𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨
﹥━━━━━━━━━━﹤

"You don't have to come in if you don't want to, Morgan." I let her know.

We've just landed in New York and the first matter of business is seeing my son.

I didn't want Andy and Jabari to meet him this way, it just happened. If it were up to me, I'd take Hayes back home to Tennessee and raise him there properly.
I hate to say it's Morgan's fault that I'm not bringing Hayes up the way I want to, it sort of is. She's still uncomfortable with me having a child especially by Sabrina, so it would be wildly inconsiderate to bring him home while I'm going through all of this shit. That, and he's dealing with some pretty serious health issues, says Marsha. She's been his primary guardian since birth, I also just can't rip him away from his maternal grandmother like that. Not that Marsha's the most deserving considering how Cleo and Sabrina (Marissa) turned out. Hayes is all she has left since her husband's behind bars for the foreseeable future - also thanks to me.

I don't know, I just feel like I owe all of them.

"We're already here, I don't mind going in, I'm not gonna be rude and sit in the car." Morgan says, taking off her seatbelt.

I thank the cab driver and hop out of the vehicle after Morgan does.

"I'm tired of this place." Jabari says what I'm thinking.

"How much money do you guys have?" Andy asks, trailing us towards Marsha's gate.

"Seriously, this is a lot of travel. Do you have, like, airline points, or something?" He humors us.

The gate opens to let us through so we walk another hundred feet to the front door.

Again, I ask Morgan if she's sure of this.

"Why do you keep asking me?" She gets annoyed.

"Last time you saw him you freaked out. I know you said you're okay with this, but it's fine if you're not."

She rolls her eyes. "Don't you see me walking to the house, I'm with you. It's fine."

"I'm saying it doesn't have to be."

"What the hell, Chris? What's going on?"

"I don't know, I just— maybe I don't want you to get to know him yet."

Morgan looks taken aback.

"Excuse me?" She scoffs.

I wet my lips. "It's not you, it's just that you've been back and forth with this and I need you to be a hundred percent before you meet him."

"I'll wait in the car." She says, shaking her head in disbelief.

Fuck.

I immediately regret saying anything. It's not Morgan's fault, I know this is a lot. I'm only protecting her and Hayes from each other. He's just a baby, I don't want her resenting him because of me— well, because of Sabrina.
I know Morgan will be a good Mom, it's not that I'm worried about. But this isn't her son, or her problem. Like everything else, I can handle it on my own.

"That's cold, bro." Jabari says to me.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go wait with Morgan. This is getting a little too real, too fast for me." Andy walks backwards as he tells us his excuse.

I mentally kick myself.

Jabari puts his hands on my shoulders.

"It's your son, your responsibility, no one else's. You made that call, Morgan will be okay. She'll get to know him eventually, she has his whole life." He cheers me up.

I nod my head, taking in his advice.

"You're right." I tell him.

"Come on," he says, leading the way towards the exterior stairs.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

We wait outside of the doors for Marsha, or her butler, to let us in.

The butler welcomes us.

"She got a Jeffrey?" He refers to the butler from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

I ignore his comment and walk to the living room where I expect to see Marsha.

Ah, I was right. There she is rocking Hayes to sleep.

"Christopher," she whispers, "come, come."

"Hi, Marsha." I talk gently, walking around the sofa.

"This is JB who I told you about."

"I figured. Hi, Jabari." She charms.

"Nice to meet you, you have a nice home-"

"Shh, shh, shh." She warns us, seeing Hayes twitch in his sleep.

"Let me put him down I'll be right back." She says, standing carefully with the baby in her arms.

"Can I?" I offer to take him to his crib down the hall.

"Oh?" Marsha sounds surprised at me asking.

"Um, I don't see why not. Mind his head," she helps me.

I manage to get Hayes into my arms without waking him.

He's light, I notice. From the pictures I've seen, he's always been a runt. I've just figured that's from Sabrina's side.

"Last bedroom down this corridor on the right." Marsha tells me where to find my son's nursery.

I amble down the hall, looking down at Hayes as he sleeps peacefully.

Once I'm in the bedroom, I appreciate what Marsha has done with it. She's really made a home for Hayes here, that's more than I can say.

I lay Hayes gently on his back because Morgan recently told me that she read babies should be on their backs now instead of their stomachs. It's funny, I swear when I was a kid I heard that babies should sleep on their stomach. I don't know.

Hayes is quiet. He occasionally jumps in his sleep or puckers his lips, that's it.

Hmm..

I just noticed his top lip is thin, unlike mine or Sabrina's. Maybe because she had surgery. Yeah, that's it. Boy, it'll be funny to see when Hayes grows up and looks nothing like her because she's had all this work done.

His eyes and his head are also small. I don't have doe eyes necessarily but they're not really small, neither is my head. Again, must be on Sabrina.

Well, what features of mine does Hayes have? Any? I start to wonder.

Out of curiosity, I roam the bedroom, looking at baby pictures of "my" son.

Sonograms, his first footprint, pictures of him fresh out the womb - none of them resemble me.

I text Mom to send me any baby pictures she might have of me in her phone and she replies immediately with ten attachments.

As soon as they load, I compare my newborn pictures to Hayes.
His hair is dark and thick, that's all. His eyes are green, yes, but his nose isn't like mine or Sabrina's either; the bridge is flat and it's upturned.

"Yo." Jabari whispers, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

I admit he kind of scared me but only because I thought he was Marsha.

"Ready to roll?" He asks me.

"Yeah." I say back quietly, following him out of the room after taking a picture of Hayes.

"Oh, Chris," Marsha calls out for me as Jabari and I stand in the foyer.

"Yes?"

She pulls the cup of tea away from her red lips and says, " Thanks for stopping by but we won't be needing you to anymore."

"Excuse me?"

"I think it's in everyone's best interest if he isn't confused with the matters of his biological parents."

"Who are his biological parents?" I challenge Marsha.

She clutches her pearls literally. "Sabrina is most definitely his mother, how dare you think otherwise?"

She doesn't know it, but she just told me everything I need to know.

"No, I know Sabrina's his mother," I state, "Thanks, Marsha."

Jabari and I march down the stairs and down the paved driveway.

He stops me.

"Yo, you good?" He asks.

"That's not my son, that can't be my son."

"I hate to say it, but I was definitely about to ask if you got a DNA test."

"Fuckin' Sabrina, man." I curse, working myself up.

"What you gon' do?"

"I'm not doing anything. I'm gonna find out why she lied, get what we came here for, and leave. Come on."

"They only allow three visitors." I report back to the group.

"Well I don't know this chick, so." Andy volunteers Jabari.

Jabari throws his hands up. "I can't stand the bitch. If I go in there, Ima kill her."

"I'll go," Morgan says. "Since I had to stay in the car last time."

I'm aware that she's taking jabs at me, I deserve it.

If I had the words to say to her right now, I'd apologize, but I don't so I can't. I'll keep letting her tear me down until she feels better or gives up.

"We'll stay here." Jabari tells me.

We do our handshake and then I follow Morgan inside of the prison.

She doesn't wait for me, asking the guards where to go and what to do.

I don't speak up because I don't want to say the wrong thing.

"Do you know what you're gonna ask her?" Morgan questions me.

"Uh, y-yeah." I stammer, caught off guard because I wasn't expecting her to talk to me.

"What?"

"What does she know about Clapper, what do the girls on there have to do and with who? Is there anyone else working with Malcolm or Beck. How do we get you out of all of this?"

Morgan's nod approves of my questions. I nod back, feeling content. Mostly I just needed her reassurance, too.

In walks Sabrina, escorted by a couple of guards.

They remove her handcuffs and let her walk further inside the room alone and free.

Like the last time I saw her, she has on a headwrap.

Now, though, she's nearly healed and looks better. I can look at her without feeling like she's pure nightmare fuel.

"The doctors did a good job." Morgan opens the conversation.

"They did what they could. I'm thankful. I asked them to make me look like you." Sabrina tries to make us laugh.

"If you tilt your head and close your eyes and turn around, you can kinda see it." Morgan jokes back but she hasn't laughed or cracked a smile yet.

Sabrina laughs, though, sitting in the chair facing the window. There's hardly a view, but she stares out of it anyway.

"Morgan, are you pregnant?" The question is random it throws me off.

"What?" Morgan chuckles.

"I can tell." Sabrina says.

"No," Morgan answers. "Even if I was...."

"I'm wishing that on you, on the both of you. I know how hard it is to watch him raise my child, Morgan. I won't apologize for it, but I'll manifest one of your own for you." Her country accents makes an appearance.

"I guess we're talking to Marissa now?" Morgan says.

Sabrina/Marissa laughs out loud. She's hysterical, circling in the chair.

"What do you know?" She laughs.

"We're here to find out what you know." I interject.

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Oh alright, about what?"

"Clapper." I cut to the chase.

"Ohh." Sabrina sounds.

"We found a profile for Morgan and know it means someone is bidding on her. What's this auction and who's behind it?"

"Well, who do you owe?" Asks Sabrina.

Morgan and I look at each other across the room.

"We don't owe anybody." Morgan makes clear.

"That's not true." Sabrina insists.

"She's crazy." I huff, about to give up.

"Clapper is for sugar daddies but you don't find them, they find you. And you, Darling, have already been found. So, I ask you again, who do you owe?"

"Fuck this." Morgan seethes, storming out.

I try grabbing her hand but she snatches it away and walks out.

"Morgan-" I shout at the back of her head but it's too late.

The door slams shut.

"And then there were two. Anymore questions or can I ask mine?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose.

"What, what do you have to ask?" I snap, raising my voice.

"How is he? How is Hayes, tell me he's been a good boy?"

My eyelids flicker.

I'm suddenly reminded of what else I needed to find out before leaving New York.

I stomp over to the chair Sabrina's sitting in and make her look at me.

As hard as it is to look at her, I maintain eye contact.

"Whose son is that really, and don't lie to me?"

She starts to laugh and then it turns into tears.

"How dare you ask me something like that?" Sabrina hisses, raising her hand.

I catch it before her palm connects with my cheek.

She gasps, frightened.

I hold her wrist and remain unnerved.

"Whose son is that, I know he's not mine, he looks nothing like me?"

"And he hardly looks like me."

"Exactly, so whose son is it? Quickly."

"He doesn't look like us because he has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Happy now? I didn't tell you because I didn't want you treating him differently."

"No. Your mother would've told me."

"She told you he's having health problems, we didn't think to bother you with specifics because it's not like you'd come running."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Don't, then, Chris. I have nothing to gain from this. I'm locked up, I have nothing but time. What you need to do is stop assuming I want anything else from you."

SLAM!

"Yo!" Jabari shouts.

I shake my head, continuing past him.

"I was just about to come get you. What happened, you good?" He asks, keeping up with me.

"She said he's mine."

Jabari doesn't buy it. "He don't look like you. Let's go get a DNA test."

"He has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome." I tell Jabari.

He cusses under his breath. "My bad, Chris. I didn't know."

"Neither did I, clearly." I bark, hands on my hips.

"That's fucked up, she couldn't stop drinking while she was carrying yo kid? Damn. Is he gonna be alright?"

"I don't wanna think about that right now. Look, don't tell Morgan, alright?"

"Of course not, I'll let you do that." Jabari says, dapping me up.

"What you wanna do now?" Asks JB.

"She said this will be done when we figure out who Morgan owes..."

Jabari looks lost. "Who she owe?"

"That's what we gotta find out."