Chapter 9 Ava Reynolds
AVA REYNOLDS
Ihad been reluctantly anticipating Thanksgiving dinner all week.
It had been hard enough being around him before.
But after all the awful things he’d said to me about the baby, sitting in the same room with him felt like swallowing glass.
He didn’t look at me the way he used to.
There were no flirtatious little stares, or inappropriate comments.
If we spoke at all, it was just enough to keep anybody from clocking the animosity between us; a “yes”, “no”, or passing one another something. Nothing more.
That hurt worse than I wanted it to. I hated it. I hated how much it hurt. I hated how much my body still remembered him anyway.
I sat on the edge of the sectional pretending to pay attention to whatever Livia was saying while my mind kept drifting.
Aria was in the corner trying to keep up with all her babies.
Rhythm was laughing at something Sincere had said.
Zahra had her swollen feet up while Saint kept checking on her every five minutes.
Everywhere I looked, there was marriage, softness, family rhythm, and men who moved like home for their women.
Then there was me, pregnant by a man who could barely look at me now.
I couldn’t take too much more of it, so when nobody was paying attention, I got up and slipped into the pantry off the kitchen like I was just looking for something, just to breathe for a second.
The second the door shut behind me, I leaned against the shelf and let out a slow breath.
A few seconds later, Zahra came in behind me. “You okay?” she asked, already knowing I wasn’t.
I laughed without humor. “No.”
She shut the door and rubbed her huge belly.
I looked away. “I’m just tired of being pregnant and pretending I’m not. Tired of seeing him in the same room with me acting like I’m some stranger. Tired of trying to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to tell everybody without everything blowing up even worse.”
Zahra’s face softened. “You’re five months. It’s going to come out, Ava.”
“I know.” I cringed. “I know, but every time I think about the baby and telling him—”
The pantry door flew open so hard it banged the wall. Saint stood there looking heated. My whole body froze.
He looked from me to Zahra and back again. “You’re five months pregnant?”
Nobody said anything.
His eyes narrowed. “I know what the fuck I just heard. You pregnant, Ava?” He stepped farther in. “What the fuck is going on? Some nigga in Thailand got you pregnant?”
“No,” I blurted.
He glared at me. “Then what’s going on?”
I was already emotional, cornered, and embarrassed. So, the truth came out before I could stop it. “It’s Reek’s.”
Saint went completely still. The silence in that pantry felt violent.
Then he exploded. “Reek?!” he barked.
My stomach dropped. “Saint, please—”
But he was already gone. He stormed down the hall so fast I had to run behind him, as panic shot through me.
“Saint!” I hissed. “Please calm down! Don’t say anything!”
Behind me, Zahra tried to keep up, but she was too pregnant and too slow. “Saint!” she called. “Stop!”
But he didn’t. By the time I caught up to him, he was already in the den fuming. The room quieted the second he walked in looking like that.
Then he looked right at Reek and snapped, “So, you got Ava pregnant?”
The whole damn room froze.
Then it exploded.
“What?!” Aria shrieked at the same time Rhythm sat up straighter.
Legend’s head turned so fast toward Reek I thought it would come off. Icon looked shocked in the coldest way possible. Big A just stared.
Rhythm’s mouth fell open, and then she turned to Aria and whispered too loudly, “I told you she looked pregnant under those oversized clothes.”
I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.
I was mortified. Because now every face in that room was on me and Reek. And all around us was exactly what I didn’t have; loving, married couples, proud fathers, all the things I had wanted pregnancy to feel like but would never get.
“Saint, calm down,” I begged, breathless and humiliated.
“Calm down?” he snapped, looking between me and Reek. “Since when the fuck was this happening? You got my little sister pregnant and didn’t even tell me, nigga?”
Reek’s jaw tightened. “Lower your voice.”
“Or what?”
The whole room went tense.
Big A stood up. So did Icon. Legend was right behind him.
Zahra finally made it into the den, breathing hard. Livia went to her immediately, and Aria got up too, but both of them kept looking at me with a pity that made this worse. Even Tempo came near me with her hand reaching out like she wanted to comfort me.
Their comfort stung. Because every last one of them had been loved right and chosen out loud. And here I was getting exposed in front of the whole family with a man who had already made it clear he did not want anything to do with the baby growing inside of me.
Saint looked straight at Reek. “So, you fucked Ava, got her pregnant, and ain’t said shit? You got my wife’s little sister pregnant and had her in here carrying that by herself while you acted like nothing happened?”
Reek’s face hardened. “I didn’t know she was pregnant until recently.”
Saint barked out a sharp laugh. “Recently? She’s standing here five months pregnant. What the fuck do you mean recently?”
I stood there burning up with shame while every eye in the room bounced between me and Reek.
“I just told him,” I said quietly, but nobody was listening.
Saint closed the space between he and Reek. “So, what was the plan? Keep fucking her, keep playing with her, and let her deal with this baby alone?”
Though Reek was trying to remain respectful, the whole room could see that Saint was pissing him off. “Didn’t she just tell you that she just told me?”
“Whenever she told you was enough time to tell me, nigga!”
Sincere stepped between them, slightly pushing Saint back.
“You been known you slept with her, though!” Saint shot back. “You knew you was in some fake-ass situation with Sienna while fucking my lil’ sista. You knew exactly how messy this could get, and you still did it.”
Big A finally spoke, still looking stunned. “Yeah, that was foul, bro.”
I wanted to disappear.
Reek answered without looking away from Saint. “That ain’t your concern. She’s grown. I didn’t force her to do shit.”
“The hell it ain’t,” Saint snapped. “It’s all our concern now. That baby is family.”
Legend spoke up, glaring at Reek. “I’m assuming you don’t want shit to do with the baby either.”
“You don’t know that, baby,” Aria interjected.
“Look how she standing here. Look at her face,” Legend said. “That’s the only reason to keep it from us. He don’t want kids.”
Livia slipped a comforting arm around my waist. Aria started petting my fucking hair like I was a puppy.
“Reek, answer the question,” Icon bit. “Do you plan on taking care of your child or not?”
Reek’s jaw tightened. “I’m still processing this.”
Saint threw his hands up. “Processing? Nigga, the baby is already here. It’s not a maybe. Ava is pregnant now.”
Zahra finally made it to her husband and grabbed Saint’s arm. “Calm down.”
“I am calm,” he said, very clearly not calm. Then he glared at Reek again. “You don’t get to turn your back on this baby when you laid down and made it.”
Reek snapped back then. “And she didn’t get to hide it from me for months and then expect me to smile about it either.”
That made the room erupt all over again.
I felt pressure from everywhere at once, and I couldn’t take one more second of it. The tears came before I could stop them. Ashamed, angry, and overwhelmed, I turned and ran out of the room before anybody could see me fully break.
I didn’t stop until I got to Aria’s wing. Then I finally let myself fall apart.