Page 1 of Defending the Post
Chapter One
First Contact
Marquise
“I’m pregnant, and the baby is yours. You were the only person I slept with before you ask.”
Amusement settled within me as I leaned back on my chocolate-brown sectional. Khaira circled the matching ottoman for the second time at full speed.
“Congratulations, but who is this by the way?” I asked.
Sitting down my gaming controller, I picked up my phone. I wasn’t surprised to see the unknown number. There was a max of six people’s names saved in my phone, and the confident voice on the other end didn’t make the cut.
“Carmen, we met a few weeks ago. We had dinner and then fucked in the parking lot.”
“Yay,” my baby sister stood beside my leg and motioned for me to clap.
Mirroring her motions, I celebrated, and a smile stretched across her face, putting her deep dimples on display. Being satisfied with my hand clapping, she returned to running.
“Hello, I’m keeping it. This little bundle of joy is worth millions.”
“That depends on the child’s father, and whose is it, by the way?” I asked again, as I killed an alien onBlazing and Guns.
She sighed heavily into the phone. “Yours. You were the only one I was with. Whatever you won’t buy, I’m sure Anissa Shaw will be more than happy to take care of her first grand baby.”
My controller shook, signaling my player lost his life before it popped on the screen.
“First, my mother’s last name is Shaw-Jefferies, but that’s beside the point. Carmen, do you know what I got for my seventeenth birthday?” I asked before I raised my leg to block Khaira from running herself dizzy.
“What does that have to do with you taking care of your baby?”
Khaira tried climbing over my leg, determined to get to the other side. I lowered and lifted my leg, causing her to giggle.
“A vasectomy, and we used a condom I supplied.”
Thinking back to the therapy session, Dr. June, Mom, and I discussed my desire to explore sex. I expressed that the reason I held back was my fear of having children. Although Mom kept us in therapy, my twin brother and I still carried Winston’s traits. Not having children assured that I had broken the cycle. Mom didn’t agree with it, but she honored my wishes and signed off on the procedure.
“Carmen, I can’t hear you. Are you still there?”
Fuck,she whispered. “You could be lyin’—”
Before she could finish, I had sent over a redacted medical record with the date circled. She wasn’t the first woman to try this shit on me.
“Let me know when you finish reading it,” I said.
Picking up Khaira, I lifted her in the air, careful to avoid any slobber. The giggles increased as I brought her closer to my face and kissed her nose. She curled her body into a mini circle, expecting me to kiss her face.
“Girl, these papers look legit,” an unknown voice said.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Tasha, shut up. I can read,” Carmen screamed into the phone.
Silence greeted me for several minutes as I assumed both women searched the internet.
“Vasectomy isn’t guaranteed. This is your baby,” Carmen insisted.
I planted several kisses on my sister’s puffy cheeks as I brought her down to my face.
“After six years, Carmen? Let’s be real and I used a condom. But if you want to embarrass yourself with a DNA test, I’m game.”
