19. Vani
I watched in awe as my niece pranced down the aisle at the store we were in and tossed stuff in her little mini cart without a care in the world. “Jaela, you got money?” I asked following her like she was the parent, and I was the child.
She shook her head vigorously causing the beads at the ends of her braids to make a clacking sound. “No, but you do.”
With a chuckle, I shook my head. Jaela was absolutely correct.
I did have money, and she could get whatever she wanted.
She was spoiled, and she knew it. After I was released from prison, I had to literally beat my parents to the punch when it came to getting her because they didn’t like to share her with anyone.
Not even Lo. They were pissed when they found out she was pregnant but from the day she brought Jaela home from the hospital, they lowkey kidnapped her baby.
Jaela didn’t like the housing project she moved into and after only four months out there, she moved back in with my parents.
That time around, she worked and saved her money for a year, so she could move someplace better.
When she finally got her own place, my mother cried, and my father told her she could go where she wanted, but she was leaving Jaela.
And the way that little girl cried and had tantrums when it was time to leave my parents, some days, it pissed Lo off.
Her own kid treated her like a red head stepchild sometimes.
Lo always said the way she acted when it was time to go home was embarrassing because people were going to start thinking she was being mistreated at home.
I only needed to grab about five items, so once Jaela couldn’t fit anything else in her cart, we made our way over to the checkout.
I got her buckled in her car seat and put all the bags in the trunk.
While I drove, it dawned on me that I had a shop to get together and a wedding to plan.
For a minute, I was thinking that Darius was like most men.
The ones that just proposed and kind of went on about their business and wasn’t pressed about a date.
That assumption didn’t last long because Darius made me aware the day after he proposed that he wanted us to be married before he graduated from college. And that was less than a year away.
It made me nervous, and I wasn’t sure why.
I loved Darius, and I was excited about the idea of marrying him.
I was just scared about the fact that he wasn’t all the way out of the streets and not knowing how he was going to handle Mya and the supposed robbery that took place at her house.
I wished I had the money to replace the bricks but even if I did, it was still the principle with Darius, and there was no way they were getting away with what they did.
That was the part of him that scared me.
When I dropped Jaela off, Lo fussed me out about everything I bought her.
We chopped it up for a minute, then I went home.
I had been working hard and running around for days, and I was tired.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until Darius walked through the door, and I knew that he was okay, however.
At home, I took a shower, put on some comfy pajamas and warmed up some leftovers.
For once, everything felt right. There was a time when I was in prison that I couldn’t even imagine the free world which was crazy because I’d spent more of my life free than not.
Being in prison was so traumatizing and life changing that all the memories I had before my arrival there seemed so far away, long ago, and out of reach.
No matter how far-fetched and unrealistic the desire was, I wanted life to stay just like this.
Smooth sailing. Good people around and new memories being created.
When I heard Darius punching the code into the smart lock on the front door, a grin stretched across my face.
As he opened the door and crossed the threshold of our home, the first thing I noticed was Dymand in his arms. My eyes bounced from her face to his as my heart jumped into my throat.
Dymand was his child, and we were in his home.
No matter how much he called it ours, it was his.
His daughter had every right to be there.
But it was my first time seeing her up close and personal, and yeah, it still did something to me.
My awkward feelings didn’t last long because when I saw two long scratches on my man’s face, I hopped up like my ass was on fire.
“What happened?”
Dymand eyed me with the cutest doe shaped eyes as I neared her father. She gave me a ‘lady who are you and why you talking to my daddy,’ look that would have been cute if I wasn’t so concerned about Darius and his face.
“Hold on,” Darius frowned as he walked over to the couch and set Dymand down.
He picked the remote up off the couch and turned the television to some singing lady.
My brows raised, but I wasn’t going to be petty.
I kind of felt like damn, so it’s just fuck what I was watching.
As Darius walked into the kitchen, I had to shake my head at myself.
Dymand cut her eyes at me before straining her neck to see where her father went.
“Hi,” I gave her a comforting smile. She was acting like she was ready to yell out stranger danger, and I didn’t want to give her weird vibes. They say kids knew when a person wasn’t right.
Dymand studied me with a blank expression on her face.
More than likely, she was trying to discern whether or not she should trust me.
Darius walked back into the room carrying a bowl of sliced strawberries and bananas.
He placed them in her lap then stepped off to the side, so he could still be in the room with her, but he wanted to make sure she wasn’t super focused on him and what he was saying even though she was very young.
“Bree’s stupid ass saw a video on social media of the proposal and your salon, and she went crazy on a nigga. Shorty grabbed my whole face and clawed that shit. If my daughter wasn’t there, I would have beat the fuck out that hoe,” he hissed in a low tone.
“Where she at?” I asked with hiked brows. “On my mama I’m ‘bout to go beat the fuck out that hoe.”
I knew Darius had to be pissed, but he shook his head and pushed out a light chuckle.
“Hell nah. You not going nowhere near that. Shorty is bitter as hell and irrational. Until she calms down, I got my daughter.” The look in his eyes said everything his mouth didn’t.
He needed me to understand. And I did. Darius was going to be my husband, and I had to get used to Dymand.
“I still want to beat her ass, and if I catch her out in public you can’t stop me.”
“Bae,” Darius sighed. “Please man. Bree is obviously not wrapped too tight. I haven’t touched her since before Dymand was born.
I’ve never given her the slightest indication that I wanted to be with her.
The way she’s spiraling over something that she should have seen coming is mind boggling.
Just leave it alone. You have way too much to lose.
I’m a grown ass man. I can take a few scratches to the face.
It caught me off guard at first, but I’m good now. ”
I knew he could handle it, but that wasn’t the point.
It was the audacity for me. Clearly, Bree hadn’t gotten her ass whooped enough in life.
Her being as delusional as she was over Darius was mind boggling indeed.
No matter how many times he told me in the past I didn’t have anything to worry about, I still let Bree’s presence make me insecure.
When I was insecure and upset, I made a stupid decision that cost me a lot.
It cost way too much, actually. I was going to do what my man said and chill.
He was absolutely correct. I had too much to lose to still be crashing out over Bree’s actions.
And I didn’t want her to have a reason to tell Darius that he couldn’t see Dymand. So, I was going to chill.
“I need to run to meet Kodak. My plan was to stop by the house and give Bree some money and some stuff I bought Dymand. I didn’t know she was going to act an ass.
My daughter started crying and got upset, and I spazzed and took her.
I have dope in the car. I would take her with me, but I don’t want to keep having her in the car with me while I have that on me. ” The pleading in his eyes was back.
“Of course, I got her. Be careful.”
Darius leaned in and placed three quick pecks on my lips before advancing toward Dymand who was yawning. “Daddy has to go bye-bye pretty girl, but I’ll be right back.” He placed a kiss on her temple.
“Bye-bye?” she reached for him, and my heart melted. Seeing Darius in daddy mode actually warmed my heart more than it hurt it.
I walked over to the couch and sat down.
I extended my arms toward her, because I was a stranger and I didn’t want to just pick her up.
Dymand eyed me suspiciously for a few seconds then she crawled over and climbed in my lap.
Darius eased out the door while Dymand laid her head on my chest and closed her eyes.
Tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t believe she had me crying.
Not because I was bitter or hurt. She was the sweetest thing.
God always knew what He was doing. My baby didn’t make it, and I was glad because I wasn’t ready.
More than that, I would have had to go to prison and leave my baby in the world, that would have killed me.
I would like to think that if I had a baby or had been pregnant at the time, I never would have offered to make the drop for Jared, but I couldn’t know that for sure.