Chapter 15 #2
“This fucking lady.” He shook his head. “Vivienne’s only been pregnant twice by me.
The first time, I already told you about.
The second pregnancy resulted in you. When she found out she was pregnant, she was scared.
She was traumatized the first time, and she really didn’t want anybody to know until she was too far along to be forced to terminate.
“But I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. As far as I was concerned, Vivi’s pregnancy was going to give me my freedom papers.
I planned to finally leave Priscilla and marry Vivi.
I told Priscilla everything. Now that I’m older and have more wisdom, I should’ve kept my stupid mouth shut.
I should’ve moved in silence, but I was so excited to finally start my forever with my girl that I fucked up.
I ran my mouth when I should’ve kept it closed.
“Vivienne never planned to terminate. She was committed to having you and us raising you together. But Priscilla’s father got involved.
He started fucking with me, fucking with my standing on the team.
” He took a deep breath. “To be honest, by that point, I didn’t care.
I was tired of pretending that I saw Priscilla as anything but a burden that was forced on me.
I was ready to walk. I was ready to marry Vivi and start living the life I always dreamed of. ”
“You were gonna walk away from baseball?”
He nodded. “But your mother talked me out of it. Anyway, Patricia is a liar. Your mother always planned to have you. There were no plans for her to terminate your pregnancy. Priscilla did go to your great-grandmother’s house.
Words were exchanged, hands were thrown, and your mother did name you Kept to spite Priscilla,” he held up his hands, “but only after I agreed that I liked the name. It was petty as hell, but I wanted Priscilla to understand once and for all that she wasn’t the woman that I wanted.
The woman that I wanted was having my son. My only son.”
“This story is crazy as hell.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It was the 90s. What can I say? There was no social media. No cell phones with cameras. No cancelling celebrities. You could do or say pretty much whatever you wanted, and who could prove it?” I shook my head.
“Anyway, I couldn’t get Priscilla to leave.
She faked a pregnancy and a miscarriage. ”
“Damn.”
“Once Vivi had you, Priscilla harassed her nonstop.
She sued her twice for mental anguish. Literally had Vivi served with papers.
She made fake neglect claims with Child Protective Services.
Vivi was investigated three times. The final straw was when Vivi was one day late picking you up from a visit with me.
“I was an asshole, June. It was my fault. I left you with Priscilla while I went out of town for a doubleheader. I should’ve gotten a travel nanny and taken you with me.
But I had no idea that Vivi was gonna miss her flight and get back a day late to pick you up.
Priscilla called CPS, and they came and got you.
I had to leave the game. It took us three days to get everything straightened out.
For three days, you were in the system, and neither of us knew where you were or who you were with.
“That was Vivi’s final straw. She was already dealing with a mild case of post-partum, and Priscilla’s antics were making everything worse.
When we finally got you back, she told me that she couldn’t do it anymore.
She told me that she spent her whole adult life trying to love me, and it wasn’t worth her sanity.
She disappeared on me. Your great-grandmother stepped in and took over your care when I was out of town. ”
“I feel like I spent a lot of time with Priscilla, but she was never cruel to me. She was just . . .” I thought about the word Xarielle used to describe her grandmother. “. . . disengaged.”
He eyed me seriously. “I told her that if she ever harmed a hair on your head, talked shit to you, or tried to make you feel less than, I would make her ass disappear. I meant that shit, and she knew it.”
“Why’d you marry her? Why’d you get her pregnant with Trinity?”
“I married Priscilla because Vivienne was through with me. Priscilla wanted to be married, and I didn’t give a shit because I couldn’t have who I wanted.
So, I took her to the courthouse and did it.
She lied about being on birth control, and Trinity was conceived.
As much as I love my youngest baby, I never meant for her to be here.
“I knew Priscilla wanted to have a son to compete with Vivi. I never told anybody this, but I was happy as hell that Trinity was a girl. I felt like the least I could do was let Vivienne have my only son since she wasn’t the mother of all of my children.
Once I found out that Priscilla lied about the birth control, I couldn’t stomach her anymore.
I thought I would wait until Trinity went to college, but I couldn’t.
I divorced her while Trinity was still in middle school. ”
My entire understanding of the circumstances regarding my upbringing was a lie. Not much was what I thought it was. I stood from the chair.
“I’m gonna go.”
“June—”
“Nah, it’s cool, Dad. I’m not mad or pissed or anything like that. I’m . . .” I tried to think of the right word to describe my feelings. “Blown. I need time to process everything you just told me. Everything I thought I knew was wrong. Everything I believed was wrong.”
“Son, just stay for lunch. Vivi’s been cooking all day. She wants to talk?—”
“Nah.” I shook my head. “I’m not ready for that. I can’t handle that. I need a minute. We’ll talk.” I gave him a half-hearted nod of my head and bounded down the stairs.
I wasn’t even sure how I made it to the rental house or why I didn’t go by Aunt Reese’s and pick up my girls. My head was fucked up.