Chapter Ava Reynolds
AVA REYNOLDS
The next day, I decided I had to tell Zahra before the amount of time I had been sitting on this secret became unforgivable.
The excitement from the baby shower and gender reveal had finally died down. The attention had been on her the way it was supposed to be, and now that all of that had settled, I felt a little better about putting some of it on me.
Yet, I still felt like I was stepping out of the little happy bubble I had wrapped around this pregnancy and walking straight into chaos. Even telling Zahra made it all feel more real, and deep down, I already knew she was going to make me tell Reek whether I was ready to or not.
Saint had already left for the day, so I took that as my opening. I wasn’t about to tell Zahra anything like this with him pacing around the house too.
When I got to their room, her TV was on, and she was lying across the bed on her side, watching The Testaments, with a pillow wedged between her legs and another behind her back. She looked big, tired, and uncomfortable. One hand rested on her stomach like she was trying to hold it up herself.
I paused in the doorway for a second, looking at her belly and wondering how big I was going to get.
Hopefully not that damn big.
“You good?” she asked without looking away from the TV.
“Yeah.” I walked in and climbed onto the bed beside her. “Move over, big ass.”
She sucked her teeth. “I’m pregnant, hoe.” She laughed and shifted enough for me to settle in beside her. I watched the screen for maybe twenty seconds before I said, “Pause it.”
That got her attention. Zahra turned and looked at me. Then she sat up a little, already reading the seriousness on my face.
“What’s wrong?” she questioned. “You moving to Thailand for good?”
I let out a breath and looked down at my hands. “No.”
“Then what?”
I took one more second, then just said it. “I’m pregnant.”
She stared at me. Then she blinked.
Finally, she sat all the way up. “You’re what?”
“Pregnant.”
Her hand flew to her mouth and she started rambling, “Oh my God! By who? Who is he? Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing somebody over there? Is he from Thailand? Or is he one of those Black guys from that group of Black residents you were hanging with that lived over there?”
I squeezed my eyes shut for half a second. “It’s Reek’s.”
When I opened my eyes, I saw that Zahra had frozen.
Then all the drama hit her face at once. “Reek?!” she yelled. “Reek as in our Reek? Tariq?! Since when were you and Reek a thing?” Her whole body fell back against her decorative pillows. “Did he go to Thailand and nobody told me?”
“No, he did not go to Thailand.”
“Then when the hell did you get pregnant?”
“Right before I left,” I admitted. “I found out when I got to Thailand.”
Zahra looked at me like I had grown another head. “Ava…” She did the math out loud. “That means you like four… almost five months!!!”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Oh my God!” She started rambling again. “Does Reek know? Has he known this whole time? Has he been keeping this secret too—”
“No,” I cut in. “He doesn’t know.”
That stopped her for a second.
Then she frowned. “Why not?”
I looked away shamefully. “Because there’s nothing between us.
We had sex once, and he’s always been very clear about not wanting a serious relationship or kids.
I didn’t want to tell him because I knew he wouldn’t want it, and I want my baby, despite his feelings.
” I swallowed. “I’m terrified he’s going to think I trapped him. ”
Zahra stared at me. “Duh! Of course he is!”
I groaned. “Thanks.”
“No, I’m serious!” she spiraled again. “Ava, this is messy as hell. Reek and Sienna already got whatever weird shit they got going on, and then there’s Alderman Langford—this could piss him off too if it gets back to him.
Project 83 is still in the building phase.
Alderman Langford can throw a monkey wrench in it if he wants to. ”
I cringed. “I know. I’ve thought of all of that. That’s why I haven’t been able to tell him.”
She looked at me for a long second, then shook her head. “Damn.”
I moved closer and grabbed her hand. “Please keep it quiet until I tell him myself.”
“Of course. But you need to hurry up and tell him before that baby come out looking all Reek-y.”
I laughed, despite the tension.
Zahra’s eyes started filling up with tears as she stared at me. “My little sister having a baby,” she swooned. “And our babies are going to be so close in age. They’re really going to grow up like siblings.”
That made my eyes sting too.
She reached out and touched my stomach through my oversized sleep shirt. “Your little belly is so tiny.”
“That’s because the food was so healthy in Thailand. But I can already feel myself gaining weight now that I’m back here.”
Zahra rolled her eyes. “Girl, that’s also because you're young, slim-thick, and this is your first baby. I didn’t get huge until my last trimester.”
I looked down at her hand over my stomach and let myself breathe for the first time since I walked into the room.
Then Zahra emphasized much more seriously, “You need to tell Reek ASAP.”
And just like that, all the peace I had gotten from finally telling somebody disappeared.