All That Glitters

|3|

"Mr and Mrs. Washington has arrived." Nelly says. "Kayla!" I yell. She makes her way down the stairs. Her all white dress looks fine until she makes it into the living room. "Kayla what is that on your dress?" Grabbing her hand we go up the stairs. Dre would have a fit if he saw this. "Uncle Tre gave me shoes." I look at her. "Shoes Kayla?"

"No shoes."

"I said shoes." I look at her dress. "Juice, he gave you juice?"

"Yes."

I roll my eyes. "We may as well throw this away."

"No mommy."

Kayla begins to cry. "Kayla it's only a dress baby girl." That didn't help matters. "No mommy." She starts crying even harder.

What's wrong with my princess?" Dre says walking into our bedroom. "Tre gave her juice and she spilled it. A grape juice stain is very hard to get off especially white. She doesn't want me to throw it away." He laughs, "Kayla mommy and daddy will buy you a new dress. That one is old and dirty. You don't want to be dirty do you?" She shakes her head no. "You want to be a clean pretty princess right?"

"Yes." She mumbles. "So let mommy throw this one away and let's go find you a new one before grandma and pop pop get inside." He picks her up and they leave out the room. I throw her dress away end hear my future in laws walk inside. "Hellooo. Sincere darling." I fix the Ruffles in my skirt and walk down the stairs. "Hello Beatrice." I kiss her check while hugging her. "Sincere you look marvelous."

"I only hope to look as marvelous as you one day. Hey dad."

"Hello daughter. Where's my grand baby?"

"DeAndrea is getting her dressed. She had a juice accident."

They laugh. "Ma, pops." Their joyful spirits seem to have left the Earth. "DeAntre son how are you?" I don't know how Tre managed to convince Dre to let him stay with us. Tre is cool, he can just come off weird and evil sometimes. He gets this dark look in his eye and it creeps me out. "I'm great. How are you two? Mother looking as lovely as ever."

"Hm. I'm sure." She responds. Kayla runs down the steps. "There's my baby." Dre's father says. "Hey grama. Hey pop pop." Kayla says kissing her grandparents cheek. "Nelly can I get a glass of water please?" Dre asks. "Yes Mr. Washington." Dre comes beside me and grabs my hand. I glance up and smile.

"Well shall we?" Mr. Washington says. "Where we going? No one told me to get dressed." Tre says. "We aren't going anywhere. Nelly has prepared dinner. We're going to sit down and eat together as a family." Dre says. "Oh as a family." Dre sucks his teeth. I squeeze his hand.

"Let's sit shall we." Dre says pulling out my chair then Kayla's. "Thank you baby."

Nelly brings out the food. Shes made fried chicken, rice, lobster macaroni and cheese, green beans, and a cake from my new favorite bakery along with some sweet tea. Everyone begins to plate the their food. "DeAndre did you look into the school I was telling you about for Kayla?" Mrs. Washington asks.

I look over at Dre. "Not yet ma. I've been busy." She smiles, "Well Sincere could go check it out." I don't have a damn clue what she's talking about to go check anything out. "Yeah. Maybe we'll do that next week." Dre says. We finish eating and everyone heads into the living room.

I go into the kitchen to cut the cake up for everyone. Dre walks inside. "Remind me when did we agree on sending Kayla to a daycare?" I ask whispering. "Baby you know how my mama gets. I meant to mention it to you but I honestly forgot." He says wrapping his arms around me. "I'm not ready to send her to daycare yet."

"She'll learn a lot. It's one of those magnet schools daycare style. Nothing but the best of the best get accepted."

"I don't know how I feel about that. Let her just be a kid right now."

"Sincere if this can enhance our daughters intelligence and give her an early start. I'm all down for it."

He's not taking my opinion into consideration. "We can talk about this later." Nelly walks inside and places everyone slice on the silver tray. I go to leave out the room but Dre pulls me back. "If you don't feel comfortable with it yet she's fine here with you."

"Okay. I'm not ready to let her fly yet. Maybe when she's four."

He laughs. "Oh I meant to tell you some mail come for you the other day. I think it's a letter from Aug." my heart drops. "Where is it?" I ask with my mouth going dry. He reaches for the stack of mail and passes it to me. I debate if I want to open it now or later. I tuck it in the drawer.

"Sincere." Tre says coming into the kitchen. "Yes Tre?" I ask. "Mind getting Nelly to change my sheets?" He asks. "No problem.. Why don't you ask her yourself?"

"It's not my place too."

"Okay then."

My in laws go home, Dre takes Tre to the store, and Kayla is knocked out. I go back down to take my letter out. Once I grab it, I make my way back up the stairs.

Getting comfortable on the bed I open it.

Dear Sincere,

It's been a minute right? Well more like years but I have an explanation for all that. How you been? Shit for me has actually been going good. I met the most beautiful woman almost two years ago. Her name is Jalissa. She's from around our old way. I think she's the one Sin. She visits me everyday and keeps some money on my books. The best thing about all of this is she's a lawyer. Well almost, she's in law school. She going to try to get the courts to reduce my sentence. If everything goes well with that I might be coming home soon. That's great news right? I can't wait to see you and Kayla, shit even Dre ass. I'm excited for you to meet Jalissa. Enough of me though. How are you? How is life? I can't wait to see what type of extraordinary shit you been doing for the last three years. Man I'm praying this shit goes through so I can be home again. We can finally double date now and make up for all the times I wasn't there.

I stop reading. I would've been fine if I never got this letter. What? How? I sit it in my drawer and lay there. A million and one thoughts roam through my mind like how the hell this random woman he meets on fucking prisons gets to see his ass but I can't even know his damn location. How he expects us to really pick up where we left off? How he has no damn clue Kayla is really his?

Dre doesn't deserve this. He's an amazing man and does so much for us. He worships the ground I walk on and it's all based on a lie. We're getting married in six months and I don't know how much longer I can keep this secret from him. I figured I could keep it under wraps since August is  away but now he's talking about maybe getting out soon. When they see him and Kayla it's going to be clear as day who her real father is.

The bedroom door opens. "You sleep baby?" Dre asks. "No just laying here." I push all my previous thoughts to the back of my mind. I can't lose Dre and I will go to my grave with this secret. "How is August doing?" He asks seeing my envelope on the dresser. "Um he's fine. He met a woman who's helping him and he maybe coming home soon." He smiles, "I know you're glad about that. Kayla can finally meet her uncle  Aug." I smile at him. "Yeah, finally."