Curves 2

Chapter 2

Zyshonne

*

"So what's the big emergency?" Toni and Maleek both showed up at my place after calling Leek. I needed to vent to somebody before I exploded.

"She's back. She's fucking back," I growled.

"Who?"

"Shandra."

"Damn," he said sitting on the couch.

"That's the baby momma right?" Toni asked. "The hell is she doing back?"

"I shouldn't say back. She's been here, in this fucking city this whole time."

"You're lying. Ain't no way-"

"She's fucking married to Braxton!"

"Your brother?!"

"Yes," I growled. "They've been dating since she was fucking eighteen. Eighteen man! She was cheating on me most of the fucking relationship with my own brother. Then she ran off, got married and had two of his fucking kids but left my daughter in the fucking cold like she wasn't shit."

"That's crazy man," Maleek shook his head. "And fucked up."

"If she was cheating on you," Toni said. "Is Cadie-"

"She's mine," I said. "We had a DNA test at the hospital and it came back positive. Shandra was shady and she disappeared a lot so I wasn't taking any chances. I knew she had to have been seeing someone on the side but I never thought it was my fucking brother."

"Where's Mo? How did she take it?"

"I don't know. She left when we got back. Looked upset but I have too much shit going on right now to figure her out as well."

"I'll call and check on her," Toni said getting up and leaving.

"I know it's a lot to process but don't just brush her off," Maleek said. "Cadence is her daughter just as much as she's yours. She's probably going through it herself. This is a lot for her to process too."

"Yeah well at least she has the luxury of leaving when shit gets tough," I muttered.

"Don't," he narrowed his eyes at me. "You know it's not like that."

"Yeah my bad," I sighed rubbing my eyes. "I'm just frustrated and talking out my ass."

"That's how shit gets twisted. Don't say shit that's going to fuck y'all up already."

"You're right. My bad. I just wished she'd stay so we could've talk about this. I feel like she left me to deal with this shit on my own. It's a lot."

"Well, what are you most upset about?"

"The fact she went and married my brother and kept BOTH of his kids but threw away Cadence like she's some piece of trash." Just the thought made my blood boil. "She wasn't ready when Cadence was born but had a baby by Braxton maybe a year or two later. While I was struggling to work full-time, going to school and figuring out how to take care of a baby her ass was living it up just an hour away with her husband and family. What the fuck did I do that was so bad she had to just disappear like that?"

"It's not about what you did or didn't do," Toni said coming back. "Women are complicated. Maybe she felt she lacked something with you and took the wrong approach about it. That doesn't necessarily mean you did anything wrong."

"Exactly man, stop torturing yourself like this. People make hard decisions and rough choices. Some of which aren't the best. But they do what they think is best. Do you know how easy it would've been for her to just abort Cadence and disappear without telling you anything? Pretty fucking easy. But she carried her to term and left her with you. What she did was fucked up but I don't think it was entirely out of spite."