“But I wanna hold the baby,” she pouted. “Andhe’llberighthere,afteryoucomeback.”
Sighing, Aspen handed the baby to Britt, before sliding o" the couch.
Probably thinking that she’d be right back, Aspen jogged o". “Come on, Britt. Let’s change the twins’ diapers, and get them
dressed. We have company.” I switched across the room. “Oh? Is it your mama or his mama?” Britt questioned. I sighed. “It’s the girls’ mama.”
“Oh, okay.” She poked out her bottom lip and nodded. “Well, yeah. Let’s get them together.”
Frankly, I was taking my time, intentionally. I knew like no one else how those girls would yearn for their mama. Question why she’d leave them. And regardless of me not understanding how a mother could do such a thing, I wouldn’t dare be selfish and attempt to hover over their reunion.
It took us about thirty minutes to get the boys together. Then I went back upstairs, hopped in the shower, brushed my teeth, and my hair, before throwing on a pair of leggings and cropped top. After that, I rejoined Britt and the boys, and we headed to the living room.
Tera was sitting on the couch with the girls, as Shi rambled on and on, like only she could. Face was nowhere in sight, but I still
decided to sit down in the area. Still, I wasn’t disruptive, because I was sure that they had a lot of catching up to do. Tera didn’t bother saying anything to me, and I didn’t put much stock in it, as the girls commanded her attention.
I will say that the encounter was a tad bit weird, because this was my first time meeting Tera, and she seemed to have no interest in conversing with the woman who shared a home with her children. After a while, I also questioned why she just didn’t merely pick them up to spend some time, if Face would’ve allowed that.
After about an hour of interacting with Britt and the twins, while Tera and the girls were huddled together on the other end of the sectional, Face moseyed into the living, now fully dressed in Gucci. And that finally got Tera to lift her head, and acknowledge another person in the room.
“Hey, Christian, I was thinking that maybe I could take the girls with me for a few days.”
Face sat next to me on the sectional, and grabbed Tristian out of my hands. “Ion really see how that’s possible.”
“Huh?” Tera frowned. “You saying that I can’t keep my kids?”
He licked his lips. “It depends on the circumstances. You can’t just pop up on a random Wednesday saying that you’re taking them, anyway. For one, they have school. Then Ion even know where you resting your head at. It’s been two years, and I’ll be damn if you waltz in here, and pull some sneaky shit. Like you taking them back, without discussing nothing with me first.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Tera sat up on the couch. “Who said anything about taking them? I’m literally staying at my mama’s house, and you know exactly where she lives. And if I take the girls home with me in the middle of the week, then you gotta know that I have every intention of taking them to school.”
“Taking them to school?” Face frowned. “For two years now,
you haven’t been concerned about nothing. Damn sho’ wasn’t worried about being a mama—”
“Face, don’t do that.” I shook my head. “Not in front of the kids.”
“Nah, this is something that they need to hear. I wanna say it in front of them, so a narrative can’t be twisted behind my back. Ion care how often she sat on Facetime with them. She chose not to be here. And now, she done popped up here. Didn’t ask to hold a conversation with us, or nothing.” He refocused on Tera. “I been watching you on camera. You can’t even look at Babi. Meanwhile, this woman has been here, wipingyourbabies’ tears. And I aint saying that you gotta kiss her ass, but got damn, be a woman about it. Then asking to get the girls right in front of them was problematic from the jump. You was putting me on the spot, like there wasn’t a private conversation to be had. And let’s keep it a buck. As far as I’m concerned, I aint letting my kids get wrapped in with you, until I see what is what. Cause you been a deadbeat for the past two years, and we can’t just snap back to how it used to be.”
A look of rage overtook Tera’s face, as she scooted to the edge of the couch. “A deadbeat? That’s one thing that I can never be! I love my girls with everything in me!” She slapped her chest. “And your selfish ass never stopped to think about what’s in my character. Or how I operate. Me leaving them goes against everything that I stand for! But I did it, because I’ma always put them first. I tried to be supermom. Put on a brave face. Fight through it, but it got too fucking hard. That’s when I tried calling you. But your arrogant ass was so caught up on the fact that I told you that I didn’t want you no more. You didn’t naturally have enough love in your heart to see that something wasn’t right. I had stage 3 breast cancer. Probably would’ve detected it way sooner, if I hadn’t always been stressing, worrying aboutyour ass. But besides that, I dropped the girls o$, because I was deteriorating. Had to be hospitalized
Then what happened? You called me, cussing me out, as soon as I didn’t come back like you thought I should. I knew then that you wasn’t a safe place. So, I fought for my life, and decided that I wouldn’tdaretell you, looking for sympathy. And the girls didn’t see me, because I didn’t wanna be seen like that. Now you fucking have it!”
Face vehemently shook his head. “Nah. Hell, nawl. That aint making sense. At no point did you consider telling me what was going on, when that could’ve cleared the air?”
“You wasn’t the nigga to confide in, Face,” she spat. “It had already been established that if I wasn’t laying down with you, then you couldn’t bring yourself to treat me respectfully. But I was supposed to trust you at my most vulnerable time? Are you crazy?”
Face wasstillshakinghis head.
“Just look!” Tera shouted, as she tossed her phone near him. “Scroll through those pictures and tell me what do you see.”
Saying nothing, Face picked up the phone, and I nosily leaned over to look, as he scrolled. There were several pictures of Tera in a hospital bed, bald. No eyebrows. Frail. And sickly. There was one picture where she was standing up and was rail thin, forcing me to look away.
Face’s breathing became labored, as his chest heaved up and down. “You could’ve…you could’ve told me,” his voice cracked.
“Oh, mamaaaa,” Shi sobbed, as she abruptly clung to Tera. Crying, Aspen hugged her from the other side.
Sitting there, I had tears in my own eyes, not really knowing quite what to say.
