I stayed another hour and left with my mama calling behind me to not be gone so long and to bring Simone to Sunday dinner soon.
I got in my car and sat there for a minute.
Then I pulled out my phone and called Sandra.
It rang.
Rang again.
Voicemail.
I called back immediately.
Voicemail again.
I called a third time and this time it picked up and I could tell from the sound on her end that she had stepped somewhere quiet. Her voice came out low and tight.
“I told you not to contact me.” She answered with a damn attitude when I was the only muthafucka who had the right to be pissed off about some shit.
“And I told you we needed to talk,” I said.
“So here we are.”
“Yes? What do you need Deon? I’ve done my research and I know all I need to know about you.” She said into the phone.
Why else would she be doing research on me unless she knew or thought that I was her Baby’s father? I did not give her my name when I let her go. And I damn sure wouldn’t have gave her my real name.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “You and baby girl need to meet me somewhere. Somewhere public, somewhere simple, I don’t care where. But it’s happening tomorrow.”
Silence.
“Sandra.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You can and you will.” I kept my voice even. “Because if you don’t I’m going to come to that house. The one you share with your husband. And I’m going to knock on that door and whatever happens after that is on you not me. I don’t want to do it that way. But I will, and you know I don’t give a fuck if shit go left. I’m on that time about something this serious.
More silence. Longer this time.
“You wouldn’t do that! Especially when you are the one who keeps inconveniencing my life. I didn’t ask you to kidnap me, nor did I ask you to pop up now all of these years later.”
“Try me. This ain’t about you, and that’s what I want you to understand.”
I heard her breathing on the other end. Slow and controlled the way people breathed when they were trying not to let you hear that you had gotten to them.
“There is a park on Riverside,” she finally said. “Eleven o’clock. We will be there for thirty minutes and then we’re leaving and after that you never contact me again.”
“I’ll be there.”
She hung up without another word.
I sat in my momma’s driveway and looked at my phone. I thought about what I was walking into tomorrow. A woman who wanted me gone. A little girl who didn’t know I existed before yesterday. And a husband who was sitting at home right now thinking everything in his house belonged to him.
I started the car.
Tomorrow was going to change everything.
I just didn’t know for who yet.
