Page 150 of Heart Of A Goon II

“Easy on ha!” Maxine hollered.

“It’s always easy on her and never making her take accountability. Maxine, when you call me in the middle of the night because you’re scared for her, I go and get her… don’t tell me to fucking take it easy.”

“I deserve that!”

“No, the fuck you don’t deserve nothing. Sending my boys out to get her when she made this decision like you made yours!”

I felt like this was beyond Inez and Khaos arguing, because the two of them had become silent and now Maxine and Sharon were going at it. She stared at her sister, daring her to assume her sons owed her anything.

From what I knew Goo paid for his aunt’s bills and made sure she never needed nothing. The same care he had for his mother, he extended it to his aunt.

“You let that go, Sharon… let it the fuck go,” she warned her sister, and pointed her finger at her, tears burning her eyes. “I’m owed this… I am.”

From the way Maxine spoke, not even she believed that she was owed it. “You are owed this? Sleeping with my fiancée while I was pregnant with his second child? Or was it the part where he gave you HIV, Maxine? Chef warned us both about him… said to leave him alone.” Her voice was shaky as she revealed that her sister had HIV and that Kevin had it, too, and had given it to her.

I squeezed Goon’s hand, as he looked at his mother. “Kevin Robinson.”

Inez spit her drink across the table onto her grandfather as she looked at her aunt. “Who…who?”

“Kevin Robinson, Goo Goo. I always expected that when you wanted to know him, you would come to me. You never did.”

I was becoming lightheaded and leaned back in my chair. Inez looked at her aunt before holding onto the table before passing out.

His grandmother put her fork down and sighed. “Mi did know she when Chef give yuh him pickney, tings did bad.”

I wasn’t well versed in patios, but when Goo and Khaos’s head snapped in her direction, I knew I heard right. “What?”

I thought my family had damn skeletons, but these people had a graveyard. Maxine was fanning Inez, while Khaos and Goon looked between their grandmother and mother.

“Inez is Chef’s daughter?”

Goon leaned up and then stood up. He didn’t want to hear what was going on. It was already news that he just learned who his father was, but to know his father shared both his aunt and mother.

“Mommy, you got that shit, too?” Khaos asked, not even caring that he referred to his aunt’s diagnosis as shit.

Sharon shook her head as tears fell down her face. “No. I got tested when you were a couple months old.”

“I’m sorry, Auntie… this shit is…”

Maxine held her hand out, and he took it into his. Meanwhile Inez was on the floor being fanned.

His grandparents had heard and seen enough. The second his grandfather pushed his chair out, kissed his daughters and headed into the restaurant, his grandmother followed. Goo stood up and walked behind them, not saying a word or turning to look in my direction.

Dinner was ruined.

I pushed Sharon back to her bedroom. She was emotional, and I gave her a hug to calm her down. Apparently, I was the hug dealer around here. It was this baby that was making me softer, and I hated every second of it.

Usually, they would have revealed all these secrets, and I would have walked away never caring. This time I couldn’t pretend that it didn’t happen because I cared for these damn people. She didn’t want to talk and I respected that. I helped her with whatever she needed before heading back to where my suite was.

It was one in the morning, and I found myself staring up at the ceiling. I thought Goo would have returned so I left the doors open, in case he wanted to come through the back.

I called his phone a few times and it went to voicemail. He was going through a lot right now. Fuck that, he could have at least told me he was staying with his grandparents tonight. You didn’t get to do shit like that and then turn around and yell at me for the same thing. If we were being fair and equal in this bitch, he needed to know that shit.

Snatching the sheets from my body, I grabbed a pair of his sweats and shirt to toss on. I slipped my feet into my sandals and grabbed my keycard, as I made the walk to Khaos’s room.

“Right here,” he called before I could knock on his door. In front of their rooms there was a long-shared pool.

“Can’t sleep, either?”