Chapter 24-Kenya
I kept replaying the interaction between myself and Kendra, and it occupied my mind the entire night to where I couldn’t attain sleep. I called Bailee to let her know that I wouldn’t be coming into the office.
She knew to direct all of my calls to my cellphone in case of an emergency.
There were so many questions that I had regarding the fact that Tobias and I were siblings. I decided to go to the one person who could and would give me answers. That person was Fancy.
I got dressed and made my way to her house.
I knew that I would have a few hours of her time before she went to work. Ironically, I didn’t have any anger toward her or my father, primarily because I didn’t have all the facts.
Knowing my mother was knowing that she told Kendra her version of the incident, but I could guarantee that it wasn’t the truth.
Olivia Monroe had a habit of spinning events so that she would look like the victor or the victim, depending upon how she wanted her audience to view her, but she never played the role of the villain. Yet sadly, that was the role she played the best.
Once I made it to Fancy’s house, I parked, walked up to the front door of her traditional craftsman home, and rang the doorbell.
A few seconds later I heard the locks turning, and soon after, the door opened.
“Hey, sweetie,” Fancy said as she embraced me in a motherly hug. “What a pleasant surprise. Come in.”
I walked into her cozy, clean house, and the strong aroma of coffee instantly calmed my nerves.
“Good morning, Fancy.” I looked around, not too sure what to do with my hands, while appreciating the cleanliness of her house. Her home and its contents were nice, though not a mansion, it was spacious, filled with character and memories.
“I was just about to make a cup of coffee. Come join me in the kitchen.” Doing as I was told, I followed her and sat down at the kitchen table, just as she motioned me to do. “Do you still take your coffee the same way?” She asked and grabbed two coffee cups from the cupboard.
“Yes, ma’am,” I responded.
Fancy was the reason that I enjoyed coffee so much.
When I was a little girl, I would wake up on Saturday mornings and find her in the kitchen, cooking, and drinking coffee.
After my constant begging for her to let me taste her coffee, she made me a cup, the same way that she took hers.
That was the beginning of my love affair with coffee.
“Here you go, my girl. What brings you by this morning?” Fancy asked as she handed me my cup.
I took a few sips, preparing to get everything off my chest in the most respectful way possible.
“Fancy, I wanted to talk to you about my father.”
A look of concern covered her face before she masked it. “Okay,” she said hesitantly.
I could tell from the unsure facial expression she wore that she didn’t know the direction or intent behind the conversation.
“Before I ask you this, I want you to know that I am in no way upset or angry. Am I hurt? Yes, but I really want to know what happened and why it was handled the way that it was. Why didn’t you or my father tell me that Tobias was his son?”
She shook her head and pursed her lips before releasing them along with a deep breath. “I knew that this would come out sooner or later,” she said as tears formed in her eyes.
“Fancy, why didn’t either of you say anything?”
“We thought that it was best. Listen, Kevin and I knew each other well before he met Olivia. We dated for a few years, on and off, but we were young and figuring out our way in life. Your father is a handsome man now, but you should have seen him in his prime. Child, picture an upgraded Morris Chestnut. Well, that was your father forty years ago,” she described, and her eyes lit up.
“You know as well as I do that your father was born into money. When we met, I was working three jobs as a waitress. I didn’t have much and neither did my family.
That always put a strain on our relationship because your grandmother, the original Mrs. Monroe, couldn’t stand me, and she never let me forget it.
She was almost as hateful as Olivia is.”
“Yes, Grandma Monroe is an ornery woman,” I knowingly agreed.
“Well, she was worse back then, trust me. Kevin and I broke up, and that was when I met my deceased husband, George. George was a good man, but he wasn’t Kevin.
It had nothing to do with his money because he was a good provider.
Kevin just loved me like no other man ever has or ever will.
Fast forward to one day, I was out doing some shopping, and after not seeing each other for over a year, your father walked in.
We reconnected, and it was like we picked up from the happiest place of our relationship.
I knew that he was engaged to Olivia, and he knew that I was engaged to George, but neither of us cared.
I can admit that it was wrong, but at the time, it felt right.
We carried on for a while, until he told me that Olivia was demanding for him to agree on a wedding date.
He wanted me to leave George, but he had done so much for me that I couldn’t bear to hurt him.
I won’t go into details, but we shared one last night together.
That night was the night that Tobias was conceived.
I knew that he didn’t belong to George, because although we lived together, he wanted to wait until marriage before we had relations . ”
“So, what happened?” I asked in anticipation, feeling like I was more a part of the story than I actually was.
“I didn’t find out that I was pregnant until I was nearing five months.
Back then I was a buck twenty-five and fine as wine,” she sassed, causing me to laugh.
“Kevin and Olivia were already married when I told him about the pregnancy. He begged me to leave George, and I told him that I would think about it. Kevin went the very same day, had divorce papers drawn up, and asked her for a divorce.”
“I know that mother was livid.”
“Excuse my language, but Olivia showed her whole ass. I mean, she became suicidal and grew angry that Kevin still wanted a divorce, but she refused to sign the papers. When I found out about my pregnancy, I sat George down and told him about my infidelity. It surprised me that he wanted to raise Tobias as his son. I knew that Olivia would always be a problem, so I made it easy for Kevin. I chose to stay where I was, and I married George. Until his last days, that man was good to me and to our son.”
For such hurt to be at the heart of the story, I appreciated Fancy for not only sharing it with me but also for remaining a good woman through it all. Unlike Olivia or Kendra, I knew Fancy would tell the story the way it happened without fear of how I would look at her.
“How did you come to work for us though?”
“Oh, sweetie. Kevin told Olivia that he would stay after she told him of her pregnancy with you, but he still wanted to make sure that his child was taken care of financially, even if he didn’t know him as his biological father.
He told her that I would be coming to work for them and dared her to say anything different.
After she had you, I was hired to do the work around the house.
Olivia was never much of a homemaker; she was more of a money-spender. She’s always thrived at that.”
“It seems like you took care of us more than she did.”
“That’s because I did. Don’t take this the wrong way, sweetie, but Olivia had the two of you for convenience and security.
She didn’t have a motherly bone in her body.
I would come to work somedays, and you would be in your crib just screaming your little head off.
You would be hungry, dirty, and cranky.”
I wanted to be surprised, but I was far from it. “Where would my mother be?”
“She would be in their bedroom with her earplugs in, sound asleep. I wanted to quit so badly, but I knew that you wouldn’t survive with a mother like that. That and because of the fact that you were a part of the man that I loved, I loved you as if you were mine.”
She placed her hand on top of mine as it rested on the table and offered me a warm smile.
“Fancy, I appreciate all that you have done for me. Specifically, how well you have always treated me when you didn’t have to. You could have resented me like my mother did, but you didn’t. You loved me instead.”
“That was the easiest part of my job.”
“Does Tobias know?”
A heavy sigh escaped her lips, burdened with a mirage of emotions, giving me an answer before she spoke a word.
“Yes, he found out many years ago. I know that there is a lot of resentment there, and the fault falls on both Kevin and me because of how we chose to handle it. It’s more my fault than anything.
I was very headstrong about Tobias not knowing that Kevin was his father.
If Olivia could mistreat you, her own child, I knew that she wouldn’t see a problem in mishandling mine, and I wasn’t going to stand for that. ”
“Tobias and I are so close. I can’t understand his not saying anything to me about it.”
“Kenya, what good would that have done? It wouldn’t have made the two of you any closer than you already are.”
“It would have given our bond a different dynamic.” I couldn’t explain it, but it felt like I’d missed out on something by not knowing the truth before now.
“Sweetie, Tobias acted like he was your brother long before he ever knew the truth. I remember watching y’all as kids. Seeing the instant bond that the two of you shared amazed me. It’s like your hearts knew who you were to one another without any of us ever having to say anything.”