34

Janet

"Shawn it's simple. Where am I?"

"Practice?" She replied shakily.

I rolled my eyes. "Sound more confident than that. Where am I?"

"Practice."

"Okay, and why is my phone going straight to voicemail?" I asked the next question.

"Cause it went dead, so it's on the charger."

"And why can't I get on the phone?"

"Cause we're running through Rhythm Nation and you told me to ignore all calls and texts because you're really stressing about it..."

I took a sigh of relief. "Thank you. That's it. Just say that and we will be good to go."

Shawn replied. "I don't like lying J, can you at least tell me where you're really going just in case something happens?"

I shook my head as if she could see me as I pulled into a driveway. "No Shawn. Look, I'll be at the studio in a few. So technically I'm not lying. I have to go."

Quickly hanging up, I put my car in park and turned it off. Grabbing my purse, and a manila folder, I got out. Walking to the door, I knocked. Moments later, a woman answered in nothing but a long sleeved shirt. I noticed two things about her, and when she followed my gaze she quickly shifted.

It made her try to distract me with a smile. "Hi."

"Hi sweetheart. Is Wissam in?" I questioned as I shot a small smile back. What would have bothered me before will never bother me now about this.

The girl nodded as she opened the door further and let me in. "Yeah. Let me go get him."

Stepping inside, I made my way to the kitchen and sat my things on the bar as I waited for him. I looked around the kitchen and noticed a picture of him and the woman that opened the door. They made a eh couple.

Soon, I heard his voice as his footsteps approached my direction. When he turned the corner his eyes widened. "Janet? What are you doing here?"

"Let's chat." I replied as I sat on one of the bar stools.

He looked back at the woman, "Reyna, can you give us a few please?" The woman nodded and disappeared up the stairs. "Janet, what do we possibly need to—."

"You and her make a cute couple." I commented as I cut him off and studied the picture. "It seems you two have been together for a while."

"We have. Since you and I broke up." He mumbled as he followed my movements.

Oh, but I can't move on? Tuh.

I chuckled to myself. "Wissam, I'm not going to pretend and act like I came here to be your friend or a supportive ex wife because I'll never be neither of those. I came here to make you a deal, and if you don't take this deal, then all hells going to break lose in court."

"Excuse me?" He questioned.

"Reyna? Is that her name? Well does it really matter because it seems to be as if I'm not the only one you've been hitting on Wissam." I commented. "That bruise around her neck definitely isn't a hickey. You just never learn."

His jaw clenched which caused me to roll my eyes in amusement. He noticed and it seemed to make him even more angry. "You don't know shit."

Chuckling from his anger, I opened my folder. "But I do." I began pulling out the pictures one by one. "See, all these are pictures of the bruises you left me. Or the time you went into a drunken rage and beat me until I blacked out. Oh and I know what you're thinking. 'They wont believe I did it!' So of course I went along and took the pictures of your fist." I flashed him the photographs I had taken.

He got quiet once he noticed I wasn't backing down. Not this time. I was holding firm in this, he wasn't about to intimidate me. Not on this subject. My son was something that I did not play around with.

Soon he realized I was serious and it caused him to ask. "Janet, what do you want?"

"We don't go to court. You leave Eissa and I be. You sign this paperwork that basically says the same thing I'm saying."

"No." He shook his head. "Give me holidays or something. Anything?"

I didn't budge. "No."

Wissam's nostrils flared. "Well then no fucking deal."

"Wissam, you don't have a choice here."

"That's my only child Janet Damita! You cannot take him from me!" He raised his voice as he began to turn red.

I scoffed as I stood and pulled the paperwork and a pen out of my purse. "Your only child cries every time he knows he has to go with you. Your only child cringes every time your name is brought up. Your only child tells me every time you pick up a drink he hides because he's scared you'll do the same thing to him that you did to me. Your only child gave up on you a long time ago and if you can't see that, then you're worse off than I thought."

He shook his head. "That's not true."

"Did you think he didn't see? All the times I was covering bruises wouldn't cover the damn pain. Did you think he didn't notice that I never slept whenever you were awake? He noticed that I couldn't even find strength to pick him up somedays. You made your child grow up quicker than he should have. Thats on you Wissam. Hell, it's on me for staying too but you still need to sign the papers."

My ex husband began to cry but his voice didn't quiver as he signed the paperwork. "So what do I do? How do I fix it with my boy?"

"You start over with Reyna. He's too old Wissam, he's told me things. He knows you. He's scared of you. Eissa would be miserable if he lived here. Don't do that to him."

"Start over?" He questioned cluelessly.

I grabbed my things, slipping the paperwork into my purse as I shook my head. "You'll figure it out eventually."

Making my way to the door, his voice stopped me. "Wait!" Turning around, I looked at him. "I won't take you to court. I'll lay off but you just give me your word that once he gets older, maybe 16 or so, that you'll give him a choice on if he wants to see me. Just promise me that you'll never tell him I didn't love him."

"I'd never do that Wissam, and he will always have a choice on if he wants to come and see you or not. If at anytime his answer isn't no, and he wants to come see you, I will let you know."

"Until then?"

"Until then, you back up. You stop harassing me every time you have a bad day. You take care of your responsibilities here before you worry about something you no longer have a hand in. You will always be his father, but you can't force a relationship that's just not there." I noticed that Reyna was standing on the steps and we met eye contact.

When I looked at this woman, I saw myself. She knew that she had to go, but it was all about her wanting to go. I could do nothing for her until she wanted something to be done and she had just added something far more dangerous into the situation. She and I both knew that.

Wissam replied and it ran me from my thoughts. "Okay. That's fair."

"I gotta get going." I spoke to him but my eyes stayed on Reyna, I mouthed the word. "Congratulations," before walking out the house and walking to my car.

I opened the car door and got in as I took a deep breath. Never in a million years did I think that would have worked, but I took a chance on it. Still, my conscious wasn't right. I opened my middle compartment and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. Writing a number on it, I ripped it to make it smaller then I slipped it underneath my sleeve as I got back out my car. Walking to the door, I knocked again and this time Wissam opened it.

"I think I left my phone." I lied as I breezed past him and into the kitchen. Reyna was at the stove seemingly preparing to cook something and I paused as I looked back to see if Wissam was watching. He had went up the steps and I quickly handed her the paper. "When you want help, if you want help... don't hesitate to call that number. Ok?"

She nodded softly before whispering. "Thank you."

I shook my head. "It's not a problem."

Heading for the door, I opened it and Wissam's voice yelled out. "You got it?!"

"Yeah!" I yelled back as I looked back and met eye contact with Reyna one last time before closing the door behind me. This time, I got in the car and left. My destination was my mother's whom called and requested my presence.

When I made it, I only had a few minutes to talk before practice for the tour honestly started. It was about to be 2 pm. Pulling into the driveway, I quickly got out and rung the door bell. She opened it and hugged me. "Oh mamas baby!"

I pulled back skeptically. "Momma... what do you want?"

She smiled at me. "Momma just missed you. That's all. You're looking rather happy, what's got you floating? My daughter in law?"

Chuckling, I shook my head. "Not this time momma. I'm always floating because of her, but today this is a higher float."

"And why is that?" She asked my as she stepped to the side and let me in.

"I'm free." I did a little happy dance. "Wissam isn't taking me to court for Eissa anymore."

Momma frowned. "He wanted to take you to court?!"

I had forgotten to bring her up to speed but that was in good reasonings. She was crazy, many people thought Damita came from Joe, but Joe had nothing on Katherine's bite. "Mhm but not anymore. I got practice in a little bit, so I gotta run but I'll come back after practice and tell you."

"No. No. No. There's no need for that. I just wanted to give you something. I would have brought it to your house but I didn't need Kyrin seeing it." Her facial expression turned serious which caused mines to furrow in confusion. She opened a draw and pulled out a box wrapped in lace. When she unwrapped it and opened the box my heart dropped at the sight.

"Now, it's not much and I know it's not as blinged out as you're used too but it was your grandmothers and she always told me to give it to someone who would keep it going in the family. Someone who I believed would cherish it and keep it in the family."

"What about Jermaine? I mean he's getting married—."

"For the third time." My mom finished in annoyance. "Look, I could have given it to your other brothers but I just don't think they would have cherished it like I know you are. And before you ask me why I didn't give it to Rebbie, I had a conversation with her and your siblings and we all agreed that it should be yours."

My eyes watered as my momma held it out for me to grab. "Momma, I don't know about this."

She looked at me weirdly. "Janet, you're going to marry that woman. I've never seen you this happy, you haven't complained to me once and it's this twinkle in your eyes every time you talk about her. I've seen the way her world lights up when you are around and don't get me started on how much she loves Eissa. If you don't marry that woman, then I'm going to start questioning the way I raised you. Take this ring."

Shakily, I took it out of her hands as I closed the box and wrapped it back in the lace carefully. "Everyone believes in this? Seriously? My siblings voted this my way and they haven't even met her yet?"

"Yes ma'am, they did." She nodded as she wiped my tears. "They believe in you more than they put off J. All I had to do was describe how happy you were and they were all in for it. Now of course they would like to meet her before you propose, but other than that, they were all in."

I wiped the other tears that had fallen. "Momma, geez. I am not supposed to be crying before practice. Now everyone's going to want to know what's up."

"Well, say something. I don't know. Maybe they were happy tears. Cause they are right? These are happy tears?"

Nodding, I confirmed. "Yeah momma. These are definitely happy tears."

"Good. Now gone get to practice." She hugged me. "Don't let me make you late. Momma loves you."

As we released from the hug, I replied. "I love you too."