Three months passed since the crazy fight at The Pretty Avenue. Von’s phone rang one day. It was Nasty. She was happy he called before she got to the doctor’s office. She didn’t want to talk to him while she was there.
“Happy birthday, little sister.”
“Thank you, twin. I’m almost 20.”
“I know, don’t remind me. What y’all doing? I know you got something planned.”
“Actually, I’m hanging out with Paige and Mad-Dog tonight. Mad-Dog is doing something. I thought that was nice of him.”
“Yeah, Paige got herself a good man.”
“So how is everything going in there?”
“Everything is good. The beef is straight. Shorty 55 seen that the beef got taken to the street, so he fell back. All is peace here. Hopefully, no more blood will shed.”
“Good, because I can’t wait for you to get out here.” Von was happy to know that Soulja had obviously kept her secret. She was expected to go into labor in just a few weeks. They ended the call. Von continued to get ready for whatever surprise Mad-Dog had for her. He was a very nice dude, and Von was extremely happy for her friend.
As she was applying lip gloss, she got a phone call. She thought it was Nasty calling back, but then she realized it wasn’t 15 minutes yet. The number said unavailable.
“Hello!”
“Von! Whattup?” It was Rodney. She frowned up her face.
“What?” she said.
“How are you? I saw you yesterday coming from church. Wow, you are so big.”
“Most pregnant women are.”
“Listen, Von, when is the next time you go to the doctor about the baby?” He was clear to say “about the baby,” not wanting to mislead Von into thinking he accepted that he had the disease.
“Actually, I go today.”
“I wanna go with you. Can I pick you up?” Von didn’t want to be anywhere with him, but he was the father of her child, and he’d been asking her for months to go with her.
“Fine, Rodney. But you gotta be here in 20 minutes.” She hung up, and Rod was outside in no more than 5 minutes. She was happy that Paige and Marla weren’t home at the time. She didn’t want to hear their mouths about her going anywhere with him.
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“Hi, Von!” Dr. Maru said. “And who is this?”
“This is Rodney. The father of my baby.”
“Oh! Rodney. Pleased to meet you.” She put her hand out to shake his, and he just looked at her. Von cleared her throat. “Alrighty, well, did you come in to get tested today?” the doctor asked.
“Tested? Nah, I’m good.”
“No, you’re not good, young man. Von has HIV, and if you’re admittedly the father of this baby, then you need to be tested.”
Rod didn’t feel like arguing with the lady, so he rolled up his sleeve and let her draw a small amount of blood. She left the room, and when she returned, she told Von to get undressed and then sit on the examination table.
“How long is this gonna take?” he asked. His mood was ruined now that this woman had taken his blood.
“Not long,” Von said looking at Rodney, him wondering how she ever loved this monster.
Von got on the table, and the doctor rubbed clear gel on her large stomach. “Okay, we’re going to now hear the baby’s heartbeat.” Swoosh, wush. Swoosh, wush, wush, wush. The doctor had a perplexed look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Von said, feeling that the doctor had noticed something wrong.
Dr. Maru then moved the ultrasound around to the bottom of Von’s stomach. “Arch your back slightly for a moment,” the doctor said. She looked at the screen again, and then put her hand over her mouth.
“Please tell me what’s wrong,” Von begged.
“Yeah, what’s up, Doc?” Rod said, curiously.
“Is there something wrong with my baby?” Von asked nervously. “I can handle it. Just please tell me,” she said desperately.
“Well, it’s not your baby. It’s babies. You have two fetuses, Von. One is much smaller than the other, and it looks like one’s been hiding behind the other. That’s why we couldn’t see it before. And their heartbeats were probably in sync before, so we didn’t pick up on it. But, yes, there are two babies here. My God!”
“Two?” Von said. “Are you playing a joke on me?”
“I’m about to have two babies! That’s what I’m talking about!” Rodney shouted. He felt that only a real man could make two babies at the same time. So he injected himself with a shot of superego. Dr. Maru was not smiling.
“I’m sorry to tell you, but one baby has been getting most of the nutrients. The other has not developed at the same rate. It’s probably due to complications from your illness. We will do all we can to save both babies.”
Von wiped her eyes. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take. It was like a cruel joke.
“What a birthday gift. Two children,” Rod said with his ignorant ass. Von was in disbelief. The horror story could not have gotten any worse. All she needed now was to go into labor on Friday the thirteenth, and then maybe she would see the humor in the whole dark thing.
After speaking with the doctor about the babies, Von found out she was having a girl and the other sex was unknown. The doctor could not get a clear view of the other one. Von didn’t care. She just wanted to do all that she could to bring them into this world as healthy as possible.
“Mr. Rodney, can you please come to the back office so I can discuss the results of your test.”
“Nah. Hold dat! Come on, Von. Let’s go.”
“I strongly suggest you come to the back.” The doctor wanted to yell out to him that he was positive, but she couldn’t violate HIPAA laws and expose his personal medical records. She could lose her license, and this asshole wasn’t worth that. And she couldn’t report him, because if he wasn’t aware of the disease due to being told the results, technically, he wasn’t responsible. At least not legally.
“It’s all right, Dr. Maru. Thank you. I’ll be back next week like you said.”
She kissed Von on the cheek. Von was such a sweet girl, and Dr. Maru hated that she’d been involved with a man like Rodney. All she could do was shake her head when they left.
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Von didn’t let the news ruin her birthday. Instead, she embraced it and believed that this must be God’s will. She waited at home with her girls for Mad-Dog to pick them up. He rolled up with a bunch of people. An entourage followed them on the highway as Mad-Dog led the way to Hanover, Pennsylvania.
“Where are we going, baby?” Paige asked.
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise!”
For a moment, Von envied Paige. She had a man who loved her and treated her like a queen. She knew that would never happen for her.
Finally, they arrived. They pulled up in front of a big mansion. There were a few cars already parked in different directions in the roundabout driveway.
“This, this is my house!”
“What?” Paige said. “No-fucking-way!”
“I got a good deal on it a while back, and I’ve been sitting on it. I had no reason to come out here, but now I do.” They all stepped out of the vehicles. “I hope you’ll move here with me, Paige.” Paige was shocked. Her girls started clapping and talking shit.
“Bitch, you better pack your shit. I’ll help you. This right here is a castle,” her friend Keisha said.
“For real, girl. I wish I had a place like this to call home,” Nicole added. These were Paige and Von’s friends that came along for the ride to celebrate Von’s birthday.
“I don’t know what to say,” Paige said. “This is—”
“Don’t say nothing right now. Just think about it. But there’s a real nice room that Tonaya would love. Come inside so I can show it to you,” he said winking at her.
“They know good and well they going in there to do the nasty,” Sconey added, whispering to Von. Paige grabbed hold of Mad-Dog’s hand, and he led the way into the huge house. Paige thought to herself that Maddie seemed too good to be true. Move in with him? But really, Paige already knew her answer was no. She would never leave Von. Her home was with Von and Marla. There was no changing that. But she was flattered by what Mad-Dog had done.
The party was fun. There were about 15 of them celebrating Von’s life. Just 19, and so beautiful. Huge, but beautiful. There was a cake that Mad-Dog had gotten made which was a miniature version of Von. Pregnant belly and all. It was so cute. It must’ve cost a fortune.
“Okay, it’s gift exchange time,” Marla said. “I wanna give my gift first.”
“No, I want to give her mines first,” Paige said, shoving Marla out of the way.
“Hold on, I have something to tell everyone first before we start gift exchanging. I have the biggest gift of them all.”
“It’s your birthday. You’re not supposed to be giving out gifts,” Marla said.
“Well, this gift is for everyone. Okay, well, I found out something amazing today.”
“What?” Paige asked with her eyebrows raised.
“There is going to be another baby added to the family.” Everybody looked at Paige.
“Don’t look at me. I am not pregnant.”
“Not yet,” Mad-Dog said, standing behind her kissing her neck.
“Seriously, it’s not me. Marla, you pregnant? You been getting it in in the visits with Nasty? Let me find out.”
“You’ll are a trip. No! It’s me!”
“We already know you’re having a baby. What you talking about, girl?”
“I’m pregnant with twins!”
“Twins? Stop playing with us, Von!” Paige said.
“Nah, I mean it. The way they were positioned made it hard to see the other one. And their heartbeats were in sync, so the doctor couldn’t hear two heartbeats. But I heard it today. There’s two of them. I’m having two babies.”
Everybody clapped and congratulated her except for Marla and Paige. They were the only two that understood the seriousness of this situation. Von simply exhaled and said, “Well, better than any gift you have here tonight, Marla and Paige, if you would be the godmothers, nothing would make me happier.”
“Of course, we will,” they both said. They hugged their friend and tried to appear to be to be happy, but they were both sad as hell.