This Time Around

Chapter 79 - Kenneth

"This is amazing. When are you going to have it done?"

"Marcus said she's there every morning, so I really need to figure out a way to keep her away for about two to three days."

"Yeah, she is. They are out there with her everyday. Started a whole damn ritual now. They have a breakfast picnic."

What the fuck? My confusion must be written all across my face.

"I knew there had to be a reason you weren't showing up. Now I know what it was. You don't even remember her inviting you do you?"

"When?"

"After Asia's surgery. When she came to the hospital to check up on her."

She only came to visit once. I don't remember what she said when she was there. Especially not inviting me to the grave. Hell, I don't remember much of anything during that time. That was the beginning of my breakdown.

"I don't remember, Ace."

"You were so far gone then. Looking back, I should have known something more was going on. I just thought that stress and guilt was wearing your ass out. I should have known, no I should have asked you about it. We decided it was best for both of you to deal with his death in your own way. So we stayed out of it.

Tiff was still on that bullshit and I didn't want to miss out on her pregnancy and bonding with LeeLee. I had to do what I had to do, to keep Tiff happy. Marcus and Tony took up our slack."

"We still do. It was rough in the beginning. The first day, we stayed out there for four hours waiting for her to realize you weren't coming."

We turned towards the door and Tony was standing in the doorway. He walked into the room and closed it.

"I assume this isn't something you want everyone to see."

"Not before I'm ready to give it to Lay. Thanks for closing the door. Thanks for everything. I really appreciate you."

"We are family, man. At first we showed up because we knew you had your hands full. After that first week, I started to get pissed because I felt like you could have shown up at least once. I wanted to break your damn neck.

You both lost him, but it was like since you still had Asia and you didn't care. If you would have just told us what was going on, we could have let her know. We could have helped curb some of the anger that we all had towards you.

She believes he was a mistake, you never wanted a baby from her. She's always apologizing to him for your absence. Telling him it's her fault. She never stops giving him hope though.

She tells him that you will come around one day. One day you will start to love him like the others. No matter how she feels, she always tells him to continue to watch over you and to love you. Even in death, she does not want him to believe that you didn't want him or that you don't love him."

My pops had already told me that she believes I got her pregnant by accident.

"She's right."

They both look like they want to kill me.

"I got Layla pregnant on purpose. She had mentioned having a baby. Key had pissed me the fuck off during the week of his conception. The worst part is that was the only time her body relaxed enough to let me fully enter her. I felt guilty because my intention was to give her a baby, only to ensure she didn't leave. I wasn't ready for another kid.

I had changed my mind about getting her pregnant because I found out that Key was pregnant. It was too late because Lay was pregnant, too."

"Nigga sometimes I wonder if you are Uncle Rome's kid, for real. Your ass needed to see a damn psychiatrist since birth."