Page 19 of Make Me Remember

“Stacy, Landon is the product of a rape. My uncle raped me for years.”

His eyes widened, and he pulled her in his arms. After kissing her forehead, he said, “That explains so much. Damn. So the man that raised him thought he was the father?”

“No. He is the only person that knew, but he said he would take the rap. He was just a kid too, but he had a more stable environment than I did. His parents were pissed, but they helped him raise Landon.”

He nodded then wiped the tear from her cheek. My mama looked back over at me and smiled as she ate a piece of her cheesecake. “This is so good, Mekayla. You did an amazing job.”

“Thanks, Mama.”

She blushed, but she still didn’t say anything about me calling her mama. She’d blushed the first time I said it. I didn’t want to get into everything that happened and why I had refused to call her mama in front of my daddy. She knew why, and that was all that mattered. So I was sure that was why she didn’t bring it up either.

“Despite my neglect, Mekayla, the changes you made in your life and the woman you’ve become are remarkable. Don’t ever let anyone make you think less. The way the Moses family stepped in for y’all was a miracle straight from God.”

I smiled and ate a piece of my cheesecake. I’d originally planned to say everything I overcame and how I forgave them both for everything while they were here together, but I realized it was pointless. They already knew all that shit. They’d already admitted to their bad decisions and mistakes. There was no point in beating a dead horse. God had restored us, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Besides Shay and Jivoni, I was the only one whose father wasn’t in their life.

That had all changed. My daddy was here and better than before. I just hated that my time with him was now limited. I was trying not to think about his diagnosis, but being in the medical field, I knew that pancreatic cancer was the worst. He was strong right now, but I could see that it was eating him from the inside out. I didn’t know how I would handle only having him for a short while, but like he said, I would make the most of it.

Life was short… like a vapor. Maybe I would actually talk to Jacob. He was going through a lot of shit. I knew that much. I should probably show him a little grace and respond to his text messages from earlier with a better attitude. He was trying. I could see that much. Grabbing my phone, I messaged him.

CHAPTER 7

JACOB

When I walked into the family barn, I immediately found a seat. My ankle was killing me. The minute I did, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to see a message from Mekayla. My eyebrows hiked up, and I sat up straight in my chair.

We can talk tomorrow at your session. I have some things to say to you as well.

I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was going to give me a chance. I didn’t know what had happened to change her mind, but I was grateful for it. Letting my trauma overtake my life wasn’t a good thing. Trouble would always be there, but it was how we reacted to it that mattered. My reaction was fucked up because it was coming from a place of hurt. Talking about Joseph did that to me. This situation with the Andersons was wearing on me as well.

Not talking to Mekayla had only made things harder than what they had to be. If she was the woman I wanted, I couldn’t shut her out like that again. She was the woman I needed. Knowing that she could be the woman in my life even made me want to be better. She didn’t deserve a broken man.

“Nigga, you must be talking to a woman.”

I looked up and saw Kane standing over me. Quickly standing, I hugged him on his good side, being sure not to bump his other arm. He looked fine… like I was worried about nothing. “Man, how you feeling?” I asked.

“Better than you. I saw you walk in here. Whatever going on wit’chu, you need to fix it. It’s affecting your healing.”

I stared at him for a moment, and I knew he was speaking wisdom. He wasn’t just talking about physically. He was speaking about my mental as well. I nodded. “You sound like Uncle Kenny, but you’re right. Listen, I’m sorry about?—”

“Nigga! Don’t apologize to me no fucking more. Obviously, there is more going on than either of us know about. That’s why we’re having this meeting. Chill out. You saved my life. I love you, cuz. Let that guilt shit go. I’m fine. I’m gon’ get this arm back in shape, and I’ll be back on a horse before you know it. I’m a fucking Henderson, so I can’t go out like that… and neither will you. You got me?”

I slapped his right hand and smiled. “You speaking wisdom, lil cuz. I’m gon’ soak it up.”

Kane was only twenty, but Uncle Kenny instilled some shit in his kids that we didn’t seem to have at a young age. It was like he prepared them for adulthood while they were still kids. He groomed them to be responsible and to go after their dreams full throttle while exposing his own bad decisions and mistakes to drive his points home. He didn’t wait until they were about to graduate high school to teach them about the evils in the world, nor did he allow them to make excuses for shit.

We had evil right there in our house. My mama was just trying to survive and make sure we were okay. However, that shit made me naïve to how shady and underhanded people could actually be. I didn’t know why when I saw how my own father treated us. Jameka had used me just like I was using her, but she was trying to make a come up. I was clueless to shit like that. I should have picked up on that before I even slid between her legs.

When Mr. Berotte and Mrs. Taylor walked in, Kane said, “I guess we finna get down to business. I’ll holla at’chu later.”

“A’ight, cuz.”

Uncle Storm shook their hands as Uncle WJ went to the mic. Everybody was here, even Malachi and his family. We didn’t see them much anymore since they’d moved to Houston. Malachi Junior was practically grown now and was a country rapper, like Mal did back in the day when he first started bull riding. I kept up with what was going on with them, although we didn’t see them as often. My grandfather and Mal’s dad were brothers, so we were close kin.

Mal’s brother and sister were in town with their families and their dad was here too. Whatever Shy had to say must’ve involved them in some way, and I was just ready to know what the hell was going on.

“What’s up, family?” Uncle WJ said, greeting everyone. “We have some serious issues that we need to get a handle on and rectify, or we gon’ forever be dealing with fuck shit from people. This situation doesn’t seem to be letting up no time soon. Shy and his team have found out some things we need to know. So, let’s give him our undivided attention.”

He nodded at Mr. Berotte then took his seat. Shy went to the microphone with a folder in his hand that seemed to be bursting at the seams. “I’m just gon’ get down to it, y’all. I’m gonna start from the present and go backwards so y’all can see this chain reaction in real time. This finna fuck y’all up. So, the first thing, Jacob, that ain’t yo’ baby. But you already knew that. The DNA test just proved to them that you were right.”

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