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Reggie wasn’t that tall, about 5’8, and he had a medium build. He didn’t have crazy muscles like Billion, but the nigga was strong. Nice set of teeth that I loved, and when he smiled, his dimples showed. He was a nice dresser, these days, he was a good dad, and his fuckin’ skills were a solid seven. Someone else may rate him a strong ten, but because I knew what Billion’s dick game was hitting on, and I knew that nigga could fuck the toenail polish off a bitch, there was no way I could rate Reggie a ten. He could eat some good pussy, though, but that was about it.
“As a black man, that’s kind of fucked up to even wish that another black man would stay in a fucked-up place like prison. Let me go and see where he’s taking Khari, and then we can go,” I said, ready to switch my ass out of the room, but Reggie pulled my arm to stop me.
“Yo, change your fuckin’ shirt, man. You showing way too much to that nigga. You trippin’, man,” he said.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what I was wearing. I was in a distressed graphic t-shirt, and yes, certain parts were cut up, showing a little something, but it wasn’t as bad as Reggie was making it out to be.
Standing on my tippy toes, I kissed his lips and left the room. The nigga was smitten with me, so one kiss to his lips, and he stopped bitching. I made it to the living room area of my home, and Billion was sitting on the couch with Khari in his lap. He had his arm wrapped around her, and from where I was standing, I could hear him complimenting her, telling her how pretty she looked today. I won’t even lie; that shit rocked my heart because Billion loved this little girl to death. In a way, it was like he was making up for so much lost time because he went in when Khari was just a baby.
Khari adored Billion. It showed in the way she was smiling and looking up at him with nothing but love in her eyes. When Billion came home, the nigga could have chosen to go anywhere in the world, but the week leading up to his release, he had been calling every day, making sure that I had Khari dropped off to his mama’s house. He wanted his kids to be the first people he saw once he was back in Miami. It was cute because most niggas got released these days, and they wanted to swing by the barber, go fuck on some hoes, or whatever crazy shit they loved to do.
Throughout Billion’s sentence, I always showed my daughter pictures of Billion because I wanted her to know who he was. When she got a little older, like three, I started bringing her to the prison to see him, but it wasn’t often because Billion didn’t like for his kids to see him like that. Looking at him, I just couldn’t grasp how a man could be this fine, and single at that. Prison had done his body so good because although he had always been solid, these days, he was huge.
Today, he was in a plain black V-neck, and he wore black jeans with a clean pair of low top black and brown Louis Vuitton sneakers on his feet. From where he was sitting, I could see the brown Louis Vuitton belt that he was wearing. He only wore one chain around his neck, and an AP watch was on his wrist. Like always, he smelled good, and those waves were sick.
“Where are the two of you going this morning?” I wanted to know.
“Lil Bill has a football game, so we’re going out there and support. When they get another break from school? I want to take my kids out of town,” Billion said.
Again, a wave of sadness came over me. I had so many chances to just come clean, but I couldn’t now because a bitch was in too deep. I didn’t even want to know what this nigga would do to me if he ever found out that Khari didn’t belong to him. Because I was scared shitless about this, no one knew the truth but me. I didn’t even tell my best friends and my mama this shit, which was weird because I told them everything. If
I could, this was just going to be one of those things that I took with me to the grave.
“They just coming off Christmas break. They won’t have another break until March, which will be for spring break,” I told him at the same time that Billion reached on the coffee table and grabbed a piece of candy from the candy jar.
He unwrapped a mini Snicker and gave it to Khari because, in the middle of me talking, she was trying to reach for one, but Billion had got it for her instead. All I could think about was the fact that Reggie had told her this morning that she better not eat another piece of candy. My daughter thought that she was supposed to survive off sweets. You could honestly just forget about trying to get her to eat real food because she didn’t care for it, and when she did eat, it was chicken nuggets from McDonald’s.
Although we were all living in my lie about Billion being Khari’s father, I’ll admit that Reggie has stepped up, and he’ll discipline both Rylo and Khari. He didn’t beat them or anything like that, but he had popped both of them from time to time. Rylo was eleven, which was way too damn old to be getting popped, but if she ever got in trouble, he usually just took things from her, like her phone and her tablet.
My kids were good kids, so they never really did anything to get in trouble. Rylo got the curse of having my slick ass mouth, and that’s what got her cell phone privileges revoked at times. He still popped Khari, but it was for things that she deserved. I let Reggie give out the discipline because I was too soft. Not that I couldn’t, but as a little girl, I used to get my ass beat by my mama, so I just wouldn’t want to carry out a whipping or anything like that. Let me clear up what I said because I don’t want anyone to take it the wrong way and feel like my mama was abusing me, because she wasn’t. She was just a single mother raising me on her own, and that caused her to be so hard. If I was showing my ass in school, talking back to the teachers and shit, I would have a good ass whipping waiting at home for me. If I ever got beat as a child, it was for things that I deserved.
“I thought I said she couldn’t have no more candy this morning!” Reggie barked, coming out of the back room.
The second he said it, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die because I knew that Billion was going to go crazy. There was an evil scowl on Reggie’s face as he walked over and snatched the candy jar that was resting on the table. Khari didn’t make it any better when she cuddled up closer to her father and jumped, giving off the impression that she was scared of Reggie. I wouldn’t say that Khari was scared of Reggie, but at five, she knew that he wasn’t her father, and she really wasn’t that close to him. Even right now, the way she was up under Billion, she’s never been that way with Reggie.
I think that had a lot to do with the fact that when she was younger, and Reggie would come around, he had a lot of resentment toward her because, to him, she was an outside baby. For the longest, he wouldn’t even acknowledge her presence. Kids picked up on vibes, and because Reggie treated my baby like an outsider for the longest, she didn’t deal with him like that.
“Nigga, are you fuckin’ stupid? Does this look like your motha fuckin’ daughter, or does it look like mine? You might have told your daughter that she couldn’t have no more candy, but this is mine right here, and I let her have it! Stupid ass nigga, you better gone on about your business. You barking up the wrong tree, and I’ll have you eating the bottom of my fuckin’ shoe if you keep talking crazy! Fuck type of shit you on, nigga? You don’t dictate shit when it comes to this one right here. Ion tell you how to parent yours, so don’t tell me how to parent mine. Let me get the fuck out of here before I do some foul shit to you in front of my kid,” Billion spoke, and then he lifted Khari out of his lap, stood her up, and stood up as well.
“I ain’t trying to dictate shit, but if you want to be honest, I pay the fuckin’ bills around this bitch. Therefore, I have a say so on the shit that goes down over here—”
“My nigga, I’m warning you. Leave the shit alone, bruh. I done already stopped talking. If you know anything about me, then you should know that I ain’t going to do too much talking. Denim, get your nigga,” Billion said, and then he grabbed Khari’s hand, and they started walking to the door.
The fact that Billion was walking away showed me the maturity in him. The Billion that I knew from five years ago would have stomped Reggie out the second he opened his mouth. Kids had changed Billion, which was something that I tell him all the time. It wasn’t a bad thing because I knew that having kids was going to keep his ass out of trouble.
“She ain’t gotta get shit! I may not be Khari’s father, but I been in the picture. I was fathering her ass when you were away—”
Boom!
That was the sound of Billion slamming Reggie down on the glass table and it shattering to pieces. I screamed, and so did my daughter. It all just happened so fast. Billion had honestly slammed all the talking out of Reggie’s mouth because he wasn’t saying shit as he lay there, getting punched in the face by Billion. He was throwing blows too, but Billion was dodging them.
“Take my daughter to the back!” Billion barked at me.
I grabbed Khari’s hand, and we ran to the back. We went to my room, where I stood by the door with it cracked and watched the whole thing unfold. They were really destroying my living room, and Billion was beating the fuck out of Reggie. My hand went over my mouth because I was scared. If he could do that to him, just for talking to him crazy about his daughter, then I could only imagine what he would do to me if the truth ever came out that Khari didn’t belong to him.
“Not sure how you go around talking to other people’s kids, but that lil girl back there, you don’t handle her. Motha fucka, I do! She can have all the candy in the fuckin’ world because if she gets a cavity, who’s going to pay for it? Me! Not your bitch ass! You screaming that you pay the bills around this bitch like that’s supposed to mean something! You do that because you want to. Denim got money! Her and my daughter are straight for life. Don’t bring your ass over here as long as my child is here, and if I find out otherwise, I’m killing your ass!” I heard Billion spit.
A few moments had gone by, and then Billion walked to the back to see where I’d run off to with Khari. He came into the room, grabbed a crying Khari up, and left the house, making sure to slam the door behind him. I slouched down on the bedroom floor, bringing my knees up, and said a silent prayer. I needed God more than ever right now because Billion was fuckin’ crazy. I could honestly see him killing me, and if he did, he would have every reason to.
