“Well, is that my grandchild?” Karrin questioned, inching closer to me.
Protective, I found myself trying to shield Misa from her like she was some evil ass witch.
“One of them,” Frequency alerted her, clearing his throat. “We had twins. This is our daughter, Misa. Our son, Maze, is still sleeping.”
“She’s beautiful,” Karrin noted. “She looks a lot like you when you were a baby.” Her voice drifted off as if she was reliving a memory.
“I don’t understand what y’all are doing here,” Frequency piped up.
“It’s been months since we’ve heard anything from Kutlass. Where else would I be? He hasn’t called or checked in. It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth.” Exasperated, she threw her hands up.
Free swiped the tip of his nose and took a breath. Karmine seemed to be studying him closely with suspicion, but he kept calm.
“Maybe he did. And maybe it’s best if you don’t try and find him,” Frequency declared.
“This is your father. How can you even say that?” Appalled, Karrin soaked him in from head to toe. “The last time I talked to him, he said that you threatened him.” Accusing eyes landed on him from the both of them.
“We had words,” Free acknowledged.
“Words? Is that all? Or is there more to this?” his mother demanded.
She inched closer, getting in his face, and although he was much bigger than her, Karrin never backed down as she challenged him.
“What you want from me, Ma, huh?”
“The truth.” Karmine cut in, arms crossing over his chest.
A deep wrinkle filled his forehead as he narrowed his eyes at Free.
“Fuck you, Karmine. You the one that stirred all this shit up. Now you want to come here demanding something like I owe you a damn thing. Let me tell you something about our parents that you seemed to place all high on that pedestal. Neither one of them is perfect, and they both walking around with a bag of bones. All that talk about family, honor, and loyalty is just some bullshit they say to make us fall in line and do what the fuck they want. Did you know that Karrin isn’t even my fucking mother? Celine is. And she didn’t actually birth you or Kara; she had a fucking surrogate. Celine was supposed to be one too, but she lost the baby and ended up fucking Pops because he wanted to give her a baby.” Frequency aimed a finger at Karrin, and horror filled her eyes.
She didn’t speak, and slowly, Karmine’s arms unfolded from his chest while his deep, shadow-filled eyes took her in. Her taut posture and lack of response must have told him everything he needed to know.
“Who told you that!” Karrin hissed at him. “I am your mother in every fucking way! That bitch didn’t do anything but sit around here day in and day out wishing that she was me! She made you hate me!” Tears welled in her eyes as her arms and hands began to tremble.
“I never hated you. I just thought you were weak.” Frequency broke it to her. “All of this is proof of that. You let him keep her around, knowing everything that they did behind your back.”
“Because they gave me you!” she shrieked. “You were my firstborn. The first baby I ever cared for. Nobody can ever tell me that I wasn’t your mother. I didn’t make all your meals or get to come to all of your games or anything like that, but I was still your mother.”
“Ma, you really been holding these lies in all my fucking life?” Karmine chimed in, hurt drowning his voice.
“Baby, you all are mine, in every way. I don’t care about anything else! I raised you! I held you, and took care of you when you were sick. I was the one helping you get ready for school dances and pictures and events. The DNA doesn’t matter to me with you, Quency. It never did.” Karrin shook her head viciously. “Where is she? Where is that bitch Celine? How dare she tell you and paint me out to be some fucking villain!”
“She’s gone, and she’s been gone,” Frequency revealed, stopping her in her angered tracks. “And you need to leave too.”
“What did you do to him?” Karrin snarled at him.
“Kutlass knew what the fuck he was doing and what kind of time he was on. When your number is up, it’s up. Ain’t no way around that shit.” His callousness alarmed his mother.
He didn’t come right out and say it, but death was interpreted, and Karrin grew choked up.A raging storm seemed to brew around Karmine. I stood there with my daughter bouncing and rocking her back and forth. She was hungry, and I didn’t feel like whipping my breast out, so I needed to go grab her a bottle, but I couldn’t pull away from the train wreck happening in front of me.
“I never thought that you could be this cold.” Karrin broke, and I saw Frequency soften for her.
While lowering his head, he shook it back and forth.
“I can’t do this with you. Go back to Europe. Live your life. That’s the best advice I can give you.”
Karrin scoffed, disbelieving. Her wrath turned on me as I continued to rock my daughter in my arms. She held us in her crosshairs like she was marking us.
