“How the fuck is that the case? She just got here. She is not even a week old, and you are coming down on me as if I abandoned her. You don’t even know how the fuck I feel knowing that shit happened to you and her. No pain, bruise, or punch could ever make you feel what I feel in my gut knowing that those niggas came in my shit and took you and my fuckin daughter. Do you understand I’m a man who stands up for what’s his? I’m not a pussy ass nigga that abandons shit, so stop with that deadbeat narrative you already trying to paint.”
“Well, for future reference, you don’t have to stand up for her at all! I’d actually rather you not. Shit, I would probably be nervous every time you left the house with her anyway. Every time you took her to the store, I’d be on pins and needles worried about my child.”
“No, the fuck you won’t because I am going to handle every enemy I have before they ever think about getting close to her again.”
“That’s the thing, Crew. I don’t want people constantly thinking about hurting my baby to get to you. That’s not the way for any child to live, I’m sorry. You need to just let us be.”
She turned her glare away from me and down to the baby.
“Oh, I see what this is. You thought being with a nigga like me was all money, chains, and diamonds and shit? Just a big dick and a big house, huh?” I laughed through my nose.
“Well, it’s not! I am a gangsta, and my life is filled with gangsta shit. You decided to fuck with a gangsta like me, and I didn’t make you. On top of that, you made a baby with me, and I already love her with everything in me, so that’s all the protection she will ever fuckin need. I just spent the past fivefuckin hours straight staring at her because I was too scared to look away, and you think you are going to tell me that you don’t want me in her life? Fuck that. P, I’ll go to war for that little girl, and I will go against you too!”
Knocking at the door interrupted our back-and-forth, and I’m glad because I was starting to get heated, and I didn’t need my princess witnessing that shit.
“Come in,” Pernelle shouted towards the door.
“Hello, it’s registration.”
A woman walked in, smiling, in a room that was now thick with heavy ass tension.
“Hi, we’re here to fill out her birth certificate. Do we have both mom and dad here?”
“Yes,” we both said, looking out of the corners of our eyes at each other because we were still mad.
“Okay, so I am going to start with the baby’s name. Do we have a name?”
“Yes.” Pernelle answered quickly.”
“It’s Amira. A-M-I-R-A”
I looked up at Pernelle because we hadn’t agreed on her name. I told her that I wanted to name my daughter just like I wanted to rename my son. I’m their father. I should have a say in what they will be called for the rest of their lives.
“Where did that name come from, P?”
“I want to name her after the man who saved our lives, Amir.” She looked back at the hospital staff.
“Pernelle, you got me so fu,”
I stopped talking because I didn’t want the nurse to hear me cuss her ass out.
“If you guys want to discuss the name, I can come back later.”
“No, ma’am. You don’t have to come back. Her name is going to be Amira, last name.”
“Banks.”
I ended the conversation right there.
I don’t give a fuck how mad Pernelle was or what the fuck she had to say about a first name. That baby’s last name is going to be Banks, or I am going to flip that fucking computer over, snatch my baby up, and take her out of here. Her first name can be changed later. But she will be a Banks from birth.”
“Okay, can we get a correct spelling on her last name, please?”
Pernelle spelled it out as I sat there with fire in my fuckin soul. The only thing that cooled me off was hearing my baby start to whine. Pernelle shifted her onto her chest and rubbed in her back. Pernelle then signed the iPad the lady had given her, and then I signed it before she gathered her things and left the room.
When the door closed, it was finally quiet, and a few seconds passed before I spoke up.
“So you really going to name my baby after another nigga that snatched y’all up in the first place?”
