Wifey 4 Life (6 page)

As we pulled into the parking lot, I felt a sense of guilt about
seeing Rhonda’s children, because they no longer had their mother around. But I
also felt love filling my heart because I was about to see the children after all
this time. When I got out of the car, I took a deep breath and followed Tony to
the front door.

Surprisingly, Tony’s friend opened the front door before he could
unlock it. She stood there in the doorway wearing the evilest stare.

I smiled. “Hello.”

She ignored me and looked directly at Tony. “Who is this?”

While Tony explained to her silly ass who I was, I stood there
with my expensive handbag clutched tightly in my hands, making sure she could see
it was high-end. I even stuck out my right leg so she could see that my Marc Jacobs
shoes. I knew she couldn’t afford the attire I was used to wearing, so I made her
grit on me even more when I sighed heavily like my time was being wasted.

“Am I going to see the kids or not?” I asked. “Because if I’m
intruding on her time and space, then I can take my ass to the mall and do a little
shopping before I leave town,” I said to Tony. I looked back at the chick to see
her reaction.

“Well, carry your ass then!” she roared.

I smiled. “Sweetie, you don’t even know me to be popping shit
like this!”

“Trust me, I can do and say what the fuck I want to.”

I looked back at Tony. “Can you please handle her before—”

“Before you do what?” She took two steps toward me. This chick
was so close to me, she could’ve grabbed me around my throat with ease.

Luckily, Tony got between us. “Shannon, go ’head with that crazy-ass
shit! All Kira came here to do is see the kids, and then she’s bouncing.”

“That bitch ain’t coming in here!”

“I ain’t gotta come in there!”

Tony pushed Shannon backward. “Get cha ass back in the house.
I ain’t got time for this bullshit. This girl ain’t did shit to you for you to be
acting like this.”

“I’m just tired of you bringing a whole bunch of bitches to this
house. Last week, it was that chick named Sheila, and come to find out, you were
fucking her. So, for all I know, she could be another one of the bitches you be
fucking behind my back.”

Tony screamed, “I ain’t trying to hear that shit, so shut
the fuck up!” Shannon stormed back in the house. She went straight to the hall closet
by the front door, reached inside, grabbed her coat and purse, and then stormed
right back out past us. I turned to see where she was going. When I saw her hop
into a green Nissan Sentra, I wondered why she carried on the way she did.

A brown-skinned chick about two inches taller than me, Shannon
was a very pretty young lady. Her hair, styled in a silk wrap, was very long, and
she had it cut in layers. But I could tell it was a weave. She looked like the actress
Gabrielle Union, but her weight was a little more on the thick side. Her taste in
designers wasn’t high-end, because the jean shorts, spaghetti-strap top, and three-inch
slingback sandals she wore couldn’t come from anywhere else except bottom-dollar
stores. Her whole ensemble looked cheap, so I knew she got a fever when she first
looked at me and saw I was rocking an all-black Burberry one- shoulder dress with
a black Chanel purse.

When she drove off, she pressed down on the accelerator, squealing
her tires like she was a fucking racecar driver. I laughed underneath my breath
because she looked really ridiculous in that little tin can car.

I turned my attention back to Tony. I smiled and said, “I see
you got yourself a new wifey!”

“Nah, Shannon’s just my friend. I ain’t ready to get into another
serious relationship. I got too much shit on my plate right now to be dealing with
emotional attachments.”

I sighed. “Well, emotional baggage is definitely what women bring
to the table.”

He nodded. “True. True.”

“How do you think the kids are going to react when they see me?”
I asked as we entered his apartment.

“I’m not sure, but we’re about to find out.” Tony started yelling
their names. When they didn’t answer, he said, “They probably can’t hear me because
they got that TV up really loud.”

As I stepped into the hallway, I stood there alongside the wall
and waited for him to close the door behind us so he could escort me to where the
children were.

But before we could move one step, both kids came rushing down
the hallway toward me. “Auntie Kira,” they both yelled.

My heart instantly filled with joy when I saw Li’l Tony and Meagan
coming toward me. I bent down and extended both of my arms. They rushed to me and
fell into my arms.

“Where you been at?” Rhonda’s nine-year-old son asked.

“Yeah, Auntie Kira, where you been? We missed you,” seven-year-
old Meagan said.

I looked at them both. “I missed y’all too, but I had to leave
town for a while.”

“Why?” Meagan wanted to know.

“Because something came up and I had to hurry up and leave.”

“You know my mommy died, right?” Li’l Tony asked.

Shocked by his candor, I looked up at Tony to see his reaction,
and also to see if he would answer the question for me, because I really didn’t
know what to say. Yes, I knew Rhonda got killed, but how would I explain to a child
that I knew about his mother’s death, but didn’t go to her funeral, or even check
on them to see how they were doing? I’d totally deserted them. And I was feeling
the guilt rise up within me.

Since Tony didn’t come to my rescue, I exhaled and said, “Yes,
sweetie, I know.”

“Our daddy said she’s in heaven with God,” Meagan said.

“Your daddy is right.”

“Our daddy also said that it was you and Nikki’s fault that my
mommy got killed.”

Without warning, Tony smacked his son on the back of his head.

“Owwwwww!” Li’l Tony grabbed the back of his head.

“It’s gonna hurt worse than that if you keep running your mouth.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Taken aback by Li’l Tony’s comment, I was speechless. I honestly
didn’t know what else to say. At that very moment I wanted to shrink to the size
of a mouse and crawl right into a hole. And since I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull
that one off, I looked back at Tony and smiled gracefully. I tried to block out
everything around me for just one second, but it didn’t work, so I looked back into
Li’l Tony’s eyes and said, “No, sweetie! I didn’t have anything to do with what
happened to your mother. Now I can’t speak for Nikki, but I can definitely speak
for myself. And I will tell you this. If I was around, I would’ve made sure nothing
happened to your mother,” I said, using my peripheral vision to look at Tony. I
wanted to see his expression, but he must’ve known I was watching him, because he
didn’t flinch.

Tony then grabbed Li’l Tony by the back of his shirt and began
pulling him down the hallway. “Bring your big mouth on down here to the living room
and have a damn seat before I tear up your ass!” Tony escorted his son toward the
living room area of the house.

As Meagan followed behind them, I followed behind her. What
I really wanted to do was turn around and go right back through the door I’d
just come through. I honestly didn’t want to believe that Tony blamed me for Rhonda’s
murder. In fact, he didn’t give me that impression when I’d first approached him
at my uncle’s house.

When I got to the living room, Tony asked me if I wanted something
to drink, but I turned him down. I took a seat beside the kids on the sofa to watch
TV. I draped my handbag over my lap and sat there like I was really into the show
the children were watching.

“Can I use the bathroom?” I asked.

Tony took a seat on the lounge chair. “Yeah, go ahead. It’s that
door underneath the stairwell.”

“Thanks.”

I got up from the chair and raced to the hallway bathroom. As
soon as I closed the door behind me, I sat on the side of the bathtub and exhaled.
A ton of things ran through my mind at once. I tried to collect my thoughts, but
I couldn’t.

Under normal circumstances, I would have stepped to Tony and
addressed the situation, but for some reason, I felt out of sync with him. I was
never his best friend, but we were really cool when Rhonda was alive. I remember
him asking me to babysit the kids on a couple of occasions so he and Rhonda could
either go out or stay in and have time alone. Every time he needed me to come through
for him, I did, so it really was a shocker to me that he was holding back his true
feelings and wasn’t being straight up with me. I guess I was gonna have to approach
him with it. He and I had come too far to let something as serious as this come
between us.

I stood and looked into the bathroom mirror. “OK, Kira, you can
do it, girl,” I said to myself. Before I walked out of the bathroom, I pushed down
the handle on the toilet to make it seem like I had just used it, and then I turned
on the bathroom faucet and pretended like I was washing my hands. As I prepared
to exit the bathroom, I took another deep breath, exhaled, and strolled back into
the living room, where Tony and the kids were watching TV.

As soon as I walked into the room, I noticed that Tony was gone.
The children were still seated in the same places on the sofa. I asked Li’l Tony
where his father was.

“I think he went into the kitchen,” he said.

Badly wanting to set the record straight with Tony, I backed
up into the hallway and turned around to see if he was in fact in the kitchen. I
walked the short distance to the kitchen and made a left turn around the corner.
To my surprise, Tony wasn’t in the kitchen. I started to call out his name, but
I figured that wherever he was, he’d be right back. This apartment only had two
levels, so he was probably on the second floor.

I turned to go back into the living room, but the sound of Tony’s
voice stopped me in my tracks. I paused for a minute to hear from which direction
his voice was coming. It sounded like he was engaged in a conversation.

I immediately turned around toward the front door and stood still.
His words became clearer as I got closer. Then I heard him say, “I can handle that.
That ain’t no problem.”

I took two more steps toward the front door so I could reach
over and grab the handle to twist it and open the door.

“OK, I’ll do it, but he better have my money in hand when I get
there,” Tony said.

Before he could say another word, I opened the front door. He
looked at me like I was a fucking ghost.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

Instead of responding to my question, he spoke into the receiver
of his cell phone. “Eh, yo, homeboy, let me call you back in a few minutes.”
Then he shoved his phone into his pants pocket.

“I’m sorry. Did I scare you?”

“Nah, you a’ight.”

“Well, the reason I came looking for you is because I wanted
to talk to you while the kids weren’t around.”

“What’s up?”

“Can we talk out here?”

“Yeah, but close the door behind you.”

I closed the door and stepped onto the front porch. Standing
only a foot away from me, Tony gave me his undivided attention. I cleared my throat
and said, “Look, Tony, I’ve known you for about the same amount of time as I knew
Rhonda. I’ve always treated you and Rhonda like family. Now I know that it’s been
a while since I’ve been around, especially since I’m the godmother of those kids
in there, but as long as I stand here breathing, I would never do anything, nor
have I ever done anything to put you, those kids, or Rhonda in a predicament that
would harm any of you. Now I know Rhonda is gone and we can’t bring her back, but
I swear to you that it wasn’t my fault she got killed.”

Tony smiled. “I can’t believe you believed what Li’l Tony said.
Kira, I don’t blame you for Rhonda’s murder.”

“But why would he make that type of comment?” I asked. His words
had really hurt me.

“He must’ve heard bits and pieces of my conversation with Shannon
and got all mixed up. I mean, that’s the only way I can see it. But you really shouldn’t
let what he said bother you, because I don’t feel that way about you at all.”

Tony seemed sincere in what he was saying was, so I let what
Li’l Tony said to me ride. I was glad I got that shit off my chest, so now I could
move forward.

As Tony and I continued to converse, Meagan opened the front
door. “Daddy, Li’l Tony turned the TV channel while I was watching
Hannah Montana
.”

“Tell ’im I said he better turn the channel back or I’m gon’
beat his ass!”

“OK.” Meagan dashed back into the house.

About five seconds later she came running back outside. “Daddy,
every time I turn it to channel twenty-nine, he turns the TV back to what he wants
to watch.”

Tony asked me to excuse him and then stormed into the house.
Meagan and I followed. He chastised him, and the kids finally calmed down.

A few minutes later Tony told Meagan and Li’l Tony to get ready
so they could leave to go over to their grandmother’s house.

“Are you talking about Rhonda’s mom?” I asked.

“Yes. I told her I would bring the kids over for a visit today.”

“How is she doing?”

“She’s fine. Wanna ride over there with us?”

“How long do you plan to be there?”

“Not long. I’m really just gonna drop off the kids.”

“I don’t wanna go over Grandma’s house,” Li’l Tony said. “I wanna
stay here.”

“Me either, Daddy. I wanna stay here with you.”

“Well, I ain’t gon’ be here. I got to go out for a while.”

“Well, can we go with you?” Meagan asked.

“No, you can’t.”

“I don’t wanna go with you. I just want to stay home so I can
play with my Xbox game.”

“Well, that’s not happening. Both of y’all are going to your
grandmother’s house, and that’s it. Now get ready because we’re leaving in five
minutes.”

Li’l Tony and Meagan both dragged themselves out of the living
room and headed upstairs to their rooms to get what they were going to need while
at their grandmother’s house.