but I still shoved my hand in anyway.
After I confirmed what I already knew, I moved through my house, searching the floor before I grabbed my key fob and hurried outside, praying I’d dropped it when I buckled Avi in.
The ground was freezing under my bare feet but I didn’t care.
I frantically searched every inch of my car and almost cried when I realized my wallet wasn’t there. That could only mean one thing…
I left it.
I had been in such a hurry to get out of the store that I must have dropped it or forgotten to grab it off the counter after I paid.
Oh hell…
I hurried back into the house and searched one more time, but dialed the pharmacy at the same time because this couldn’t be my fucking life.
“Rx-R-Us.” The mundane voice definitely belonged to the guy who rang me up. This guy really loved his job…not.
“Uh, hi. I was just there about half an hour ago. I purchased medicine for my daughter. I think I left my wallet there. It’s brown leather with a beaded bracelet attached. I might have…”
“You left it on the counter but your boyfriend said he would bring it to you.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Yeah, the guy you were with. He walked out right after you.”
Omiri. He had to be talking about Omiri. We were the only two people in the store.
“He’s not my boyfriend!” I yelled into the phone then immediately swung my head toward Avi’s portable crib. When she didn’t move, I hurried out of my room and began pacing the floor in front of my sofa.
“He said he was.”
“And you believed him?”
“I mean yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
“Because he could be a gotdamn serial killer who now, thanks to you, has all my personal information. My license was in there, asshole.”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry? Are you serious right now?”
“Ma’am, you need to calm down. How the hell was I supposed to…”
I hung up and dropped down on the sofa, blinking rapidly.
Yelling at that idiot wasn’t going to do a damn thing to undo what was done.
Omiri had my wallet and the only reason he would have cared enough to take it was because he wanted to know if Avi was his.
He already assumed she was. I could see it all over his face when he looked at her .
She had his damn eyes. Very rare eyes. One hazel and the other dark brown.
“I’m so fucking screwed.”
I was on my feet pacing again and needed a voice of reason.
There was only one person who knew who Avi’s father was, and even though it was three in the morning, I knew she was up.
She worked overnight at the hospital. If she didn’t have her phone on her, she would be wearing her smartwatch, so she would see my text and hopefully call me back.
Me: Call me ASAP. Emergency. 911.
I hated to make her worry. She was going to think something was wrong with Avi, but shit, I needed to talk this through because right now my mind was spiraling.
I can move.
No you can’t. At least not right away.
You can lie and tell him she’s not his.
With those damn eyes, he wouldn’t believe you.
He’ll demand a paternity test and there’s that. She’s a million percent his…
But he doesn’t want kids, so there’s no way he would show up, right?
Right. Calm the fuck down…
My phone rang and pulled me out of my thoughts and I sighed before I answered Tiana's call.
"Hey, what's going on?" she rushed out.
"I messed up.”
"Messed up how? What’s wrong? Is Avi okay?" I cringed at the panic in her voice. She loved my little muffin.
“Avi is fine. Well, getting over a fever but better now. I saw Omiri and he saw Avi.”
"Oh. Shit. How?"
"At the pharmacy around the corner from the house. Avi had a fever and I went to get medicine. He was there."
"Your house? Damn, what are the odds?" My neighborhood was nice but damn sure not Chandler Heights. There was no reason he should have been on my side of town but who was I kidding? I didn’t know enough about him to know where Omiri would or should be.
"Exactly! But it happened, and he saw Avi, and I think he knows. I also rushed out of there without my wallet which means he has my name and address, shit everything. I’m so fucking screwed, T.”
"Slow down. Did you talk to him? Did he say he knows?"
"No, not really, but you should have seen his face when he looked at her, T. She has his damn eyes. There's no mistaking it and he grabbed my arm, like he was trying to stop me from leaving. If the security guard hadn't been there..."
Tiana was quiet for a minute. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. What can I do? If he has my wallet, he knows where we live. That man is rich, T. If he really wants to know if Avi is his, he can pay a team of lawyers who will be ready to demand a paternity test and visitation rights in the blink of an eye. I can’t compete with that."
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing," Tiana said carefully. "Avi deserves to know her father."
"You don't understand. He's not father material. You've seen the stories about him over the past year. Hell… even before that. The partying, the women, the substance issues. I don't want that for Avi."
"People can change, Makari."
"And people they love get hurt when that change is only temporary. I've worked so hard to build a stable life for her. I can't let him disrupt that."
"You also can't keep running forever. Sooner or later, you'll have to face this."
I knew she was right. I had been living on borrowed time since the moment I decided not to tell Omiri about my pregnancy. Part of me had always known this day was coming.
"I need to think. Can you come over soon to help me figure out what to do next?"
"Of course. My shift ends at seven. I can be there by seven-thirty. Get some rest because I know your ass has been up all night. It's going to be alright."
After we hung up, I checked on Avi who was still sleeping, peacefully unaware that her world was about to change forever. I touched her cheek and smiled, hating how much she looked like him.
"I'm sorry, baby girl. I was just trying to protect you."
I headed back to the living room and curled up on the couch to hopefully get some rest but knowing my mind wouldn't shut down long enough to let me.
I'm so fucking screwed...