Willow nodded, and they disappeared into the kitchen. My mother didn’t raise me because she was an alcoholic and a prostitute. When I was growing up, my father was a fake ass preacher that slept with any woman that would open her legs for him, so I pretty much took him as a joke. They had both apologized to me, and we were trying to have a normal parent/son relationship. However, if I didn’t have Wonder to help me out with Willow, it would have been my grandmother or Pierre’s mom. Maybe even Nina, but I doubted I would depend on my mother or father.
In the shower, for the millionth time, I wondered why Misha didn’t just take Willow into the salon with her. Why didn’t she ask me to watch her? There was nothing she could ever say to justify what she’d done, and that bitch would never see my daughter again. Even if a judge somehow gave her grace and said she could see Willow, I’d go to prison my damn self for kidnapping and contempt of court. She’d never be around my daughter ever again. Being that I wasn’t close to either one of my parents growing up, I wanted to make sure I was in my daughter’s life. She had me, her mother, and Wonder. Prior to the bullshit, I felt Willow was blessed. Wonder never tried to be her mother but when she was around, she made sure she wassafe and happy. When we got married, Wonder would officially be her stepmother.
I was grown enough to know that Misha would move on, and I always told her as long as none of her niggas touched my child, mistreated her, or disrespected her, she could do what she wanted. I was worried about a random guy being in my child’s life and doing her wrong and the whole time, it was her mother that I should have been worried about. Standing underneath the hot water, I let it pelt onto my skin for at least fifteen minutes before I began to wash my body. Since the day before, it felt like I was having an out of body experience. It didn’t even seem like my life.
When I got out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and brushed my teeth. By the time I got dressed, I had to close my bedroom door and smoke a blunt. Willow and Wylder both knew that I smoked, but they were too young to know what weed was. They had smelled it I was sure, but I never smoked in the same room with them and even as young as they were they knew if I was smoking, they couldn’t come in. It had been almost twenty-four hours since I’d smoked, and I felt like I was tweaking. I didn’t mind being addicted to weed. Puffing on the blunt, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
Though time had passed, I hadn’t calmed down one bit. Misha’s mother came to the hospital screaming and crying, and I knew it wasn’t her fault for what her daughter did, but I didn’t like her ass anyway. When Willow was a baby, I bought her diapers, wipes, formula, cereal, and baby food when she started eating it. Misha wanted to apply for food stamps, but one of the stipulations was that she’d have to put me on child support. Despite the fact that I took great care of Willow, Misha’s mother told her to put me on child support any way, so she could get the stamps. That was before I went legit, and even if she had putme on papers, I didn’t have traceable income. She wouldn’t have gotten more than fifty dollars a month.
Misha was smart enough not to get on my bad side for a few hundred dollar’s worth of stamps a month. I couldn’t stand that money hungry ass bitch, and she knew it. All she’d ever taught her daughter how to do was finesse the system and fuck for what she wanted. Misha had felt my wrath before. Her mother hadn’t. Any time her mother gave her some dumb advice, Misha was smart enough not to take it. Why she wasn’t smart enough not to play with my daughter was beyond me.
I could afford to pay for therapy. Between that and Wonder, I prayed my baby wouldn’t grow up to have mommy issues because it was over for Misha’s ass. She didn’t have a daughter anymore. Standing up, I hit the last of the blunt and flushed the roach down the toilet. Inside the bedroom, I sprayed blunt spray and opened a window. By the time I got downstairs, Pierre had shown up. Willow was curled up in his lap while she watched cartoons. Every single time I looked at her face, it killed me. There wasn’t anyone else Willow trusted in this world more than me and her mother, and Misha had scarred my child.
Pierre and I locked eyes, and he subtly shook his head. He knew it was messed up, and I was pissed.
“You want me to warm you up some food?” Wonder asked. “I have pasta, and I can throw some garlic bread in the oven. Pierre, you want a plate?”
He nodded as I reached underneath my shirt and rubbed my belly. I hadn’t eaten anything since before I found out about Willow.
“Yeah, since I smoked, I can probably eat a little something. Thank you, baby.”
“I’m proud of you, bro,” Pierre declared when Wonder left the room.
“Proud of me for what?” My brows furrowed.
“For not getting arrested because I just knew the roles were about to be reversed, and either I was going to be picking you up, or watching the kids while Wonder did it.”
Sucking my teeth, I shook my head. “Man, I cried. That’s how bad I wanted to choke her out. The fact that I couldn’t do bodily harm to her made me cry.”
“I’m sure it did. Jail is the safest place for her to be right now. You think she’ll be able to bond out?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. She just better stay away from me, and I put that on everything. I don’t care where I see her. It could be church, and I swear on Jesus’ sandals, she gon’ get slapped.”
Pierre and I sat in silence watching cartoons with Willow until Wonder came back into the room with two plates. She then went back to the kitchen and brought us out drinks. Even though it was still early, she took Willow upstairs and gave her a bath and washed her hair. We were keeping her cool and hydrated. When Wylder got out of daycare, she was feeling better, and they played. Seeing her back to her old self made me feel better, but I was still pissed.
That night in bed, I was on my back staring up at the ceiling when Wonder laid her head on my chest. “I know you’ve killed Misha a hundred times in your head, but Willow is okay. Thank God. Misha needs her ass beat for sure, but she’s going to get hers in due time. Believe that.”
“She damn sure is.”
WONDER
Tears streamed down my face as I leaned over the toilet while my stomach lurched violently. Throwing up was the absolute worst feeling in the world. By the time there was nothing left for me to expel, my nose was running, and my chest was heaving up and down. I rolled off a few paper towels and wiped my face and nose. Sniffing, I turned the faucet on and rinsed my mouth out a few times. When I was done, I gripped the edge of the counter and closed my eyes as my head hung down. I had only been at work for three hours, and I felt like shit.
The good thing was if I could just focus, I would be done with the car I was wrapping in less than two hours, and I could go home. Wilde wasn’t ready for Willow to go back to daycare just yet, so he let Wylder stay home too, and he was holding them down. I prayed when I got home, he would have that same energy because I just wanted to take a nap. Preferably one that lasted a few hours. One of the worst parts of pregnancy was being super tired all the time. No matter how much sleep I got, it was never enough.
With toddlers in the house, it wasn’t like I could get a lot of sleep, but I at least tried to get eight hours of rest a night and two hours after waking up, I would be exhausted like I’d been awakefor hours on end. I loved wrapping cars, but if things didn’t get better after I’d done all of the cars that I had lined up, I wasn’t doing more than two cars a week. People would probably be upset, but I couldn’t help it.
One of my employees Justin helped me, and I got done wrapping the car sooner than I expected. When I got home, I noticed a black Tahoe parked out front, and I pushed out a deep breath. Whoever was at the house, I hoped it wouldn’t interfere with me getting a nap. I had already texted Wilde and told him I was coming home, and I didn’t feel good. I wasn’t going to be rude. Whoever it was with him, I’d say hello, kiss the kids, and keep it pushing.
The moment I stepped into the house, an aroma smacked me in the face and whatever it was, smelled absolutely delicious. Curiosity led me to the kitchen because Wilde could cook simple things, but he’d never made anything that smelled even remotely close to what I was smelling. When I rounded the corner and made it to the living room, I stopped in my tracks. My already queasy stomach did a somersault as I took in the details of the room. There were vases of roses everywhere. At least ten of them. Tea light candles were also lit and spread around the room. The soothing sounds of R&B floated from the blue tooth speaker, and at least thirty pink and red balloons hung suspended in the air. But on the end of each string on the balloons was a different photo of me and Wilde.
Us on vacations, his birthday, my birthday, the kids’ birthdays, holidays. I went from balloon to balloon looking at each picture. By the time I was done, tears were spilling over my eyelids. Wilde entered the room from the kitchen, and my chest tightened as he advanced toward me wearing a black suit. When he got down on one knee, I almost hyperventilated.
“My head has been all over the place. I wanted to do this with family and friends, but I’m not even in the headspace to do allthat. I didn’t want to put off proposing though. I love you, and I need you in my life. I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to keep you happy until I take my last breath. Anything you want, you can have it. Anything I have is yours. Including my last name if you want it.”
More tears trailed down my cheeks, and I laughed. Leaning down, I wrapped my arms around Wild and kissed him on the lips. After I stepped back, he removed a burgundy, velvet ring box from his pocket and flipped the lid. Just when I thought I couldn’t be surprised anymore, my eyes widened.
“You got me a Darry ring?” I thought the meaning behind those rings was so romantic.
