Page 2 of Back in Blood

After a hot, relaxing shower, I brushed my teeth and dressed in pajama pants and a white shirt. Robin sauntered past me while I was still in the bathroom and went over to her side ofthe sink. She was about to perform her skincare routine, but I was ogling her fat ass. My eyes lingered on her juicy booty in the short pink shorts that hugged her ample backside.

“Like what you see?” She giggled causing my gaze to lift.

“You know I do. I’m on that tonight.”

Robin simply smiled at me through the mirror and turned the water on. I knew it would take her at least ten minutes to do her routine. Longer than that if she put on a face mask. Robin had almond-colored skin that was always prone to blemishes or breakouts, but that didn’t take away from her beauty. Her skin got so bad when she was pregnant with Caprice that she used to cry. I paid for her to get a facial and after she had Caprice, and she faithfully went to the esthetician once a month, her skin began to glow. It didn’t matter how tired Robin was. She did her skincare routine religiously. The same way she wouldn’t miss brushing her teeth or taking a shower, she refused to miss her skincare regimen.

Robin stood 5’4 and was bad as fuck. She had large lips that she used to get picked on for when she was in school, but I loved kissing on those plump muhfuckas. Her button nose and light brown eyes were a few of the features that I loved about her. From the first time I saw Robin in the club, I knew I wanted to fuck her. After a few conversations with her, I knew I would keep her around for more than ass. We slept together and hung out here and there for almost nine months before we made it official. I hadn’t looked at another woman since.

I grabbed a book to read while I waited on Robin. She wasn’t ready for another child, but we damn sure had sex regularly. Lots of sex. Five times a week was normal for us. Sometimes I pulled out. Sometimes I didn’t. She got mad when I didn’t, but pulling out of some good pussy was torture. I wished she’d just go ahead and agree to have another child. I had just opened my book when Robin’s phone screen lit up on the bed. I glanced overat it out of habit, but quickly tore my eyes away. When I realized what I thought I saw, I looked again. My brows furrowed when I saw she had a text message from Dolph.

Dolph was my best friend, and Robin was my lady. Of course, they had each other’s numbers because if there was an emergency, I needed her to be able to contact him and vice versa. Biologically, I had one sister and no brothers. Dolph was my brother, so if Robin needed anything and for whatever reason she couldn’t get to me, I’d want her to call him. But there weren’t any emergencies going on, and he’d just left my crib. So why the fuck was he texting my girl? I had Robin’s passcode, but I’d never gone in her phone unless her hands were occupied, and she asked me to.

I gritted my back teeth together as I unlocked her phone.

Dolph: Will you please just agree to the test? I know what you said, but I can’t sleep at night knowing that Caprice could be mine. If she’s not mine, I’ll let the shit go forever. I don’t want to hurt bro, but I need to know.

It felt as if I’d been punched in the gut. The wind was literally knocked from my body. I felt like a bitch because I couldn’t breathe. My chest was tight, and I had to toss the covers off my legs because my body temperature had risen, and I was uncomfortably warm. All I saw was red. I couldn’t recall a time when I’d ever been more furious in my life, and I’d definitely had my fair share of being pissed off. I had to remember that my daughter was in the house. Or was she my daughter? Robin and Dolph had played a dangerous fucking game. They were better off playing Russian roulette. Even if Caprice wasn’t my daughter, I didn’t want to traumatize her, and that’s the only reason I didn’t grab my gun and put a bullet in Robin’s head.

My heart was pounding at an alarming rate as I stood beside my King bed with Robin’s phone in my hand. When she walked into the room with that stupid ass green mask on her face, the glower that I wore stopped her in her tracks. Robin knew instantly that something was wrong. Her eyes darted from my face to the phone in my hand and back to my face.

“What’s wrong, Capri? Why you looking at me like that?” Her voice was quivering. She was scared. As she should have been.

“You been fucking Dolph?” I walked up in her personal space and shoved the phone in her face so hard that her neck snapped back. That was the closest to putting my hands on her that I would come.

Panic filled Robin’s eyes as her cell phone fell to the floor. “Baby, no. No, Capri. I’m not fucking him. It was once. The same month that I got pregnant with Caprice, but she’s yours. That little girl looks just like you. She’s yours, Capri.” Robin was crying as I watched her with disgust. My chest heaved up and down and on everything I love, I wanted to choke her until her face turned blue.

An evil laugh pushed from my throat. “She looks just like me, huh? That’s how you know she’s mine. Dolph hit you raw? He came in you?” I flicked the tip of my nose. It was at that moment I saw it. I understood how some men could beat the shit out of a broad, but I wasn’t gon’ go there. It just wasn’t in me but Dolph? Oh that nigga was gon’ see me. As soon as he saw me coming, he’d better kill me.

“Listen baby,” snot poured from Robin’s nose disgusting me further. “It was one time. When I was mad that you bought Brittney a drink in the club, and we didn’t speak for a few days. I went out one night and got too drunk. D-Dolph was in the club, and he offered to drive me home. It was in his car. It was a mistake.”

I kissed my teeth and looked at Robin with nothing but contempt. That fuckin’ slut had stood in my face and told me that she had unprotected sex with my friend in his car all because I bought a broke chick a drink in the club, and she got mad about it. Me. A man that hadn’t cheated on her since we made it official. I treated her with nothing but respect, and she got anything she wanted out of me. Caprice was my world, and Robin looked at me every day knowing that she might not be mine. I feared I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

“Let me get that ring off your finger,” I said calmly. “Then, I need you to pack some things and get the fuck out my crib. You will not wake Caprice up. I’ll take her to daycare tomorrow, and you can pick her up.”

“Capri, baby please no. Please don’t do this,” she sobbed.

I kept my voice low, but the venom lacing my tone was clear as day. “I would like to think I’d never do no sucka shit like put my hands on a female, but on everything I love, if you knew how close I was to fucking you up, you’d run. Get the fuck out of my house,” I said each word slowly. I wouldn’t be repeating myself.

Robin walked away crying. I needed some fresh air. The air in the bedroom had turned stale and was suffocating me. I sat out on the porch bouncing my left leg furiously. My best friend. My best fucking friend, and the woman that I’d asked to be my wife. I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in more than a year, and I stopped smoking weed when I was twenty-five, but I needed something. One of the reasons I quit indulging in both was because I never wanted to be addicted to anything. I didn’t want to feel weak. Nothing should have such a hold over me that I craved it or needed it on a regular basis. There was alcohol in the house because Robin drank.

I walked over to the bar in the den and grabbed a bottle of 1942. When I met Robin, she was drinking $20 bottles of vodka. Now, all she drank was 1942 and Azul. Some shit that ran her$200 a bottle. She was a lash tech and made good money. She could make $1,000 a week in tips alone. Robin didn’t pay any of the household bills. She only bought things for Caprice when she wanted to, because I had that covered as well. I even took her car to the gas station and filled it up for her every Sunday. I did everything for that foul bitch. After pouring a hefty amount of tequila I walked back outside.

Staring into the darkness I sipped my drink and didn’t even flinch at the harsh taste or the warm burn it caused in my throat. Several times. More times than I could count Dolph and Robin had been around one another. They had played in my face like I was some kind of simp. I closed my eyes briefly as the tequila coursed through my veins. I felt a small sense of calm. It wasn’t a lot, but it made me want to put my foot in Robin’s ass a little less. By the time I was done with the alcohol in my cup, I was curious as to why her ass wasn’t out of the house yet. Before I could get up to go investigate, she stepped outside. The street was pretty much dark except for one streetlight. I could see her large Chanel bag tossed over her shoulder, a Louis Vuitton duffel bag on the other, and a rolling suitcase behind her.

“You’re not taking that Benz,” I stated in a gruff voice. “Your raggedy ass let me get you a brand-new car as a push gift, and you weren’t even sure if the child you pushed from your loose ass crotch belonged to me. I think you’ve played with me enough. Walk, call an Uber, call Dolph, I don’t give a fuck. But hand me my keys.”

Robin loved her car, and I was sure she wanted to protest, but she didn’t. Instead, she sniffled and placed the keys in my waiting hand. I stood up and went inside the house, closing and locking the door behind me. I headed for the den in search of more tequila. I needed to drink until sleep found me because the way that I had murder on my mind was scaring the fuck out of me.

I watched in agony as the lab technician swabbed Caprice’s mouth. All morning, I’d been having an internal battle with myself. It didn’t matter what a DNA test said. I would never leave Caprice’s life willingly, so I wanted to think it didn’t matter if she was mine or not. But curiosity was going to get the best of me if I didn’t find out. If the child that I’d been raising turned out to belong to someone that I considered a brother, I had no idea how I would react. From the moment Caprice was born, I started making the effort to be a better man for her. It had been a long time since my savage side had to rear its’ ugly head, but if Dolph and Robin got fucked up for playing with me, it would be their fault. Call it temporary insanity.

“All done,” the technician stated with a broad smile on her face that showed off her coffee-stained teeth.

I gave a subtle head nod. A person wouldn’t have been able to pay me to smile. My mood was terrible, and I didn’t foresee it getting any better. Robin had played the hell out of me, and my dumb ass had let her. I really cuffed a slut and did right by her.

“The results will be sent to the email address that you put on the registration form.”

I once again nodded as I carried Caprice out of the room and toward the exit. “We gotta get you to school Lil’ Mama.” Pretending that everything was fine was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do.

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