38

Janet

2 months later

"Ma, look out the front window!" I heard my daughters voice yell out from her bedroom.

I didn't feel like moving so I questioned her motive. "Why? I'm comfortable!"

When I looked up for a second, I saw a figure fly by and soon heard footsteps flowing down the steps. "Momma get up, come see!"

Finally getting up, I walked down the steps and saw that Nadia was at our now open front door and looking at the street.

The classic red and blue sirens danced upon the street of my house.

I would tell my girlfriend, but Beth wasn't home, she had a late night shoot.

At this point, Beth was better than me, because when I began my singing career, I hung my law practice out to dry. Jamie knows he can always come to me if he needs help though.

Miraculously, my girlfriend can handle both writing a book and making photo sessions on time. It just couldn't be me.

"What happened?" I wondered.

"He got arrested. Makayla just texted me about it." Nadia answered me.

Makayla was Nadia's best friend. The girl had a good head on her shoulders, well at least from what I saw so far she did.

Her and Nadia clicked and we all watched as Nadia began to come back to her old ways. Well at least most of it.

"I wonder what he did to get this caught up." Nadia wondered aimlessly.

I looked at her. "I don't know sweet pea, but I do know that he deserved it."

Closing the door, I walked back into the living room and I heard footsteps coming down the steps rapidly. "Momma J! Your song!"

"My song?"

"Get in the car! Go! Get in the car!" Kendrick grabbed my keys and jolted outside and Nadia and I followed.

We all got in the car and Kendrick was in the drivers seat as he started the car. "Boy you are not driving with me in the passenger seat."

He shot me a look as he turned the radio up. "Momma, listen."

Anytime, Anyplace filled the car and my eyes widened.

"No way!" I yelled out as I got excited.

Nadia spoke. "Momma, you are on the freaking radio!"

Headlights pulled into the driveway and I knew it was Bethany. She got out of her car and opened the door to mines. "Baby, your song is on the radio!"

I pulled her into my lap as we shared a kiss.

Kendrick interrupted us as he pointed at the street. "Aside from this happy moment, and abrupt amount PDA, why's the cops on the block?"

"Oh, Trey got arrested." Nadia responded to her brother.

Beth didn't show any emotion about it, and it made me skeptical of her thoughts in this situation.

"You okay?" I asked lightly so the kids didn't hear me.

She sighed. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"That was the hot new #1 R&B joint by Janet Jackson called Anytime, Anyplace! If you thought that was amazing, you should listen to the whole album. Sistahs on fire! I wouldn't be surprised if the charts blew up with only her on them soon. Alright guys this is Jazzy, talk to me before midnight!" The radio personality spoke before another song began playing.

Nadia held her phone up from the backseat. "I recorded that."

"Thanks. Hey, can y'all give your mom and I a minute please." I asked our kids.

Kendrick nodded as he and Nadia got out the car and walked back into the house.

I turned back towards my girlfriend who was still sitting in my lap. "Seriously baby, what's wrong?"

She leaned in and we kissed before she spoke again. "I did something."

"Something like what?"

Beth looked at the police cars as they drove away. "I went digging and found out that Nadia wasn't the first person Trey had done that too. In fact, it was 3 more before her and 2 more after her. He's just a narcissistic bastard."

"So what did you do?" I asked her.

"I might have slipped it to the DA, and got some girls to speak up about what happened." Bethany told me the truth.

We looked at each other for a while before I nodded. "I thought you had killed someone or something."

"Yeah. That too." She saw my face and laughed. "I'm kidding baby, but I am proud of you. Super proud of you."

"Thanks." I gushed out because I was still in disbelief that my song was actually playing on the radio.

Beth crawled over into the drivers seat. "Let's go somewhere." She hit the horn twice and a few seconds later the kids came out.

"Ma'am?" Kendrick asked as he and his sister stood at the doorstep.

"Let's go for a ride." Beth called out to them and they came running back to the car.

They climbed in the backseat and I looked at the clock in the car. "What would be open at 11pm?"

"Trust me JJ, just vibe and ride."

That didn't help me at all, and I hated not knowing where we were going, but for Beth's sake, I just got on my phone.

Kendrick started singing. "I'm in love with her, but she got a man at home. I'm so confused. I don't know what to do."

I looked back at him. "You in love? Since when?"

"It's just a catchy song." He told me as he laughed.

"Nah, you singing about Cypress." Nadia teased our son.

"Ouu. Whose Cypress?" Beth asked him and I looked and saw that he had grabbed his ear and looked down.

Kendrick cleared his throat. "A friend."

"A girlfriend." Nadia corrected.

"Whatever, you falling for Zeek." Ken threw his sister under the bus.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Beth grabbed my hand and held it with the hand that wasn't on the steering wheel. "A year and 4 months. Did you ever think this would happen? Kids. Jobs. Dream jobs at that. Your song playing on the radio."

"Your books coming out tomorrow!" Nadia reminded Beth, but I knew that was something she wouldn't forget. "With over 30,000 pre-sale buyers."

"I'm worried on why you know the exact number sweetie." I told her lightly.

"Cause we was the last one to pre order ours. I saw the number and we secured the bag." Kendrick told us.

Bethany and I laughed. "Y'all act like y'all won't just have copies around the house for free."

"It's no fun unless you're helping the bag get secured." Nadia added on.

I shook my head at our children as Beth got on the highway.

"Where are we going?" I asked whining. "I'm tired."

"Well, take a nap. I'll wake you when we get there." She told me and I nodded as I curled up in the seat and closed my eyes.

_____

Bethany shook my lightly. "Baby, wake up. We're here."

I opened my eyes as I yawned lightly and realized that I could see Los Angeles. She brought me to the mountain?

"You brought me to the mountain?"

"It's more. Come see." She urged me and I got out the car and walked around to where the kids were.

"Momma, come check this out. It's cute." Nadia gushed as she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the car.

"I'll catch up! I dropped my phone somewhere in the car." Beth yelled after us.

Kendrick walked on side of us and stayed quiet for the moment being. I wonder why he had lost his voice all of a sudden.

"Don't freak out." Ken finally spoke. "But I have to blindfold you."

"Uh. No you don't." I shook my head.

"Yes I do Momma." He tried to convince me.

"Nah, I think we are going to pass on that. It's dark, and I'm on a mountain. Nope. Not happening. You don't have to put anything over my eyes."

"Yes I do." He told me. "It's a surprise and if you aren't blindfolded you don't get to see it."

Taking a deep breath I looked at my kids. "Don't kill me. Seriously, don't kill me."

Nadia nodded. "Gotcha."

Kendrick put the blindfold around my eyes and began pulling me. It felt like we walked for a good minute of two before he spoke again.

"When you take this off, look at the ground mama." Kendrick instructed me. "I'm going to count you down."

"Okay?" I questioned weirdly.

"3." I heard them backing up and I already knew something was off. "2... 1!"

I took the blindfold off of my eyes and my heart dropped when I saw the candles on the ground.

I turned around and looked for the kids, but I came face to face with my girlfriend on one knee with a box in her hand.

"Quit playing with me." I told her in disbelief.

She chuckled at my statement as she shook her head. "Baby, I'm not playing."

"Beth." I let out because I didn't want to believe that this was really happening.

"We have been through so much. I have ran from this relationship so many times, yet you're always still here. I know it's hard because you are in the studio, I'm writing and the kids are— well being bad as hell, but I decided a few weeks ago that I can't wake up another day knowing that you are not my wife. So Janet Jackson, will you marry me?" She opened the box and I saw a ring.

I nodded as tears fell from my eyes. "Yes! I'll marry you Bethany."

She placed the ring on my finger and stood up as she wiped my tears and we kissed. The kids came running over.

Nadia looked at the candles and shook her head. "Kendrick that 'a' in marry looks deformed."

"Hey look, I tried!" He shot back. "Not like you were much help in the word category."

"The kids helped?" I asked Beth.

She nodded. "Yeah, they made the words when I picked them up from school today."

"Correction." Kendrick broke into our conversation as he began to blow out candles. "Kendrick made the words. Nadia supervised from a distance with her unhelpful tail."

"Ya mamas unhelpful." Nadia shot back as she helped her brother.

Beth and I looked at our daughter as Kendrick said what I was thinking. "We have the same mamas. So what you trynna say?"

Nadia tried to save herself. "Aye, my mamas know what it is. I don't have to clarify. If they know they are helpful then they better do like April said and 'ignore it and walk away.'"

"Shut-up." Ken told her as he didn't have a response worthy of what Nadia was speaking on. "Welp, now that our kids are engaged Nadi, let's go to the car. Y'all know we like to have y'all tucked in by a certain time."

"Exactly." Nadia agreed as they began the journey back towards the car.

"Oh my gosh." I mumbled. "We are about to get married."

Beth smiled at me as we kissed again. "Yeah babe, we're about to get married."

____

Today was my last day of school, last day of school, last day of school hey hey hey hey ! <<<< sorry guys I'm watching the little rascals right now. 💀

Like I've stressed so much this year, but God is good cause that GPA is still a 3.56, so in my eyes, I'm Gucci 🤪.

Anyways, so y'all know the drill, double update later tonight. Next chapter is the chapter before the final chapter. I'm super excited for this new book guys, like REALLY excited. Y'all gone like this one, the chapters are shorter, not that shorter, but hey, books still good. 🤷🏾‍♀️🤣