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“Luna is keeping her distance because she can’t look in either of y’alls faces knowing what she knows.”

“What does she know, Mama?”

Instead of answering her daughter, Granny glanced over at me empathetically. My heart skipped a beat…she knew something that had the potential to hurt me. Despite my mild postpartum depression, I was happier than ever with my little family. I did not want to hear any bad news right then, but it would kill me if she didn’t say it now.

“Lo-Lo Pop…I was going to tell you on that day you were supposed to stop by my house for some gumbo. But then that incident happened at your house and you had to go to the hospital. When I heard they were inducing you I thought it was best if I dropped it for the time being. I thought about telling you a few times over this month but it just never felt like the right time. I’ve never seen you so happy and content. Bringing this to your attention felt wrong, but it’s also wrong for you not to know.”

“Please just say it, Granny.”

“Please,” my mom emphasized.

“Okay…Kenny is not only the father of Kayla’s baby. He’s also the father of Kash.”

Ducking for cover was useless with that type of bomb that had just gone off. There was no dodging that revelation. All of a sudden all of Lyss’ weird behavior came rushing back to me like waves. Her badgering me to drop Kenny on his head. The way she constantly insinuated that I was dumb for staying with him through his lows. The fact that she asked if he was my baby daddy and seemed upset if there was a possibility. Never in a million years did I think that meant that she was fucking him or that he was the father of her son. Nalyssa had always been my older, know it all cousin. When she was pressing for me to leave Kennt alone I was aggravated, but no one could tell me that it wasn’t coming from a place of love. Maybe that was naive on my end, but up until a few months ago I thought we were like sisters. Sisters argued, got on each other's nerves, and always had something smart to say. Clearly the love was onesided and I’d learned that when she sided with her best friend over me. It was an easier pill to swallow when I thought she was just taking on her friend's unwarranted beef with me. I figured she was just jealous because our pregnancies had started out similar, but mines had only gotten better while hers seemingly got worse. I still believed that played a part in her hatred for me, but it all started with Kenny. Actually, it had to start long before that. She probably always hated my guts to have pulled some egregious shit like this. This wasn’t an overnight type of thing and there was no telling how long she’d been messing with Kenny right under my nose.

“Kash who?! Nalyssa’s baby, Kash?!” My mom asked in disbelief.

“Yes, Lucia.”

“And you knew this for how long?”

“I found out on Christmas day. God knew you didn’t need to be there, Lucia, because you would’ve lost it. I damn sure couldn’t believe my eyes when that boy walked into Luna’s house.”

“So Luna obviously knew this whole time…”

“No,” Granny shook her head. “I don’t know what happened between Lyss and that boy, but he must have been doing some sweet talking and kissing that neck because all of a sudden she was saying nothing but good things about her baby daddy. The whole month of December she was bragging on how he’s been stepping up by spending time and sending money. She talked about him so much that me and Luna were asking to meet him. That’s when she’d clam up and say she didn’t know if she wanted to bring him around the family because she didn’t want to be unfairly judged. Right then I checked out mentally because if she felt that way then that meant the nigga was no good.”

“Her ass knows good and well she ain’t have no business laying down with that man nor making a baby with him. That’s why she was scared to bring him around!”

“I know, Lucia, but I guess she finally found the courage on Christmas day. She announced that her baby daddy was coming over with gifts for Kash and she was all smiles like it wasn’t already night time. Clearly he spent his day somewhere more important to him. That enforced what I already thought…he was a no good piece of shit. A whole hour later he arrives and she goes outside to get him. She walked back in with Kendall, surprising the hell out of me and Luna. My Christmas turned into one of those dramatic soaps I like to watch. I shoulda just came over here to the Westbank, chile.”

“You gotta give us more details about y’alls reactions,” my mom pushed. She was my mom for a reason.

“Well, Luna was crying and begging for it not to be true. I was cursing him and her out, telling them I wanted no parts in whatever sick shit they had going on. Lyss wanted to know how it was sick if Lourdes was so in love and had moved on. I had to remind her that she had to have gotten pregnant while that no good son of a bitch Kendall was still in a relationship and living with Lo-Lo.”

“Her best friend is having a baby for him to…” my mom’s face was scrunched up in disgust.

“I mentioned that, as well. She said they didn’t go behind each other's backs and sleep with him. I didn’t even ask what that was supposed to mean. I grabbed my pocket book and demanded that Luna take me home. She vented the whole way home about where she went wrong with Nalyssa. I didn’t know what to say because I was wondering where we went wrong with her as a family. Did we not show her enough love? Did she not get enough attention? Maybe I was wrong when I told Luna to keep a married man’s baby even though he said he wouldn’t do anything other than pay child support. In my heart I believed we had a strong enough village to raise her right, but we had to mess up at some point. Maybe she needed a daddy to show her how she was supposed to be treated.”

“Mama, this is not on us. No, Lyss didn’t have a daddy, but neither did Lourdes. I know plenty of girls from around the way who grew up with neither parents. It has its negative effects, but it’s up to you how you deal with that as an adult. We spoiled the shit out of Lyss. Even when Lourdes came along two years later, she still got everything she wanted and more. Sometimes I’d get on Luna for doing too much at times when she didn’t deserve it. Like if she got a bad grade or was acting out. That girl was failing two classes when her 16th birthday rolled around, but Luna still threw her that big ass sweet 16 and bought her a car. My sister overcompensated because her daddy wasn’t around. Again, I’m not downplaying his absence and how that may have affected Lyss. But not having your daddy doesn’t make you fall on your cousin’s boyfriend’s dick and get pregnant by him. She did that because she wanted to and Lourdes wasn’t enough to stop her. She obviously never valued her relationship with her cousin. And I don’t know what weird shit her and that friend got going on, but I always thought it was weird that Lyss would act so righteous while hanging with a girl who shakes her ass in thongs online all day.”

“They had threesomes with him,” I clarified stoically. “I heard rumors in high school that they did threesomes, but Nalyssa always denied it so I believed her. But yea, clearly it wasn’t a lie.”

“That’s a damn shame,” Granny grumbled. “No man deserves to have two women at once.”

I cracked a smile and laughter spilled from my mouth.

“You laughing?” My mom marveled.

“Yea, that was funny.”

“You don’t have no questions, Lo-Lo Pop? You not mad at me, are you?”

“No, Granny,” I stood and hugged her. “You didn’t tell me right away, but you still told me and I appreciate it.”

“Well I’m mad because you could have been told me.”

“Ain’t nobody worried about you, Lucia, I’m only concerned with my Grandbaby. I’ve been sitting on this because I was scared of how you’d react, but you haven’t given much of a reaction. You were shocked when I first said it and I could see a little bit hurt in your eyes…but other than that, nothing. Let me find out my Louri Bug changed you because the old you would’ve been pulling up to fight.”