I gasped once I heard her and used my fingers to open her mouth, clearing out the fluid trapped inside. Once I did that, she really started to cry loud and strongly, and that’s when I broke down crying too, screaming right along with her.
“Oh, my baby! It’s okay, it's okay baby girl. It’s okay. We made it. We made it, my girl.”
I kissed her all over her face, with no care that she wasn’t clean. Even with the gunk over her body, she was beautiful with her head full of curly hair and light brown almond colored skin that was the same as mine. The prettiest thing about her was those tiny lips that were full just like mine, and that dimple in her left cheek, just like the man who was ultimately the reason for her being born in the backseat of a speeding car.
Chapter 3
Hov
An hour later.
Ciara was turned over on her side when I slid the heating pad under her back. I plugged it in on the side of the bed and turned it up just warm enough to give her some relief, then I gently tapped her shoulder.
“Ciara.”
“Yes?”
“You can lay on your back now. This heating pad I got from Grandma should make you feel a little better.”
“Thanks babe,” she replied, slowly turning over and settling onto her back.
I didn’t know what else to do to help besides give her physical relief, because mentally, I didn’t know what the fuck to say. All I could hear in my head were the words she kept repeating to me.
Our baby is gone, Hov, and I had no idea what to say in return to ease that pain.
As she drifted off to sleep, I sat there watching her chest rise and fall, wishing I were watching her getting rest with ourbaby in her stomach. Instead, there was an empty space that shouldn’t have been there, and that shit made something ugly twist inside of me. Something that I’d tried to bury before, but they had woken that calculated cold hearted mutha fucka up.
What happened yesterday was something I will probably never forget. Especially not when it came to having mercy for someone. Because whoever shot at my birthday party didn’t give a fuck about my unborn child or my wife, so if they didn’t give a fuck about what belongs to me, then I don’t give a fuck about anything that belongs to them. I put that shit on everything.
I left the room quietly and went to make Ciara some warm tea from the recipe that my grandma had given me, which she swore eased stomach cramping. It consisted of a bag of green tea, a few peppermint leaves, juice from two lemons, two oranges, and a drop of peppermint oil. She said it would taste good and help with the ache the miscarriage was causing. She offered to come up and make it for her, but I told her to get some rest, and I would take care of my wife.We didn’t tell Grandma what really happened at the party because it would scare and upset her too much, and we simply told her that Ciara fell and lost the baby.
When I walked into the kitchen, I turned the lights on and then the stove, feeling proud of the kitchen for a split second. We’d finally renovated this old-ass space that used to look like something out of a different lifetime, but now it was modern and sleek just like the condos I’d lived in for much of my adult life. Ciara and I renovated from room to room and put real work into this entire house, boosting the property value while still holding onto that small house charm my grandma loved so much. We kept certain fixtures in the house, the original stone fireplace in the living room, and Ciara made sure to find a place for all the photos my grandma had hanging that meant a lot to her.
The vibration from my phone snapped me out of my thoughts immediately, alerting me of motion from the security cameras which put me on alert instantly. I went straight to the drawer I kept a gun in next to the stove, and I pulled up the camera feed, walking toward the bedroom where Ciara was, closing her door quietly because I didn’t want to scare her unless there was a real reason to be scared.
When I looked at the camera, I saw a person lying in the grass, trying to stand up, but whoever it was kept stumbling back down. This side of town wasn’t usual stomping grounds for junkies so who the fuck was this.
When I turned the camera’s speaker on, I heard a baby crying and a woman’s voice whimpering.
“What the fuck?” I whispered as I kept watching.
“Please help us, Ciara. Ciara, Hov, are you in there?”
My heart sped up, and that’s when it clicked to me. This was someone we know. Few people knew where Ciara and I live.
I unlocked the front door and ran out to the person in the grass, and when I got closer, I saw that it was Pernelle, with the help of the moonlight.
“Pernelle, what happened to you?” I kneeled next to her and a baby with the Umbilical cord still attached.
“Damn! We have to get you inside. Come on?” I looked up the street and over my shoulder to make sure this wasn't a set up.
I tried to help her up, but she couldn’t move on her own, so I picked up the baby, put her in her mama’s arms, and then scooped Pernelle up in my arms to carry her inside. Once in the house, I laid her carefully on the living room couch, where I could see that she was in really bad shape.
“I’m going to get you help, P, I promise. What happened? Tell me what happened.”
“Some guys broke in and took me from Crew’s house and beat the shit out of me. They were waiting for him to come to the place they were holding me at, I guess, and I went into labor while there. One of the guys felt sorry for me and helped me get away from them. I ended up pushing her out in the backseat all alone.”
Her words came out so rushed and broken, and her voice shook so bad it was hard to hear everything clearly, but I followed it all.
