A Mother's Bond

18

Jay July 6, 2016
I had to physically pull Bey away from Sarayah. I was still in shock. When Solange and I first heard the beginnings of an argument, we decided to stay out of it, let them hash it out. But we never expected it to go that far.

I dragged Beyoncé through the halls to our room. The entire time she resisted, pulling at my arms desperately.

"LET ME GO, JAY. I SWEAR." She screamed over her shoulder.

"You swear what? What you gonna do?" I shouted angrily.

She ignored me, trying to escape. I heaved her onto the bed and stood by the door to make sure she wouldn't try to run out. She jumped up, looking ready for a fight. I held up my hands. The last thing I wanted was to get my ass whooped because you already know I wasn't gonna put my hands on her.

"Bey, just take a breather. If you still want to go back out there in a few minutes, then I'll let you out. Right now, though? Hell nah. The shit you were saying just now was wrong. I'm not about to have you out there making things even worse."

She folded her arms but sat down. After a few seconds she put her head in her hands. I cautiously moved away from the door to sit next to her. I rubbed her back as she cried. I waited a few minutes before speaking.

"You can't be yelling at our daughter like that, Bey, no matter what she says. She's spent 11 years with a kidnapper pretending to be her mother. She's confused. Yelling at her is only gonna make her think she's right."

She nodded, head still in her hands. "I know. I lost it. I'm sorry."

"What happened? I had Solo texting me through the day, and she said everything was fine until lunch."

She sat in silence for a minute before handing me Sarayah's cell phone. I took it, confused. She sat back, moving her hair out of her face.

"Go ahead." She mumbled, vaguely motioning at the phone.

I unlocked it, shaking my head at her lack of a passcode. The poor girl was just asking for trouble. I went to her phone log and aimlessly scrolled through it, unsure of what I was looking for. I knew it when I saw it. I stared at the unknown number before looking at Bey, waiting for her to explain. She was watching my face for a reaction.

She pointed at the phone. "She's in contact with her, or at least she was."

I stared down at the phone. I couldn't believe how careless we had been. The first thing we should have done was given the phone to the police. I tapped the phone against my palm, suddenly anxious.

"Honestly, this one's on us. We should have taken this away immediately. Of course her kidnapper contacted her."

"I want to call it."

I shook my head. "Nah, it's better if she doesn't know we know she called. That way she might call again, and the police can trace her number."

She sighed. "I know. But I still want to call it just to cuss her ass out."

I smiled softly. I looked over at her. "So, how'd you find out she was calling her?"

She pursed her lips. "Sarayah was texting one of her little friends during lunch, and it hit me. If she's still in contact with people from her past, she's probably still talking to her kidnapper. It was so obvious."

I nodded slowly, understanding how everything went to shit. "And that's when everything went downhill."

"Yeah, I started questioning her, and she immediately got defensive. Like angry defensive. It was clear she was hiding something. So, when we got back, I confronted her about it, and she lied to my face which really pissed me off."

"Well, what did you expect? Of course she lied. In her mind she's protecting her mom. You have to look at it from her perspective, Bey."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "Are you seriously defending her right now? She lied about talking to the crazy bitch who kidnapped her. We can't trust her. You should be on my side."

I took a deep breath, trying not to lose my temper. "There are no sides."

She narrowed her eyes. "Don't pull that punk ass line with me, Jay. You know damn well there are sides. You're only saying that because you don't want to admit you're taking her side."

I threw my hands up. "Okay, yeah. I'm taking her side, but only because you refuse to show any type of sympathy for her situation. She's in a really tough spot, Bey."

"Unbelievable." She muttered. "Actually, no. I can completely believe this because unlike me, you don't have to deal with her attitude. She likes you so it's easy to sit there and be 'poor Sarayah' this and 'poor Sarayah' that."

Bey rolled her eyes at me and stood up, walking away. I stood up and grabbed her arm. She stopped and looked at me.

"Bey, you always talk, and I always listen. Now it's time for you to listen to me, because I've sat on this bed for hours listening to you complain about how you don't recognize August in Sarayah. That, right there, is August. Loyalty."

She rolled her eyes, but I continued. "No, don't be dismissive. I'm serious. Sarayah is acting out because she's trying to be loyal. No matter what Alison-or whatever her name is-did to us, that's been Sarayah's mom for the past 11 years. She's not just gonna give up on her because we tell her she should. You need to understand that or we're never gonna move forward."

Bey yanked her arm out of my grasp. "I don't need to hear this shit from you too."

She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

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Super short update, please don't kill me. The next one is gonna be much longer so I feel like it balances out 👌🏽