Normally, I would chalk this shit up to the cost of doing business, but the last four months of my life had been held hostage by this fucking girl. I wasn’t about to let that shit slide so the next chick thought she could do the same to make some change. I knew Billy was just waiting for my word so she could have my lawyers start the paperwork but the damn girl wouldn’t take the paternity test so right now my hands were tied.
“Mijo, I understand you’re mad, but please remember your mama ain’t gone take too kindly to you cussin’ on my phone.” Mymother’s soft southern accent came through the phone bringing me back to reality.
I shook my head and fell back onto the sofa with my eyes closed. I felt like I was getting a headache. Shit, this had to be a migraine or a brain aneurysm from stress. I needed to be focused on the season, not dealing with this type of shit.
“I’m sorry, ma, I just don’t know what to do with this crazy a—crazy behind girl.” My mama was the type to hop on a flight and get me together if she thought I was being disrespectful. Grown as I was I needed to check myself because she wasn’t the person I was mad at.
“She’s got some kind of weird crush. Let her feel how she wants to right now and let it go.”
I knew that was going to be her approach. Not for the benefit of this weird-ass girl but for my benefit. My mother always tried to get me to let things go because I held grudges like a muthafucka. I was too good and too easygoing, so if you pissed me off it was fuck you forever.
“Ma, she’s making the team look bad by dragging our name through the mud. I been dealing with this mess for a minute and now she’s still trying to get more attention. She’s got national publications publishing stuff about me being a deadbeat. This is slanderous. I don’t know this girl and now she’s a distraction I don’t need.”
“What has you worried?” Her prodding was gentle and I was sure this was why she was so good at her job and her patients loved her.
“I’m a professional athlete and she’s trying to ruin my name for what reason? Is she trying to become famous or something? That ain’t my baby and I’m trying to understand what makes her think I’m going to give her any attention right now.” I started pacing around the room then gave up and headed to the kitchen so that I could get something to drink so that I could calm down.I snatched open the fridge and gulped down a water bottle as my mother waited patiently for me to speak again. When I didn’t, she spoke up.
“That’s the problem. She wants you to give her attention and the longer you don’t the angrier she gets. I think that you have to keep moving on the path that you are on and ignore her. I know that your agents and the lawyers have plenty to say, but why don’t you contact them and see what ideas they have?” I crumbled the water bottle in my hands and tossed it onto the counter. My mama would’ve lost her shit if she could’ve seen the way I had done that but I was grown and feeling defiant so I would worry about it later.
My mother was a no-nonsense type of woman but she didn’t crowd me. Her only desire was for me to win.
“I already agreed to this DNA test so I don’t know why she’s still on this character assassination kick with the media. If she wants money the best thing she could do is allow me the chance to make it so I can pay her to go away! Ma, I promise you I don’t know this girl. At most she might have been some random that was at a club the same time I was but that’s the only time I can think we had any interaction. You know you and Dad raised me better than that. I just want her to leave me alone.” I was pacing around the room still pissed about this shit because this crazy ass girl was really trying to fuck up my life.
“That’s not going to happen.”
I stopped pacing because the finality in her voice had me shook.
“What’s not?”
“You paying her a dime. It will only make her feel like she’s entitled to more and that you have something to hide. Do the legal shit and then we will move on from there.” I could hear that she was getting mad and an angry Sonya Dinero wasn’t whatanyone needed. She was doing her best to stay level-headed for me but I could tell her mama bear was ready to roar.
I could only smile because my mama was my dawg but I needed to pull back on the emotional dumping before I got this lady riled up. “You fuss about my cussing but you doing it?”
She sucked her teeth and I just knew she was rolling her eyes at me trying to boss up on her. “Richie, I’m grown. I can do what I want.”
“And what am I?”
“A grown man who's gone get his ass whooped if he keeps playing with me.”
I was feeling lighter than I had for weeks so I pressed my luck, knowing she was feeling sorry for me. “Okay, Sonya.”
The pause was brief like she had to register that I actually said what I’d said. “Richie, I will reach through this phone.”
I was grinning and that was the magic of mothers. Even when shit was painful they just had a way of making things better. “I’m just playing with you, ma. I don’t know what’s going on with any of this but you know I wouldn’t ever lie to you. It’s weird telling you about…you know. But I ain’t this kid’s daddy. I’m thinking this girl is crazy and I gotta put a restraining order on her or something.”
“That’s not going to be an issue. One thing you need to do is alert league security so she’s not popping up where you are or trying to leverage her attachment to you in order to force their hand. I’m not sure of what all women are doing, but I’m sure they go to crazy lengths. I never thought you would be in the middle of something like this but I know your heart, Richie. Don’t let any of this change the man you are and the one we raised you to be. You’re going to be fine, no matter what. If the baby is yours, we will welcome him / her with open arms because no child deserves to be treated differently because oftheir parentage. That mama ain’t getting nothing from me but my ass to kiss if she keeps stressing you out.”
I laughed because I knew Sonya wasn’t joking. I was more than ready to get this situated so I could focus on my season. I had a lot to make up for from last season and this was a distraction I didn’t need.
“You won’t have to worry about grandbabies soon, Ma. I’ll have to meet a nice girl first. After this, I doubt I’ll trust anybody who calls themselves nice. I’m going to focus on work and getting better. Leveling up my game and working on getting my name in the record books. That’s where it belongs, not being torn apart in the media.”
“I hear you, son. But don’t worry, it all works out the way it’s supposed to.”
I let the paper in my hand flutter to the ground because there was just no way in hell. The crazy bitch claiming to have my baby finally stopped dragging her feet after almost two months and took the paternity test. In my mind, she’d milked the ruse for as long as she could and now that she was close to her due date she knew that her time was up. Bobby set up a burner account where he monitored everything the girl was saying to ensure that nothing got too out of hand. He was also taking screen recordings of her lives so that we would use her words against her in my lawsuit. My entire staff had been working silently while she’d been performing loudly to take her down, and now all of it was moot.
“This has to be a nightmare.” I knew the words had come out of my mouth but I hadn’t felt as though I’d spoken them. My voice sounded strained even to my ears as I closed my eyes andwilled the world away. But it was never that simple. This year seemed intent on beating my ass and although I had so much to be thankful for, I couldn’t imagine who I’d wronged to reap this type of karma in my life.
My phone was going off and I could only imagine what the hell was going to await me on the other end. It could be any number of people. My mother, my agent, my lawyers or some shady member from the press trying to get information out of me. I was trying my hardest to relax but I couldn’t. The torture I’d just put my body through in my workout to relieve stress was for nothing. My shoulders were as tight as they’d been before I’d gone to the facility to train. I hadn’t even changed out of my clothes before I ripped the envelope open thinking it would provide me freedom. Instead, it had been my condemnation.
