He shouted, his face full of fury. “Get the hell off my porch. I won’t say it again.”
PRESENT DAY
“I left for Nashville and never looked back until Peace told me that you and she were married and had my son. He also told me he saw you with another woman at a hotel. Maybe she was the one with you in Atlanta since Teeyana was at the reunion trying to holla at me. Yeah, she told me you and her kick it from time to time.” Kody’s eyes widened. “So, I didn’t give a fuck about your marriage. If we were real boys, I don’t care how much I wanted Jamaica, I would’ve kept my distance out of respect. If we were real boys, I would’ve pulled your collar and told you not to fuckover a good woman. But you were still that sixth grader who hated my guts and could never truly be a friend to me.”
My temple ticked painfully. “I confessed to a crime I didn’t commit because the lawyer said there was also a witness, and I knew it was you. You would’ve sent me to prison to cover your own ass. Still, I have so fucking much, I decided to help you out without even knowing you married my girl because I chalked it up to a youthful mistake,andmy brother did do the crime.” I thundered, “Then you tell me you were fucking there with my brother?”
Kody closed his eyes and steepled his fingers.
I swept the framed pictures in one swell swoop, and they all crashed to the floor, glass shattering. Kody kept his eyes shut while I ranted, “I swear to God, if I didn’t have a son, I would squeeze your neck until the air stopped flowing. Break that fucking cowardly neck. These pictures broke me. The years you had with my son and with my woman that I will never get back because of your actions. I don’t care if my brother was there. He wouldn’t have been there in the first place if you didn’t put him up to it. He would’ve done anything you suggested because he looked up to you, though you barely tolerated him because of his sexuality.”
“Look at me.” I hit the desk with my fist, and he opened his eyes warily. “You sitting here taunting me with those pictures, telling me that I’m trying to take what was never mine. Nigga, I will burn this muthafucka down for my woman and my son. They were and will always be mine. Now tell her the truth, or deal with me.”
My hand had barely touched the doorknob to leave when he finally replied, “I didn’t frame you. Jamaica’s father did.”
His steely truth buckled my knees, and pride prevented me from looking back at him. I swung open the door to severalpeople standing outside who scattered like roaches when they saw me.Fuck. Fuck.
My cell buzzed in my pocket as I jogged down the stairs to my car, determining my next step. Migraine was on ten as Peace’s name flashed.
“I’ve got some shit to tell you,” I started as I drove away.
“It’s Jamie.” The fear in his voice turned me cold.
“What’s wrong?” My grip tightened on the steering wheel. The rage evaporated in the wind. Not my son. Please don’t let anything happen to him when we were just starting something beautiful.
Please.
“He’s on the way to the emergency room. A couple of boys jumped him in the locker room. I’m on the way to the Riverside Hospital. They won’t tell me anything because they don’t know I’m family. I just want to be near Jamie, you know? We can’t get in touch with Jamaica, and I don’t know if they were able to get Kody.”
Without thought to how I’d left his office, I replied, “I can get Kody. He might know how to reach Jamaica. Keep me posted.” I’d only gone a few streets over, and I sped back and jumped out of the car and burst through the doors. The receptionist screamed, and Kody came running out of his office. His eyes darted nervously.
I held my palms up. “I’m not coming here for you. Jamie is being rushed to the emergency room. He was jumped at school, and no one can get a hold of Jamaica.”
“What?” Kody’s face drained of color as he rushed past me to his car.
I followed behind him. “Where’s Jamaica?”
“She’s at the movies at the Oakley Mall with her mother and Lori. It’s not far from here. Probably doesn’t have her phone on.” He checked his cell. “The school didn’t try to reach me.”
“He’s at Riverside. Peace is on his way there, too. I’ll get Jamaica,” I volunteered. At his hesitancy, I reminded him, “I can't find out anything on Jamie if I go. You’re his legal guardian and can keep us all posted. Now go,” I said over my shoulder as I hurried back to my car. Within seconds, we were headed in two different directions.
The theatre was only ten minutes away, and I realized that I didn’t know the movie. I searched the marquee of movie choices. What would three women watch in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon? I hurried into the cinema, grateful that there weren’t many cars in the lot, making it much easier to find them and to avoid potential fans.
I quickly explained the situation so the awe-struck usher could allow me in. As luck would have it, Jamaica, rocking a sleek ponytail and sweats, was headed to the bathroom. I called her name, and she turned around in confusion. I beckoned her closer. “Jamie is at the ER. Two boys jumped him at school. I don’t know how bad it is. Kody and Peace are already on the way there.”
She took off fast toward the parking lot, no further questions asked. I debated whether to find Lori and Ms. Bennett before running behind Jamaica. They would understand why she did what she did, especially when they checked their phones.
I caught up to her as she realized that her keys were still in the cinema. “Ride with me.”
Her face was flushed. “That’s my baby, Freedom. Someone hurt my baby.”
“I know. I know.” I led her to my car, buckled her seatbelt, and hurried to the other side.
She held on to my hand with both of hers while I drove us to the hospital. Peace called me when we were five minutes out. “I have Jamaica with me. Speak.”
“Kody is here, and the doctors have updated him. He’s with Jamie now. Looks like he might have been snuck by one of the boys and hit his head against the lockers, knocking him unconscious. He’s not badly bruised and is awake now. Might have been hit a couple of times. The fall prevented it from being worse because it scared the boys. Another classmate called 911 and then told the Coach, luckily. He’ll be okay.”
Jamaica sobbed while I told Peace we would be there in a few minutes. When I clicked off the phone, I lifted our joined hands and kissed them. “Thank you, God. I love him so, and we click like I’ve known him his whole life. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to him. Started to think, with my luck in this city, that it would’ve been bad and that it was somehow my fault.”
