𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐚𝐚'𝐬

𝟝𝟟.

|| 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐞𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧 || 🕺🏽.

"Make sure you turn yo phone off," papa said, adjusting Jay in between his legs as he stood there drinking his juice, "we don't need you drunk dialing nobody tonight."

I laughed checking his diaper bag to make sure he had everything, "papa I can hold my liquor, plus what if something happen? My phone needs to stay on."

"Girl he gon be fine ain't you Mini Homicide?" he looked down at him and Jay started talking gibberish, "and you can't but I'm glad you believe in yoself, that's the one thing you get from yo momma."

"Which part?" I zipped the bag up and furrowed my brows, "the believing in myself or not being able to hold my liquor?"

"Both actually," he smiled and I could tell he was reminiscing, "I know she fucked up but yo momma a real good person who just made a dumb as mistake in the past."

"A mistake that affected her whole family negatively, I didn't know that not caring about two children you gave birth to then abandoning them when they needed you the most was a mistake, I could never do that to my baby."

"I know Peanut, she did something unforgivable and nothing can ever make up for that but you're grown with your own kid now, don't you think it's time to move on?"

"woah," I scoffed shaking my head, "move on? that bitch left us and you just expect me to—hold on, Papa where is this coming from? Because last I checked, you felt the same way I did."

He let out a sigh and picked Jay up who just sat there making noises before sitting him all the way back on the couch, scooting over, then patting the spot next to him.

"Come sit Peanut."

I walked over and took the spot next to him, "what's going on?"

"Ion know how to say this so I'ma just say it, yo momma is sick with cancer and it don't look too good, she getting put on hospice next month."

My heart sank and a wave of emotions erupted through me all at once bringing a fresh set of tears to my eyes.

I couldn't respond not only because I didn't know how to but because this was a lot to take in, the same woman who abandoned me and my sister was now dying slowly and soon would be placed on her deathbed.

Karma.

"She told you this?"

"Yeah, she been tryna reach out for a while and I always ignored it but one day she called and something told me to answer so I did, she told me she had cancer for almost a year but for the past few months it got worse rapidly and lately her body been rejecting chemo so it's not much they can do at this point."

"So that's why she going on hospice," I said lowly more so to myself as I leaned forward and grabbed some Kleenex from the box and wiped my face sniffing, "so what she say about us?"