Malia & Khari III: The Kids

Malia Zaria Valentine

Excuse any mistakes.

Oakland, California

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Standing up from my seat off of the couch, I eyed Randy with a hard stare and folded my arms across my chest. I was hoping that my ears had deceived me and that I didn't hear that Karmen had something to do with Khari being shot. For her sake, I pray I heard wrong. "Excuse me? Run that by me again."

   Randy looked hesitant to answer, now realizing that he had opened a can of worms. He looked around at all off our shocked and upset faces. He sighed, and cursed lowly to himself. "You didn't know Duane was in on it?" He looked over at Khari, who had spaced out.

"Fuck Duane. We knew his shady ass was in on it. The shocker is Kandice." Danielle blurted out.

I was pissed.

Matter of fact, I needed a new word to explain how I felt at this moment. The moment I had heard that Karmen had something to do with Khari getting shot is when I disconnected from reality. She would have been the cause of my children, possibly, losing their father forever. She was the reason I almost had to live this life without my other half.

   Not only that, she pinned a baby on him that wasn't even his.

When I thought that I had gotten rid of Duane, here he was making an appearance again. He wasn't in the flesh, but he damn sure might as well have been. It was no telling what Karmen was telling him, if they even stayed in contact. I would bet that they do and all those work trips she had wasn't exactly for work.

   Oh, I wanted to be the ratchet Malia.

I touched the bridge of my nose, and sighed. "Ok Randy, I think you probably have things mixed up. Ryan is Khari's daughter." Rubbing my temples, all I had on my mind was taking a flight to New York to finish what I had started twenty years ago.

    "Karmen said confidently that Duane was the baby's father." Randy looked at us. "She never mentioned Khari. Why would Khari be the father anyw.." He stopped, and pursued his lips. "Nevermind." He said quickly.

I looked at the twins who were whispering amongst themselves. I didn't know that they were even outside. "Go inside." I instructed.

   Ascaria immediately jumped up. "Say less." She held her hands up in defense, and Scarlett followed right behind her. I had to look at her once more because she sounded just like Khari when she said that. Then, I squinted my eyes at how easy it was to get rid of them. I'd have to find out what they had up their sleeves later.

    "Karmen from Howard?" Khari finally ended his silence, and looked at Randy expectantly. He had a stressed look on his face as he sat in one of the patio chairs. He roughly ran his hand through his hair.

Randy nodded his head. "Yea, Duane said that Karmen had been telling him about you hitting her. She was pregnant with Ryan then, I'm assuming because he alluded to that. He wanted to handle it himself, but I think Karmen ordered the hit."

   "Wow." Danielle mumbled to herself, before taking the glass of wine and chugging it down. When she removed the brim of the glass from her lips, she looked at me. "She's a dead bitch walking right now."

"I'll get you there. I'm pregnant, I can't risk the baby." I responded.

    She started to nod her head, but she immediately paused to look up at me. "You can't risk what baby???!" I pursued my lips and looked around the room.