“Hell yea. Like, I ain’t never felt this way about a girl before. She hurt my heart though… bad.”
“Another nigga?”
“Yep… and she pregnant.”
“By him?”
“Don’t know.”
“Damn, that’s tough. When you find this out?”
“A few nights ago. Overheard her talking to my mumma.”
“You lashed out at her?”
“Cussed her hoe ass the fuck out. Nyx whisked her away then some shit ended up happening with her mumma.”
Nouri shook his head at his youngest child, hating himself for not being around to instill the valuable lessons Onyx hadn’t been mature enough to know himself.
“I’mma sit here and sip on this yak and let you think about all the unfair shit you just said.”
Silence filled the room as Kas took a real minute to ponder his entire situation with Yanna. His brother was right. He’d treated his situation with Yanna as if he truly didn’t give a fuck.Instead of easing her worries, he fed into her insecurities by using them as justification. He didn’t want to be with anyone else… didn’t want her to be with anyone else. He damn sure didn’t want her having a baby for another nigga. Didn’t want another nigga swooping in to do what he apparently couldn’t. Although Yanna’s actions were irrational, she never would’ve done something so reckless if Zahra had never been at the house. He didn’t take a moment to recognize his own fault in the situation… only crucified Yanna for hers.
“Fuck, I’m stupid, ain’t I?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to be the one to say it. Stop that toxic shit. I would tell you that you need to apologize for whatever foul shit you said to her, but if I know Layla like I think, then she already let you have it.”
Kas laughed because she damn sure had. “Had me feeling like Yanna was actually her child and I was just some random nigga.”
“I never had to fear that Layla would keep y’all in check. That woman is something else, I tell you.”
“You in love with my mumma?”
“That’ll never change, but I fucked up any chance of ever being with her again. I’m just glad we can be friends now. If you want the same for you and Yanna, then you need to make it right. If the kid is yours, don’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I gotta run though, I got an appointment to get to. I’ll probably be back through here sometime tomorrow.”
“I’ll be here.”
Kas stood to leave, snagging his father’s bottle of liquor on his way out. He rode the elevator back down to the lobby and quickly headed to his car. Just as he was about to take a swig of the liquor, he remembered he couldn’t drink then tossed the bottle into the back seat. He turned up the volume on his J. Colealbum and sped off. He had a lot to think about and not a lot of time to do so.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
1 MONTH LATER
The night before the wedding…
Since the day Yanna showed up on her father’s doorstep, his home had become a temporary haven for her. After talking to her father the entire first night she was there. Jaivion suggested his daughter seek professional help. He could tell that the situation between him and Janis had mentally and emotionally scarred his daughter, and even though he hadn’t been the one at fault, he’d still handled the situation poorly. That next day, he connected Yanna with a Black female therapist, who she’d been seeing twice a week for the past month. At eight sessions in, the change in Yanna’s attitude and outlook on life had greatly improved. She’d learned that the spat between her parents should’ve stayed between them, and she should’ve stayed in a child’s place. Her therapist helped her identify the abandonment issues she acquired when her father left, and how her mother’s alcoholism inadvertently taught her that liquor was the way to cope with her emotions. Therapy also gave her anoutside view on how she treated Kas poorly, how she treated that whole relationship poorly. An important thing she also learned was to accept her responsibility in the demise of her and Kas’ relationship and maturely acknowledge the consequences that came along with it. She’d also been assigned a few tasks, and taking her healing seriously, she was adamantly completing them.
Smoothing her hands through her hair that she’d been letting grow out the past month, she glanced out of the window as Jaivion’s car pulled in front of the Kingsmill Resort. The entire bridal party was staying at the resort overnight, and it would be the first time in a month that Yanna saw any family outside of her mom.
“You sure you’re okay to drive back home tonight? I hate you insisted on driving me all the way out to the 757.” Yanna questioned Jaivion. For the past month, he’d been doing everything in his power to make his daughter’s life easier.
“Baby girl, I told you it’s nothing. We’re only 45 minutes away from home, and the way I drive, it’ll hardly be that. Don’t forget, your daddy used to make real moves back in my day. All-nighters on the highway driving up north and back down 95 South at three, four in the morning. Ask some of these little niggas about Jai Priest.”
“Oh, Daddy, please. We all know you was the money making mitch of the Northside or whatever. Trust, Janis and Kamilla told me and Troi plenty of stories about you and Troi’s dad.”
Jaivion glared at his daughter, a smile of content gracing his face. “You know, I’ll never get tired of hearing you call me Daddy. I’m so used to being a stern Jaivion, or a sarcasticdad.” Jaivion did his best impression of Yanna, scrunching his face to mirror the one she always made in his presence.
