This November

Chapter 12

"What rights do I have, sissy?"

"None."

"What the hell do you mean?" he yelled at her. It had been a few days since he saw his son, and he was at a loss for words about it. This was the most messed up situation ever. For ten years he did not know he had a son, and now there he was. His son. And he couldn't be a part of his life?

"Malik, you're not on the birth certificate. His father is...well, you know, her husband."

"But you took the DNA test, right?" He never did the DNA test, they did it against Davina's blood.

"That's not proof if you did not submit to the blood test."

He did not know why that mattered. One look at Anthony and you could tell he was the father and not some white man. His blue eyes were blueish-gray like his and shaped like his, not his mother's. He had his nose, his mouth. He looked like he had Black in him just really light-skinned. Who were they fooling?

"Fuck the blood test! Did you see him? He looks like me."

Davina nodded as they sat watching a baseball game, something they loved doing when they were younger. Snacks and drinks in front of them, only this time adult drinks and not Kool-Aid like when they were kids.

"I wished you would have stepped up back then. Stuck around, got a blood test as soon as possible. Be a man to your son."

He could not change the past and did not appreciate his sister bringing that up.

"Oh, so now this is my fault?"

"It ain't mine!" She pushed him and then stood up. She headed into the kitchen. "You fucked everything in sight back then Malik, you might want to round up all the exes and ask if they have nine year old sons or daughters. Hell, since the age you started fucking around, so maybe even older. Got a whole NBA team out there we will never know about."

He was not trying to hear what his sister was saying. He slumped in the sofa, defeated about the things he came back to St. Louis for. His son and November. He DM'd Nova several times and she ignored then blocked him. Now he couldn't even get to know his son.

He should head back to Atlanta and cut his losses. St. Louis was not being nice to him.

"You don't have a leg to stand on, but I think you should still fight it," his sister said to him, walking back in with a refilled glass of white wine.

Now she was talking crazy because she just said he had no rights. Fight for what? Drag his innocent son into this, have him fight with Aida over him, mess up the family she built with him.

Well, couldn't be that happy if his mother was a racist and the father was oblivious to him having Black in him. He had to do something. Now that he knew he had a son, he wanted to be with his son.

"Okay sissy, we will do whatever we have to do to get things going."

After visiting with his mother and then stopping to see his father, telling them both of the situation, and having their support, there was nothing else they could do. Davina was going through every law she knew to see what could be done. She even contacted Aida to try and resolve things diplomatically. He would rather not go to court for this, but if he must he was going all the way with this.

Going back to Atlanta was not in the cards right now, he had to stay and fight for his son.

"Oh shit!" Davina yelled out one day while he lounged in her living room watching TV, and she was in her office slash spare bedroom studying.

"What happened?" He jumped up thinking maybe it had something to do with his son.

"Guess who contacted me out of the blue?"

"Ummm...no idea."

"Nova's little sister. Noelle."

"Why is she contacting you?"

"Because I'm that fly girl, you know," Davina stated, doing a little dance around the room. "She slid up in my DMs. I wasn't even following her but she found me and said what's up and we should hang out sometime."

"Let me see." He grabbed Davina's phone from her, scrolled through her phone. The Noelle-Yves he remembered was a pest. Too young for him to really get to know, but always in the middle of he and Nova's business whenever he was over there. She was tall and skinny, wore her hair in braids or twists like Nova, but looked totally different. Now she had a low buzz-cut hairstyle and dressed in clothes he would wear. She was cute, but looking at her on her Instagram page, she looked nothing like the girl he remembered. "This is her? She looks...different."

Noelle snatched the phone back from him. "It's called a stud, and I think she's hot."

"If that's what you like." He knew his sister was gay, or bi-curious, or whatever she claimed at the moment. She dated plenty guys in high school, then switched to girls in college, so he didn't know if she liked both or just was curious right now.

"Cute is cute," she smiled, texting away on her phone. "Think I should go out with her? Wait, why am I asking you about matters of the heart, you're the last person I need advice from."

He pushed his sister as he walked out of her room. He picked up his phone to see if he could stalk Nova's page, but of course, he was blocked on them all. He went back into Davina's room.

"Ask her if she can talk to Nova for me."

"Hell no!"

"Come on D, I would do it for you."

"I wouldn't need you to do it for me. I know how to treat my women."

He wanted to rough up his sister for being so insensitive with him, but he did make this bed, he had to lay in it.

"See if we can do a double date. You and Noe, me, and Nova."

Davina glared at him. "Why do I have to be in the middle of your mess? I'm trying to get mine, you fucked up yours. Just because they are sisters doesn't mean I have any pull with the other."

"If Noelle trying to get in on your good side, she will do anything to get that. Gotta play the game lil sis. Don't know unless you try."

Davina let out a loud sigh, stomping her foot as if that meant anything to him. This was his only shot at getting another chance to see Nova. If he got one more chance to talk with her, he would pull out all the stops and try and woo her. He knew this was the one girl that was worth being a simp over.

"I will ask, and I will even make it so I will only go out with her if Nova comes. Then you show up...how's that?"

He smiled and hugged his sister. "See, that's why you are the best sister ever." He gave her cheek a sloppy kiss before she pushed him away. "Love you!"

"If this works, you owe me a lot. I want blood. I want your first born and...wait, you don't even have your first born to give, soooo...."

He walked away from his sister. She was brutal with the attacks. Just mean. She would be the only lawyer he ever needed if he could use her. She was not studying criminal law, but family law, but if he was accused of murder, he would want her to be his defense lawyer.

If it worked, he was coming with everything he had. November would be back in his arms where she belonged.