Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
KENEDI
HOURS BEFORE THE PARTY.
The car revving behind me caused me to turn around before I stepped into the store, where Zaveah was waiting for me.
Raelynn was supposed to join us, but something came up at work, so she couldn’t attend.
As I noticed who was sitting in the driver’s seat, I smiled.
I hadn’t expected to see him again until later, but I was always happy to see my man.
There wasn’t a minute that I didn’t want to be around him.
So, all extra time together was more than welcome.
Once he parked and got out of the car, I watched as he made his way to where I stood.
I admired how fine he was and how much his presence commanded the attention around him.
He was always so confident and put together that anyone within the same vicinity as him had to stop and pay attention. And that went for both men and women.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked, throwing my hands around his neck.
“I came to give you a kiss,” he said, pulling me into him. Completely ignoring everyone staring as we embraced.
“You drove an hour just to come kiss me?” I asked, blushing.
“You better know it. Now, give me my kiss,” he said, biting his lip before he connected ours together.
“Do you feel better now? I still can’t believe you drove over an hour when you have a ton of things to do just to kiss me,” I said, smiling.
“I feel a lot better. And, I’ll drive wherever, and however long it takes to get to you if I want you. Now you can head inside. I don’t want to keep your homegirl waiting,” he said, walking over and opening the door.
“Okay, I love you. I’ll see you later.”
“I love you, too,” he said, before departing once the door closed.
As I smiled, walking through the store to where Zaveah had already let me know where she’d be, I mentally went through the last-minute details for Kru’s listening party tonight.
There was so much riding on this one night, and I was so excited about it.
I had gotten every big name in the industry to agree to show up, give love, and, more importantly, help spread the word about his new single.
It was my job to make sure that everyone was listening to and playing his music, and thanks to the hard work my team and I had been putting in, that was happening.
I knew that the collab he was set to do with Lyric would only take him even further.
Which meant that it would take Hilltop Records further, too.
The only thing I still had to do to prepare for the night was find a bra that would work well under my dress.
I thought I had one, but lately my boobs had been having a hard time fitting into the ones I had, and I had to look perfect tonight.
Tonight would be the first engagement that Sincere and I attended as an engaged couple, and it had to be perfect.
I wanted people to see that even though he was my boss, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t good at my job and couldn’t make big shit happen because I could slack off.
I didn’t do that, but it was still something that lingered in my head as to what people thought of me.
“Girl, this one would match your dress perfectly. If it slips, you wouldn’t even know it because it blends so well,” Zaveah said, holding up a burgundy bra that would absolutely go perfectly with my dress.
“That is actually perfect. Let me see if they have it in my size,” I said, grabbing it and flagging down one of the saleswomen.
“Yeah, because those things are looking mighty juicy these days.”
“Girl, tell me about it. I don’t know what the hell is going on.”
Instead of some crazy, witty response that I would normally get from her, she stared at me for a few seconds.
If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve assumed her ass was having a stroke or something.
But when she opened and shut her mouth a few times, I knew she was good.
Although I’d never known my friend to be speechless, I let her take her time to process her thoughts before she spoke again.
“Ken, my love,” she said, grabbing the bra back and placing it down on the counter before gripping my shoulders and turning me toward her. “When’s the last time you had a period, boo?”
Now it was my turn to open and shut my mouth.
I wanted to tell her that she was crazy, but she wasn’t.
I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had a period.
Between work and spending time with Sincere, I honestly hadn’t even thought about the fact that I hadn’t had one.
But now that I was putting everything together, it definitely made sense.
I wasn’t shocked that I was possibly pregnant.
I was just, well, shocked that I could be pregnant now.
I couldn’t make that shit make sense, but it made sense in my head.
“Girl, I honestly don’t fucking remember. It’s been months. That part I know for sure.”
“Well, we need to go take a test,” she said, running to the saleswoman and having her ring up the bra in my size so that we could go.
It didn’t take long for us to make it to a CVS to grab every pregnancy test we could find and make our way back to her house.
After going through seven of them, we confirmed that I was definitely with child.
I was excited and scared as hell. I had no doubt that Sincere would handle the news well.
It wasn’t as though we were doing anything to prevent it.
I knew my parents wouldn’t like that I was having a baby before marriage, but they would get over it.
They loved Sincere, so I believed that would ease the blow a little bit.
The thing that scared me the most was how I was going to handle this with my career.
I was just now getting things back on track.
And while a baby was a blessing, I knew that it would slow me down a lot.
Hopefully, Sincere and I could figure this out together and see where we could make adjustments so we could both show up as the parents we wanted to be and still pursue our career goals.
I knew he still had a lot of things that he still needed and wanted to accomplish as well.
Even though I wasn’t afraid to tell him about the baby, I was afraid of the next conversation we would need to have.
I knew that he said he would work on getting out of the streets, but with a baby on the way, I needed him to speed up that process.
I was not going to bring a baby into the world with everything that he had going on outside of running the label.
I was willing to work with him, but at some point, I had to draw a line.
“So, when are you going to tell him?” Zaveah asked.
“Tonight. I think I’m going to wait until after the listening party, though. I don’t want to take his attention off the night. So, when it’s just us two back at home, I’m going to let him know.”
“Good! I need you to tell him so y’all can go see a doctor and find out how far along you are.
Once I know you’re out of the first trimester, I can start shopping.
Them baby stores are going to hate seeing me coming.
I’m about to do this rich auntie shit like it’s never been done before.
Oh, and wait until Raelynn finds out! That baby is going to be so damn spoiled. ”
Everything at the party had been going as planned until I found myself having to use the restroom.
My plan was to pee and then find Sincere.
I’d done a lot of mingling and honestly just wanted to spend some time hanging with my man.
He’d already asked me a few times why I hadn’t taken a drink from him, and I couldn’t wait until we got home to tell him why I couldn’t drink tonight or for a while.
However, I wasn’t sure that any of that would be happening since as soon as I stepped into the bathroom, someone’s hand was being put over my mouth and telling me that if I screamed, they’d shoot me.
As my head hit the door after being thrown into a car, I couldn’t do anything but cry.
I wasn’t sure if I was crying because my head had already begun to start ringing or because I was truly in a kidnapping situation.
Never in a million years did I think I’d be going through something like this, yet here I was, and I couldn’t figure out why.
The only two people I knew crazy enough to do some shit like this were Logan and Ray.
However, I knew it couldn’t be them since both of them were no longer here.
I wasn’t sure how long we were driving, but eventually we stopped, and I felt my body being yanked out of the car.
Instead of trying to fight whoever had a tight hold on me, I decided to go with the flow in hopes that I didn’t piss them off too badly and make them do something that I would regret.
I knew that I didn’t just have myself to think about now.
I had a baby in my stomach that needed me to think smart and not be reactive.
“You know, you’re very pretty. I don’t know why Sincere would ever leave you out here by yourself. There are too many wolves out in these streets.”
“Look, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I can promise you that it has nothing to do with me. You can just let me go, and we can pretend that this never happened.”
“You know, Kenedi, unfortunately, that’s not how this works. Now, your boyfriend took a lot of shit that belongs to me, and I’m going to need you to convince him to give it back.”
“How can I convince him to do that? What did he take from you?”
“That part doesn’t really concern you. What you’re going to do, though, is you’re going to call him. Keep it cool and smooth, and everything should be alright. You got me?”
“Yeah, I got you,” I said, feeling him place a phone in my hand. I lifted it to my ear, and I could hear it ringing. It wasn’t long before I heard Sincere’s voice on the other side.