Page 38 of Make Me Forget

I nodded and made my way to my seat with him right behind me. Something good could come out of something bad. Uncle WJ was proof of that. I guess I probably shouldn’t call him uncle.

CHAPTER 13

KENDRALL

When we arrived at Uncle WJ’s house, I was still in shock. I couldn’t believe everything that had happened in the span of an hour. Cassie’s bio mom is a no-good skank. Her bio mom is related to Courtney and Jameka. Cassie is biologically Uncle WJ’s half-sister. What the entire fuck? When Cassie punched the shit out of her, I was stunned. I expected maybe an open-handed slap. That fucking punch was filled with rage, irritation, animosity, and pain.

Cassie’s mother had never been who she needed her to be. Although she had Kendall, when she was younger, she craved that bond with Shayla’s trifling ass. She didn’t start living with her dad full time until she was eight years old. The crazy part was that Shayla dropped her off to him for his weekend and never came back to get her.

The next time she was involved with her mother was when she found out Price wasn’t her father. She was still in the hospital after that terrible accident when Shayla tried to flex her rights as the custodial parent and forbade Mr. Price from seeing her. It was only when Cassie refused to eat or talk and had started declining that she called Price to come back and had signed her rights away.

She only wanted Cassie because of the money being donated by people all over the place to help with Cassie’s medical costs and Mr. Price’s lost wages. From that day, her presence had been scarce in Cassie’s life, and secretly, she missed her. She didn’t want to offend Mrs. Kendall, so she vented to me or kept it to herself.

And now… a piece of herself that she was missing was right here in Nome… both sides of her biological family. I knew she didn’t want shit to do with her mom’s side, but at least she would have the big dawg to see about her.

I turned to her before we could get out of the car and asked, “You okay?”

She gave me a tight smile and nodded. I got out to help her out of the car. The ride over had been quiet, as had been the rest of the day once we left the diner. Her parents had come to Nome to check on her and love on her. Other than that, no conversation was had. She lay in my arms until it was time to come here to Uncle WJ’s house.

I could imagine she was emotionally drained. That was a lot of information dumped on her all at once. I just hoped Uncle WJ could provide the clarity she needed to move on from this. I almost snatched that check from her, but when she gave her reasons for not wanting it, I totally understood. Shayla would have been giving her grief about that money for years to come, saying if it weren’t for her, Cassie wouldn’t have gotten it.

When she said that, I was glad she gave that money back, because Shayla wasn’t gon’ stop until Cassie ended up in jail for real. Hopefully, she didn’t press charges for that punch Cassie hit her with. My baby had been through enough bullshit the past few weeks for a lifetime. I hoped that I could just do my job as her man and be there for her, making things easier for her to deal with.

I rang the doorbell as I held Cassie’s hand, and Nesha opened the door. “Hey, y’all! Come on in.”

Cassie met everyone at the celebratory dinner Dad threw for Karima and me, but I wasn’t sure if she remembered them all or not. Most of my cousins she didn’t remember from when we were young, just the ones that came around our house a lot when we were kids. “Cassie, in case you don’t remember, this is Nesha, Uncle WJ’s daughter and your niece.”

“Thanks, babe, but I remembered her.”

I smiled at her and kissed her head, then we followed Nesha to the lounging room. “Daddy, they’re here.”

Uncle WJ smiled and stood from his seat as we entered the room. Shakayla and Chenetra were already here too. I hadn’t seen them in a while, so I went to them and hugged them tightly while Cassie hugged Uncle WJ. He introduced her to everyone, including Aunt Liv, Decaurey, Tyies, and the twins. I supposed her being a teacher, she didn’t forget a face and put names and faces together easily. The only thing she didn’t remember were the twins’ names.

Once we were all seated, Unc went right in. “So, I can tell that you’re bothered. You don’t have to be shy around here. You were way livelier at dinner the other night. So I know what your happy looks like.”

She fidgeted for a bit as she lowered her head. Cassie wasn’t shy by any means. The situation at the diner today just embarrassed her, despite us saying she had no reason to be embarrassed. Finally, she looked up at him and said, “Thank you. I appreciate your kindness and your willingness to embrace me as your sister, despite not having a relationship with the man that bonded us together for life.”

“I know how you feel. I had a couple of interactions with the man, and one of those times was to try to talk me out of killing myself. My sisters and brothers were trying everything they knew to try to deter me. It didn’t help, because what was he gonna say to me? He didn’t know me… nor did he care to know me. We were right here in the same town, and he allowed another man to raise me as his own.”

Cassie’s eyes had widened. “Wow. That’s sad. So he probably saw you grow up.”

“When he wasn’t in jail. That nigga was locked up more than he was on the streets. I wanted to tell you that to let you see you weren’t the only one who had it rough. The difference is we made something of ourselves. Our parents don’t define or dictate who we are or who we will become. That power belongs to us. King had nothing to do with us, and that was probably for the best.”

Cassie smiled. “I love you already, WJ. What do the initials stand for?”

“Wesley Junior. I was named after the man that raised me.”

“Aww. So you had a loving father that stepped up before you were even born… like me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call him loving, but yeah. He’s loving now, but he was far from it back then. He was the main reason I was trying to kill myself. But I’m not trying to go down that rabbit hole. We would be here all night.”

Aunt Liv grabbed his hand. “But good always prevails. We met after his suicide attempt. I was one of his nurses.”

Cassie smiled. “That’s beautiful. So I have three nieces, one of which is older than me.”

Everybody chuckled. This would be a great moment for her. Like Aunt Liv said, good prevails. Through the turmoil today, she could build lasting relationships with a big brother she never knew she had. Hell, I was more than sure King probably had more kids out there, and the only way for her to find out was to talk to Shayla again. The only way that would happen was if Shayla tracked her down, because Cassie was done.

“They are having a hard time maintaining. Should we let everything collapse and then take over, or take over now before it collapses?” Uncle Jasper asked.

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