“Peace. She’s upstairs with the women.”
“You brought her here?” His tone was calm, but I could tell this wasn’t new information to him.
“Yeah. I wanted to come to dinner, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring her.”
“Does she know where she is?” I dropped my head when he asked that question, and he shook his head in disappointment.
“Fuck. Look, this is way more complicated than y’all know.”
“Wait a minute. Pops, you knew about this?” Loyal grilled his father as he stood up.
“Aye, sit your tail back down. You don’t know the full story.” Truth asserted.
“Then tell us what happened. We have a right to know.” Messiah interjected. His facial expression indicated that he was upset, and he had every right to be.
“Alright, I’ll tell you what I know. You guys may or may not remember, but a year after Charity and Serenity were born, Elantra got pregnant again. Everyone was excited because the baby would be the tie-breaker, as they had two boys and two girls. We threw a baby shower, but on the day of the shower, they were involved in a car accident. The baby ended up dying because they were born prematurely.”
“Knowledge was hurt, but Elantra took it the worst. They ended up having two more miscarriages shortly after, and she became depressed. The relationship became rocky, and I guess he met Renay in the meantime. I’m sure you can fill in the blanks from there. The relationship was his escape, and things became intense. Elantra found out about the affair, and she threatened to leave him.”
“Knowledge sobered up and realized that he couldn’t lose his wife, so he broke things off with Renay. Things were cool until after seven months, when she reached out and told him she was pregnant. At first, he was excited because he loved being afather, but reality set in. He didn’t tell Elantra about the baby until after she was born. Elantra was devastated, and she wanted nothing to do with the little girl.”
“Knowledge respected her stance, so he went to visit the little girl instead. Things seemed to be well for a few years until his silly ass started having sex with Renay again. Hell, I don’t think he truly ever stopped, but things got sticky when she got pregnant the second time. God must have had a sense of humor because she and Elantra ended up pregnant at the same time.”
“When Elantra found out, she kicked him out of the house for a few weeks. Knowledge cried and begged for her to take him back, but she refused. Somewhere down the line, Elantra was placed on bed rest because her pregnancy was high-risk. Knowledge stepped up and took care of her. They eventually decided to work things out, but Elantra wasn’t comfortable with the idea of him having another baby on the way. Renay wasn’t as far along as Elantra’s, so he tried to make her get an abortion.”
“Things got heated between the two of them, and Renay started showing up to their house and getting into arguments with Elantra. One encounter led to Elantra being rushed to the hospital, and she basically gave Knowledge an ultimatum. It was either the family he built with her or his other family.”
We all sat there in silence as we tried to wrap our minds around everything Truth told us.
“Let me get this straight. You’re saying my momma knew about the other woman and kids, and made him walk away from them? That doesn’t sound like my momma,” Messiah replied.
“That’s because it isn’t! I love you, Uncle Truth, but you’ve got me fucked up if you think I’m gonna let you sit and lie on my momma like she’s some weak bitch. If my daddy walked away from those kids, it’s because he knew they weren’t his. My daddy was no deadbeat, and you should be ashamed for speaking on the dead that way,” Serenity vented. We hadn’t heard her comedown the stairs, but it was obvious she had listened to a good portion of the story.
“Niece, you?—”
“No! You’re lying! Why would you say something like that, and my daddy isn’t here to defend himself?” Serenity rarely showed emotions, so it caught me off guard to see the tears streaming down her face. Messiah got up to comfort her, but she pushed him away.
“You knew about this?” She asked him.
“Serenity.”
“Don’t Serenity me. I can’t believe you are sitting here listening to this bullshit. Daddy wasn’t perfect, but come on. He would never walk away from his kids for anyone, and Momma would never have asked him to.”
Uncle Truth stood up and walked over to her, but once again she pushed away.
“You don’t have to accept what I’m saying, but a simple DNA test will confirm. Honestly, we don’t need one because Knowledge got one done after Peace was born.” He revealed.
“W-What do you mean? Peace? Are you talking about the girl I met upstairs? Is that why she’s here? Because she wants to taint my parents’ image to get next to our family? I thought the bitch was cool, but ya’ll got me fucked up if you think for one second I’m gonna let this go down,” Serenity spat. She ran up the stairs, and Messiah and I followed after her.
“Why the fuck did you come here? Huh? Do you think what you’re trying to do is okay?” Serenity shouted towards Peace, who sat next to Ciyani. Everyone was confused, and in that moment, I realized how much I had fucked up by not warning her.
“I don’t understand. What did I do?” Peace asked, with her eyes focused. I walked over to her and stood behind her.
“She doesn’t know, Serenity. I wanted her to meet y’all because I wanted her to see how close y’all are. It’s my fault.” I revealed. Peace let go of my hand and stood up from her seat. Her eyes darted from mine to Serenity and Messiah.
“What’s going on? And what is she talking about?” This time, she looked to me for answers. Her eyes were filled with hurt and confusion, making me regret my decision even more. I tried to reach for her hand, but she pulled away from me.
“I don’t care what they say, you are not my sister. My daddy would never abandon his kids!” Serenity blurted.
