SHE

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By the time Mercy and Marjae arrived at Grandma Viv's house, Marjae was dead asleep with the sour apple lollipop in her mouth. Mercy parked the car in Viv's long driveway and took her daughter out of her booster seat. 

Mercy walked up to the front door wearing a pair of Nike shorts and black Roshe sneakers, with a black over sized mesh shirt and a red sports bra under it. She knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer the door. 

Maurice answered the door and smiled at the sight. He has not seen Marjae since her first birthday party. Maurice and Mercy both greeted each other, and Mercy allowed him to hold Marjae.

She woke up as soon as he took her out of her mother's arms. Maurice started talking to Marjae, and as they talked Maurice led Mercy up to where Grandma Viv was.

"We're just going to be across the hall, you and her have some things to discuss" Maurice informed Mercy. Mercy wondered why this seemed a little too serious. Maurice went to one of the guest bedrooms and turned on the TV for Marjae to watch.

Mercy walked into the bedroom and was confused at the sight. Grandma Viv was on the bed, feeding apple sauce to a seemingly be one year old.

"Hey Grandma" Mercy greeted, as she walked over and gave the woman a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Vivian prayed a mental prayer that this would turn out the way she planned it. 

"Grandma, who's baby is this?" Mercy said as she turned her attention towards the milk chocolate skinned baby. He was wearing a diaper with a plan white onesie. His curly hair was left alone because it wasn't enough hair to do anything with yet. The baby looked up Mercy and smiled with apple sauce all on the sides of his mouth, causing Mercy to smile. The baby was so harmless and adorable. 

"Allow me to just finish feeding him, and I can give him to Maurice" It took about five more minutes for Vivian to finish feeding the baby. She called Maurice into the room and he took the baby into the room where he previously was with Marjae. 

"That baby is why I called you over here. Allow me to explain and then you can ask any remaining questions after." Mercy agreed and began to lightly chew on the inside of her lip. "After Mya and you all stopped being friends, Mya went over to the wrong group. This group of friends she was hanging with, did cocaine, which is how she is not with us today. I found out she was on that stuff and I tried to make her stop. She would not go into rehab even though I pushed it every chance she got. 

Back when we all visited your family in Long Island, she met that boy Kevin. A year or two ago, he visited her. He got her pregnant. She came to me when she took multiple pregnancy tests and they all came back positive. I took her to my gynecologist and in fact she was pregnant. When I found out she was pregnant, I put her into rehab. She tried to tell him that the baby was his, but he continued to deny his child. 

I did not want her to either lose the baby because she was on that stuff, or cause the baby to have any life threatening problems because of her addiction. It was hard, I visited her every month and she was begging me to let her out. We cried every time I visited her. It was hard seeing my grand daughter in there struggling. The first few weeks she refused to eat. But eventually we got her to eat, but she would only eat if I fed her. That lasted for a few weeks then she began to eat on her own. 

The pregnancy was good and he came out with no problems. His name is Zion Ash Lewis. Sadly, a month or so after she had the baby she went right back on that stuff. One day, I left her home with the baby while Maurice went out on a date, and when I came home she was dead. The informed me that if I had gotten there earlier, there is a possible chance that she could have been saved, but arriving four hours after... There was no possibility. And now the baby is left in my care. And that is where you come in.