Page 81 of Another Night With Me

“Okay sooo what does that mean?”

“Nate wasn’t an easy man to deal with. Annie dealt with a lot from him. It wasn’t a surprise when she started messing with another man. It was surprising that it was her sister-in-law’s boyfriend but nevertheless it happened. Nate was pissed when he found out his perfect Annie was creeping. Boy I thought he was gonna give himself a heart attack.” She chuckled.

“Zaylee really isn’t Nate’s daughter.”

“I don’t know for sure but there's a good chance she’s not. Annie and Calvin were messing around for a long time. You too young to remember but when you and Zaylee were babies Nate and Annie separated. She was carrying on with Calvin like they were a big happy family. Nate called himself trying to be with me and you but his attention was on Annie, Nate couldn’t get over Annie leaving him. There’s no nice way to say this and I hate to speak ill of the dead but that nigga was nuts.” I giggled at the comical expression on my momma’s face.

“The way Mrs.Cooper was about Nate I would have never thought she’d stepped out on Nate.” I replied.

“Annie felt guilty that’s what made her stay with Nate. After all the crazy shit Calvin did to Nate once they got back together. She felt like she owed him something for forgiving her. Calvin was obsessed with Annie and anything that came from her he wanted parts of. He loved Zaylee more than he loved his own daughter he knew for a fact was his. When Annie told Calvin she was going to work things out with Nate that nigga went nuts. He started stalking all of us. Putting dead cats and shit on our doors. That’s what really made me stop fooling with Nate. Calvin’s crazy ass scared me straight. I didn’t want any parts of what they had going on.”

“Did Calvin really kill himself because Mrs.Cooper didn’t want to be with him?” I asked with wide eyes. I was interested in this story like it was a real movie.

“To put that all on Annie would be insane. The nigga killed himself because he needed mental help. De’anne wanted to act like he was normal and Annie drove him crazy when he’d been crazy since she met him. De’anne was one of the girls who didn’t get a lot of attention so when Calvin gave her attention she was willing to overlook all the weird shit he did. I guess she wanted to keep her version of the story going and passed it down to her daughter.”

“Oh, wow. Y’all was acting a plum fool when y’all were younger.”

“Psst, that was them. I just wanted to raise my baby and mind my business.” My momma said waving me off. “Where you going?” She asked me when I stood up stretching.

“To go check on Zuriyah.”

“Here, you go. Worrying about Niko then to Zuriyah. She is fine leave her alone. You don’t need to put any pressure on that leg anyways.” My momma fussed at me.

“My leg don’t hurt them pain pills got me right,” I playfully sassed my momma. “Ima check on Zuriyah a million times if that’s okay with you.”

I don’t know why my momma wanted to try to act like I was a worry wart when she walked around with Zuriyah attached to her hip when she was up. The only time I got to hold my own baby was when she wanted some milk. Other than that she was with my momma like she birthed her. Everybody wanted to act like my leg meant I had to sit on my ass all day. I barely liked to lay in the bed all damn sure wasn’t about to sit there. I knew my momma wanted to fuss at me again for going back up the stairs. She already cussed me out for coming down stairs without her assistance but really I was fine. My worrying about Niko was affecting me more than any pain in my leg.

“Don’t get fresh with my A’yanna Joseph.”

“I’m not you know I love youuu,” I playfully said kissing her cheek as I walked passed her then headed up the steps.

I noticed the door to Zuriyah’s room was wide open which was weird because we always kept her door shut when she was asleep. My baby is a light sleeper when she sleeps alone. Any little noise would wake her up. To prevent that we kept her door to her room closed.

I frowned when I thought I saw a shadow move across her room but then I thought I was tripping because no one else was here besides me and my momma. I forced myself to walk faster to get inside of Zuriyah’s room. As soon as I made it inside I immediately went into attack mode, seeing a bitch standing over Zuriyah’s crib with a pillow over her head. I said fuck everything and snatched the bitch back by her hair. Immediately my other fist slammed into her face, once, twice and then a third time before she kneed me in my sore leg. The pain stunned me, causing me to release her hair. My hands wrapped around my leg trying to sooth the burning feeling in my thigh.

“Shit you stupid bitch,” I spat looking at a bloodied face Maddison. She smiled at me looking psychotic.

“Aww don’t look so happy to see me.” Her deranged ass said smiling.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked through gritted teeth and my fist clenched at my side.

“To finish what we started. You weren’t supposed to survive those gunshots. I guess we killed the little bastard growing in your stomach so that was a win.”

My eyes shot down to Maddie’s flat stomach, she should have been big and showing by now. Maddison caught onto my eyesight. She let out a maniacal laugh. “Oh no worries I got that little fucker sucked out of me. I had no plans of having a baby by the nigga who killed my nigga. Fuck Niko,” Maddison spat evilly.

“Huh? I don’t know if you got a hold of some bad crack or something but you talking in fucking riddles and shit I have no clue about.” I glared at her.

I didn’t have any idea what Maddie was talking about. The way her eyes kept darting around the room was freaking me out. I just wanted the bitch to leave then Niko could handle of her after.

“You know me and you aren’t that different. We both had one of Niko’s brothers before him. Unlike you though I loved my nigga and he took him from me now I’m going to take everything that bitch ass nigga loves. I suppose I'll have to kill you first. Then Zuriyah’s pretty little self has to go too. Then his brother one, by one until its on-” Maddison evil plan run down was cut off by my fist colliding with her face.

She had me fucked up if she thought I was about to listen to her threaten to kill me and my family then keep letting her talk. I be damned, if things went down like that. Before she had a chance to recover I popped her in the right eye, then the left. Blindly Maddison swung on me I was able to dodge her hit. I grabbed her by the front of her shirt, lifting her into the air I slammed her on the ground. Hitting her with everything I had in me, I refused to let her move an inch. Maddison fucked up threatening to kill my daughter, My entire being was saying eliminate the threat to my daughters life. I had to be having some kind of outer body experience because I couldn’t stop myself from smashing my fist into her face. There was blood everywhere, that wasn’t enough to make me stop. I wanted to be sure Maddison would never be able to hurt me or anyone else I loved.

“Baby,” I paused hearing Niko’s cautious voice calling out to me.

He looked at me fearfully, he wasn’t scared of me he was scared for me. As soon as I looked into his charcoal colored tears burst out from my eyes as I began heaving all of my emotions hitting me all at once.

“Nikooo,” I weakly called out to him. He squatted in front of me extending his arms out for me to go inside of his embrace.