Page 36 of Lost In You
“Just for a little while, man.”
I didn’t want to dare tell my son that his mama was a trifling ho who had killed her own child and reported him missing. The police were looking for Mila now, but she was in the wind. She was only nineteen when she did that shit. I was truly blessed that she hadn’t hurt our son. I would be in jail for killing her ass, no doubt about it.
Being here at Mr. and Mrs. Henderson’s house felt weird. While I had the option to stay with my dad and Mama Shana, I wanted to be close to my baby. Ididn’twant to feel like her parents were watching my every move though. Leaving my house because that psychotic bitch couldn’t handle me being with Ashanni was crazy as fuck. I supposed this side of her was lying dormant until she noticed me scanning Ashanni’s sexy ass body. My baby had body for days, and I couldn’t help but notice. She was so jealous of Ashanni, but she once had everything Ashanni wanted.
I loved her at one time. If I didn’t, I surely wouldn’t have risked her getting pregnant with my child. Had she beenconfident in that, we would still be together. Her demons emerged at the twins’ graduation ceremony from the college in Atlanta, and they never went back into hiding. They metastasized and took over everything, including her fucking good sense. I was just grateful Mr. Jasper had been proactive by getting a company called Watchful Eyes on her ass. There was no telling what she was planning. They promised to enlighten me once they got Ashanni here.
The moment I heard the door open and close and some talking, I left the bedroom to peek over the balcony. When I saw Ashanni, I breathed out a sigh of relief. Jayceon appeared next to me, and he yelled, “Miss Shani!”
She looked up at us and immediately hit the stairs running toward us. She fell to her knees and embraced my son like he was hers.He will be.She picked him up as he hugged her tightly around her neck while staring at me. Her fear was evident, because I could see her hands trembling as she hugged him. Once she released him and set him on his feet, she hugged me tightly, and I kissed her forehead.
“Hey, Shani.”
“Hi.”
She lifted her head to stare at me, and I kissed her lips, grateful that she was okay. I didn’t get a chance to see her yesterday, because I was handling shit with my attorney. He consulted with another attorney named Skyler Berotte. When Shyrón Berotte heard the name Henderson, he was all over it. By the time I was done, it was time to get Jayceon from preschool, and Ashanni was spending time with her mama, so I told her I would just see her today. I surely didn’t plan to see her under these circumstances.
“Ashanni . . . Asad, y’all come on down so Mr. Berotte and Mr. Ali can go over some things with you.”
“Jayceon, you wanna go play with JJ, Jacey, and Renzo?”
I looked toward the door to see Ashanni’s brother, Crew, standing there. Jay was excited, because Crew had played with him to keep him occupied the last time he was here.
“Yes! Can I, Daddy?”
“Yeah, man. Go ahead.”
He quickly went down the stairs, holding on to the railing as we followed behind him. Once to the bottom, he ran to Crew, and they left as Ashanni and I had seats on the couch. Mr. Berotte and Mr. Ali sat across from us, and Mr. Jasper sat to the right.
“I’m not going to take up too much of your time,” Mr. Berotte started. “Asad, I applaud you for being a great dad. Lil man probably wouldn’t be here otherwise. We found information that shows she had two pregnancies, one when she was sixteen and another when she was eighteen or nineteen. The pregnancy from when she was sixteen was the result of rape. Her uncle raped her.”
I slid my hand down my face, then shook my head. “She told me she was raped when she was a teenager, but she never mentioned having a baby . . . ever. So she had two babies.”
“Naw. She had three. The first pregnancy was a set of twins. She threw those babies in some bushes at an apartment complex in Beaumont. They caught up with her, but due to her age and mental state, she got off. She spent a year in a mental facility. The babies survived and are still in state custody.”
“My God,” Ashanni said. “You think she became that way because of the rape?”
“It’s possible. Untreated trauma leads to all sorts of things . . . starting with mental instability,” Mr. Berotte said. “While in there, she met Nita, Julius’s mom. She was supposed to be a ‘mentor’ to her. She was a mentor alright. She introduced her to her son, Julius. That nigga was underaged but giving hergrief. She needed somebody to distract him from whupping her ass on the daily.”
“She pawned Mila off, knowing that girl wasn’t right. That’s why she still fucking with her after what she did to that baby. She gon’ get fucked up, too, because she knew about it and didn’t report the shit,” Ali added.
“She threw that baby in the Neches River after suffocating it. She moved to Liberty to be with her biological mom, and she met you not long after, Asad.”
“So when she was at Hardin Jefferson?” Ashanni asked.
“She was still living with Nita and Julius. Nita was living in Cheek at the time, which is how Julius knew the Andersons that were fucking with y’all,” Ali said.
I was sitting here in shock, because I couldn’t believe I chose her to procreate with. I kept my head lowered, because I couldn’t even bear looking into Ashanni’s eyes right now.
“When she moved back with her mother, she got her a counselor and tried to help her. She’d tried to do that after Mila’s father’s brother raped her, but Mila wasn’t having it. She ran away and was living from one shelter to another until she had the twins,” Mr. Berotte said.
“Hold your head up, Asad. This shit ain’t on you. You had no way of knowing any of this,” Mr. Jasper said.
I looked up at him and nodded, then turned to Ashanni to see her dropping tears. I grabbed her hand and pulled her in my arms. The woman that was always ready to fuck some shit up was feeling sorry for Mila in this moment, the woman that wanted to kill her. I gently wiped her cheeks and asked, “Why are you crying, baby?”
“Because my actions probably only made her worse.”
“Just like I told Asad, this shit ain’t on you either, baby girl. She had issues. The people around her failed her. You had noway of knowing that either. Until the police find her, y’all will be safe here.”
