My brother texted me letting me know that Elle was squatting at Pia’s house so that was my first destination in sight. I doubted that she would even come back, but she knew that I was serious and doing anything else other than would I told her would result in chaos.
I sat in my car sitting in front of Pia’s house trying to calm myself down before I went in and faced her. At this point, I wasn’t even thinking about her just up and leaving, but the fact that she was pregnant. I braced myself for what was to come and walked inside of the house. Pia and Flame were still out so we would have this time to ourselves.
I walked into the house and only one light peeked through the leading me to a bedroom at the end of the hall. The door was slightly ajar and I could hear the shower running before it cut off. I could see that the bed had been slept in so I knew that this was the place where Elle had occupied. Walking into towards the bathroom I looked through the cracked door before the water suddenly cut off.
Elle stepped out of the shower holding on to the side rail so that she wouldn’t fall. She was still so tiny and even though I was mad, I could help but smile at her little round baby bump. She grabbed the towel that sat on the toilet all the while I couldn’t take my eyes off of her as she towel dried her body stopping at her stomach. She rubbed it gently as if the baby could feel it and I could have sworn I saw her crack a smile before wrapping the fluffy pink towel around her body.
I knew then I didn’t want to be caught looking like a creep so I backed away from the door. I could hear the sounds of her brushing her teeth before she finally came out. Stunned to see me standing up at the door, she looked around realizing there was nowhere to go. I could see the fear oozing from her which let me know that she guilty about something, but what I didn’t know.
“Please don’t hurt me. I swear I didn’t know. Muggs had things on me too,” she rambled on and I tried to make sense of what she was saying.
“Elle, you are going to start from the beginning because I don’t now shit you talking about,” I looked at her confused by all that she had just spilled.
“So, you don’t know what I did?” Now she was the one looking confused.
“Apparently not.”
She started to tug at her fingers, and I knew that whatever she had to tell me was the reason that she had left. All along I thought that she was just not ready for a relationship with me, but clearly it was something totally different.
“Well, before I tell you this I want you to know that it had nothing to do with me and you. I actually loved you,” she paused and looked at the ground. “And I still do.”
“So, before I even met you, my ex Que was into some really shady dealings and somehow he got me involved in it. Muggs was the detective on his case so once Que got sentenced, she tried to come for me telling me that if I didn’t give her information on you and your brothers she would try to get me for being an accessory to Que’s crimes.”
She took a breath after telling me a mouthful and I could hear my temperature rising. Muggs was like that damn nit that just would not go away until you smashed the bitch.
“And then what?” I replied.
“Then she started to threaten not only me, but my family. I had made up my mind not to help her up until then, I couldn’t risk them being hurt so I did what I had to do. On the day of the anniversary of you Foster Parent death, I heard you all talking at your house, so I recorded you, not even knowing what I was going to do with it.”
She was now getting really animated when she spoke, her arms were flailing all over the place and her eyes watered with each word she spoked.
“Once, I recorded y’all I knew that I was falling in love with you and I couldn’t stand to hurt you or your brothers, so I made a decision to say fuck Muggs and not give her shit. I was willing to face her wrath because you and I had something real. Fast forward to a few days later. She came to my house to let me know that she was going to back off and stop fucking with me, but I made the mistake of trusting her in my home and somehow she got the recording form my phone and ultimately that is why your brother is in jail,” she said with her head hung low.
I just looked on, taken aback but everything that she had just threw at me. The whole time, we were wondering how Muggs had any kind of recording and it was because of Elle. Now I understand what Pops was trying to tell us before he died. He knew that there was a snake in the grass and the whole time it was the person who is now carrying my child.
“So, that’s why you left?” That is all I could muster up to say.
“Yes, I knew that I couldn’t face you after that and I am sorry for all of the discord that I have brought into your life. It was never my intention.”
“So, I guess your intention was just to let my brother rot in jail while you moved on with your life! Oh, and let’s not forget that’s my child you carrying. Did you think that you could just keep that shit away from me Elle,” I asked, my temper starting to get the best of me? She stood here with these tears, but not once did she try to make shit right.
“You have to believe me. I didn’t know what to do. I ran because that’s what I’m good at. Honestly, I don’t even have to keep that baby if that’s what you want. I found out that I was pregnant when I got to my parents’ house and to be honest it was the only thing keeping me going at the time. I knew that I had lost the best thing that ever happened to me and I didn’t have anyone else,” the tears flowed down her brown cheeks and even after all of the shit that she had done, I would never really be done with her now that she was having my child.
“Elle I’m trying my hardest to maintain my composure right now, but as smart as you are, you are selfish as fuck. You weren’t thinking about anybody but yourself when you were making all of these decisions. You didn’t think that any of this was shit that you could’ve talked to me about? You could’ve got my brother football numbers.”
“You have to understand that I was scared. I thought that you would blame me for everything like you are blaming me now.”
“Well, you’re not blameless in any of this shit you know? And what was up with ole boy back in Ohio?”
She looked up at me with resentment in her eyes, “Ugh, I don’t know. We were just friends, but it turns out that he was sent by my ex. I don’t know what he would have done to me, if you wouldn’t have got there when you did,” she sounded relived.
My head was all over the place. A part of me felt like I couldn’t trust her and then another part of me feared that she would just up and run again.
“Can you please say something,” she said, softly.
“Fuck you want me to say Elle? That shit is all good? That we can move on a be a happy family?”
“No, I don’t need you to say any of that. I just can’t stand the silence. Yell at me if you want to.”
“Elle, I’m not about to sit here an ease your guilt my nigga. You know you foul and instead of just being real with me, you chose not to. You bogus as hell for that and till the baby gets here I don’t think we have anything else to talk about, if its mine.”
I stood up, sick of wasting my time entertaining her ass.
“Oh, and here you go,” I said, before exiting the room.
I dropped the elephant charm bracelet to the ground never looking back.