That night after Simone went to sleep I sat in the dark of my living room and ran the math.
Amara. Three years old. Maybe three and a half.
Four years ago I had Sandra bent over in my bed. What happened between us was some wild shit that I never stopped thinking about. She was the only old bitch I ever had. And even today, she still looked good for herself.
I ran it again.
Same answer.
I didn’t know for certain. Couldn’t know just from looking at a little girl in a store. Even if that little girl was wearing my face on her like she came out of me directly. Sandra had a husband. Hadbeen married to Tavarus for twelve years at the time. The baby could be his. The timeline wasn’t impossible either way.
But those eyes.
I was still sitting with it when my phone rang.
Private number, and I had no idea who the fuck that could be. People knew not to play on my phone. And bill collectors didn’t call this late.
I answered.
“Yeah.”
Silence. Then a voice I had never heard before. Low and calm and deliberate like they meant every word they were saying.
“You think you got away with it,” the voice said. “Four years you been out here moving like what you did would just disappeared. Like everybody forgot and life went on. Like nobody was going to find out that it was you behind that.”
I didn’t say anything.
“We didn’t forget. We been patient. Waiting on the right time.” Another pause. “You got a target on your back Deon. Has been for a while. Just wanted you to know we coming and you won’t see it until it’s already done. I hope that money that you took was well worth it. Hopefully you got a little saved up for your funeral.”
After that the line went dead.
I sat in the dark with my phone in my hand. That call sat on top of everything else that was already sitting on me.
Could it be about Sandra? About what I did four years ago. About the hundred thousand I took from Tavarus while his wifewas in my back bedroom and his people were running around the city looking for her.
Could be something else from a different direction I hadn’t seen coming.
I didn’t know.
What I knew was that somebody had been watching me for four years and waiting, tonight they had decided to let me know they were there. And that kind of call was never just a warning.
It was always the beginning of something bigger.
I put my phone down and looked at the ceiling.
Amara’s face looked back at me from somewhere behind my eyes.
My jaw. My nose. My eyes on a little girl whose mother had walked back into my life today in a grocery store. It was like the universe had been waiting four years to drop that moment on me. Yes I was reckless with her, but I never imagined a baby would be the outcome. Was this baby mine? Did I miss out on being a father? Hell, do I wanna be a father? Will I know how to be?
If she was mine then Tavarus had been raising my child without knowing it.
If she was mine then the target on my back was heavier and more personal than anything I had been prepared for.
I already knew though.
Somewhere underneath all the maybe and the math, I already knew that shit when she bumped into me today at that store.
She was mine.
To Be Continued…
