“Did you know?”
“Know what?” she says.
“That your husband was sneaking into my room a few times a week.”
She goes as pale as a brown-skinned black woman can go as her eyes flicker to Ace.
“He knows everything,” I say softly. “Me and my man don’t have secrets.”
That’s not entirely true, but I have to twist the knife.
“I—“ She shakes her head repeatedly. “Raya. No. I had no idea. I swear.”
I study her closely. The lines around her eyes. The way her hands start trembling. Her bouncing leg. The tears welling up in her eyes.
“I don’t know if I can believe you,” I finally say.
That makes the floodgates open, and here come the tears. Her shoulders are bouncing, hand over her mouth. A sound comes out that’s half gasp, half sob.
“I’m so sorry,” she cries. “No child should have to go through that.”
“Why’d you leave her?” Ace asks. I glance over at his plate, and it’s sitting forgotten on his lap.
Connie takes a minute to compose herself before she answers.
“My mother—your grandmother,” she says to me like I couldn’t make the fucking connection. “She lost herself in her marriage. My father was mean and cold, and she spent her whole life tied to him. And to us. And I wasn’t gonna do that. I thought maybe your father would be like mine. My daddy was sweet to me, he was just a horrible husband.”
Ace shakes his head.
“I was trying not to become my mother, and I…maybe I took it to the extreme.”
I shrug. “Well, I’m pregnant now, and thanks to you, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”
Her red-rimmed eyes move to Ace, then back to me. “Congratulations. That’s wonderful.”
He shakes his head again.
“What? Do you have something to say to me?”
He hesitates, looking to me for disapproval, I think.
“It’s not my place,” he says. “This is between y’all.”
“Actually, I wanna hear what you have to say,” I tell him.
He sets his plate on the floor next to him and leans forward, forearms on his thighs.
“I’m pissed,” he says plainly. “This woman got stuck with a fucked up family. I mean, mine ain’t perfect, but this shit here is blowing me. I’m over here trying to be a good husband and give her what she needs, but half the time, she doesn’t even know what she needs, and if she does, she doesn’t know how to ask.”
That’s sweet and all, but I only really heard one thing he said.
“Babe, youarea good husband.”
He shoots me a look like I missed the point entirely. Which I guess I did. But that’s because I don’t have any skin in the game here. I don’t give a fuck about Connie.
“I’m sorry,” she says again, but I wave her off.
“Honestly, I forgave you a long time ago. You can ask Ace. I told him, I don’t think you’re a bad mother.”
