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“Aunt Piggy, what happened to you?” Heaven asked with a shaky voice. Never in her entire life had she ever seen Myla in this state.

Heaven may not have known, but both Miranda and Linda knew the look of being depleted and defeated by a man all too well. Miranda reached for her. Myla lost it.

“My life was fine before you decided that I needed to go out on New Year’s Day! I told you I wanted to stay home, listen to an audiobook, and eat my oysters. Mimi always knows every fucking thing. I told you New Year’s Eve was cursed. You just had to get me out of the house even though I didn’t want to go. You ruined my fucking life!” Myla said as she tried to slap Miranda. In her mind, Miranda was the cause of everything.

“Oh, my Lord!” Linda screamed. She had never seen this feral side of her daughter.

Miranda stood, frozen in shock, for a few seconds before anger took over. Her eyes widened as she grabbed Myla’s wrist before pushing her backward.

“Bitch, are you crazy?” Miranda snapped, her voice trembling.

They had never found themselves in a situation like this. Miranda could feel her heart physically breaking. She and Myla were “M&M”. There was never a time that she’d put her in harm’s way. To be blamed for whatever had gone wrong destroyed her.

“Aunt Piggy, Mommy would never do anything to hurt you. We love you. If you tell us what happened, we’ll try to help you fix it.” Heaven was devastated.

The scene before her was nothing she had ever expected to see. She had only ever seen the strength in the women that raised her; she had never seen them broken.

“HELP ME? Help me fix what, Heaven? I was fired. How can your meddling mother and your spoiled ass help me get my job back?” Myla screamed.

Tears filled Heaven’s big brown eyes. Myla was lashing out at the wrong people, and she knew it, but the conversation from the life-changing meeting that she just left was heavy on her mind.

“Dr. Pleasant, I must say, you have been one of our esteemed doctors. The complaints that we’ve received about you have been hard to hear. You accused your patient, Teresa Maverick, of infidelity when there are police records of her sexual abuse and assault. Sadly, it has been brought to our attention that Teresa’s husband beat her to death when he discovered that she was attempting to leave him. Until further notice, we have to put you on administrative leave until we complete the investigation into these allegations against you.”

Teresa being murdered devastated Myla. Knowing that she may have been the reason that her client was murdered was too much for her to handle.

“I’m over this,” Myla said as she pushed past Heaven.

“Bitch, I’ll kill you!” Miranda yelled as she grabbed Myla’s hair as she attempted to walk past. Miranda was livid. For her child, she’d fight anyone. For the first time ever, Miranda was ready to attack her best friend.

“Don’t you dare push my baby because you picked the wrong man. Whatever you’re going through. You caused it yourself because it’s not like you weren’t warned. I told you from the first time I saw you sitting with that nigga that something felt off about him. I could practically see the devil horns spouting from his head that night you took him the keys. I told you to stay away from Dante. Instead of listening to me, you accused me of fucking him. You like to act like you’re the smartest bitch in the room. Yet somehow, it’s always you that ends up fucked up! I bet every downfall you’re experiencing is because of him. But you’d rather blame me?” Miranda screamed.

“Ok, girls, that’s enough. We are family. We don’t treat each other this way,” Linda said while cradling a sobbing Heaven. “Let’s just go inside and talk,” she suggested. Too many eyes were beginning to look through the curtains of the neighboring houses.

“I don’t want y’all in my house! If I wanted you here, I would’ve called and told you all to come over,” Myla lied. She needed them, needed the support and help that she knew they could give. But she had never told them that Dante had moved in. She didn’t want them to see the state of her home.

Miranda looked as though she had smelled something foul. Myla was lying. Without saying a word to her, Miranda walked onto Myla’s porch, entered the code into the keypad, and opened Myla’s door.

“What the fuck?!” Miranda was so shocked that she couldn’t contain her disbelief.

The scene in front of her prompted her to exit the home. She needed to make sure that she had walked into the correct house.

“What’s wrong?” Linda asked.

Myla kept her head down and cried because she knew exactly what they saw. The mess, the chaos, the disaster that Dante seemed to relish. She was filled with embarrassment.

“Oh, my God. Myla, what happened here? Where is Ms. Herrera?” Linda asked.

Myla slowly stepped inside her home; upon entering, her legs buckled. Her home was in a shambles. It looked like someone had a house party. She had only been gone for about three hours, so she couldn’t imagine what had happened inside of her home in such a short time frame.

She didn’t know if it was the condition of her living room or the fact that her support system was back, all she knew was the courage she had misplaced had returned. Myla also knew she had some mending to do. She would repair her and Miranda’s friendship after she got this problem out of her home.

“Aunt Piggy, what happened to the white room?” Heaven asked. Her face conveyed pure disgust as she looked around.

“The moment women stopped throwing hot grits in their face and fish grease on their ass, men started getting unruly. This is a mess. A man in the house was certainly not the same as having a man in the house,” Linda added.

“A man in the house was certainly not the same as having a man in the house…” Heaven repeated. “What does that even mean?” she asked. Her teenage mind could not comprehend the simplicity of the phrase.

“It means a man in your house that’s not a provider, unreliable, and problematic is not the same as a man that provides, protects, and leads. One man is a dependent, burden, and a problem; the other man is a man,” Miranda said to Heaven as she looked at Myla.