Mentality.

Chapter 11 - "Who Daddy is."

"Is that a.....baby?" Chresanto whispered as he looked at Zonnique.

"Oh my god...it.......it is a baby!" Zonnique gasped.

Chresanto couldn't believe it. He stayed silent as he drove into the rural area to drop off the car, which was 45 minutes. Zonnique looked at him, and noticed that he'd turned as pale as a ghost. Suddenly, Chresanto opened the door and threw up all over the ground. Abby pulled to the side of the car, then stepped out in confusion as she peeked inside of the car.

"What the hell is going on?" Abby asked as she looked in at Zonnique's side.

"There's a fucking baby in the car!" Zonnique shrieked as she slammed into her seat, then placed her right hand over her eyes.

"A baby?!" Abby barked in confusion. "How the hell did you....what?"

"The man we killed he.....he had a baby inside of here.." Zonnique said in a calm tone.

"Are you serious?" Abby asked.

"As a heart attack."

Abby peeked inside and seen the baby girl. She was a brown skinned baby with a thick baby afro. The baby looked and wandered around as she grabbed her small foot and placed it inside of her mouth. Abby stared at her for a few seconds, then looked behind her. She sighed as she started the van with the automatic car keys, then inched her finger towards her.

"Come on and get out of the car, guys." Abby sighed. "I have an idea."

Abby stopped at the grocery store to get the items like nothing happened. When Zonnique looked at Chresanto, she noticed that he was crying silent as hard. He kept his fingers clutched up by his mouth while his shoulders jumped from agony. Zonnique moved his hand from his mouth as Chresanto looked at her, then quickly turned away as he shook his head.

"What's wrong, Chres?" Zonnique asked. "You've killed so many people before I don't unders-"

"No, this is different." Chresanto said as he kept his eyes out of the window. "I just killed a father..."

"He obviously didn't feel the same way about you, Chres!" Zonnique prowled. "Why do you feel so sorry for him?"

"I don't care about them, Zonnique. I care about the baby! What the hell is she gonna do without a father?" Chresanto shouted as he glared angrily at her. "Think about that! What if that was me, and it was Romelo in the backseat?"

Zonnique didn't say anything. However, she couldn't. She's not a parent, and she has no clue what it's like to be in that position.

"I don't know what were gonna do.." Zonnique said in a low tone as she looked down at the ground. "What are we gonna do with her?"

"Abby said that she has a plan.." Chresanto said as he watched Abby walk towards the car with groceries. "Let's just hope that she comes across good like she always does."

Abby got into the car with 3 bags of groceries and started up the car as Chresanto and Zonnique sifted through the bags. All they seen was breakfast items, which Abby said that they would be purchasing. Chresanto looked up at Abby in confusion as she drove to Chresanto's brothers house to drop off all of the evidence.

"Why didn't you get any baby stuff?" Zonnique asked.

"Why the hell would I get some baby stuff when we aren't supposed to know that there's a baby around?" Abby asked as she kept her eyes on the road.

"Right." Zonnique nodded. "My fault."

"I got the story all laid out for Mrs. Lacey." Abby nodded as she turned onto a side street. "Y'all just follow my lead."

After making all of their stops, they finally made it back to the mental home after 2 long hours. Right when Abby made it to the entrance way, she barged through and put on her best acting skills.

"Oh my god!" Abby cried as Zonnique and Chresanto trailed behind her. "Mrs. Lacey! Look at what we found!"

"What?"

Zonnique and Chresanto put on a fake worried look as they walked inside with the baby in the carseat as Mrs. Lacey kneeled over her and removed her light pink and blue blanket. It was a little brown skinned baby, looking wondrously around her new surroundings.

"Woah!" Mrs. Lacey jumped.

"We found her on the side of the road." Abby gasped. "There was this thing on the radio about a missing baby in a shooting, but when we went to the family and asked if this was her, they said no."

"Oh my goodness." Mrs. Lacey gasped as she looked around in a worried form. "Alright uh....it's late so we'll call the adoption agency tomorrow. For tonight, watch her. Keep an eye on her."

"Will do."

Chresanto told the girls that they can relax while he took care of the baby. She was a quiet baby, too. Mrs. Lacey went out and bought diapers and formula for the girl a little later. Chresanto went to sleep right with the little girl, and 2 hours later, the baby woke up crying. He got up in the middle of the night, walked all the way downstairs to the kitchen, warmed up a formula bottle for the girl, then came back upstairs to feed her. While drinking the bottle, the girl dozed on and off as she looked around. When she got done with her bottle, Chresanto placed her onto his shoulders and burped her, then laid her back down. When Chresanto turned off the light and tried to go back to sleep, the baby girl stayed up and kept placing her small palm onto his face.

"Can't you go to sleep?" Chresanto groaned.

The baby stared at him for a few seconds, then squealed as she let out a huge smile. Chresanto's heart jumped as he glanced back at her, then grinned to avoid smiling all of the way.

"I guess you're cute." Chresanto laughed.

The next day, everyone got a chance to look at the baby as Chresanto held her. He showed everyone as he dressed her into one of his shirts so that she could have on a cleaner outfit. Once he looked up at the door, he noticed that Mrs. Lacey had walked into the room with the home phone to the mental home.

"Are you ready for me to take her to the adoption center?" Mrs. Lacey asked.

"Yeah." Chresanto nodded as he held her up. "You can take her."

Suddenly as the girl was being taken away, the baby started pouting as she leaned out of Mrs. Lacey's arms and held her tiny arms out to Chresanto. Her bottom lip was quivering, indicating that she was getting ready to cry.

"Mmmm. Dada?" The baby whined as she kept her arms out to him, waiting for him to take her.

"No, this isn't dada, silly." Mrs. Lacey laughed as she fixed the baby up. "Come on, little one."

Chresanto didn't know the little girl but for a few hours, but he had no choice. He had no money, no job, and no type of room to raise two children. The baby girl started crying for having to leave Chresanto so early on, even though she'd just met him. She thought of him as a father, maybe because her father probably never spent that much time with her in one day.

However, Chresanto REALLY wanted to keep the baby. He was trying to think of a way, but it was better for the baby to be placed into adoption.