𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗒 𝖽𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝖨𝖨

𝟸𝟸

Aijah rolled her eyes while Mari chuckled from next to her. She was definitely starting to regret telling her mom about her and Rell's slip up. "Mama don't even start with that spiritual crap. I got Salmonella from going to The Sushi Korner. Not 'cause I slept with ole boy."

"Mhm. You keep tellin' yourself that."

"Maybe you're pregnant." Mari blurted. Aijah snapped her head at her, narrowing her eyes. Jocelyn shook her finger at Mari and nodded, realizing that was a possibility she hadn't thought of.

Jocelyn hummed. "I ain't even think of that."

"Preg- I'm gonna walk out on both of y'all right now if y'all don't stop with this mess." She waved her hands around dismissively.

"What? It's possible."

"It's food poisoning!" She knitted her eyebrows together. "Don't even wish pregnancy on me. If I was pregnant someone would've told me something when I went to the hospital that night."

"But they didn't draw your blood."

"So?" Aijah jerked her head back. "They still would've known."

Mari raised her hands in surrender and pursed her lips to the side. "Alright, you not pregnant. You got it."

Jocelyn stared at her daughter a little longer with her eyes squinted. "You're pregnant." She says before turning back around and to adjust the oven's temperature.

Aijah blew out a heavy breath and rolled her eyes. There was no convincing her mom different now. Now that the pregnancy seed was planted in Jocelyn's head, that was all she was gonna believe unless she was physically proven otherwise.

Aijah and Mari continued to converse amongst themselves while Jocelyn moved around the kitchen. Mari mentioned her dad coming to the studio soon and Jocelyn bit her bottom lip when she heard that. The conversation quickly turned into a discussion about the men in their life and Jocelyn couldn't hold back anymore. She placed the sponge she was cleaning the counter with on the small rack in the sink before turning around to face her daughter.

Aijah watched as her mother stared at her like she was nervous to speak. "You okay? What's wrong?" She frowned.

"He came back asking for you." Jocelyn spoke solemnly, watching Aijah's concerned facial expression drop to irritation almost instantly.

She blew air out of her nostrils as she turned her eyes away from her mother's. "I don't care. I'm not speaking to him."

"Aija-"

"No! Fuck that man. He can't come back into my life after all these years and suddenly decide he wants to be a father. He chose drugs over me and it could stay like that. Period. I have nothing but hatred for him." Aijah snapped, swallowing down the lump of tears in her throat.

Mari darted her eyes over to Jocelyn who just turned away from her daughter, looking hurt herself. She had no idea what Aijah was talking about because it was never mentioned to her. But Aijah kept quiet about the entire situation on purpose because she was still trying to process the fact that her biological dad was back and asking around about her.

About a month ago, Aijah's biological father had shown up to Jocelyn's house thinking Aijah still lived there. He looked much more put together than the man who got Jocelyn pregnant with their third child together and left her high and dry all those years ago.