I turn to look at him. Raziel explained how demons can feed off human emotions. A noise from down the hall grabs my attention.
“Romeo, baby, is that you?” my mother’s voice calls out.
The moment she comes up the hall and spots me, she halts her steps. Her hair is all over her head. It clearly hasn’t seen a comb or a brush in days. The heavy dark circles under her eyes make her look as if she hasn’t slept in months. The robe she’s wearing looks like she grabbed it out of the dirty clothes pile.
“Nasiah?” She says my name as if she’s seeing a ghost.
“Hey, Mama.”
She looks me over before her gaze flashes to Erazel behind me.
“It’s okay. He’s here with me.”
She looks back at me, but she doesn’t seem happy.
“What are you doing here?” She tugs her robe closed.
Her question takes me aback. I narrow my gaze at her.
“We need to talk.” I walk over to the couch and take a seat, waiting for her to join me.
She takes a step back. “Let me go to the room and grab my shoes.”
Before she could turn around, I stopped her.
“You don’t need shoes. Come sit.”
She stands in her spot for a moment as if she’s truly contemplating whether she should sit. Finally, she moves over to the recliner and takes a seat.
The room is silent. Erazel remains by the door, his back pressed against the wall. Mother stares at me. I thought that she would have something to say since she was the one suffering, but I guess I need to start this conversation.
I clear my throat and run my hand down my pants. “You know, when this all first went down, I was angry and I blamed you for all this.”
Her brow pinches, but she doesn’t speak.
I press forward. “I mean, how could you risk your child’s life just to keep a man?”
In reality, my mother didn’t know what Raziel wanted when she initially made the deal, but a sane person would’ve asked. I’m grateful she saved my life, but she didn’t do it because she cared about her dying baby. She did it because she didn’t want to lose my father.
I continue to put it all out there. “However, now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’ve come to accept it and forgive you. In the end, it all worked out. Raziel is.” I stop and smile as I think about the man I’ve grown to love. “He is everything I needed. I love him, and he loves me. We’re happy together, Mama.”
Silence.
When I came over here, I thought I’d get some feedback from her. I knew it might be a little too much to ask that she’d wrap me in her arms, beg for my forgiveness, and tell me how much she has always loved me. But I thought I would get at least some reaction out of her. However, the way she is just staring at me gives me nothing.
“Did you hear me? I said I forgive you.”
She leans forward in her seat, reaching a hand out to touch mine. “Will you call and tell your father? Tell him it would makeyou happy if he came back home to me. He’s not taking my calls. But if you call him…”
“Hold up.” I remove my hand from hers and lean back in my seat, shaking my head. I take in everything she said.
Tanisha told me that Vanessa was serious about leaving Daddy and had even got a lawyer to start the divorce process. It finally dawns on me.
All this time Tanisha and Aunt Kareema thought she was depressed because of me, when in reality she was hurting because Daddy finally left her ass.
I toss my head back and laugh. Nothing is funny, but this shit has me rolling. This woman, who brought me into this world, is sitting across from me looking like a fucking crack fiend and starving herself, not because she sold her only daughter to what she thought was a demon, but because her married baby daddy left her.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
