Page 40 of Our Mother's Sons

Letting the tears run, I nodded. He kissed her forehead and ruffled her curls.

“Baela. I want you to go with them to my house. I got a car that’s gone take y’all. Call off work if you need to, I’ll pay you for the time missed.”

Baela came up beside us and held out her hand for my daughter. When she went into her arms, Baela cried, and Jovani scoffed.

“Aye Girl, what I tell you ‘bout all that friendly shit?”

My baby smiled while her big cousin kissed her face.

“Jovani, her name is not Girl,” I laughed through the tears.

“What is it? If that nigga named her, we changing it.”

“He didn’t name her. I did. Her name. Her name is Atlantis. I named her after the city that was lost at sea.”

“Of course your ocean loving ass did Nemo,” Baela teased.

“Atlantis. Pretty name for a pretty baby. Atlantis. That’s your mama with the big hair like you. Say mama.”

Atlantis crawled out of Baela’s arm into mine.

“Yemon drop drinking Bish! Bish! Yemon Drop drinking Bish!”

Jovani’s cheeks redden, and he grabbed the back of his neck.

“Jovani, what the hell have you been over there teaching her?” Baela asked what I wanted to know.

“Shit ion know. She got that from my mama.”

I had my daughter, and Jovani wanted to adopt her. This moment was perfect. All I needed now was for Dutton to pay for what he did. I’d thought he’d come up on a plug, and the whole time, he’d sold my daughter and been living off of it. The thought alone made me nauseous.

Handing Atlantis to Jovani, I ran to the bathroom just in time because I was throwing up the little breakfast I’d consumed.

Feeling a shadow over me, I looked up at a smirking Baela.

“What?”

“You won’t be hiding this baby from me. Bring your ass on. Ima have his driver stop and get a pregnancy test on the way to his house. It’s time for us to find out if pretty ass Atlantis about to be a big sister.

Chapter11

Jovani (Von) Bendetti

I’d always been a street runner. My twin and I had been sprinting through Ausnor beach since before we could properly formulate a sentence. Sleepless nights that turned into early mornings used to be exciting. That shit came with the job so, I embraced it at one point. Strip clubs, bitches by the boat load, more drugs than we could sell, and the fast life was what a nigga look forward to each day. That was before her-before them. Seeing Girl in that fucking warehouse on that nasty ass mattress in fetal position and sleeping peacefully as if she wasn’t in grave danger unlocked something inside of me. That shit changed a nigga. Now, all the things I once looked forward to in this life weren’t thrilling at all. Fuck the bitches. Fuck the club. Fuck everything that wasn’t family, my daughter, and Voyage. Voyage. Pretty ass Bankhead bouncing Voyage was Girl’s mother. Voyage and Atlantis. I should have known her water loving ass would name her child some shit like that. The fucking girl that had been having my nose wide open, sneaking in the back office of a bookstore to suck on her pussy had been my baby mama this whole time. I guess that shit was true when they said you never supposed to trust a nigga with a baby mama.

“Damn. That sick ass nigga sold his fucking kid? I mean, we knew it was possible that a parent had sold her but I didn’t think that shit was likely,” Jeo shook his head as he settled into his seat. I’d already taken my seat and was ready for the flight attendant to close the door so that we could take the fuck off. Melissa had been waiting for us at the hangar, so I came straight here when I left Voyage’s spot. I had no plans on turning Girl over, but when that driver tried to gun me down in front of her I knew I had to get her to her mother until I killed every motherfucker that played with us. I couldn’t live like this and knew my brother felt the same.

“I told yo ass that a parent sold her.”

Jeovanni, now seated across from me, strapped on his seatbelt. He was dressed for war, in all black, making it a rare occasion that we were dressed alike. Rome and Deuce appeared from the back of the plane, and when Deuce gave me a nod indicating it was clear of threats, I could relax my shoulders a tad. Rome had done so well on the rescue mission that we also recruited him for this shit here. We needed all hands on deck.

“Yeah, you do be having those intuitions. You get that shit from Grams,” my brother joked, trying to lighten the mood. I loved my brother with all of me, but smiling and laughing was the last thing I was trying to do. I needed this shit done asap.

“He sure does get it from me.” All four of our heads snapped toward the door of the jet. I didn’t know if Melissa owned or chartered it, but it was all black on the outside and inside. My brother with his black loving ass had been raving about it since we pulled up. Yeah, it was nice, but it was out of my budget. I was rich, but I wasn’t buy-a-forty-million-dollar-plane rich.

We all straightened in our seats when we saw salt and pepper hair peek into the plane.

“Grams? What the fuck you doing here?” Jeovanni asked what we all wanted to know.

---