Chapter 12 #2
“Okay,” Shantel said, her voice cracking, hands coming up like she was trying to slow the whole room down.
“She doesn’t know she’s not ours biologically.
We raised her since birth. You left Tattiana alone and pregnant, and she wasn’t prepared to raise no baby on her own, so we stepped in.
We didn’t want Tatti to miss out on her last years of high school, nor going to college.
We adopted Riyah as soon as she was born.
We loved that little girl like she was our own child from day one. You can’t just take our baby from us.”
I sat there for a second, letting that settle, my mind drifting back to conversations me and Tatti used to have laying up together all them years ago.
We’d be talking about a future, the one we never got to build.
We used to say we’d have four kids together one day.
I ain’t ever mean that shit for real, not back then, young and reckless as I was.
But I knew Tatti well enough, even back then, to know for a fact she wouldn’t have willingly given away a child of ours.
Not with how deep she was in love with me that whole summer.
I had that girl doing whatever I asked of her without a question.
So I knew, sitting there, that whatever happened to make her lose that baby to these weird ass people, it wasn’t her choice.
This bitch was sitting in my face lying.
I pulled my gun from my waist and set it flat across my lap, not aiming it, just letting it sit there where everybody in that room could see it clearly.
Ron sat up straighter in that recliner, chest puffing out a little, trying to look like a man ready for whatever was coming, but I could see straight through that. I was about to show this nigga exactly how much of that toughness he was portraying was real.
“Take your phone out,” I told Shantel. “Dial up Tatti right now.”
She hesitated, hands shaking, but she did what I told her, pulling that phone out her pocket and dialing with fingers that couldn’t quite steady themselves. She didn’t want a bullet in her head, and I didn’t blame her.
Tatti picked up without even saying hello. I snatched the phone straight out of her aunt’s hands.
“Now is not the time,” she said, her voice tired, frustrated. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. And I’m not giving you no more money, Auntie. I meant that.”
“Tattiana Taylor,” I said into that phone, cutting straight through whatever she was expecting to hear.
“I mean Carter now, right? Why would you keep a whole baby from me? Matter fact, why would you give my baby away to these people. You know what’s done in the dark gone always come to light.
If you really wanted to find me all them years ago, you knew exactly how to make a way happen.
Now, I gotta take back what’s mine since I was never given that option,”
The line went dead silent for a second.
“Demontae.” Her voice broke apart speaking my name, panic flooding into it instantly.
“Don’t hurt my daughter. Please. You left me, and you know that.
You set shit up to where I could have gone down for your actions.
I had no way of knowing where to even start looking for you.
And I didn’t give her away willingly, I swear to you, I didn’t.
Ask my aunt why she took her from me in the first place.
It’s really because of you! Please. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you, just please, leave my child alone and out of all this. ”
“Damn,” I said, letting a short, humorless laugh out.
“You out here begging for our baby’s life, but you ain’t beg once for your other family here.
They really crossed you, huh? They must’ve really fucked you over bad.
See, to know me is to know I don’t play about my kids.
Never have, never will. I’m about to take my daughter with me right now.
I wouldn’t harm a hair on her head! She’s mine.
But I can’t say that about your husband.
I gotta finish him. And when you ready to trade your bitch ass husband’s life for our child, then we can talk business.
Keep this call between me and you. Don’t tell nobody else what’s happening right now, and everything will stay cool.
I’ll give you instructions on what I need from you later.
If you tell that nigga and try to set me up instead, shit ain’t gone end good, baby momma.
Show me where your loyalty really lies, Tatti.
I’ll call you tomorrow. Be by your phone, and remember, this is just between me and you.
” I hung up before she could get another word out.
I plugged Tatti number into my own phone.
“What’d you say my daughter name was?” I asked, turning back to Shantel. “Nariyah?” I yelled towards the back of the house.
“You not taking her nowhere,” Ron barked, pushing himself up out that recliner, his whole body shaking with a mix of fear and forced aggression.
“Let’s bet,” I said simply, standing up myself, gun still loose in my hand.
“Nariyah,” I called out toward the back of the house louder this time. “Come here, baby girl.”
She came walking back into the front room from her bedroom, looking between me and her aunt and uncle, confusion written all over her little face, not understanding the tension was thick enough to choke on in that living room. I placed my hand behind my back, hiding my gun from out of her sight.
I told her we were about to go for a ride and to put on her shoes. She looked confused and didn’t immediately move. She knew better than to trust strangers, and I appreciated that.