“Daddy. How come she looks like me? My granny told me where babies come from, and she didn’t come from my momma.” Keyami interjected. Her question only fueled the anger inside of me. I got ready to speak when we were interrupted.
“Aye, look who I ran—” Logic stopped in his tracks as soon as he got close to us. “Oh, shit.”
I would have laughed at the look on his face had I not been so pissed off. Nova stood next to her with a bewildered expression on her face. Her eyes darted between us all before she spoke.
“Umm, is everything okay?”
I chuckled angrily in response. It was clear she had been in on this with Naiari, and it pissed me off even more.
“Is everything okay? I just found out this bitch hid two fucking kids from me for seven years, and you want to know if everything is okay. No, it isn’t. In fact, you might want to get your friend out of my presence before I really show my ass in here. I’m trying to have some restraint because I have no desire to go back to prison,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“Bitch?” Naiari scoffed with her arms folded.
“Yeah, you heard me. I’m sparing you right now for the sake of these kids, but if we weren’t in public, I would have choked your dumb ass by now,” I hissed.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, but I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from you. You can be upset all you want, but I’m not gonna tolerate any more name-calling. I haven’t said anything to disrespect you, and I’m not gonna allow you to continue disrespecting me.”
“Bi—”
“Nauri, chill. I understand where you’re coming from, but this isn’t the way to handle it. Let’s step out of the store so you all can talk,” Logic reasoned.
“I came here to get some shoes for my kids, and that’s what I’ll be doing. It’s obvious he isn’t mature enough to have an adult conversation right now, so it may be better to address this another day.”
The sound of her voice sent me into a rage, so I knew it was time to get out of there. The last thing I needed was for things to go wrong, and I ended up on the news. My label wanted tolaunch me as the next big thing, and I needed to keep my hands clean.
When I glanced back at the kids, Keyaire and Kiaya were both staring at me. One wore a confused expression while the other mean-mugged me. I shook my head in disbelief, not even understanding how we got here.
“Let’s get these shoes so I can get out of here.”
I flagged down an associate so they could help us get what we needed. Once we got everyone’s sizes, he walked to the back to retrieve the shoes. My head pounded as I tried to hold it together.
“Alright, all three sizes were in stock, so I grabbed them for you. Is there anything else you want to check on, or are you ready to check out?” The associate asked as they handed me three boxes of shoes.
“Do you guys want any other shoes out of here?” I asked the kids.
Keyaire’s eyes lit up, and the frown on his face turned into a smile.
“Are you paying?”
His question made me chuckle, because I could tell he loved shoes.
“Yeah, man. Get whatever you want in here?”
Like his sister, he turned to his mother for the final approval.
“Can we, Momma?”
“Umm, yeah, sure.” I could tell she wasn’t sure how to feel about it, and I found it amusing.
“Daddy, can I get more shoes, too?” Keyami requested with her lip poked out.
“Of course, you can. Let’s get his shoes first, and then we can get your shoes.”
She wasn’t happy with my request, but she didn’t say anything else.
“Umm, I can help her pick out her shoes while you help Keyaire. I don’t know much about boy shoes, so he never likes my help,” Naiari voiced.
I stared at her for a moment. There was a lot we needed to talk about, but now wasn’t the time. Instead, I nodded my head and made sure Keyami was okay with the plan. Once she gave me her approval, I headed over to Keyaire. Keyaire took off racing over to the section that carried Messiah Graham’s latest sneaker release, so I walked over to where he was. They still had no idea who I was to them while I was trying to figure out how to react.
