Page 97 of One Good Reason

“I hate her, Law. I’ve never hated anyone in my life cause Papa Joe told me God wouldn’t let me in Heaven with hate in my heart. But I hate her. I hate her cause she took Joe Lee word over mine when I told her he touched my private parts. I hate her cause she hates me. He wanted to leave her and she blamed me for it. I didn’t do anything.”

“Ssssshhhh. I know you didn’t.”

I don’t know if Talitha realized that she had let it slip that her mama’s husband was the one who touched her. I mean, I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t the type to put something on anyone without proof. Now that she’s verbalized it, I wholeheartedly believed he did that shit. All the more reason for me to get that muthafucka knocked off when we got Gema back in her care.

“Gema didn’t wanna go. She only gave in because I told her I would go to jail. I should’ve fought harder with them,” she sobbed. “Stupid bitch showed up with the sheriff cause her ass scary as fuck. And I know the rest of ‘em knew about it. I just talked to Betty Jo this morning. Her snaggle mouth ass didn’t say anything about it.” She sniffled. “When I take her to court, I’m taking all of them. I got enough proof to bury all they asses. I held off for Gema’s sake. Now. I just don’t give a fuck.”

“I know you don’t and that’s fine. You gotta do what you gotta do to get her back here.”

“And I’m going to do it by burying them. She tried to use that bruise on Gema’s back as a sign. Bitch had taken pictures of that shit and showed it to the judge. Had their stupid asses really investigated, they would’ve known what the cause was and that it wasn’t that serious.”

“Talking about the bruise from when she slipped?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s horrible.” I shook my head. I was here the night that shit happened. Gema slipped trying to reach for her bath towel. She was old and feeble, so Mrs. Jessie nor Talitha let her bath alone. Even with the built in railing in the shower they never took a chance. We took Bertha to WellStar, and she was cleared. They told us what to give her for the pain and that was it.

“She was being spiteful, but I got something for that ass… believe me.”

The whole time she spoke, she went through a range of emotions, at first, she was hysterical, now she was fighting mad. I couldn’t do shit but sit here and let her get all this shit off her chest. First thing in the morning, I was going to reach out to my attorney to see what could be done to reverse what her mama had did.

Eventually Talitha stopped venting and it wasn’t too long before she had fallen asleep in my arms. I held onto her as long as I could. When my stomach started growling, I laid her down and headed downstairs to find something for us to eat.

“Baby.” I nudged Talitha awake. “Sit up for me.” I knew she wouldn’t have much of an appetite so instead of ordering a full course meal, I settled on soup from Panera Bread.

Blowing on the spoon, I held it to her mouth. “Open up.”

Talitha rolled her eyes at me but opened her mouth so I could feed her. I know she wanted to fuss but she didn’t. She sat there with her arms folded and let me feed her until the bowl was empty. Grabbing the bottle of water from behind me, I opened and passed it to her so she could take a few sips. When she was done, I took the trash and placed it on her dresser.

“In the mood to shower?”

“Not really.” She shook her head and laid back down.

“That’s fine. You can get one in the morning.”

Going downstairs, I discarded the trash and hit the lights before making my way back upstairs. I had clothes at her house so after making sure she was good, I grabbed everything I needed and swaggered to the bathroom to shower.

When I made it back into the room, she was knocked out sleep. Getting in bed with her, I tugged her arm until she woke up long enough for me to pull her body on top of mine. I felt sorry for her, and I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better about the situation. Until I spoke with my lawyer, all I could do was be here for her. Everything else that we had going on would have to take a backseat until we could figure out our next steps.

“Nawl, Pop. She really ain’t doing too hot. I mean better than I expected, but I can barely keep her out of bed.” I explained.

Standing at the island in the kitchen, I sipped from the coffee mug while staring out the front window. Talitha and I had been held up in the house for the last forty-eight hours and outside of her getting out of bed to use the bathroom, I couldn’t get much out of her. My baby was hurting and knowing that there wasnothing I could say or do to make her feel better had me really worried.

“Have you tried to reach out to her grandmother?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I called this morning. The phone going straight to voicemail, so they’ve either turned it off or blocked mine and Talitha’s number.”

“That shit ain’t right. You can’t just come uproot an elderly person like that.”

“I know. I thought about sending Drix and Preme out there to bring her back but I’m not trying to make it worse for her.”

“Yeah, that’ll be the wrong move. I’on know what to say Dutch. When you meeting with the lawyer?”

“She’s coming over today. Mrs. Jessie reached out to her and set-up the meeting since Talitha wasn’t feeling up to it.”

“That’s a start. I guess, hit me up when you find something out.”

“I will.”

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