I'm All Yours

Chapter Twelve

"What's this?" De' arra asked while opening the envelope.

"You've been such a great mother to KJ, I just wanted to make it official." Keith says with a smile. "Will you adopt KJ?"

"Of course!" She said before kissing him. She hugged him tightly before looking over the papers. "Okay, and what's gonna happen with Keke?"

Although De' arra and Keke fell out because she was with Keith and took KJ to see him behind Keke's back, De' arra had no real reason to hate her until she began to mistreat KJ. She felt bad about everything that's happened to Keke because she knew Keke didn't have anyone to turn to or count on. That's why they even became best friends in the first place; because they had each other.

"My lawyer said she got a court date soon. It don't look too good for her. They tryna give her a couple years." Keith said before pulling her closer to him. "I don't want her around KJ. She ain't been doin' a good job takin' care of him. Plus, all the shit she did and her kicking him out the car, I coulda killed her ass and I prolly still will."

"I agree that she shouldn't be around him alone while she's like this. I just..I know that who she is right now, ain't the real her." De' arra admits. "Like, she was the first person that I saw be an actual mother to her kid. I didn't have that, and we both know that she was the best mother to KJ before—"

"Was, De'arra. She was." Keith cuts her off. "She can't just stop caring about him and start hurting him just cause she going through some shit. We all go through shit, but everybody that's going through some shit don't hurt they kids. I don't want him nowhere near her and I mean it."

"I know, Keith. I'm just saying, she needs help. She doesn't have anybody anymore since her parents..."

"Am I missing something?" He chuckled. "You was just tryna beat her ass the other day, now you wanna help her?"

De' arra sighs. "I betrayed her, Keith. For awhile, all we had was each other. Even after I knew you were KJ's dad, I kept fucking you and bringing KJ to see you behind her back. I broke her heart and I left her and I knew she didn't have anybody but me."

"Oh my gosh, were you fucking her?" He shockingly asked. She hit him with a pillow making him throw his hands up. "Nigga, what?! You all like 'I broke her heart, I left her' fuck I'm supposed to think? Sounds like some scissoring goin' on to me."

She rolls her eyes at him. "We were best friends, Keith."

"I mean, you can cry about ya lil girlfriend all night, but that ain't gon' change nothin', baby girl. She ain't comin' round KJ." He firmly said.

"I'm not saying right now. I'm saying after she gets clean, maybe she can be in his life again."

"I don't know." He speaks before standing up and picking up the kids. She turns the tv off and starts to clean up the living room.

"I'll meet you upstairs." She says to Keith as she straightens up. Once she finished, she turned the lights off and headed upstairs. She headed to the bedroom she shares with Keith. She undressed and slipped into her robe before brushing her teeth and getting in bed.

Keith came in and kissed her before undressing then heading into their bathroom. He came out a few minutes later and pulled her towards him. They shared a kiss as they snuggled in bed together.

"I really love you, Dee." He admits. "I can't picture my life without you in it. I know we argue, and I'm not home as much as you want me to be but, you really complete me, shawty."

De' arra smiled before sitting up and kissing him. "I love you, too." She placed her hands on either side of his face. His placed his hands on top of hers.

"I need you to understand that the life I live ain't safe for you and the kids. That's why we live so far away and that's why I ain't around as much." He says while looking in her eyes. "You and the kids come before anything, and as much as it kills me to be away from you, I got to."

"No, you want to. You don't gotta do this shit no more. You can stop."

"And do what?" He chuckled. "Get a job? Come on, baby we both know that ain't me. I ain't even finish school."

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever, Keith! I'm not rey keep beggin' you!"

He grabs her face and tries to kiss her. She blocks his kiss.

"De' arra, Ion think you understand this shit, bro." He says while shaking his head. "I got in this shit when I was young cause there was a certain lifestyle I wanted to live and I needed to get to it fast. I wanted money, clothes, power, girls, respect, to be feared. That's what attracted you to me. When we met, you wanted a nigga that had money, would get you whatever you wanted, protect you, and you wanted bitches to hate you but also wanna be you cause of the nigga you fuck wit. I seen you, I liked you, I wanted you, and I was gon have you. I ain't give a fuck who you was with. I'm a provider, De' arra." De' arra turns her face away from him not wanting to hear the truth. "From the first day I met you I've protected you, got you whatever you wanted, and unlike some of these other niggas I ain't ever embarrass you or fuck you over by fucking around with a bunch of hoes. Now you want me to be something other than that?"

"Keith, you can take everything you know about selling and apply it to running an actual, legit business." She says before turning to look at him. "Something you can actually teach our kids. You can't honestly sit here and say you gonna be a street nigga all your life. And honestly, wouldn't you feel like you failed as a father if KJ grew up and did this shit?"

"Every street nigga know if your son become a street nigga, you failed." He firmly speaks. "KJ ain't ever getting into this shit and Ke' arra ain't ever dating a nigga that's in this shit. That's why I do everything that I do, so they wouldn't be in that environment or have to make certain choices we made."

"Choices we made?" She questions. "I'm not the one missing time with my family to spend it in the streets."

"See you think because I be gone for long hours, that I ain't here. I'm always here, baby. I ain't no deadbeat. KJ ain't ever gonna have to do the shit that I did and Ke' arra ain't growing up without a father then spend her whole life looking for one in a nigga."

"Oh what? That's what you think I did wit you?" She gets offended.

"Man, be fucking for real. We both know it is." He says laughing.

"Wow! You know what I think I had enough of this conversation." She rolls over.

"Now you wanna end the conversation, but I'm just getting warmed up." He chuckled. "Cause you like to make it seem like I'm a deadbeat when all I'm doing is providing for our family. If you didn't have the life you had or if your father was actually there, you woulda chose Chris over me cause he woulda been a better choice for the lifestyle you had, and not the one you dreamed of."

"Oh is that what this is about? Chris?" She jumps. "You gonna bring him up? I'm wit you, okay? I don't want Chris!"

"So then what you doing meeting up wit him with our daughter and sneaking around calling him and shit?" He revealed his knowledge of her reconciliation with Chris. She gets quiet. "Oh, you ain't know that I knew? But I'm so absent, right?"

"Keith..."

"Nah." He cut her off. "You better be glad Ion think you fucking him or else—"

"Or else what?" She interrupts him, yelling.

"Girl, relax, you know damn well I ain't gon put my hands on you." He says before getting out of bed. He starts getting dressed. "I'll be back." He says as he exits their bedroom.

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