Page 85 of Rah

With a slight kick to my thigh, she replied, “I hope he’s your son.”

“We gotta handle that too. We can get one of those DNA tests from Amazon.”

Aaliyah nodded with a deep breath and said, “Okay.”

“You look nervous about that. What’s wrong?”

“Because for so long I prayed that he was really Rah’s baby. Now, I pray to God he isn’t that demon’s son.”

KAHLANI

Elijah looked at me with wide, innocent eyes as he slurped down his vanilla shake. “Did my mama try to kill my dad for real?”

That caught me off guard and nearly made me choke on my Sprite.

I needed a drink. I had spent New Year’s Eve at the hospital instead of at a party turning up, and now I was spending New Year’s Day counseling distraught children.

“No, baby,” I told Elijah.

“Yes, she did,” Essence added as she toyed with her fries.

“How do you know that?” I asked her.

“That’s what Grandpa Aamir told me.”

My nose flared. Aamir, Rah’s father, had always been evil and up Rah’s ass. “He did?” When shenodded, I shook my head and told them both, “Don’t listen to him. Your mother did not try to kill your daddy, okay?”

“Then what happened?” Elijah pressed.

I need a fucking drink. But I couldn’t have one. I had to wait until I dropped the kids off because I didn’t want to be drunk while driving the kids around. Since it was New Year’s Day, and Elijah and Essence were so sad about their mother and father being gone, I made sure to pick them up that afternoon. Then I took them, along with Trenton, to Dave and Busters.

I looked at Trenton using his hands to eat the pieces of pizza that I had cut up for him. I thanked God that my baby was too young to know what was going on.

With a deep sigh, I told Elijah and Essence, “She didn’t try to kill your father. It was an accident. She didn’t mean to do it. And when your mother comes home, she will explain to you what happened.”

That was the best that I could come up with. What I wanted to tell them was that their father was a sick, son of a bitch who had done their mother so wrong that she snapped. But since there was no telling what Solae’s outcome would be, I didn’t know whose custody these kids would end up in. I had to be smart about what I said around them.

“She isn’t coming home,” Essence said with eyes so sad that my heart wrenched and went out to her.

“Yes, she is,” I insisted.

Essence sucked her teeth and pouted. “No, she isn’t.”

“She isn’t?” Elijah asked with eyes full of fear.

“Yes, she is,” I pressed. “Listen to me. Sheisgoing to come home. Did Grandpa Aamir tell you that too?”

Essence nodded and blew her breath long and hard. I couldn’t wait for Solae to get home so that she could keep her kids away from Rah and the rest of his toxic family.

“Stop listening to him, do you hear me?” I told Essence. “He’s just mad because–” I had to stop myself. I was about to go clean in, but I couldn’t let my mouth make this situation worse for Solae or her kids. “He is just sad because Rah is hurt. He’s worried and lashing out. Your mother made a mistake and shewillcome home. Okay?”

Elijah and Essence both nodded, but something in Essence’s eyes told me that she didn’t believe anything I said. But things had also been very traumatic for her, so I couldn’t knock her for seemingly being so defeated.

I wanted so bad to have a heart-to-heart with her about the rape, but I didn’t know if Solae wanted Essence to know that she had told someone. I just prayed that her mother would get bail so that she could take care of her baby and keep them away from their psychotic father.

19

FABE