Page 4 of Make Me Remember

I swallowed the lump in my throat as Aunt Keisha hugged me too. Karima came to my side and grabbed my hand. “No one’s in there right now. We cleared everyone out when we knew you were on your way.”

I nodded and allowed her to lead me to where he was. My aunts were crying, especially Aunt Chrissy. I assumed they were still emotional and seeing me brought their emotions out all over again. Aunt Chrissy was like a second mother to me, since I was at their house a lot, chilling with Rylan and Christian. So me being arrested and saving Kane’s life probably had her on overload.

As soon as we got down the hallway, Karima said, “No one is faulting you for this. So you need to stop faulting yourself. Had you known being involved with that girl would cause all of this, I’m pretty sure you would have left her where she was. Excuse my language, but she wasn’t the only woman out there with a fat ass and good snatch.”

“I knew she was ratchet, but I would have never thought she would have gone this fucking far… having her family thinking I was the father of her baby. Now them people think I’m responsible for her death. That’s bullshit, man. I still can’t help but feel responsible for how they are coming for my family, man. I will literally post up at Uncle Kenny’s store with my gun and start picking those muthafuckas off.”

Karima stopped walking and stepped in front of me, turning to face me. She brought her hands to my cheeks. “Listen to me. The only one responsible for what happened to Kane is Traylon. That nigga knew that Kane had nothing to do with that shit. If he wanted you, he could have gone to your house and caused a ruckus. That nigga knew exactly what he was doing. This is not on you, and it’s not the first time our family has had a run-in with their asses.”

My eyebrows lifted. “Who else? I mean, I know Christian had some issues with Courtney, but who else?”

“Aunt Tiff fucked up Jameka’s mama a couple of times. Once when they were in high school and another time when they were in their early twenties. She told me about it after Jess whupped Jameka’s ass that day. That family has been had it for us, and I wish these older Hendersons would have shared that with us. Then we would have known not to even befriend their shady, jealous asses.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah. So this ain’t on you, baby.”

She hugged me tightly, and I couldn’t help but hug her back. I swore it was like Karima was my damn counselor. Who needed a professional when we had Karima? She and I got close when the truth about what Joseph was doing to my mama came out… after Uncle WJ killed his ass. Ever since then, she was always checking on me. I knew it was because I was always so quiet. There was no guesswork with Jess. You knew her disdain with the shit.

Karima took my soul into her care and made sure I was okay, even though she was younger than me by three or four years. She had an old soul since she was always around her parents and Aunt Tiffany. I was surprised none of Aunt Tiff’s rowdiness rubbed off on her. She was mild mannered and low-key like Uncle Kenny and me.

When we got to where Kane was, Karima released my hand and opened the door. She gave me a soft smile as we entered. All those tubes hooked to Kane had my anxiety high. I supposed she could sense it, because she said, “Once he wakes up, he won’t need all that. He opened his eyes for a moment earlier, but I guess he hadn’t slept long enough, because he went right back out.”

She chuckled, but I couldn’t laugh with her. I approached his bed and stared at his shoulder, thanking God that it wasn’t worse. A couple of inches to the right and he would have probably hit him in the heart. I grabbed his hand, and when I did, he squeezed it. I looked up at him to see his eyes were open, and he was staring right at me.

He started trying to pull the tube out of his mouth, so we called the nurses to come and take care of him. They pushed us out of the room for a minute until they got him situated. Standing in the hallway, Karima grabbed my hand again. “See, he’s gonna be fine.”

I nodded, but I still wasn’t convinced. Kane was preparing to rodeo. He wanted to team rope with Kingsley, and he was talking about doing tie-down roping, following in Rylan’s footsteps. He could throw a rope with the best of them, but now that shit was gonna be on hold for a while, if not permanently. However, I would do whatever I had to do to make sure he could fulfill his potential, even if I died trying.

CHAPTER 2

MEKAYLA

“LaTee, get your things, baby. We have to go.”

I checked the time on my phone and realized I was running five minutes behind schedule. I was supposed to have LaTee to my sister’s house in ten minutes in order to make it to work on time. I was more than sure Jivoni would be calling soon. She lived with my other sister, Keonshay, and her husband, Kace. Shay was like a mom to us instead of a sister, though, since she was the oldest and took care of us while our mother did whatever the fuck she wanted to.

Jivoni was twenty-six and had been living with them since she was close to finishing school, nearly five years ago. She watched all my siblings’ kids at their house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, since she didn’t have class. She was in school to obtain her master’s degree in chemistry. I was proud of her. My brother-in-law Kace was a coach and chemistry teacher, so he had helped her tremendously.

I grabbed my things and headed to the back door. LaTee was eight years old, going on thirty. Besides playing with her cousins while she was with Jivoni, she was mostly with me. I was beyond protective of her. I didn’t want her to endure all the bullshit I did growing up. My siblings and I had it hard until after Keonshay met Kace. When CPS took us away from our mother, twice, it was his parents that took us in… all six of us girls. My brothers stayed with their fathers.

My brother Landon was the oldest, but we didn’t really grow up around him since he lived with his dad. He rarely came over to see us. We later found out that he was the product of a rape, so my mama really didn’t want him around. The man he knew as his father wasn’t his father. My mama was raped by her uncle for years, and her mother knew about it and allowed it to continue. Once we found that out, we could understand her actions better with time.

It took me a little longer than everyone else. My other brother, Zhori, and I had the same father. Watching her deal with him when we were younger, I admired how strong she seemed. Although my dad was her third baby daddy and I was her fourth child, she refused to accept his bullshit. I wanted to be like her, promising myself that I wouldn’t deal with no man’s bullshit. That all came to a screeching halt when Jivoni’s father raped me.

Before that, though, I watched Mercedes run through men like it wasn’t shit and constantly have babies from no-good muthafuckas. After me, she had four more, all girls. The sad part about it was that it left Keonshay to take care of herself and six siblings. She was more of a mother than Mercedes could have ever been. I was grateful for her, because she showed me what it meant to be loved… along with the woman I called Mama, Mrs. Moses.

LaTee finally made her way to me and said, “I’m ready. Sorry I took so long. I couldn’t find my shoe.”

I slightly rolled my eyes and shook my head. “If you would put them where they belonged, you wouldn’t have trouble finding them.”

“I put them in the closet last night and forgot. I’m used to them either ending up under my bed or by my nightstand. So putting them in the closet had me confused.”

I chuckled slightly. This little girl was me made over. She was extremely vocal and had her own mind. Thankfully, she wasn’t as disrespectful as I could be at times. I was simply rebelling for attention though. I didn’t know how to tell anyone what had happened to me after I knew my mama knew and didn’t do anything about it. An eight-year-old shouldn’t have had to go through the things I did.

I paid extra attention to LaTee because of that. I always assured her that she could talk to me about anything. Her dad lived in Nashville and was a whole jackass. I’d gone to school in Nashville and had planned to make it my home until Savage had me fucked up. He was in that street shit, and I let the money and power cloud my judgment. When I found out I was pregnant and that nigga flaked on me and threw me out in the cold, I refused to beg to be somewhere I wasn’t wanted.

After I had LaTee, I moved back to Beaumont. Keonshay and Kace allowed us to live with them until I could find a job as a physical therapist and save enough money to move out. My sister and Kace had a five-bedroom home that they’d… well, basically Kace, purchased when I was a teenager. They purchased a house big enough for us to stay with them. We ended up staying with Mrs. Moses and Dr. Moses, Kace’s parents, to allow Shay to finally live her life without having to constantly worry about us.

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