Honey

34.) Doing It Wrong

Ross laid Passion in her bed and got her situated before he pulled up a desk chair and sat with her. For a moment, he only looked at her, shaking his head. He never saw her like this. His dreams for her seemed to be at the mountain top, while she was stuck in the pit of the valley.

He took her hand in his and rubbed it with his other. "I love you, Passion," he said as plainly as water was wet. "Regardless of the way you feel about me at any given moment, I am always your daddy. So if I ever hear you call me anything but a variation of Daddy, I'ma do you like your siblings, and I'ma forget you grown. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Having gotten that established once and for all, Ross just sat there a moment more, getting his thoughts together. He looked at his oldest daughter, laying in this bed, looking a mess. He'd never seen her this way. Occasionally, if one of his wives or children got out of hand, he issued a pop. Nothing serious to hurt them, but enough to embarrass them. He'd never actually hit them.

"Why you let him do this to you, Passion?" he wondered, looking her dead in the eyes with hurt.

"I fought back, Daddy," she promised.

"That's not what I mean, baby. Don't a man be calm and then snap like that. You knew the shit was brewing, but you didn't say nothing to no one. Not your daddy, your brothers, your uncles, or Blaize."

"Why would I tell Blaize, Daddy?"

Ross chuckled at Passion's naïveté. He couldn't believe that she didn't know. At fifty-one, he knew enough about seeing kids in love.

"You didn't think I had no security cameras, Passion? Everything you said to anybody about me, or Honey, I knew. Did I think you was dumb enough to actually say it to me? Not in my wildest dreams. So I seen you call Jamal, and I seen Blaize kiss you. You like that man. You just ain't like him being right."

Passion tried not to smile and granted Ross that he was right.

"I know I'm right. But I'm serious, Passion. I wanted you to learn a lesson, but a man— I'm sorry, that ain't the right word. A bitch-made little boy putting his hands on my daughter don't fly. You should have left that nigga right where he was a year ago."

"I know, Daddy. I'ma just be by myself a minute."

"That's a good idea."

Ross left the room, and Passion closed her eyes, feeling a heavy lethargy as her painkillers kicked in. She had a dreamless sleep and woke up to Honey in her room.

"Shouldn't you be home with your husband?" she asked her younger sister.

"He thought I should come and check on you awhile. Miss Kara is home with him." Honey helped her sister up, leading her to the bathroom. "Do you need help to bathe?"

"I think I'll be fine."

"Okay, but if you change your mind, call me."

"Alright."

Every little movement shot a fiery pain through Passion as she sat on the toilet, then as she moved to take a shower.

She thought about what she had been through in the last year. How she had let herself become so envious of her sister that she had begun to listen to Latisha saying that Ross treated Honey the best. A part of that poison had already been herself calling him Ross or Sly instead of Daddy, like she knew she should have.

When Passion got out of the shower, Honey was there with a towel. Passion wondered what Honey was doing here with her instead of her husband when she didn't deserve her.