Page 37 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

I pulled my phone out and called Mama.

She answered quickly. “What’s wrong?”

“Is Brittany okay?”

“Yeah she's over here watching cartoons. Why?”

“Keep her.”

There was a pause.

“Keep her?” She asked.

“Yeah please Ma and don’t start interrogating me.”

“Alisha, what happened?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there.”

“Baby—”

“Ma, please.”

My voice must’ve sounded different because she stopped asking questions. “Aight.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

I hung up and I kept thinking about that man standing there. How calm he was. The scary part was he knew exactly where I lived. I grabbed my purse and went inside. I locked the door behind me. I went straight upstairs and started throwing clothes into a bag. I wasn’t even thinking about outfits. I grabbed leggings, t-shirts, underwear, a hoodie and some pajamas. Whatever I could reach in the little amount of time I planned on being there.

I stopped in the middle of the bedroom and looked around. This was supposed to be my home, my safe place. And I was packing a bag like I was running away. My life was falling apart and I ain’t have shit to do with it! “Fuck this.” I mumbled to myself. I went into the bathroom and grabbed the rest of my toiletries. Then I remembered my charger and threw that in the bag too.

I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs. Before leaving, I walked through the house one more time. I checked the doors and the windows. I didn’t know if that man was bullshitting or not and I wasn’t willing to find out.

I got back into my truck. I decided to not go to my mama’s because I didn’t want whoever had been watching my house to follow me there. If they knew where I lived, there was no telling what else they knew. And I wasn’t putting Mama or Brittany in the middle of it.

I drove around for a while before pulling into a hotel. I parked near the entrance and sat there with both hands on the steering wheel. I felt stupid, scared and pissed off. I was tired of Deuce’s problems becoming everybody else’s problems. I for damn sure wasn’t about to let his mess put my daughter in danger.

I grabbed my bag and went inside. The woman at the front desk smiled. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“I need a room.” I let her know as normal as I could.

“One night?” She asked.

I hesitated. “For now.”

I gave her my information, paid, and took the key. When I got upstairs, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. The room was plain with one bed and one chair with a little table, nothing that felt like home. Honestly that was fine because I didn’t want home right now. I double locked the door behind me. I pulled the curtains closed and dropped my bag beside the bed.

The room was quiet, just what I needed so I could think. I leaned back and closed my eyes. All I could see was that stranger standing outside my house. I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know how much Deuce owed. I didn’t know what product he was talking about. And I sure as hell didn’t know how deep my husband was in whatever mess had people showing up at my house.

But I knew one thing, whatever Deuce had gotten himself into, I wasn't letting it reach Brittany. Even if that meant I had to get my daughter and get the hell up out of Detroit and divorce his ass. I told him before she was born to let that street shit go! But nooooo a hard head makes a soft ass, now I’m running from my own home and his ass in jail.

SHANTE

Ihad finally gotten comfortable when the nurse came back in to check my blood pressure. At this point, I was tired of somebody coming in here every five minutes checking something.My pressure, my IV, the babies, my temperature. I was ready to go home and sleep in my own damn bed.

The nurse smiled as she walked in with my chart. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.”