The next day… #4
“They gon’ be,” I told him. “I’ma hit you tomorrow.”
“A’ight. Handle that.”
I ended the call and looked down at Isley while she stared back at me with her lil’ eyes wide open. She had finally stopped cryin’, but I could still feel the tension from downstairs runnin’ through the whole house.
I had money sittin’ by the front door, a club I was supposed to be at, and my niggas waitin’ on me to make moves, but none of that shit mattered right now.
My wife was fallin’ apart in front of me, my daughter was upstairs wishin’ Pluto never adopted her, and my newborn had just cried herself tired ‘cause the two people closest to me couldn’t stop hurtin’ each other long enough to see what they was doin’ to everybody around them.
If I ain’t get Pluto together, this whole mansion was gon’ fall apart from the inside, and I wasn’t lettin’ that happen.
I kissed Isley’s forehead, tucked her closer against my chest, and headed toward my bedroom ‘cause whatever Pluto had been tryna hold in, I was about to make her give that shit to me.
When I got to the room door, I looked down at Isley and decided to call one of the nannies real quick.
My baby had finally settled against my chest, and the last thing I wanted was to carry her in another room where she might hear me and Pluto goin’ back and forth.
Whatever was about to happen between me and my wife needed to happen without no kids around, ‘cause too much of our shit had already spilled over on them tonight.
I pulled my phone out and called downstairs. One of the night nannies answered, and I told her to meet me near the elevator. She came up a couple minutes later with a blanket folded across her arm, and I handed Isley over after kissin’ her forehead.
“Keep her downstairs with you for a while. If she start actin’ like somethin’ wrong or won’t calm down, call me.”
“I will,” she assured me before walkin’ away with my daughter.
I stood here until they disappeared into the elevator, then turned back toward my bedroom.
I ain’t know what Pluto was gon’ give me when I walked in there, but I was done lettin’ her hide behind that quiet shit.
She had been walkin’ around this house carryin’ somethin’ too heavy for her, and instead of givin’ it to me, she had been lettin’ it tear her apart piece by piece.
When I opened the room door, Pluto was sittin’ on the edge of the bed with her back halfway turned toward me.
She still had on my shirt and them shorts, but her shoulders was slumped and both hands was clasped between her thighs.
The attitude was still all over her, but under it, she looked tired enough to fall apart if somebody touched her the wrong way.
I closed the door behind me and stood here lookin’ at her for a second. She ain’t turn around or ask where Isley was. She just kept starin’ at the floor like I wasn’t even in the room.
I took my phone and keys out my pockets, sat ‘em on the bar and turned back toward her. The longer she sat there actin’ like she ain’t have nothin’ to say, the more irritated I got.
It wasn’t ‘cause I wanted to argue, but ‘cause I was tired of watchin’ my wife drown while she kept tellin’ me she knew how to swim.
“Pluto, I’m sick of this shit,” I told her, keepin’ my voice low even though every word came out serious. “I ain’t finna keep walkin’ around this house guessin’ what the fuck wrong with you while you take that shit out on everybody else.”
Her face turned toward me then, and the look she gave me was cold. “I ain’t ask you to guess.”
“That’s the fuckin’ problem,” I replied as I stepped closer. “You ain’t askin’ me for nothin’. You ain’t tellin’ me nothin’. You just keep sayin’ you good, then do some shit like what happened downstairs and expect everybody to act like we ain’t see it.”
Pluto looked away from me again. “I already know I was wrong.”
“Then talk to me about why it happened.”
“I don’t know.”
“That ain’t enough.”
She let out a frustrated breath and rubbed both hands over her face. “Pressure, I said I don’t know.”
“And I’m tellin’ you I ain’t acceptin’ that shit no more,” I said as I stopped in front of her. “You either gon’ sit here and tell me somethin’, or I’m draggin’ yo’ ass to somebody who can help you figure it out. Them the only two options I’m givin’ you.”
Her head lifted, and her eyes narrowed. “You can’t make me go talk to nobody.”
“I can make sure you don’t keep sufferin’ in silence while everybody in this bitch catch the damage from it,” I corrected her. “Call it whatever the fuck you want, but I’m not lettin’ this keep goin’.”
Pluto stared at me like she wanted to argue, but nothin’ came out. Her lips pressed together, then started tremblin’ before she dropped her face into her hands. At first, I thought she was only frustrated. Then her shoulders started shakin’, and I heard the first broken cry leave her.
That shit took every bit of anger out of me.
Pluto tried to wipe her face and pull herself together, but the harder she fought it, the worse it got. Tears kept fallin’ through her fingers while she bent forward on the edge of the bed, and all I could do was stand here for a second ‘cause I had never seen my wife look this lost.
She had cried in front of me before. I had seen her hurt, mad and scared, but this was different. Pluto looked like she had been holdin’ herself together for everybody else so long that her body ain’t know how to stop once it finally gave up.
I moved beside her and sat on the bed. My arm went around her shoulders, and I pulled her against me even though she kept her face covered.
“Come here, baby,” I said while kissin’ the side of her head. “Quit fightin’ me.”
Pluto fell into my chest, and the second I wrapped both arms around her, she started cryin’ harder.
Her hands grabbed the front of my shirt while she tried to breathe through it, and I held her close ‘cause I knew she ain’t need me askin’ a hundred questions right now.
She needed somewhere safe to put all that shit she had been carryin’.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she cried against my chest. “I don’t know why I’m like this.”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with you, baby,” I told her, rubbin’ my hand over her back. “You went through some shit, and ya mind ain’t caught up with ya body yet. That don’t mean you broken.”
“I don’t feel like myself,” Pluto admitted as she tightened her grip on my shirt. “I’m tired all the time, and everybody always need something. Then when I get mad, I feel guilty because they my kids and I’m supposed to want to do everything for them.”
“You ain’t supposed to do everything by yourself,” I told her. “That’s where you keep fuckin’ up.”
Pluto pulled back enough to look at me, and tears covered her face. “You already do a lot.”
“And I can do more,” I said without hesitatin’. “I got people handlin’ shit for me every day. Ain’t no reason I can’t move some shit around and be here more when my family need me.”
She shook her head while more tears fell. “I don’t want you thinking I can’t handle my own kids.”
“Please stop baby. I don’t think that,” I replied, reachin’ up to wipe under her eyes. “I think my wife tired, hurt and overwhelmed. I think you almost died havin’ my baby, came home before ya mind had time to deal with it and went right back to takin’ care of everybody like nothin’ happened.”
Pluto lowered her eyes, and I slid my hand behind her neck before pressin’ my forehead against hers.
“You ain’t gotta prove shit to me,” I continued. “You carried three of my babies and raised four children. You already showed me what kinda woman you is. Now you need to let me be ya husband instead of treatin’ me like another person you gotta take care of.”
Her face crumbled again, and I kissed her forehead before pullin’ her on my lap. Pluto turned sideways against me and curled into my chest while I cradled her body in my arms. Her legs came up to her chest, and she wrapped both arms around my neck as I rocked her slow.
“I love you,” I told her, pressin’ kisses against her wet cheeks. “You hear me?”
Pluto nodded, but she kept cryin’.