Page 57 of Intercept My Heart

One of the voices sounded like it belonged to a man, but I hadn’t been made aware that Tootie was dating. In fact, Ithought I would never see the day she moved on from my uncle. She never brought another man around me. Not even the father of her daughters. Back then, I thought it was because she didn’t want me to tell Uncle Ro what she was doing. They always seemed to have this toxic relationship with one another. Neither of them openly dated other people, but they weren’t with each other, either.

As I headed down the hallway, I got ready to make my presence known. I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Roman, you promised.” Tootie sniffled as her voice cracked. My ears perked when I heard a familiar name being called out.

“It’s complicated, and what does it really solve at this point? He’s a grown man now. Why dig up old wounds when we don’t have to?” I stood frozen in the hall as they argued.

“Because you promised! The only reason I agreed to keep this secret was because you insisted that it was for the best. You told me we would tell him after his high school graduation; then you said we needed to wait until after his college graduation because you didn’t want to mess up his chances to get into the NFL. I followed your lead and kept my mouth shut. Now he’s retired, Ro. I mean, come on now. He’s gonna be married soon, and he’s going to have more children one day. Am I supposed to continue sitting on the sidelines while the next generation is raised right in front of my face? I’m tired, Roman,” Tootie spazzed.

“I don’t see the big deal. He already loves you, and the two of you have a good relationship. Why would you want to go fucking things up?”

“He loves me as his auntie, but that’s not who I am,” she proclaimed. My palms grew sweaty because, in my heart, I knew they could only be talking about one person—me.

“See, this is why I don’t like having these conversations. You don’t know how to separate your emotions from all of this. At theend of the day, we made our bed, so we had to lie in it. Like you said, the man is grown. What are you expecting to happen from all of this? Huh? Do you think he’s gonna open up and welcome you with open arms as his mama when you’ve been pretending to be a family friend all of these years?

“You’re crazy as hell if you think this will go over well with him. You’re gonna get your feelings hurt, and then he will cut you off from any access to him. Is that what you want? He’s a Sutton, and we don’t take kindly to betrayal. All you’re gonna do is put a wedge between the two of you. Hell, me too. Then what? The truth comes with too many costs, and I’m not willing to risk it.” Uncle Ro was fuming. My chest heaved up and down as I stepped closer to the door. There was no way this was happening right now. I must have heard them incorrectly. Or maybe they really were talking about someone else who happened to live the same life as me. Anything would have been better than the alternative. None of this even made any sense because I knew who my parents were.

“You d-don’t know that. He loves me and his sisters, so he might not be as upset as you think. Even so, he has a right to know, Roman. We’ve held this secret from him much too long. Don’t you think we owe him the truth?”

“What I owed him was a good life, which is exactly what I provided. The man is successful and doesn’t want or need a single thing. Why would I want to fuck up his happy life with something that has the potential to destroy him? Let it go, Toots.” His voice remained calm, but the frustration was evident in his tone. “If you love him so much, why are you so hell-bent on telling him the truth now? What purpose does this solve but to ease your guilt,” Uncle Ro hissed in a low tone.

“My guilt! You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, Roman.” I had heard enough, so I decided to make my presence known. Clearly, I ended up here for a reason, so I decided to get the answersthat Uncle Ro didn’t want me to have. I walked back toward the kitchen, so I wasn’t so close to the door. I wanted it to seem like I had just arrived.

“Tootie!” I yelled out. I slammed the door for good measure. Their conversation completely ceased as I headed down the hall. This time, she popped out of her room, wiping her tears as she fixed her hair nervously.

“Hey, baby. I didn’t know you were gonna be here. What’s up?” She reached for a hug, but I pulled back. It was next to impossible to pretend that I hadn’t heard what I did.

“What’s going on? It sounded like you were arguing with someone. Who’s in here with you?” I didn’t want her to have the chance to lie nor for him to sit in the room until I left. Today would be the last day I allowed the people in my life to play with me.

“Umm, yeah. Y-your uncle popped in for a visit.” Tootie glanced toward her room door as Uncle Ro walked out smoothly.

“Hey, what’s up, youngin? How has life been treating you?” In all the years I’d been around Uncle Ro, I couldn’t name a single time when he was lost for words or nervous. However, he seemed on edge, which further pissed me off.

“I don’t know. You tell me.” His eyes widened, but like a true Sutton, he fixed his face quickly.

“What are you talking about, son?” He used the term “son” often, but I never took it as anything besides a term of endearment. Now I felt like he was playing in my face this whole time.

“Dinero, you have dried up tears on your face, baby. What happened? What has gotten you so upset?” The sincerity in her tone tore me apart. All these years, I held so much love and respect for her because she was one of the only adults who checked on me growing up. She would come over, stock the fridge and pantry for me, and then cook enough food to last forthe week. I thought she was a kindhearted person for looking out for a child she wasn’t biologically connected to, but it turns out she was a coward who did the bare fucking minimum.

I came here to vent to her about what happened between Charae and me, but now another can of worms had been opened, and I wasn’t sure what to do. My head and my heart held so much confusion and hurt that I had no idea where to even start. Since I wasn’t sure how the rest of this conversation would go, I went ahead and got the original news off my chest. It seemed like a much easier pill to swallow after the news I just walked in on.

“I found out that I have kids.” Both of them were stunned by the news, but their reactions were completely different.

“What does that mean? Did you take a DNA test? I thought I told you that you needed to strap up. Retired or not, you still have deals and a net worth that makes you a target in this industry. You can’t be out here moving recklessly. Give me her name and information so I can have Ralo run a full background check on her,” Uncle Ro rushed out. It was crazy that he mentioned being reckless when he obviously hadn’t taken his own advice.

“Oh my goodness, baby. How are you feeling? How old are the kids? Do you have pictures of them?” Tootie’s hands rested on her cheeks.

“Yeah, I do.” Retrieving my phone, I passed her it to her. Her eyes widened when she laid eyes on them.

“Oh my goodness. They are so big. When did you find out about them?” She passed the phone to Uncle Ro, who remained silent.

“They are twelve. My ex-girlfriend Charae is their mother.”

“How did this happen? Why would she wait so long to tell you about them? That’s so selfish,” Tootie rambled. I released an angry chuckle as everything began to hit me all at once.

“Yeah, it was. I guess the two of you have a lot of that in common, though, right?” This time when she looked at me, all the color drained from her face.

“W-what do you mean?” she stuttered, staring up at me with sad eyes. I decided to put it all on the table because once I finished saying what I had to say, it would be a while before they heard from me again.

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