Chris POV
6 Months Later
"Okay, but I don't even have time to discuss why we not married yet. I gotta go pick up Nini." Candice said to me as she pulled away from my hold. I followed her out of our room to Aleah's and picked her up before she could. I put her down on the floor and watched her take a couple of steps before she whined to get picked up again as she rubbed her eyes.
"Dadd-eee." She said to me Candice left out of the room huffing as I reached down and helped her stand up again. I'd be damned if she couldn't walk on her birthday today.
"No!! That's mine!!" I heard Tristan yell while I just gave up and put Aleah in my arm.
"Share boy!!" Candice yelled from what sounded like the kitchen. Feet were heard running in the room ahead of Aleah's and as soon as I showed my face, it stopped. I looked from Tristan to Angelo with a serious face. Tristan pointed at Angelo. I was happy he was living with us in the house, but I felt bad for having to explain to him that his mama wasn't coming home anytime soon.
After she got better months ago, she jetted. Like real life disappeared on us. I tried her phone, but it had been disconnected after a month or so. She didn't live with Cleo anymore so of course she had no idea where the wild girl had went. It was crazy and a lot to take in, but he was here and almost official a part of the family once they found Aréona to sign her rights over.
"Give it to me. Both of yall." They brought the little pieces of Optimus prime to me and I looked at Tristan's sad face. He had been on his almost best behavior and up under me more than usual which made sense since that day. I loved it, but it made it hard for me to do much with Candice.
"He broke it." Tristan said to me.
"No I didn't. It comes a part like that." Angelo protested.
"I 'ont care who did what, but y'all need to put on some pants so we can go. What is going on with y'all?" I asked them they looked at each other and shrugged. It was like their thing for some reason and I found it hilarious.
"Aleah can't be in here." Angelo said. Tristan shook his head and went to his drawer to pull out a pair of polo shorts.
"Nope. She's a girl." Tristan agreed. I patted the air and picked up Aleah before she got into their to box. I left out their rooms and went to hers pulling her on something else as well after I changed her diaper. Them grabbed her diaper bag.
"Daddy bout to take y'all to the park." I spoke to her excitedly.
"Oouu." She spoke back. I chuckled. She didn't know much but she knew park and many.. many colorful words that I somehow wasn't saying anymore. Candice could take that L. I had stopped after hearing about what Tristan had said. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. All I had to do was substitute one cuss word for another random word.
"Yeah, ouu, but before that, we gotta pick up Nini." I informed her. I always talked to her like she was a big girl cause she was going to be one one day, but I also wanted to hold on to this moment so much before we get to that back-talking stage.
"Nye! We get to see Nye!?" Tristan yelled excitedly at the door after I picked her up. I nodded and pushed him out the door with me as I grabbed her diaper bag up and shut off the light. I made sure I had my phone and things before locking the door behind me after Candice was out the house with Angelo trailing behind.
"We'll talk about it. I promise." I told Candice in a serious tone. She glared over at me as I slapped her on the butt and left to the driver side after I strapped in Aleah.
___
I drove about 30 minutes to Tiana's house before I felt like somebody was following me and took a back road to get to her street.
"What's that all about?" Candice asked me as I stopped in her driveway and parked the car.
"Had this weird ass feeling." I said to her immediately biting my lip, then shrugging as I pushed opened my door and automatically locked kt behind me.
I walked up and knocked on her door looking around at the neighborhood. Everybody was out and playing with their kids or barbequing. A happy mood, but something in the back of my head made me turn back and look at my family in the car and hope for the best before the front door opened.
"Hey." I answered turning to Tiana. She was dresses and ready to go as well. She watched me watch her and beamed up at me.
"Heyy. Nikita is getting off of having a cold, but she'll be fine. Nini, go get in the van." She instructed her daughter. She ran off to the car and I watched Candice pull the back seat up, fixing her in her seat before walking up to us.
"You must be going out." She said observing Tiana's attire. Tiana nodded and looked away from Candice as she hit at her inner cheek.
"Well, have fun." I said to her. She nodded and looked up at me swiftly like she wanted to tell me something before she continued to nodded and wiped at her tears. "You okay?" I asked. She nodded more.
"Yeah." Her voice said cracking. I watched her face long and hard before looking at her anxious hurried vibe. Either she was tryna leave before sombody came or she was waiting on something to pop off. "Uh, b-be safe." She said to me as I took a step to move. I looked over at Candice, but by then she was on her way back to the van with the kids.
"You too." I said plainly. My gut screamed at me to leave immediately, but after I turned away from her, I quickly turned back to give her an unexpected hug. It threw her and myself off guard, but soon she warmed up to it and was bawling her eyes out on my shirt.
"Please don't go to the park." She almost whispered to me near my ear before she pulled away and I watched her walk to her car without a word.
"Okay..." I said to myself as I walked to the van. When I got in, for once, Candice didn't argue with me about what I did or question my loyalty with her eyes. She just let me be and that felt amazing, but akward at the same time.
It seemed like so far everything was going my way and the more it went my way, the more I felt I was in a good place in my life. It wasn't until I was playing a game of hide and seek with the kids in the ball pit building while Candice sat in the infant zone and played with Aleah that I felt like I'd seen this before.
I froze from crawling after Angelo and looked around me like I could find the answer to this familiar yet unknown sensation before I locked eyes with someone outside of the ball pit. She wasn't blonde anymore. She had jet black dyed hair that set her tanned face off for a minute as she smiled over at me. I looked at her sideways and found my legs walking her way while my arms pulled myself up out of the ball pit.
"Ona." I said out loud for myself to hear and my eyes to see her response. She took a deep breath and nodded pulling me by the hand out of the building without warning. I thought to tell her that her son was doing just fine without her or that I was too, until she kissed me. Pressing her full lips and body up against me on the colorful wall.
"No..." I said to her as I pushed her away gently and shook my head down away from her.
"But Chris-"
"No Ona. I don't love you." My lips told her, but my hands were holding on to her for dear life. Touching her like I only would Candice.
"Then tell me that without looking away from me." She said to me softly. I looked up at her, but not into her eyes. Something about the truth inside them scared me so much. I didn't know if love at first sight was even real. I barely even knew anything about her to begin with, but here she was standing in front of me making me feel like I'd known her for centuries. Like I'd sat and talked to her about the stars or my life goals. Like we'd argued a million times over stupid things and got over it just to be right where we are now.
"You doing some type of voodoo foofoo shit on me." I said to her suspiciously. She let out a giggle and shook her head as I pulled her hands up to my face to look at them. They were so soft, pretty, and painted with tattoos I hadn't noticed before. All different levels of her. Sweet and hard. Rough and. And...
"I'm not. You just love me like you know I love you." She said as a matter of fact. I shook my head.
"You spiked my drinks when I got home. You did shit to me I didn't do with you. You lied and said we did-"
"You believe that?" She challenged.
"Yeah, I-"
"Then tell me how does me just kissing you evoke so much feelings out of you." She said to me. Again a challenge.
"I'm not- I'm cool. Ain't nothing wrong with my feelings." I said looking away from her to watch Candice rowl up the kids and go for the snackbar as she looked around for me. I clenched my jaw shut and turned away crouching down like I was about to tie my shoes as she looked this way.
"Says the guy crouching in front of me like he's about to propose." She said as she looked down at me and me her. I sighed and picked her up by her legs, carrying her off over my shoulders away from the place and faces.
"How'd you find me?" I asked plainly. She shrugged. "Ona." I said sternly.
"I bugged your van." She said in annoyance.
"Are you stupid?" I said in disbelief.
"It was the only way I could keep up with Angelo without being on the phone." She said to me defensively.
"What are you saying, you sleep in your car outside our house or something." I said to her. She shrugged and looked away from me ashamed. "Damn Ona. What about your job?" I asked.
"I still got it. I wash up at random peoples house-"
"If you need anything, food clothes-"
"Just stop talking..." A familiar voice said from behind us. My whole body froze up in front of Aréona and I slowly turned to look at a very hurt Candice.
"Baby, it's not like that. I was just-she was telling me about her being homeless. She's just checking up on Angel." I explained to her. She wasn't giving me her attention. She was to busy looking slightly behind me at Aréona. Aréona had made it seem like more than it was when she grabbed my hand in her shaking one.
"She has a gun." Aréona whispered behind me. I looked down and saw my gun wrapped in Candy's fingers tightly. I looked back at her tight face and sighed out heavily trying to shake Aréona's hand out of mines. I didn't know what was going through her head and I didn't wanna think she saw or heard anything more than what we were recently talking about.
"Baby, what you doing with that?" I asked her calmly. Guns didn't scare me, it was the fact that death always came around when one was out.
"Move out of the way so I can show you." She said impatiently to me. I finally had gotten my hand loose of Aréona and held them out in front of me as I slowly walked towards Candice.
"You don't know the first thing about a gun Candy. Give it to me slowly." I said to her. The closer I got, the more her hand twitched. That's when I got nervous because her finger happened to be laying lazily on the trigger and I didn't wanna make any false moves to upset her anymore than she already was.
"I said move Chris." She said to me sternly. I stepped to the side and watched her handle my .45 like it wasn't a deadly weapon as she cocked it back after pulling it off safety. I damn sure didn't teach her that.
"Baby let's talk this out. You're being stupid." I said to her. She kept the him aimed at Aréona but looked at me like I lost my stupid as mind.
"Oh, like you were when you decided to kiss her 6 months ago at the hospital?" She said to me. I looked at her in disbelief. She had saw that and hadn't bought it up to me. "Yeah, don't act shocked now. I saw the whole thing. You say there in my face and told me wasn't shit going on with you but I say there and waited until you went in to go back and see if you were being honest.-"
"Baby, it's not-"
"Don't fucking baby me Chris!! You lied to me! You told me you'd be honest and you sat and lied to my face!" She yelled at me. I put my hands up in surrender when the gun swumg my way. Nodding like a damn fool. If she was gonna be right about something, it had to be this.
"Okay. I did. I kissed her." I admitted.
"Chris stop talking." Aréona warned from beside me. I could see her inching closer and closer as though the gun wasn't the first thing on her mind.
"No, she wants to know. I'll tell her." I said as a matter of fact as I turned my head to look at Aréona. Trying to signal her to run if I couldn't. She nodded once like she understood and I looked back at Candice. "I kissed her." I said again like she hadn't heard it the first time.
Every small detail of Aréona's face was etched into my brain now. Every part of her body. Right after she called me from an unknown number and layed down every detail of that night to me.
"What else?" She asked me. I shook my head. Nothing that she knew of. We did more than just kissed.
I pushed her away, but the drug she spiked my drink with pulled her back. She said I talked dirty to her. Made her feel bad about what she had done after we got through and I ran to Candice for some more after, but I wasn't telling her that.
"Nothing." I said to her, looking her in her eyes hoping she would believe my lie. She shook her head.
"You're lying." She said to me in a shaking tone. She held the gun up to my temple and the ground beneath me got shaky as my legs became unstable.
"I'm not." My voice betrayed me and I could feel my eyes began to water. As far as I was concerned, before I knew all of this, we didn't do anything.
"He's no-"
"Shut up Bitch!" She yelled swinging the gun Aréona's way. That's when everything seemed to slow down. I had jumped in front of the gun that Candice set of seconds after. I felt that slow burning pain slice through my skin before looking up to see her sour face turn to pure shock before she let the gun go as it fell with me in my hands to the ground.
"No, no, no, no." She panicked as she began to kneel beside me. I saw the officer raise his gun and couldn't utter a word when he let off a round that sent Candice into shock of her own up against me.
"Candy, The kids..." I managed to speak before the pain overtook me and I passed out.