Page 22 of Another Night With Me

“Please. Niko, don’t be mad at me. I did this for us.” Maddie tried to grab my hand, but I snatched away from her.

“Let me get the fuck away from yo’ ass before I end up in jail.” I walked around her, ignoring her pleas for me to stay and talk to her.

I got in my whip and pulled off. Fuck this shit.

Chapter 11

A’yanna Joseph

“Zayden is so damn cute,” I cooed while holding my nephew, Zayden. I was salty I wasn’t having a boy like Solana and Zaylee did. Both of their sons were so handsome. “I can’t wait until this little girl gets ready to come out.” I giggled as I placed Zayden back in his carseat next to Zaylee.

I placed my hand on my round belly. I couldn’t believe how fast time flew. In these last few months, I’d been so focused on myself and my baby, I didn’t notice how fast life was moving by. I’d spent the early months of my pregnancy working as much as I possibly could because when my daughter was born, I wanted to be able to take a few months off. I wanted to enjoy my time as a new mom without worrying about bills and working. I took a few out of town jobs because they were paying a pretty penny before I settled in working at a doctors’ office. Traveling with a newborn wasn’t in my plans. I just had to complete my thirty days before my maternity leave kicked in. For the first five to six months, I worked as much as my body would let me. Now, I had a nice chunk of money saved up, a stable job, and I had officially started my maternity leave yesterday.

I had two more months before my baby girl made her entrance into this world. I was in the process of moving from my two bedroom home into my three bedroom town house that was a spacious 1,500 square feet. Which was more than enough room for the two of us. I would be all the way moved in next week. I couldn't wait. I just traded my Nissan Altima in for a brand new Nissan Pathfinder. I could honestly say life had been going good for me, financially anyways.

“Me too! I can’t wait to see my niecey pooh. Hopefully she looks like you ‘cause at this point, I’m convinced you let an ugly nigga knock you up, and you’re embarassed by him.” Zaylee snickered, and I rolled my eyes at my sister.

Zaylee had been saying my baby daddy had to be ugly because I refused to talk about him. Which was the furthest thing from the truth because Niko was far from ugly. If anything, the nigga was too fucking fine for his own good. My daughter had no choice but to be pretty, and I hoped she inherited Niko’s curly hair with my face. It sounded crazy, but I didn’t see the point in talking about Niko. I mean, as far as I was concerned, no one would be meeting him. He’d made his feelings known, and I had no choice but to respect it. I wasn’t about to beg no nigga to talk to me. Even if he was busy like he claimed, he could have stopped by when he had time. He didn’t have a problem popping up at my house before. I was a firm believer in listening to a person's actions, and Niko was telling me he didn’t want to be bothered with me. I heard him loud and clear. If he ever wanted to know about our daughter, I had no issues telling him. I wasn’t hiding from him, I just wasn’t trying to make him be a part of something he didn’t want to be.

“Fuck both you ho’s. My daughter has no choice but to come out beautiful.” I flipped Solana and Zaylee off. I felt my baby girl kicking me, and I rubbed over the spot she’d kicked.

“Awwh, Tete Yanna, you not supposed to do that. My Unky said that’s bad,” Sunshyne dramatically said from her seat next to Solana.

Sunshyne was a little snitch; she always tried to tell on somebody to one of her unkies. I had yet to meet her other unkies besides Mikael and Yaro, but she talked about all of them all the time. One of her uncles was coming to pick her up from Solana. I was here for the food. This little girl had me hungry all the time. When I made it to the seven month mark, all I did was eat. My baby girl was making sure she got all her nutrients. I never missed our monthly girls day out, especially when food was involved.

“Well, tell you’re unkie I’m grown ,and I can flip my haters off if I want,” I childishly teased Sunshyne, sticking my tongue out at her on the sly. I wasn’t grown enough not to argue with a kid.

“I’m not telling him that! You tell him.” Sunshyne pointed behind me and Zaylee at at someone walking up.

“Unkkyyyy!” Sunshyne excitedly yelled, crawling over Solana’s lap and up into Niko’s awaiting arms.

“Sup, boo?” I closed my eyes hearing his smooth voice. This isn’t happening right now. I willed myself to believe I was hallucinating. Beaumont wasn’t this fucking small.

Most of the shit I talked was to hype myself up because I knew I was fucked once Niko found out I was pregnant. I was in my feelings for my entire pregnancy. I used work as a way to disguise my real feelings. Most days, I was too tired to even consider how I was really feeling. Niko only crossed my mind when our daughter made her presence known. At first, it was easy to ignore the truth because my stomach was nonexistent, but the bigger our daughter grew, the more Niko plagued my mind. The closer I came to being somebody's mom, the more I felt foolish for not trying harder to make Niko talk to me—not for myself but for our daughter. She deserved a dad. Niko mentioned his desire for wanting kids of his own in a few different conversations. I doubted he’d deny our daughter. But instead of listening to my right mind, I let my ego lead me down a path that had me lying to myself and everyone around me.

“Unky, my Tete Yanna said she can use this finger.” Sunshyne stuck up her middle finger. “ ‘Cause her grown.” She sassily finished, and I could see Solana frown at her little grown ass.

“Yanna, are you okay?” Solana asked me, and I heard her, but my attention was glued on Niko.

He was evilly eyeing me, and I felt the walls of the room closing in on me. The longer our eyes locked, the more it felt like the air was being sucked from my lungs.

“Do you need to go to the hospital?” Zaylee asked, panic in her voice as she placed her hand on my protruding belly.

Niko kissed his teeth, the anger on his face couldn’t be mistaken for anything else as his eyes zeroed in on my round belly.

“Awh yeah, Yanna, that’s how you moving’?” Niko finally spoke in an eerily cold tone.

I was almost too scared to say anything to him. “Niko, I was gonna tell you,” I replied softly as I fidgeted my fingers nervously.

“What you was gon’ tell me? You back fuckin’ with that nigga?”

“What? No, I would never.” My lips turned up in a frown. I looked at Niko like he lost his mind.

Being back with Will was the furthest thing on my mind. I hadn’t seen or heard from his ass after the BBQ. After that little stunt he pulled with the wad of money that only turned out to be a hundred dollars, I blocked his ass with the quickness. Besides, Niko had ruined me for another nigga. Will couldn’t measure up to Niko on his worst days.

“Sunshye, I gotta talk to yo’ Tete Yanna real quick. Chill with ya mama for a second,” Niko told Sunshyne, placing her next to Solana. He pulled up his slightly sagging Levi dark washed jeans. “Come on, I’m really trying to do this the civil way ‘cause a nigga feel like you playin’ with my mental right now.” Niko glared at me as he ran his tongue across his lip.

“Let me up,” I said to Zaylee as my nerves started to get the best of me. It was one thing to talk my shit when he wasn’t around, but looking his mean ass in the face and talking shit didn’t seem smart on my part.