360 Degree Turn

Chapter 3: Confrontation

The day after the party I attended, my parents decided to call a family meeting. Jaela and I came down the stairs and met our parents in the living room.

"We need to address the elephant in the room right now."

My mother would look at me and my sister. "First off, your dad and I owe you girls an apology. We should have told you about your adoption. We thought that we were protecting you. We both consider you two to be our children, no matter if not biologically. You are our girls. Always."

I would look down with all these thoughts running through my head. I looked up as soon as I heard my father speak.

"If you want to find your birth parents, we can't stop you. You both are grown."

I sat there just thinking that I couldn't believe that I had a whole nother family out there somewhere. I would look up at my mom and dad.

"I already started looking."

My parents looked at me and nodded. "Oh okay." I could tell by my parents facial expressions that they weren't too thrilled about what I was doing. But they also knew that I had every right to look for them and that they couldn't do a thing about it.

"Well we're done here."

As I was getting ready to go back upstairs, I stopped and turned back around and walked back to the living room.

"Mom, Dad, Kee and I are going to San Diego in a few days. It's just a day trip. We'll be back later that evening." "Okay. Well, have fun. You call us when you get there. And you call us when you are on your way back." "Okay. I will."

So as soon as you knew it, It was the day for Kee and I'se excursion to my birthplace. We got on the road at nine in the morning. Rashad's book signing wouldn't be till noon. Thanks to the traffic being damn near standstill, Kee and I would eventually get there right before noon.

When we got to the bookstore, there was a line wrapped around the building. Holding my copy of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"(that's the title of the memoir), I would get in that ridiculously long line.

After inching little by little, I realized that I was in the bookstore near the front. There he was, Rashad Perkins, sitting at a table signing books and interacting with fans. I stood there studying his features wondering if anything on my face could have possibly come from his DNA. That is if he's my biological father.

My daydream state was quickly fading as I heard the words "Ooh, he is so fine!" come out of Kee's mouth. Next thing ya know, I was being told that it was my turn to go up to "Mr. Perkins". I was so nervous, my armpits were sweating. I had to take a deep breath.

I approached Rashad. I handed him my book. Rashad opened it and turned to the blank page that was in it.

"How ya doin' young lady?" I nodded rapidly. I was so nervous I could barely get a sound to come out of my mouth. "I'm fine. Thank you." Rashad would look up at me smiling. "And who do I make this out to?" I took another deep breath. "Um, you can make it out to Randall. That's R-A-N-D-A-L-L." "Okay."

I watched Rashad sign my book. He would close it and hand it back to me. "Thank you." "No problem."

I was getting ready to leave but then I stopped and inched back to the table. "Mr. Perkins?" "Yes!" "My name is Desiree and I think I might be your daughter." The smile quickly faded and the brows would furrow.

"Look Miss, If this is some type of scam to get some money out of me, ain't gonna happen! You can take that shit somewhere else."

I would get antsy and impatient. "Please Mr. Perkins! Just hear me out. I just found out that I'm adopted...." The next thing I knew Rashad was snapping his fingers and yelling "Security!" As I'm still begging and pleading, I'm being dragged out of the bookstore by two big men.

I was outside just standing there. I looked around for Kee. I didn't see her. Eventually she would come out of the bookstore.

"Where were you!?" "Girl, I was gettin' my book signed! You think I'm gonna miss an opportunity like that." I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Are you okay?" "No!" "I knew that was gonna go all bad. It ain't that simple, Dez! You can't just walk up to the man and expect him to agree to take a paternity test like nothing." I was getting annoyed with Kee. "I know that."

I stood there for a minute thinking. "This is definitely not over." "What are you talkin' 'bout!?" "I'm not giving up that easily, Kee. I'm going to do everything in my power to get him to take a test. I don't care how many times I get thrown out."

I saw Kee shaking her head. "You dead serious, aren't cha?" "Yes, I am." "Okay. I'll be right there witcha." "Thank you." I would give Kee a hug. After the events of that day, Kee and I hung out around the city before it was time to head on back.