ARMAND
Ella is pregnant?
That thought repeated in my head.
Ella is pregnant?
I knew it was mine. That wasn’t even a question in my mind, but how? She had an IUD. I knew that for a fact, so how? Would she want the baby? Did I want a baby?
Her baby?
Hell yeah!
Ella is pregnant.
The doctor was gone. My mom and Leland were talking, getting louder and louder, and I just stood there staring at the space the doctor had vacated.
Ella was pregnant.
And hurt.
I needed to see her.
Turning, my gaze collided with Leland’s. Yanking himself free from my mother’s grip, he flew into my face, voice low. “I need to be here for my niece, so I’m fighting the desire to kick your ass like a motherfucker, but this shit you pulled with her, this revenge? Best believe you gon’ pay!”
“Leland, stop! What the two of them have has nothing to do with us, just like what we have has nothing to do with them!” my mother chastised.
As for me, I was dealing with too many emotions to utter a word. Instead, I walked back over and reclaimed my abandoned seat, my eyes on the floor, my head throbbing, my heart aching.
Ella is pregnant.
“McClain family!”
I was up on my feet so fast I nearly fell. All three of us—Leland, my mom, and I—rushed to the owner of a new voice…a nurse. “Ms. McClain can have a visitor now.”
“I’m her uncle, her next of kin. I’ll go first,” Leland said.
I didn’t give a fuck if he was an exact DNA match to her. I was going to see her first. I was just about to tell him that when the nurse advised, “She’s asking for an Armand. She says she only wants to see Armand.”
One of her eyes was swollen shut. Dried blood, bruises, and cuts covered her face. Her lip was busted, and as she looked up and saw me approaching her, she began to cry while reaching for me.
I rushed to the side of the gurney, grasping her outstretched hand and leaning in close to her face. “Hey, I’m here. I’m here, sir,” I softly said. “I’m here.”
Her words were garbled as she spoke, but I could understand her. “Everything hurts, Boogie. Everything hurts,” she cried.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened to you.” I gently rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. I wanted to cry, too, but I fought it. She didn’t need to see me crumble.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.
“I know. We’ll talk about it later. Just…just calm down. I’m here, and I ain’t going nowhere.”
“Okay…” she sobbed.
ELLA
“Miss McClain, they have a bed for you upstairs. We’re going to move you within the hour.”
I blinked slowly and then attempted to focus the eye that wasn’t swollen shut. It was no use, so I just nodded at the blurry blob before me.
“Sir…can I ask you to leave and meet us upstairs? Her room number will be—”
“No,” I interrupted her. “He stays.”
“Um, okay. Your other family can meet you upstairs then. Your, uh, father is here,” she said.
“Okay,” I replied.
“I could just meet you upstairs,” Armand offered after the nurse left.
“I don’t want you to. I can’t…I want you with me. Okay? Please stay with me.”
“I ain’t going nowhere. I promise.”
I don’t remember falling asleep but found myself waking up in a different location. I was no longer in the ER but in a room. I could feel Armand to my right. I could smell him, too. Not sweat or cologne, just him. His was an aroma I’d memorized. There was someone else in the room, too, someone whose energy I knew well, an energy that comforted me as much as Armand did.
“Daddy?” I rasped.
I heard movement as a familiar bulky frame approached me. “Princess, I got here as soon as I could. Lil’ Ev has the flu or else Jo would be here, too. I was so worried about you…”
“Uh…I’ll leave so you two can talk,” Armand offered.
“Yeah, you do that,” Daddy bit out, “and when me and my daughter are done talking, I’ma take care of your ass! You ‘bout to dissa-fucking-pear, my nigga!”
“Daddy!” I shrieked.
“Man, look—” Armand tried, but my dad interrupted him.
“Man, look my ass! I knew something was up when I saw you sniffing in behind her at your mom’s party. Shoulda handled your ass then. I don’t know who the fuck told you that you could mess with my damn baby girl and live, but they misinformed you! I’m about to fucking end your little ass!”
“Daddy, stop!” I yelled. “Stay, Armand. Daddy, I’m glad you’re here, but please don’t talk to him like that. He doesn’t deserve it. He’s done nothing wrong.”
My dad shook his head. “This ain’t right, Ella.”
“Me being hurt isn’t right. Me and Armand? That’s the rightest thing in my life. Didn’t you tell me to move on, to live?”
“Not with this motherfucker! Princess, you’re pregnant?” my dad asked, sounding pained. “By him?”
“Yes, and I’m twenty-three, and he didn’t take my virginity. He didn’t take anything from me I wasn’t willing to give.”
“Shit,” Armand muttered. “Ella, I don’t mind stepping out—”
“No!” I nearly shouted.
“Okay, I’ma just stay my ass right here then.” Armand muttered from where he was still seated beside me.
“Daddy,” I began, shifting my attention to him, “I know you feel like I’m still your little girl—”
“That’s not it. I realize you’re an adult now, but you’ve been sheltered. I don’t trust him with you. I don’t want you hurt,” my father cut in.
“He’d never hurt me, and I’m not as sheltered as you think,” I countered.
“No cap,” Armand mumbled.
My dad shot him a look and grunted, “Ella, I know you think you know him but—”
“I love him,” I said, making him fall silent. “I don’t think I love him, I don’t believe I love him, I know I love him just like I know he loves me. The beef he had with Uncle Leland? His reputation? Whatever he did in the past to whoever doesn’t matter to me. I love the Armand Daniels that I know. I’m carrying that Armand Daniels’ baby. You’re gonna have to accept that and him if you want to remain in my life and my baby’s life because he isn’t going anywhere unless I tell him to. Right, Armand?”
“Whatever you say,” Armand agreed.
“And I’m not ever going to tell him to leave me,” I finished. Yeah, I was a McClain, but I was also a Reese. I could be a bitch when I needed to. Armand was mine and no one was taking him from me.