Chapter 30 - Neha
I sat behind my desk, putting in my notes for the day.
I’d been busy with meetings all morning long, and I was beyond ready to go to lunch.
During my first meeting on the lodge, there was a code management because two of the adolescent girls started fighting.
I was in the middle of doing an assessment when I heard screaming.
Everybody went running, and when I got there, two girls were going blow for blow, hitting anybody that got in the mix. The staff couldn’t break them up, and it eventually took ten of us to pull them apart. Turns out they were fighting over one girl stealing another’s clothes then lying about it.
Petty shit.
I was too happy to finish my assessment and get the fuck out of there.
As I put in the last of my notes, there was a knock on my door.
“Come in!” I called, not bothering to look up from the computer.
The door opened, and when I finally made eye contact, there was my man standing with a big ass bouquet of flowers and a bag of food. I smiled as I stood and walked over to him.
“Hey, baby,” I said, slipping my arms around his waist.
“Hey, my love.” He leaned in and kissed my lips as he closed the door. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
He handed me the flowers. “These are for you.”
“Thank you, baby. They’re beautiful.”
While he pulled the food from the bag, I went to replace last week’s flowers with these. Since we rekindled, he sent me weekly flowers. Every time they were delivered, or he brought them to me, it made my day. As I walked past him to round my desk, he gave my ass a hard slap.
“Shit!” he said, grinning.
“Did you have to slap it that hard?”
“I mean, the way it’s sitting up in those pants, it was begging for it. Besides, you don’t say shit about me slapping that shit when it’s clapping against my thighs.”
I playfully rolled my eyes because he was telling the truth.
“Whatever,” I said, opening my container of food. “Oh. My. God. Is this from your grandma?”
“It is.”
I was a fanatic of Ms. Rebecca’s cooking. That woman could burn in the kitchen like nobody’s business. Every time I ate at her place, I had to take a plate home, and it never made it there.
“I love your grams.”
“Everybody loves Grams. How’s your day been?”
“Ugh! This morning was a nightmare. After a fight on the unit, I’ve been in back-to-back meetings. I’m so ready to go home right now.”
He nodded. “Is this what you wanna do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, you see yourself doing this long term? What about that youth health and wellness center you wanted to open back in the day?”
I smiled at the fact that he actually remembered that.
“It’s still a dream,” I answered.
“Dreams can become reality, love. I’d be happy to foot the bill for that.”
I shook my head. “No. I could never ask you for something like that.”
“You asked?”
“Kerrion.”
“Neha.”
“Kerrion!”
“Neha! What are we doing? Practicing for later tonight?” He grinned as he said that.
“I can’t . . . you can’t just—”
“I can’t do what? You’re my woman, right?”
“Yes.”
“You still want to be my wife?”
I blushed. “Yes.”
“Then why wouldn’t I invest in your future?
Deuce invested in Salima’s event lounge, and sis is booked and busy.
Smoke bought Romi a bigger building after her shop was burned down and gave her the startup money for her skin care line.
She’s bringing in six figures from that now, and her books are filled. Why wouldn’t I help you?
“I remember you talking in detail about what you wanted for that center. The mental health counseling. Sports training. Nutrition coaching. Outdoor adventure activities. All the different types of therapies . . . I know you dream about that shit. Let me make it happen for you. Shar’s father is a contractor.
Senior has architect connections. You have unlimited resources at your fingertips. Use them.”
I plucked at my food, contemplating what he was saying.
That wellness center had been a dream of mine for so long.
I put it on the back burner because I had to take care of home first, but I’d never forgotten about it.
There was a sketchbook in my home office filled with different designs and layouts I’d come up with over the years.
I hadn’t pulled it out in so long, but I remembered every single sketch.
“You sure you wanna do this?” I asked.
“Please don’t piss me off.”
I giggled. “I’m sorry! I just . . . I have concerns.”
He sighed. “Let me address them. Number one, everything would be in your name, so no, I would never try to take it from you. Number two, no, you’d never have to pay me back.
This is an investment. Number three, this would be yours, so no, I wouldn’t give any unsolicited input or try to control it.
And number four, . . . you got this, baby. And I got you.”
Tears swelled in my eyes as I stared at him. Everything in me wanted to round this desk, drop to my knees, and suck his dick. Instead, I got up and went to sit on his lap, wrapping my arms around him.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you more than you can imagine.” He cupped my face and kissed me passionately before pulling away. “Daddy’s gon’ get you right.”
I giggled. “Thank you, daddy. Speaking of daddy, how is my baby? I miss his little face.”
“He’s good. I’m headed over there when I leave here.
I tried to call Ms. Anita this morning, but she didn’t answer.
She probably has him hanging out with her and those old ass church ladies or outside in that garden.
Fat Man is loving that damn dirt. She sent me a picture the other day, and he dumped his little bucket all over his head. ”
I smiled. “Now you have to get him a sandbox.”
“Right. I’m ready for the week to be over so I can get him back. I miss my guy.”
I gently stroked his beard. “I know. It doesn’t feel the same without him. Nayelli is missing him terribly.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll all be back together soon.”
It was crazy how attached I’d become to that little boy. I couldn’t help myself. He was just so cute and sweet, and it was so easy to love him. Not because he didn’t have a mother, but because he was so innocent and deserving of it.
I climbed out of Kerrion’s lap and went back around my desk to finish my food.
We made conversation and plans for a family day when KJ was back with us.
He tried to FaceTime Ms. Anita again, but again, she didn’t answer.
I could tell that was annoying him because there was no way you could have my child and not answer the phone when I called.
He ended up cutting our lunch date short, and it was totally understandable.
I hugged and kissed him goodbye, telling him to update me once he got there.
His entire aura had changed. I could feel it on him, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I was worried. So much so that I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate for the rest of the day until I knew what was going on.
He hadn’t been gone for two minutes before I was gathering my things and running out of my office.
I caught Kerrion just as he was getting into his truck.
“Wait!” I called, running up to it.
I snatched the door open and hopped in.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m coming with you,” I said, locking myself into the seat belt. “If everything is okay, you can just bring me back.”
“You sure?”
“When it comes to these kids, it’s never a question. I’ll just shoot my supervisor an email and let her know I had a family emergency.”
He nodded and pulled off as I pulled out my phone to do what I said. As he drove, I could tell that he was anxious. He kept gripping the steering wheel and cracking his neck.
“Something is wrong,” he mumbled. “I can feel that shit . . . Fuck!”
He punched the steering wheel, making me jump. I reached over and grabbed his hand.
“Don’t think like that,” I said, even though I was feeling it too.
No parent wanted to feel like their child was in danger, but it was different with a baby.
They were helpless. We rode in silence the remainder of the ride.
When he pulled into the driveway of a nice one-story brick home, he barely shut the car off before he was jumping out.
There was a car parked, so I prayed this woman was just in there asleep.
As I got out of the car, I listened for any cries of distress coming from inside but heard nothing. Kerrion knocked hard on the door.
“Ms. Anita!”
Nothing.
“Ms. Anita! You good in there?”
Still nothing.
Before I could say anything, he rammed the door with his shoulder, causing it to fly open. I muttered a curse as he stormed into the house. Frantically, he looked around the living room and kitchen area, but there was no sign of Ms. Anita or KJ.
“Ms. Anita!” he yelled, his voice cracking.
He ran toward the back where the kitchen was and peered out the window into the yard.
Snatching the back door open, he stormed outside.
I prayed this woman was out there. Alas, when I stepped out, there was nothing but an empty yard.
Kerrion stared at the large shed in front of us with the door slightly ajar.
His breathing became heavy as he walked toward it. I quickly latched on to his arm and followed behind him. He pulled the door open, and what I saw made my hand fly to my mouth.
“Oh. My. God.”
Before us, the shed was set up just like a bedroom.
If you didn’t know it was a shed, you would have thought we were standing in another room in the house.
The walls were covered in pictures, awards, and medals.
The vanity was lined with hair care products, makeup, lotions, and perfume.
The closet area was filled with clothes.
Everything was neat and perfect, . . . just like a shrine. It didn’t help that in the corner of the room there was an actual shrine with pictures and random items surrounded by burnt candles. My eyes landed on something in the other corner that made my eyebrows raise.
“K-Kerrion?” I whispered, pointing.
His gaze followed my direction to what looked to be a deep freezer. Why would she put a deep freezer in a place like this? He walked over to it and stood there for a moment. When he lifted the lid, he jumped back.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
I started toward him, but he held up a hand. “Stay back!” he demanded.
“Kerrion, . . . you’re scaring me. What’s in there?”
He looked at me with tears in his eyes. “Donna.”