All For You

Forgive, Never Forget - Chapter 25

For her to have the balls to actually apologize to me was enough, it showed that she changed. I was willing to help.

"Where'd Carter go?" I asked, stepping out of the kitchen. Everyone was in the living room but him.

"He's upstairs." Lamar said. I nodded and jogged upstairs, going to the guest room where the kids were possibly still sleeping. I opened the door and Carter was sitting in the chair next to where Camille was sleeping, texting on his phone. I walked to where he was and stood in front of him, and he continued to ignore my presence.

"Baby, can you just look at things from my perspective?" I pleaded. I hated him being mad at me. I was just trying to do the right thing.

"Don't try that 'baby' shit on me right now Lanay. I'm not approving of your decision and you can't do anything to change my mind. For real. I don't even know why you came up here." he stated, with a little too much base in his voice for me.

"You know what Carter, I don't even care no more. Be mad all you want. Like you said, I'm grown and I can do whatever I want. So why you bitchin'?" I asked calmly. He didn't even bother to look at me. He grabbed me by my arm, stood up, and took me out of the room. He shut the door behind him quietly and turned his attention back towards me.

"I'm not bitchin' Lanay. I ain't mad either. I'm just disappointed. Why you actin' so naive? You're too smart to not see what the fuck is goin' on here. I honestly think she trynna trick you. Fuck that, I know she is. I'm just trynna be a good husband and convince you not to do this dumb shit. If she really needed help, why she ain't ask her twin? Why you?" he asked, making me search for answers.. but I had nothing. He was right.

"Exactly. And if Renee and ya' momma wanna help her so damn bad, they woulda' helped her already." he stated. 

"Damn. You right." I shook my head. Why was I acting so naive? Damn. I needed to get my head straight. I wasn't thinking right.

"I know. So, we can go downstairs and tell her we ain't helpin' her. We forgive her, but we ain't helpin' her." he said, and I nodded in agreement. 

"I'm glad you talked to me before I made this decision on my own." I admitted. I didn't know what came over me but I needed to control that shit. Thinking back, I never should've let the thought of helping her cross my mind.

"It's what I'm here for," he kissed me on my forehead and grabbed my hand gently, walking down stairs with me behind him.

As soon as we re-entered the living room, everyone was silent. Jamia, my mother, and Renee all looked at us with hopeful eyes while my dad and Lamar continued to watch their football game. It was like they knew what we were gonna say.

"So have y'all made decision?" my mother asked.

"Yup," Carter answered, "We're not going through with helping you Jamia. We forgive you, but after you pulled what you did a few months ago, all trust flew out the window. You're gonna have to get help from someone else like, hmm I don't know -your twin?" 

"Thank you." Lamar stretched out, relieved that Carter said what he said and we made that decision.

"My twin is all the way in Detroit.. I haven't been up there in a while." Jamia stammered.

"Wait, I thought you said you had to move back to Detroit after you lost everything here?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You moved back to Detroit? I thought you said you were staying with your cousin in Austin?" My mother asked. Jamia's mouth was agape. From the corner of my eye, I could see Carter smirking. He was right, she was trying to trick me.