“I thank God for her and Arlie daily. Had it not been for her and Arlie’s sisterhood, you wouldn’t be sitting here.”
I gave her a tight smile.
“Will y’all be staying for dinner?”
“No, ma’am. Not this time. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself because I didn’t know what to expect, but I can come back later in the week. Arlie goes out of town tomorrow and won’t be back until Thursday.”
“Okay. Umm . . . Can I cook you an early birthday dinner?”
My eyebrows lifted, and I could feel my emotions trying to surface. I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks. I umm . . .”
I stopped when I heard the tremble in my voice. She remembered my birthday.Of course she does. She’s my birth mother. Why wouldn’t she?She gently caressed my hand between hers as she watched me struggle.
“Graham, I could never forget the day I gave birth to a seven-pound-six-ounce-twenty-inch, chocolate baby boy. You were the cutest baby I had ever seen. Head full of black hair with the most beautiful smile, even then.” She looked away for a moment, then turned back to me. “Leaving you with the lady at the state building has been the hardest thing I ever had to do. If I wanted you to have a fighting chance and not have to witness me struggle, I knew it was best. You deserve the best life has to offer. When I found out who had adopted you, I knew you would be in good hands.”
I frowned slightly. “How did you know? Money doesn’t equate to good hands.”
She shook her head. “Sidney and I went to middle and high school together. I know your mom, and she’s a good person, not to mention intelligent.”
My eyebrows had lifted. My mama didn’t tell me that part. I wondered why. “She didn’t tell me that.”
Her head lowered for a moment. “She didn’t tell you, because unfortunately, I was connected to her abuse as a kid. I’ll let herexplain it. She probably didn’t tell you, because she didn’t want me to clue you in on our history, not thinking that I would bring it up. I hate I did now. It’s probably painful for her to talk about.”
I nodded. Triggering my mama was the last thing I wanted to do, so I probably wouldn’t ask her about it either.
LeavingGraham behind was harder for me than I thought it would be. However, I was ready to get my career on the right track. Kimaji had been extremely quiet on our flight, and I wasn’t sure why. Graham had taken us to the airport, and I’d kissed him long on the lips. He was so damn sexy. The man at the airport had to blow his whistle at us.
Although we were at the private entrance to the terminal, it seemed extremely busy for a Tuesday. Noah had funded our tickets, thankfully, so we would be flying with Premier Wings. I just hoped no one looked at me funny, thinking I’d gotten Graham in trouble. We would be on the aircraft he typically worked on.
“Maj, you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure? You’ve been quiet, and that’s unlike your ratchet ass.”
She shoulder bumped me as she smiled. “I just can’t get some things out of my head.”
“Some things like what?”
She glanced at me. “If I tell you, you can’t say shit to nobody, not even Graham.”
“Damn. That bad, huh?”
“Yeah. So umm . . . remember when Mama said she was connected to his mama’s pain or abuse rather?”
“Yeah.”
“Her dad repeatedly raped Missus Sidney when she was a kid. She got pregnant at like twelve or thirteen years old. Her mom took her to have an abortion, and they fucked her up. She ended up having to have a full hysterectomy.”
“Oh my God.”
“That’s not all,” she said, then huffed. “When Mama had Graham and had gone home, his dad was drunk and raped her fresh out of the hospital while she was still bleeding. She was struggling emotionally and during her struggles, she thought about Sidney. She didn’t give Graham up. She gave him to Sidney. That bullshit about going through the state is a story they concocted together. That’s why Missus Sidney let her keep up with Graham.”
“Maj!”
I burst into tears. Hearing so much trauma was heart wrenching, especially when it came to people I knew.
“That was her way of trying to make up for what her dad had done to Sidney all those years ago. I don’t know what made her come clean about it to me, but I’m glad she did. We sat on the floor almost the entire night, crying our eyes out. When she was raped by his dad, she thought about Sidney. Her mental was so fucked up about what he did to her that she could only imagine how Sidney felt having to repeatedly go through that with herdad as a kid, not to mention Sidney’s mom knowing about it . . . initiating it all to get her drug fix.”
