I’d given Dionne my two weeks’ notice, and she supported my move, wanting me to go on, spread my wings, and do what was best for me. I had her personal number, and she made it clear to me that I could reach out to her whenever I wanted to.
“I can’t wait. Seeing Rico get drafted with the Patriots was all the motivation that I needed. He’s from Miami too, so to know that he could get drafted, I want to put that same work in as he did, so that I could get drafted one day too, mama. First thing that I’m going to do when I get drafted is make you quit your job. You not going to have to work anymore ma. I promise you,” his words melted my heart.
I loved to hear my son say that, but I wasn’t one of those mama’s that was going to put my son’s future on the line, wanting him to get into the league, and take care of me because I knew that it didn’t always work out like that.
“You think if I ever see Rico again, that he’ll be cool with me? That man probably hates me for telling the cops that he killed Toby,” my son said.
I could tell that my son was still angry with himself for telling the cops what he did about Rico. Till this day, I really don’t know if Rico did that or not. All kinds of rumors were going around Miami, saying that it was Toby that was doing all that illegal sports betting with Rico. I wouldn’t know that for a fact because when Toby was here, he wouldn’t tell me shit like that. I try not to get myself in the middle of that shit, so even when I get around my girls, and they bring it up, I quickly dissociate from the conversation.
Toby was gone, and I saw a few months ago that Jax and some of his friends were murdered too. That was big news in Maimi. Jax and his friends had gone to Tank’s party and shot it up. Miami is one of those cities where you just have to stay out of the way because you could find yourself in the middle of so much drama. I just wanted to take care of my son and continue to keep a roof over our heads. Just hearing from my friends, the kind of mess that Toby had been into while he was alive, I knew that I did right when I decided to get an abortion months ago. I didn’t want any of his dirt coming back to me, and the child thatI would have kept, and now our lives are in danger. It hurt me having to abort a child, but I knew that it was the best option.
“He doesn’t hate you. He’s getting ready to play for the Patriots. I’m sure all that stuff is behind him now,” I reasoned, and he nodded his head.
“Since you were working for his cousin’s wife, you think one day you can get her to get in contact with Rico for me? I want to call him,” he said, and I just laughed at that.
“I’ll see what I can do son,” I replied, not going to sit here, and make any promises to him.
He nodded, willing to accept that. After that, we sat in silence. We soaked up this new home that we had together, and I’m not sure what thoughts were running through his mind, but for me, I was thinking about all the beautiful memories that we were going to create here.
Chapter 22
Tavion ‘Tank’ Briggs
She Gave Him Life
One month later
“Hmmmmmmm,” Dionne let out a loud, broken moan, feeling contraction after contraction rip through her body. She was in the birthing pool that we had set up right in the living room area of the house.
I was inside the pool with her, leaned up, so that my hands could be down on the lower part of her back, massaging the area. She was tilted over, her fingers gripping the edge of the pool, lying her head down on the side of the pool, in pure pain, and agony. I felt bad because I knew that there wasn’t shit that I could do to get her out of the pain that she was feeling. Even though she was in a great amount of pain, she was handling this shit much better than I expected her to.
As eager as I was for my son to get here, I was a little nervous when it came to Dionne going into labor. I knew how she was when it came to pain. Earlier in the week, when we’d gone to Tamera, so that Tamera could check if Dionne started dilatating yet, she was damn near spazzing from that. I just knew that everyone that was going to be in the room with us while she wasgiving birth, would be getting cursed out, but my wife was taking it like a champ.
Inside the living room, there was my mom, Dionne’s mom, both her grandmother’s, her sisters, and Blake. Her pops was here too, but he didn’t want anything to do with this, so he was outside in the backyard. He was taking a liking to Noire, so he was out there, chilling with her.
All the support that Dionne had in the living room was what she wanted. She made it clear to all of them that she was scared to give birth, and how she felt like their presence, along with mine, would help her get through it. So far, it’s been 8 hours that Dionne has been in active labor. Tamera just checked her maybe ten minutes ago, and she’d finally reached ten centimeters, so she was gearing everything up for Dionne to start pushing.
Dionne woke up this morning around 6. Usually, I was up before her, but today, she got up before me. I woke up to her sitting at the foot of the bed, head down, moaning in pain. All week, she had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions, so when she felt cramping this morning, she thought that’s what it was, and that’s why she didn’t wake me. I eventually woke up to the sounds of her moaning getting louder, and when I asked her what was wrong, she explained that she was feeling a lot of pressure in her back, and that the cramping was worse than what it had been all week. Before I could get her phone, and call Tamera, wanting to update her on what was going on, Dionne’s water broke.
From the movies and shit, I expected to see fluids flying out of her in every other direction, but that’s not how it went down. It was a big gush though, but nothing too dramatic. From there, it was a slow leak. Tamera got here in no time, and from the moment she got here, it was on.
I was in charge of getting all the women over here. Everyone came over, and they were getting in where they fit in, trying notto get on Dionne’s bad side by aggravating her. We were eight hours into this, and still no sign of our baby yet, but seeing Tamera gear up on the side of the room, I knew that it wouldn’t be long until my lil man was making his entrance.
“Remember what I was telling you the other day. When you feel pressure, that’s when you gotta push. Keep breathing too,” Antoinette told her daughter, as she was in front of her, down on her knees, with a white hand towel in her hands, using it to keep on Dionne’s face. She was keeping her cool.
Dionne didn’t respond back to her. Just continued moaning from the pain that she was in.
“Come on Dionne girl. You got this. We’re all ready to meet little man,” Tamera said, coming over in her scrubs, and her gloves on her hands.
She had Dionne sit back, and I assisted her in leaning into me, putting her back against my chest, and fitting in wherever I could, I put my hands on her shoulders, while I massaged, as she moaned out in agony.
“Come on, baby. You got this. You see I’m right here with you. I may not be feeling what you’re feeling right now, but I’m right here with you, okay?” I spoke into her ear, only wanting her to hear me.
“Okayyyyy,” she cried, making me so fuckin sad to hear her like this, and in so much pain.
She was before me and the only thing that she was wearing was a black maternity bra. Her long hair was pinned up into a claw clip, keeping her hair out of her face. I could feel her body trembling against me because I knew that she was so scared.
I took my hands off her shoulders eventually, and I reached around, putting them on her stomach.
