Bonded In Truth

The Run Down

Prologue

"Are you fucking kidding me?"
I looked at the man I had grown to love in absolute disbelief. After all these years, this bitch suddenly decides to drop some news like this. I tried to keep the tears and anger at bay, but I couldn't keep the disappointment from my voice. I hadn't even told him the news yet. Now with Taniyah trying to sneak her way back into the picture, I felt like I needed to keep it to myself a little bit longer just in case shit went bad.

"I'm so sorry baby. I honest to God didn't know. Hell, I thought she was just trying to fuck with me by sending some bogus ass papers, but I couldn't ignore the notice I was sent in the mail by the state."

Zaiere looked at me with an exasperated expression and I knew this was taking a toll on him. FUCK, I thought to myself, trying to fight back tears.

"When you told me you wanted to talk, this wasn't the news I was expecting." I said, completely overwhelmed at the roles we were both now faced with taking on.

"I know. I figured I could take the test, and if it came back negative, we could get back to living our lives. Never in a million years did I think she would pull a stunt like this. I never knew anything about this until this week. You have to believe me." he said, sounding defeated.

"I do believe you. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the fact that she decided to pop up five years later with some bullshit like this. Why now? What does she want?" I asked while trying to get myself together.

"I don't know but trust me when I say this shit is going to be resolved quickly. Believe that." he said with a tone I hadn't heard before.

"I don't want anything to do with her. I haven't seen or heard from her ass since we broke up in college. I didn't even see her when I went to take the test. We haven't had any contact in years so the bitch can't honestly think that something like this would make me fall for her again. I'm happy where I'm at and she's gonna have keep her distance no matter what. I'ma keep things cordial for the sake of my son. But you gotta trust me when I say ain't nothing Taniyah can say or do that will ever make me leave you. I love you. Nothing in this world will change that. It's us against the world for life."

I looked around my apartment still in shock. One thing I did know, was that I had my man's back. Despite what the situation looked like, Zaiere had always been good to me and this wasn't going to break us. Nah, we were just really getting started and this was something I was ready to fight for. So if the bitch wanted to play games, I was going to give her a run for her money. Whatever she had up her sleeve, I could come back harder. We weren't kids in college anymore and both of us had too much to lose if shit went left. I'd never felt like this about anyone other than myself so I'll be damned if I let a bitter ex weasel her way into my happiness. She didn't even know she'd just opened up Pandora's Box and I couldn't wait to let my girls know that this bitch was here and trying to shake shit up.
I took a deep sigh and looked at him, genuinely concerned in that moment about the state of his mental. Taniyah was the ex from hell so I couldn't begin to imagine how her malicious actions were really affecting him.

"So tell me Ra, are you excited? How do you feel?"

"Honestly, I feel all over the place. One minute I'm excited to be a father, the next minute I'm pissed because now I have to deal with this crazy ass girl. But there's a large part of me that's extremely sad." He said with a pensive thought on his face.

"I guess I just never thought my first experience with fatherhood would be like this. All these years I've been careful not to let anyone take advantage of me after dealing with her, just to find out she's back again and this time with a kid."