Five years later....
"Dri Dri, can you take me to my play date in the park? I want to have a picnic tomorrow, with my best friend. Pleeaaassseeee." My little sister Arian clasped her hands together begging me. She was almost six years old.
"Alright but let me get the rest of the luggage out of the car. —Go help your auntie Rai with the small bags upstairs." I chuckled at her excitement. "Let your brother get settled in first before you go asking him for everything." My mom smiled down at her.
"Mom I haven't seen him since the beginning of summer." She whined causing my mama to squint her eyes. Letting her know that she mean business. Arian calls her mom and she calls Melanie mommy. That was the choice she was comfortable with, Melanie was more than happy about that. "Go help Auntie Rai upstairs, like your brother told you."
"Okayyy." My baby sister yelled out, prancing up the staircase.
Rai and I just made it to Atlanta for Christmas break. We're staying at my parents house for a few days. We planned go to Mike and Leah's for a couples days as well.
My dad came walking in the house rolling in my last bag. "Where do you want this one?"
"I'll take it upstairs, that should be everything. Thanks."
"No problem. Y'all brought the whole house with you." He laughed. "That's Rai and all of her shoes." I smiled a little at him. He stared at me for a second. I looked away. He could feel something was wrong.
"Ima' get started on dinner." My mom glanced at the both of us. "Aight I'll be in there-" She waved her hands interrupting me. "I got it Dri, go talk to your father." She leaned in and hugged me, giving my dad a kiss before walking away.
"Let's go to the basement."
"I'll meet you. Ima' take these two bags up to Rai first." I grabbed the handles on the bag. I heard footsteps on the staircase, pops and I looked up.
Munch and Arian came walking down smiling.
"I heard ma Heather say something about dinner. Arian and I are going to give her a hand. If you can just put those two bags upstairs by the door babe. I'll organize them later." She finally got down to the last step smiling at us.
"I'll be in the basement with pops." I leaned in and pecked her lips a few times. "Ok." She pulled away from me giving my dad her attention. "Hey old man."
He laughed. "Hey daughter." They embraced each other. He roughed the top of Arians head making her scrunch her face.
They made their way to the kitchen and I got the bags upstairs meeting pops in the basement.
"Talk to me son. What's on your mind?" He was seated on the sofa in front of the television. I breathed out roughly taking a seat next to him. "I think Rai's pregnant again."
"Oh." He raised his brows cautiously, waiting on me to proceed. "About three weeks ago she was leaving for work at her production company. Before she left I could tell she had been crying...
(****Flashback to three weeks ago****)
"Babe your green shake is on the counter. Don't forget I'm coming by today for lunch." I caught her coming into the kitchen. She had her bag, phone and keys in hands.
"Thank you." She walked over to the counter and picked up her shake before walking over to me. I watched her, she had been acting a little off all week. I knew asking her about it would lead to her saying it's nothing.
I placed my hands on both sides of her face planting soft kisses all over it. "I love you baby."
"I love you too." She gave me a little smile, with her puffy face and red eyes. I held her face looking it over, tears were fighting to come out. I'll just have to look into it first before I ask her about it. So I can figure out a way to approach her with it.
She removed my hands turning away a little. "I gotta' go, I'm meeting with the writers today, for the first read. This script is so amazing babe. We have a few changes to discuss, but its fire."
I could only nod my head to her. "I'll call you later for lunch. I'll have some time before I have to get with the casting director."
"Ok." I kissed her again before she headed outside. The weather in New York had picked up a little. So that key start feature on her brand new Benz came in handy.
I walked up to the door looking out the window making sure she got out the drive way ok. Seeing she did, I turned away heading straight to our master bedroom. I searched around looking for anything that would help me to understand what was going on with her. I came up empty.
I went to the bathroom surveying it. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared to me. So I dug in the trash can taking everything out.
In my hands I held a stick object wrapped up in tissue. I sat down on the bathroom floor and unwrapped it. In it I found a pregnancy test, that read positive.
"Fuck." I mumbled to myself, wrapping the test back into the tissue then cleaned the trash up from the floor. I stood in front of the sink looking into the mirror for a second before washing my hands.
(****Flashback over****)
"So you didn't ask her about it at all yet?" My dad furrowed his brows. I shook my head. "I plan to."
"She needs you." He quickly replied.
"I know, but it's hard when we've already been through three miscarriages. It's almost like I'm waiting on it to happen again."
"She need to go to the doctor for prenatal care. Is she taking any vitamins?" He went on to say. I knew talking to him about this was best because he and mom went through the very same thing. She wasn't able to have children after me.
"She's been taking prenatal vitamins since our first miscarriage two years ago. Along with monitoring her health, eating healthy and working out regularly. She's been doing everything right. —I'll talk to her while we're here. I can't let another week go by."
"Yeah you should definitely talk to her." He turned on the tv cancelling out the silence in the room. "Is Melanie coming for Christmas?" I looked at him.
"She said she was, Arians been looking forward to it."
"Oh ok, that'll be good for her." I told him.
"Your mom said Melanie's flying in two days before Christmas. She's going to spend Christmas Eve with Arian at her parents house. That's our routine. She get her a day before every holiday."
"Cool." We sat watching Bad Boys playing on tv. We talked about my career and his retirement coming up. Things with my parents now couldn't be better. The system they have was working. They're closer than ever, more open and honest with each other.
"Babe, dinner's ready. I'm about to fix your plate. So y'all come on." Rai opened the door, getting our attention. Dad and I got up and made our way to bathroom to freshen up.
Tonight was lasagna night. Mom and Rai made a little bit of a spread, with the help of my baby sister and her garlic sticks. To go along with the lasagna they made some grilled veggies and a ceasar salad.
"You want lemonade?" My mom asked my pops. "Sure baby." He got Arian situated with her food. We all sat. I blessed the table. Looking everything over I smiled. "Man you and momma should start pinning these recipes."
"You haven't even eaten yet." Rai giggled.
"I already know it's hittin'." I gripped my knife and fork splitting the lasagna into bites, moaning loudly after taking my first mouthful. "Stop acting like I don't feed you." She smiled.
"Work have us busy sometimes. You know I be missing your cooking." I forked more lasagna into my mouth, eating like it was my last. We all laughed.
Lately Rai buried herself into work. I was counting down for Christmas break. The last few months I had been in Virginia, back and fourth. With the pop artist I worked with out there. He and I were remodeling our first art studio we built together. We had another grand opening because it was our very first venture. It was the first opportunity I got after working with my pops in sales. So Rai and I both were busy. Maybe I buried myself in work as well.
"We went to your grandfathers funeral." My mother spoke. "Oh ok, that's nice." I nodded simply. That's one conversation I was completely over. I'm glad they were able to go to get closure with all the colorism stuff. But I'm good on that. I embraced the distance a long time ago.
"I'm surprised you went dad." I added. "Your mother needed me. Regardless of the past I'm going to support her."
"Yeah." She smiled at him.
"That's amazing." Rai cooed at them. The rest of dinner we laughed and talked about the rest of the Christmas plans. I love seeing my wife around family. It's always good to take breaks. My dad and I tagged teamed the dishes. We took out the trash and finally parted ways to our women. Arian was already washed up and in bed.
Rai was in the bed with her back facing the door. I walked a little closer to her. "Babe, you sleep?" She didn't make a move or say a word. I knew she wasn't sleeping. I decided on giving in for the night. I would talk to her soon. Clearly she wasn't ready.
I walked closer to her then leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight love." I went on to the bathroom to get myself ready for bed.
****
"Cyrene gone now!" Troy yelled running away from her. She held her shoe in her hand chasing him.
We made it over to Mike and Leah's. Everybody was already there upon our arrival. We were kicking it like the old days. Except this time I was staying upstairs with my wife, instead of the basement. They left everything in Rai's old room pretty much the same. We just added a bigger bed for when we came to town.
"What's going on with them?" I chuckled at Mike. He grabbed one of our bags "I don't know. They came storming down stairs and Cyrene was chasing him with her shoe." We laughed.
"Those two are always going at it. Didn't she just push out Tron less than three weeks ago?" Rai looked around. "Where is he I want to hold and smell all over him?"
"He's with Amina and Toni. They've been hogging little man since they got here." Mike answered.
"Where are the twins and KJ at?" I asked, closing the door behind us. Mike and Leah had honeymoon babies, twin four years old girls. "They're all upstairs in the game room. KJ's on the phone with his little girlfriend."
"I heard about her, Leah told me." Rai added. This house had always been really huge so it was easy for everybody to disperse into their own areas. I don't know how mama Laurie used to keep it up without a housekeeper. Mike and Leah didn't hesitate to hire one. I don't blame them. "The girls won't let him have any privacy and I'm not stopping them." He laughed a little.
"Let me go up and speak to my babies." Rai turned toward the stairs."KJ is not a baby, all the little girls want my son." Mike pointed out.
"He will always be my baby. I don't care if he's about to be sixteen this year. Just like the twins will always be my babies, with their little smart mouths." She laughed.
"Ease up on my girls now. Lauren and Joi only speak wisdom. They get it from me." Mike chuckled. Rai and I rumpled our faces at him making snorting sounds. He looked at us smiling. "Man whatever."
"Lauren told me and Rai to come pick her up the other day. She said she and her sister was tired of dealing with these problems." I added. "What problems at four years old?" He laughed. Chance and Rita came in the foyer joining us.
"She said you wouldn't let them put on sunscreen because the sun wasn't out. She said she and Joi were trying to lay up and relax but you were stressing them out." We laughed. Those two girls were something else. He thought he was paranoid about raising Rai. He had another thing coming with them.
"My little monsters. I blame their uncle Troy. He's always egging them on. He's the same way with KJ." Mike replied shaking his head. "Blame me for what?" Troy came in holding Cyrene's shoe. He was out of breath.
"Why were you running?" Rai squinted we all waited. "He spilled my milk on the floor." Cyrene yelled out, bucking at Troy with Leah trailing behind. "I told him to fix the bottle in the kitchen. He brought it upstairs before putting the lid on it."
"Cy, you can just pump more, damn! You're acting like you ran out." He sucked his teeth. Rai, Rita, and Leah were now standing around looking at him like he said the ultimate wrong thing. Mike, Chance and I remained quiet.
"See this is the type is stuff I have to deal with." She raised her arms up in defeat. "My breast milk is precious cargo." She walked off to get baby boy from Amina.
He sucked his teeth again then jokingly asked. "I'm going to the store to get some formula. Y'all want something?"
"Shhhh. Quit man." Mike had his index finger over his mouth, trying to contain his laughter.
"I'm going upstairs with KJ to ask him about his friend." Rai gave us a little sneaky smile. I tapped her on her butt before she walked off. Leah and Rita followed her upstairs.
Cyrene came back over holding baby boy, Toni was with her. I pointed to the stairs. "Up there with KJ." They walked off upstairs. I was finally able to get my bags in the room. I made my way to the basement after.
Trey and Sienna were on their way. We hadn't seen them in almost a year. Between her traveling and Treys residency they hadn't had time for visits. They still FaceTime every day, she and Rai.
Kicking it in the basement with the fellas like old times and Rai hanging with the girls, is just what we needed. Maybe I'll be able to talk to her about the pregnancy, sooner than I thought. "Mina, your neighbor's backing out. I don't think he's selling his house." Troy stated to her.
"I heard he and his wife was talking about renting it out." She replied. "I wish he would've told me that. I already put in my offer. I need to hurry and get out of my condo. Cyrene is on my ass about it. She's ready for a house." Troy stated.
"Then get your queen a house then." Chance chimed in. "I'm looking."
"She chose to move out here, so you wouldn't have to uproot everything you have. It's been three years since. Buy your lady a house." Chance added that time more authoritatively. "Ima' take care of it. I'm just glad she was able to find work out here. Getting all of her Visa stuff straight was a headache."
"Yeah and that's sad it took all of that to get permanent residency." Amina spoke." My mom dealt with the same thing when she came over to this country, before having me."
Mikes phone rung interrupting the conversation. He turned the volume down on the game a little before answering it, placing it on speaker. "What the hell you want?"
"Hi." A woman spoke. He paused the game, furrowing his brows. We looked at him like he was crazy. "Who is this?"
"This is Khalil Sr's mother, KJs grandmother."
"My bad, I thought you were your son. He used to call from this number. Everything ok?" He asked wondering why she was calling him. "Yes, I tried calling Leah but received no answer. She probably thought it was my son. I wanted you both to know that my son's actions are not a reflection of his entire family. We want to keep the line of communication open with KJ."
Miked sighed. "That's not really up to me. Leah and I will talk it over with KJ and get back with you. I'm sure that won't be a problem."
"Thank you, I'll be looking forward to that call. I want to continue spending time with my grandson. He's my only grandson."
"I understand. Talk to you later ma'am."
"Ok bye bye." She ended the call. He sighed again.
"What's going on?" I asked Mike. I knew Khalil Sr had been in and out through the years since he stepped back on the scene. After Leah and Mike came back from their honeymoon he called. Every time since then he's been in and out. He and Mike had it out again. Mike ended up telling him to stay away and not come back. He said that was final. "I guess she still want to see him. I don't want him around my son or Leah though."
"Daddy where's mama?" Chance and Rita's five year old baby girl Natalie walked in. She just woke up from a long nap. He got up from the sofa to tend to her. "She's upstairs, hungry?"
She nodded her head moving her little curls from her face. Chance walked out of the basement trailing behind her. We ended our guys night with laughter and catching up like old times. The guys decided on cooking tonight. Since the ladies wanted to do a big dinner for Christmas.
We ended up doing some beef stew, ugali and roasted maize. Some of our favorite recipes from Nairobi. Mike also made chilly he had on since the morning.
The ladies and the kids came downstairs to eat. KJ and Mr. Xan trailed behind. He was still on the phone with his girlfriend.
"What all do you want on your plate Munch?" I stood in the kitchen, in front of the stove. She made her way over to me. I noticed she had a natural glow. She snaked her arms around me from behind, leaning one side of her face against my back. "I want everything and we need to talk after dinner."
"Ok." She pulled away turning me around in the process. I leaned in connecting our lips. Everyone was moving around getting their food and drinks. "I love you Punkin." She stared in my eyes.
"I love you too Munch" I kissed her once more before she walked away. The men served the women and children, after we went on to serving ourselves. I found my seat next to my beautiful wife, we waited for others to get seated.
Our wedding was amazing but simple. Rai and I married two weeks after she graduated from Howard, a few months after I proposed. We've created a beautiful life in New York, in our brownstone. After our first year of marriage Rai was eager to start a family. I was excited about the idea as well. I wanted my first born before I turned thirty. —I recently turned thirty in September, Rai's twenty-five.
When we found out about our first miscarriage shortly after she took the pregnancy test, we were devastated. Rai and I agreed that we would just try again, so we did. We found out we were pregnant again months later. We were excited but we wanted to wait until we got out of the high risk stage before we celebrated. The day after her first prenatal appointment she started bleeding. I rushed her to the hospital, the doctor told us we miscarried.
We were happy about our last pregnancy but wasn't really hopeful. She lost that one a few nights after we found out, three days before Rai's birthday. That's why we came back home to visit this last summer. At that point Rai had seen many doctors and they all couldn't find a problem. They said the surgery she had as a child healed properly. They didn't see any further tearing or anything abnormal, we had no answers. I even got checked out, my count was fine.
After that last miscarriage we gave up on the idea of children. I convinced her that we were good with just each other. I was going to try to revisit the idea of exploring other options later. I didn't think we were emotionally ready to handle that conversation yet. Even though there was something within me that wouldn't allow me to stop trying to get my seed inside of her. —Here it was Christmas break and we were pregnant again. Sigh
Breaking away from my thoughts, I noticed KJ still on the phone with his little girlfriend. "KJ, are y'all actually talking or just listening to each other's background noises?" I smiled at him seated across from me.
"Just listening. She's my best friend, not my girlfriend. I'm not sure why dad said that." He spoke without emotion. He's progressed so much. Especially with being comfortable in conversations. He still has an emotional disconnect but he communicates very well.
He's taller than both Mike and Leah now. He's also still heavy on the keys and very smart.
"Next time invite her over for dinner. She could've came today." Mike bumped his shoulder seated next to him. "My have you changed. If only you could've said that to me when I was growing up. I caught all kinds of hell." Rai interjected, smiling at both KJ and Mike.
He laughed. "I thought we made peace with that."
"You better be lucky I made that trip to DC, to get her back." I added to their conversation. Everyone at the table laughed. "Y'all were going to find your way back to each other anyway, regardless of how Michael felt. So no, you can't use that anymore." Leah giggled grabbing Mikes hand.
"That's right baby." He kissed her. "You're right and I will never let this one go again." I made clear, kissing Rais cheek. Everyone at the table smiled at us.
"All y'all lame anyway." Troy threw in his two cents. Everybody sucked their teeth at the same time ending in laughter.
"KJ, go ahead and wrap that up on the phone. We're about to say grace." Mike spoke low next to him. "Yes sir."
"My mother said she'll be coming over tomorrow." Leah spoke. She and her mom met up after the honeymoon. After time, arguing and a lot of tears they were able to come together. Leah held a lot of resentment towards her. It took awhile for them to even get to this point.
"That's good, I'm glad she was able to take off from work." Mike nodded smiling at her. "Yeah, she told me she would try."
Mr. Xan barked, he only does that when someone is at the front door. We heard a loud familiar voice appear on the intercom. "Come let me in! I know you hear me."
"Sienna!" Rai hopped up out of her seat to answer the door.
Next thing we heard was them squealing I missed you and I missed you too to each other. Finally they made their way into the kitchen joining us.
"What up Trey?" Everyone seated at the table greeted him. "Hey everybody." He waved looking exhausted from all of the traveling.
"Are you two gonna' pull away long enough to eat? —I know Trey is ready to call it a night." Mike stated. Rai and Sienna continued hugging each other. We stood up making room for them. Rita and Toni went in the kitchen to make their plates.
After regaining my seat I noticed Rai was crying in Siennas arms. "Rai talk to me." I heard Sienna say, she was on the verge of tears as well. She cried harder. I remained seated. I felt like I knew what was wrong. Everyone stood up crowding around her.
"Rai come sit down." Sienna pulled her to the nearest chair which was diagonal from me. All I could do was wait on her to tell me we lost another baby.
"Rai, you know we don't hold stuff in anymore. Talk to me." Sienna continued, everyone looked on quietly. Amina and Toni gathered all of the kids out, moving their little table to the family room to finish their dinner.
Rai remained quiet as tears rolled down her face. I hated seeing her like that. A wave of emotions came flooding my way as well. Thinking everything over and over in my head, I was getting overwhelmed with my own pain.
"I can't lose another baby. I already lost three." I said to myself but everyone heard me. My hands shook as a tear rolled down my face, I quickly wiped it.
Rai got out of Siennas arms and came over to me. I pulled her down on my lap. We cried together, holding on to each other.
"I'll call in the morning to make an appointment Rai. You need to let a doctor confirm." Sienna thought for a second. "They're closed for the holidays, we can go to the hospital. They can confirm."
"I got my period Sie." Rai cracked crying in my arms. I placed my hand on her stomach and took a deep breath. "She's right, lets not make assumptions. We can go tomorrow." I sniffled trying to get myself together. I was rubbing on her stomach, it felt kind of hard at the bottom.
Rai didn't say anything, she stood up and plopped back down in her seat next to me. I wiped my face.
"Ok lets say the grace and eat so we can go to bed. Tomorrow we'll all go to show our support. Let's not make assumptions tonight. My sister needs us, Adrian needs us." Mike announced around the room.
They agreed to go with us. I nodded my head thanking them. Rai remained quiet but she ate a little. That small gestures told me that she wasn't completely out of it.
"Are you sure it's your period?" I spoke low enough so only she could hear me, she nodded. "Are you spotting or is it fully on?"
"It doesn't matter, it's on. So stop talking about it!" She yelled out slamming her hand on the table gaining everyone's attention.
I took a deep breath closing my eyes then opened them. I pushed my chair back and stood up. "Get up." She shook her head no. We were both emotional and on edge.
"I'm taking you to the hospital now, get up!" I raised my voice on the last part.
"There's no point. I already know. I'm not pregnant anymore!" She yelled back.
"I'm not accepting your no. I need this shit confirmed. So get the fuck up!" I yelled again as tear ran down my face, Rai flinched.
Mike stood up and walked over to us. "Easy, everybody just calm down."
I took another deep breath, realizing I did need to calm down. " —I found the test you took in the trash. I found out on my own. I was hoping you were going to tell me soon."
I sat back down in the chair beside Rai and turned to her. "Please Munch, let's go to the hospital and make sure. It could be just a little spotting. You're poking out a little bit, I felt it. I need a doctor to check you out. I don't want to lose another baby."
She thought about it for a second then stood up. I stood too, realizing what I just said. I cursed myself before she began to speak.
"Don't ever yell at me again, and don't ever say my stomach is poking out." She smiled hitting me in my chest, "—and I'm sorry for yelling at you too."
I smiled, rubbing the little sting. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." She reached up to my face and wiped the tears stains, before placing three soft kisses on my lips."Ok, lets go to the hospital."
Everyone shuffled around getting everything put away. "I can't even finish eating my food." Troy mumbled getting up taking his plate to the kitchen.
"Trey and Sie, you can ride with us. I don't want y'all driving, I know you're tired." I told them, they nodded their heads. Sienna walked Rai outside to the car. I got everything we needed to head over to the hospital. Before I headed out the door joining everyone, I said a prayer.
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{Final chapter in Raina's POV}
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