“What is this?” My dad asked. His first words since I walked in the door. At that moment I realized that he had been silently surveying the situation. Mona turned, body still between mine and Malcom and looked at me with a pleading expression.
“Tell them,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“I can’t,” I whispered back, tears filling my eyes.
“May.” She grabbed both of my hands and looked me in my eyes. “I am right here. It’s okay.”
“Tell us what?” My mom asked, looking between us curiously.
“Mona,” Malcom grubbed. “Mind your business!”
“She is my business, bitch!” she snapped without even looking over her shoulder. Having her there gave me the security I needed to slowly turn to my parents and start talking.
“We- um…” I started with all the confidence of a small child who just knew they were about to get in trouble. I cleared my throat and spoke a little louder. “When we broke up… I found outhe was cheating, with multiple women, one of which was pregnant. I packed my things to leave, and he came back to the house. When I confronted him about the women, he choked me.”
“What?” My mom asked with the saddest look on her face. I immediately went into defense mode.
“Mommy, IswearI didn’t hit him. I never touched him. I tried to leave like you taught me, but he just went crazy,” I said, big tears rolling down my cheeks immediately. I realized that was part of the reason I never told them—I knew I did some wild shit in the past and I didn’t want them to blame me or be mad at me for it.
“Baby, I didn’t say that. Ineverassumed that,” she said, making me cry even harder as it felt like the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. She turned to Malcom with a look that made me shiver.
Nobody even noticed my dad slip out of the room.
“That is a lie Amaya! I never touched you!” he said, throwing his hands up. “Y’all need to stop telling people that lie!”
“You’re the fuckin’ liar, Malcom! Now, it’s not about to be too much more discussion,” Mona snapped, turning around with her finger in his face. “You can leave or be carried out.”
“By who?” he teased as he looked down at her. “You?”
“Nah nigga, by me.” My eyes widened when I heard the click, and Malcom turned and put himself eye to eye with the barrel of my daddy’s pistol.
“Oh shit!” Mona hollered and ducked out the way like he had it pointed at her. Dramatic ass. You would think she would be used to this by now with the way her nigga liked to pull guns on people.
“Andre! Put thataway!” My mom demanded, stomping her foot like that was really doing something. My tongue was currently somewhere in the pit of my stomach, and I was unable to get any words out.
“Andre, come on man. Put that up. We’re better than this!”Malcolm said, trying to keep up his usual confident demeanor, but I saw right through it.
“Are we?” Daddy asked, finger still on the trigger. “Look me in my face and tellmewhat the fuck is up, Malcom.”
“I never touched her,” he said with a straight face, too straight, it was obvious he was lying.
“So you callin’ my girls liars?” he asked, stepping so close that I was sure he could feel the cool steel on his forehead. If there was one thing I could count on in my life, I knew my daddy would have my back, no questions asked.
“N-No! You’re just confusing me man! I can’t think! Put the gun away!”
“Either you did it, or you didn’t, nigga! And you know you did! Shoot this nigga, Uncle Dre!” Mona spat. I swore that girl was turning into her man more by the day.
“Mona, shut the fuck up!” I whispered, then stepped between Malcom and my dad. “Daddy,please?” I begged with tears in my eyes. Malcolm had already taken so much from me. If my dad lost his freedom for killing this man in his kitchen, I could never live with myself.
The dummy looked at me, searching for some sort of reprieve, like I would be the one to plead his case and save him from a bullet. All he had to do was stay the fuck away from me like I begged him for the past two years, and we could have let this secret die between the three of us.
“Malcom, sweetheart. You have five seconds to get the fuck out of my house. I’m not gonna let my husband shoot you, but if I call her uncle, youknowhow it’s gonna go. Your choice.” The eerily calm way the words flowed from my mother’s mouth made everyone take heed. The scariest part was that I knew she wasn’t lying. My uncle would pull up, put a bullet between his eyes, call one of his associates to clean it up, then whip us up some crab boils… Actually a crab boil didn’t sound too bad at the moment, but I knew watching Malcom get his cap peeled back would probably ruin everyone’s appetite at least a little bit.
Malcom finally realized that he was playing with his life and turned slowly, backing towards the door.
“Amaya, if you ever change your mind?—”
“Nigga, get the fuck outta here!” My dad snapped.
