Page 58 of Happy Is On Hiatus
“Back child-support payments,” Sharae said with another shake of her head. “It just happened yesterday. He called Aunt Margaret, and she called her brother like she always does when she needs something. So Uncle Jimmy called me last night just as I was getting off my shift. I went down to central booking to see him, and he looked good. Pissed, but he’s good.”
“I thought he was still with Kaelin, and Jasmine’s only a year old. How far behind could he be on payments?” Rita asked.
“The payments weren’t for Kaelin’s baby,” Sharae told them.
“What?” That question was spoken simultaneously by Aunt Ceil and Aunt Rose.
Taryn looked over to Rita, who felt the same uncomfortable tug she figured her daughter was feeling at this moment. Anybody having babies outside of a relationship they were supposed to be in was probably going to be a sore spot for them for a while.
“When I showed him the charging documents I was able to get from a buddy at BPD, he said it was some woman he’d met at a club a couple years back. Said she never told him she was pregnant.”
“Then how’d she get his address and other info to file for child support? They can’t just walk in and say ‘Tariq’s the daddy.’ This ain’tMaury.” Jemel frowned. Child support and men or even women who didn’t want to pay to support the children they created would always be a sensitive topic for her.
With that in mind, Rita glanced at Aunt Ceil, who was hastily wiping her hands on a napkin. She was probably ready to grab the phone, thinking she could call Tariq and yell some sense into him for shirking his parental duties.
Sharae shrugged. “He thinks she might’ve known somebody he worked with at the landscaping company. I don’t know. It’s like thirty thousand that he owes, and he said he had no idea. And by the timethey arrested him yesterday, it was too late to see a commissioner, so he’s gonna be there until Monday.”
“Oh my gracious,” Aunt Rose whispered. “He’s too old for this mess. He gotta get himself together.”
“Well, if he didn’t know about the child, he couldn’t be expected to pay the support,” Sharae added.
“How does a man not know he’s gotten a woman pregnant?” Rita asked, irritation clear in her tone.
“Easy, the same way he forgets to pay his daughters’ rent because he’s too busy focusing on the side chick carrying his child,” Taryn snapped, and all eyes immediately fell on her.
“Say what now?” The look Vi was giving her granddaughter had Rita shook.
She swallowed and tried to speak up. “It was just a misunderstanding,” she said, but Vi held up a finger to silence her.
“Your father forgot to pay your rent?” Vi asked Taryn.
Now, Rita knew her mother’s opinions on her and Nate paying for the girls to have their own place. Vi felt like the only people who had their own place were those who could afford it. Rita didn’t disagree with that, but she and Nate had been trying to help their daughters get situated. She knew now they were probably doing too much, but that situation wasn’t just going to change overnight. Still, if there was one thing Vi wasn’t going to tolerate, it was somebody messin’ with her grandbabies.
Taryn looked at Necole, who stared at Rita. Then Taryn cleared her throat. “Um, no, ma’am. Not exactly.”
“Then what happened, exactly?” Hale asked, his tone as icy as the cubes dancing around in Rita’s cup of ginger ale.
Sending an apologetic look to Rita, Taryn shrugged. “He took all the money out of the bank accounts so when the landlord tried to process the rent payment, it was returned.”
“What the holy hell?” Aunt Rose yelled, drawing a stern look from Hale that she properly ignored.
“It’s okay,” Rita said again. “I’ve taken care of it. They’re going to be fine.”
“Yes, ma’am, we are. I just scheduled an interview for an internship at the hospital,” Taryn said.
“Oh, that’s wonderful, baby.” Rita hadn’t known about that, but she was proud that Taryn had taken their talk the other day seriously.
“And I’m going to have a freelance project coming up that I’ll be getting paid for,” Necole added. She glanced at Rita with a look she hoped conveyed that she, at least, wasn’t telling their secrets. Rita smiled at her in return.
“I don’t like this,” Vi said, shaking her head. “Not one bit.”
“It’s okay, Vi. Let it go,” Hale told her. It was said in the tone he used to end all discussions, and Vi opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it quickly.
She continued to shake her head, and now her leg was going too. That meant she was really pissed.
“I’m sorry. We shouldn’t be talking about Tariq’s situation when I know what you’re going through,” Sharae said.
But Rita had asked her what was wrong, so she waved her hand. “No, it’s okay. We’re family. If Tariq needs help, then we’re the ones to give it to him.”
