AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We are moving to Atlanta. He has some cousins down there that are doing really well, and he thinks…”
“What about the girls? They are not moving anywhere!”
“I know, Moe. I’m not trying to take them from you. I want to go down and get myself established, then I want them to come and visit. I don’t want to uproot them. I know that’s not fair to them.”
I tilted my head and looked at her like I was seeing her for the first time. The Beatrice that I knew would never leave the city and leave her daughters behind. I was honestly confused.
“You are leaving your daughters to run off with some fuckboy that wouldn’t even bail you out of jail?”
“Morris, that’s not fair,” she said.
“FAIR! FAIR! Beatrice!” I yelled.
“Moe, the girls,” Bee said while nodding toward the truck.
I took a deep breath and stepped further away from the truck.
“When are you planning on doing this? Have you talked to the girls?”
“At the end of the week,” she mumbled.
“Have you told the girls?” I slowly pronounced each word.
“No, I want us to tell them together.”
“US! WE ain’t going nowhere! You are! Why doweneed to tell them?”
“We are their parents, Moe.”
“Really? We are their parents? It sounds like you are telling me I am their parent. You are going to leave town and abandon your two daughters? Girls need their mother.”
“I’m not abandoning them. I’m just trying to get my life together for them. St. Louis is a sinkhole. I can’t get any traction here.”
“You have a court date for your arrest, don’t you?”
“We both do, and we will come back for it, but we have to get out of here.”
That was some bull. I’d worked so hard to make a good life for my girls by caring for them and learning to co-parent with their mother. Single parenthood was never what I’d wanted for either of us. I thought we could build a new friendship and give our daughters a mother and a father.
“If you leave town, I am going to go after full custody of the girls. I’m not going to let you pop in and out of their lives like this,” I threatened.
“I figured you would say that. I’m prepared to give you custody of the girls if it means that I can go and get my life together.”
“Get your life together? Is that code for run away from your responsibility with a fuck nigga?”
“I’m not running from my responsibility and stop calling him that! I haven’t talked about your li’l girlfriend that you paraded around the block.”
“Paraded around the…are you talking about when I had to go to the north side to get my daughters from a crack house, and she came with me to have my back because my daughters’ mother obviously does not!”
“Whatever, Moe. The girls said she’s your girlfriend, but you say she’s a friend. She’s probably wondering where she fits in your life the same way I did for so many years.”
“She…I don’t have to explain anything to you, Bee.”
“Sounds familiar.”
I decided not to respond to her immature ass comment about our relationship; it would only lead to an argument that I thought we’d outgrown. Plus, it was entirely off the topic of her moving away.
“Don’t change the subject. I can’t believe you are really choosing him over your daughters!”
