Page 43 of Ony If It’s You

Chapter Twenty-Five

K ehlani

“Kehlani, you have to eat something,” my granny said, pushing the plate of food that she had made me back toward me.

“I don’t have an appetite.” I sniffled.

I hadn’t stopped crying since Javyous left.

Granny had gotten the twins situated and in bed for me and I was grateful.

I felt horrible knowing that not only had they witnessed me and their father fighting, but they heard JV and me arguing too.

Jocey was upset and crying when he left too, Si was just quiet.

He hadn’t said one word since we had made it back home.

“Well, that doesn’t matter. You’re pregnant. You have to eat.”

“She’s right, bestie. You have to eat something,” Celeste added.

She sat beside me rubbing her hand up and down my back.

She’d come over as soon as she got off work.

She helped Granny with the twins before coming to force me out of my room.

I had the door locked, but she picked the lock and got inside.

I side eyed her trying to figure out where she learned that from.

“I ate something earlier.”

“Well, it’s later, now eat.” Granny had posted up beside me with her hand propped on her hip. “There is no need for you to be pouting. All of this is your fault.”

“My fault?” I asked incredulously. “How?”

“Because you don’t know how to let things go.”

“Si left his iPad, Granny, we had to go back.”

“Oh please.” She waved me off. “That boy has more gidgets and gadgets in this house than he will be able to play with in a lifetime. You went back because you wanted to say something to that man.”

“And I’m wrong for wanting to check him for disrespecting me?”

“Yes, when your man specifically said to let him handle the situation,” she answered. “You’re so used to handling things on your own because it’s just been you and the kids for so long, but it’s not like that for you anymore, baby. You have to let that man lead.”

Like I had been all day, I was crying. I was feeling so many emotions in that moment that all I could do was cry.

It was frustrating because my intentions were good.

Yeah, I was pissed that not only would he disrespect me, but to our kids?

Yeah, he had me fucked up so I said something.

I hadn’t intended to open a pandora’s box of bullshit.

“I was just trying to deescalate the situation before it got out of hand,” I argued through tears.

“Again, it wasn’t your place, Lani baby. Look at all that has happened today. The kids saw their father put his hands on you and their stepfather put hands on him.”

“I didn’t know that was going to happen!”

“Kehlani, you know Javyous better than all of us, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that man isn’t about to play with or about you. You’re pregnant with his child, you knew he was going to act a fool.”

“Right, friend, and also you know what happened to his career when he damn near killed that man in the ring, imagine if a street fight was recorded and put out there for the world to see. I can just see the articles now,” Celeste added.

Now I really felt like shit. Those weren’t the plans that I had at all. All I wanted to do was keep the peace, but instead I ended up making things worse for all of us.

“Were the twins okay?” I asked changing the subject.

“Yeah, but you and JV will need to sit down and talk to them.”

Nodding, I reached for my phone to see if he had at least called or texted me back, but to no avail.

All of my efforts had gone unanswered and to make matters worse it was almost one in the morning.

I knew he was mad, but I didn’t think that he would leave and not respond to me at all when he was gone.

I knew that I wasn’t going to eat and I felt tears welling up in my eyes again, so I excused myself from the kitchen.

My granny and best friend were calling after me, but I ignored them and kept my trek to our bedroom.

I was too deep in my feelings to be around anyone.

All I wanted to do was shower and sleep.

I stripped out of my clothes and took a hot shower.

When I got out I dressed in one of JV’s t-shirts, climbed in bed, and cried myself to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I felt the bed dip down then I smelled the faint scent of his cologne. My eyes popped opened and I saw him seated on the edge of the bed.

“Baby.” I rushed from under the cover toward him until I was directly behind him.

He had turned on a lamp on the end table so I could see the stress all over his face. I also noticed the plate of food that was in his hand.

“Granny said you won’t eat.”

His voice, it was so… sad. I had never heard Javyous feel so defeated. Suddenly I felt even worse than I did before.

“Baby.” Rounding his body, I climbed into his lap and lifted his head in my hands so that I could look into his eyes. That was when I saw all of the tension and strain all over his face. “Javyous, what’s wrong? I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean?—”

He cut me off. “I need you to feed my baby, Lani. None of this shit is more important than you and our baby being okay. Eat.”

He had lifted a forkful of the food to my mouth so I opened it and accepted the food.

“Javyous.” I attempted to speak, but he lifted more food for me to eat.

Rolling my eyes, I accepted again. We sat in silence for the next ten minutes with him feeding me until the food was gone. After setting the plate to the side, he handed me a bottled water for me to wash it down then stood, placing me on my feet.

“I don’t give a fuck what’s going on with me or anyone else, our kids come first, aight?”

Looking up into his handsome face, I nodded and said, “Okay. I’m sorry.”

“Come on.”

Taking me by my hand, he led us out of the room, down the steps into the kitchen where my grandmother, Celeste, Dominique, Zach, Pres, Ms. Cheryl, and another man were waiting. I frowned as I looked around the kitchen then back to Javyous.

“What’s going on?”

He pulled a seat out from the table and sat before bringing me down into his lap.

“Baby, this is Bryce, my lawyer.”

“Lawyer?” I repeated, confused. “A lawyer for what, Javyous? I know things got pretty rough earlier, but you can’t leave me. I’m having your baby. The twins and me?—”

“Kehlani, chill.” He laughed. “Nobody is leaving your crazy ass. Bryce is my defense attorney. I got locked up tonight…”

“What?!” I screeched trying to get up but he held me in place. “You were in jail? For what? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Chill, baby.” He chuckled again.

“Okay, JV, she’s saying that you came over and beat her up because she was pregnant with your baby?—”

“Excuse me?” I shrieked again. “Pregnant? Beat up? What the fuck, Javyous?”

“Kehlani, if you would chill, you’d hear the story.”

“No you need to be talking a little fucking faster than this. A bitch is saying she was pregnant with your baby and you beat her up?”

“Man, Zoey’s looney ass.” He shook his head.

“I didn’t put hands on that hoe and I didn’t have shit to do with her losing a baby if it ever existed.

She sent me a video and threatened to leak the shit if I didn’t pull up, so I went to holla at her.

When I got there her and her crib was already a fucking mess and she ran up on me with a bloody towel talking about this would have been our baby and was I happy. That’s it and that’s all.”

“How long were you in there?” Bryce asked.

“I don’t know, like five minutes before the police pulled up.”

“Can anyone vouch for that?”

“I can,” Dominique said, but JV shook his head. “We had just got there and I had just called my girl so I got the time stamp.”

“Man, this shit don’t even need to get that far. The girl is a fucking mental patient, literally, bro. Her stupid ass was off her meds.”

“So she has been diagnosed?” Bryce’s eyes lit up at the revelation and it kind of made me breathe a little easier because he looked more confident now.

“Yeah, I don’t know what for exactly, but her ass is definitely cuckoo.”

“Good, good. They actually have her down at the hospital now, so I’m going to go down there. If she is lucid, I can get her to sign a waiver for prosecution and we can put this entire thing to bed early.”

Javyous nodded and kissed the side of my face, before standing us up so he could walk Bryce out. When he came back, Zach and Cheryl started.

“Well, we weren’t able to keep this entire thing out of the media, but the only downside to it is that Gatorade retracted the deal. We’ve been able to hold on to Nike, Disney, and Black Ops, but Gatorade wasn’t having it.”

“Fuck,” Javyous hissed and I rubbed his back.

“I know you really wanted that deal…”

“You think?” JV spat. “You know what I have planned, Cheryl. I can’t afford to be missing bread.”

“I know, I know, but Zach is working on something else that would potentially make you a lot more money.”

“Elaborate.”

“Well, JV’s been wanting to create his own sports drink and I think we can make that happen, so honestly this couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

“Really?” I asked in excitement. “That’s dope as hell. I didn’t know you were trying to do that.”

I thought we shared pretty much everything with each other, so I felt a way a little, but I was happy for him and this opportunity.

“Don’t look like that, I was going to tell you about it yesterday before everything went down.” Javyous spoke up, obviously reading my mind.

“I wasn’t?—”

He cut me off and smirked. “You were and it’s cool. You spoiled as fuck for real. I’m still supposed to be mad at you and you got me feeling bad.”

I playfully pouted as I looked up at him before Dominique finally spoke up.

“Aight, me and mine are up then since you’re good. I’m tired as hell and still got to go to this fucking meeting in a few hours.”

“Yeah, we’re going to head out too. I have to meet with the detective about what you reached out to me about JV,” Cheryl said when her and Zach stood.

“I’ll be in touch soon,” Zach added.