"You know I want to talk to her, right?" I said to Don once I was back in the room. I needed to go and calm myself so that we could have a conversation without one of us yelling. It probably would have been me doing all the yelling since Don was acting all nonchalant about this issue. "You don't need to talk to her. You asked me to cancel the account and that's what I'm going to do." He told me.

"Good. You shouldn't have had it at all." I cut my eyes at him. "Okay Britni." "Don't you okay Britni me." I said. "Well then shut up. It's over." Don all but yelled. "You not about to yell at me like I'm one of the kids Adonis. I'm not the one taking care of people that I shouldn't have ties to." I said to cut that bass in his voice real quick.

"Oh my goodness, just shut up! You're starting that nagging shit again." Don said while pulling out his box that held his weed and roll ups. "Nigga, you just mad because I found your secret out. And if anyone should be mad in this bitch, it should be me." I snapped.

He looked up from the blunt that he was rolling. "You do know that I'm not listening to you, right?" He chuckled and fired it up. "See how much I listen to you in the next fifteen minutes when your high ass wants some pussy or you want some food. Chuckle at that." I said while typing my password into my laptop. "I'll see." He said. I just let him have the last word and kept quiet.

I spent the next hour responding to emails and looking for open spaces to open up another dance studio. The whole time Don kept sighing and smacking his lips and I ignored him. "Britni." Don called my name. I didn't even look up because I knew that he wanted one of two things. "Go away, Adonis." I said. "But I'm horny." He groaned. A sigh escaped my lips as I reached over onto my nightstand for the baby oil gel that I used for his massage.

"Here, have at it." I said tossing it to him. "The fuck?" He said looking at me as though I were crazy. "Oh no no no, husband of mine, a fuck is not what you're getting right now so I suggest you put that right hand to work. Don't blind yourself." I told him before closing my laptop and moving from the bed. "I swear I might have married the most selfish individual on this planet." I heard him mumble while I got dressed. "What was that?" I asked. "I said I love you." "Kiss my ass."

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I had left the house and decided to walk the mall with no intentions to purchase anything unless it caught my eye. Plus I never shopped for myself anymore. Whenever I tried I would always end up with things for the kids. Walking through the Nordstrom department store, I made my way towards the shoe section where a pair of teal, suede Christian Dior pumps caught my eye. I had to have them. You can never have too many shoes especially being a female.

After getting them in my size and trying them on, I gathered the box and headed to the register. "Did you find everything alright?" The older white lady behind the register asked. I nodded my head. "Yeah, I did." She scanned the bar code. "Would you be interested in our shoe protector spray? It protects the material in water and snow." She said.

"Uhhh, yeah you can add it on." I said. "Okay, your total is $976.47." She told me the price. I wasn't expecting those shoes to be that much but whatever. I swiped my card and signed. "Have a nice night." She handed me my bag and I sped my ass out of the store before I saw anything else. On my way out I bumped into someone dropping my shoes in the process.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." I said looking up at the person and feeling anger run through my body. "Hello Britni." I held a blank look on my face before turning my lips up into the most fake smile that I could muster. "Rachel, what are you doing home? How was life on the inside? It must have been good because you put on a few pounds that you could stand." I said to her.

She smirked, "I thought we put everything behind us, Britni. And you know my name is Renee." My head shook side to side and I giggled. "Oh forgive me, I had the first letter right. So you look as if you're doing pretty well, I mean with you being an ex-con and everything. You must have found a great paying job." I gestured to the many bags that she held. "Uh, something like that." She said looking away from me. "Great." I nodded. "Uh huh." She said standing there looking good and stupid. "Well I have to go." I told her while checking the time on my white gold Rolex. "Okay, bye." She waved.

I gave her another fake smile as she began to walk off. "Oh, Renee?" I called out to her. "Yes?" "You might want to take your ass down to the welfare building come Monday morning because those funds that you receive from my husband end. And you might want to check into a homeless shelter because you're not staying in that apartment for too long either. You have a nice night." I waved bye and headed for the exit. I wasn't expecting to run into her at this mall but I was glad that I did. I knew my husband wasn't going to handle it.

"Did you go out looking for Renee?" Don asked me before I could even get into the house good. "Boy if you don't go on? What I look like going to search for some dusty ass bird?" I said, kicking my shoes off. "What did you say to her?" He asked ignoring my question and following me into the kitchen. I washed my hands and then pulled out the ingredients to make me some a buffalo chicken salad.

"I didn't tell her anything." I said, chopping up the lettuce. "No, wait, I told her to take her ass down to the welfare. She isn't living off of us anymore. I don't care if you say it's your money because it's not; that changed on October 21st when we said our vows. What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine, making it ours." I looked him in the eye. He sighed before sitting at the island counter. "You're right." He mumbled.

I stopped making my salad and looked up at him. "What did you say?" "I said that you're right and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not telling you that I was giving her money, sorry for yelling at you and ignoring you. I'm just sorry especially for keeping things from you." He apologized. "Okay." I said before sitting beside him and digging into my food. I grabbed his that held a fork of his own. He wasn't just going to eat my food without asking. "What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine." He smirked before kissing my nose. "That doesn't include food."

------

I woke up to some giggling and four eyes in my face. "Hey babies. What are you doing?" I asked my kids while sitting up. They weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow night. "Me miss Mama. Right Didi?" Junior asked Adia. "Mhmm." She hummed. "I missed you two more." I said hugging and kissing them. Junior pushed Adia out the way so that he could be closer to me. Adia being the drama queen that she was fell back in the most dramatic way. I know that it was wrong but I had to laugh; it was funny.

"Aww, come on Adia. You can lay here." I opened my left arm and she made herself comfortable. Junior handed me the remote and I went to Netflix and chose Turbo for the millionth time. Ever since these two discovered this movie, it was all they watched. I won't even lie and say that I don't like the movie because I do.

"Turbo he goes super fast." I sang along to the intro. "Speed Mama." Junior said. "What?" I asked him. "Turbo got super speed." He told me. "Oh." I said mentally rolling my eyes at the fact that a three year old just corrected me on some song lyrics. "Dang girl." He shook his head, before giving me a look of disbelief. I laughed out loud because Junior was being too funny right now.

Adia turned her head up at me and held her finger to her mouth. "Shh." She said. "Y'all kids are something else." I mumbled. "Mama, hush." Junior said, cutting his eyes at me. I didn't say another word as we turned our attention back to the movie. "Not this movie again." Don groaned walking into the room halfway through. "Quiet Daddy." Adia said shocking me. "Alright." Don laughed and climbed up in the bed with us.

By the end of the movie both Adia and Junior were knocked out. "Did Ant bring them home?" I asked Don after he came back from putting the kids in their beds. "Nah, I had to go and get them." He said pulling his shirt over his head. "Why?" "Mia had to go to the hospital, she was bleeding and shit." Don told me. "And you're just now telling me? Is she okay?" I asked. "Ant said he will call us and not to come up. I'm sure she's good though." "Okay." I nodded my head.

Don disappeared from the room and I took that time to catch up on reading 'The Secret She Kept' by Rashonda Tate Billingsley. Everytime I tried to read with Don around, he would want me to read out loud to him like he was one of the kids. Then he would interrupt mid sentence to ask about something that I had read four or five paragraphs ago. It was annoying so I just stopped reading around his ass. I curled up on the couch that sat in our room and lost myself in the story.

I was getting to a good part when the lights in the room went dim. I looked up and didn't see anything or anyone. No way was I moving or calling out for anyone in this house just incase a killer was in here, he didn't need to get me too. That is, if he got my husband and kids first. One of us had to survive and I guess it was going to be me. I began planning on how to fight for my life and how big of a jump I had from our bedroom balcony to the ground.

Slow music filled the room and I saw a figure come from the bathroom. I laughed so hard at Don who was dressed in his boxers, sunglasses on his face and that damned towel tied around his neck- just like my favorite picture of him. "Stop fuckin' laughing and let me get my Magic Mike on for you." He smacked his lips. "O-okay, go ahead." I said after getting my laughter under control. He proceeded to do a dance to 'Pony'.

By the end of his little dance, he had only the towel around his neck and had managed to have me in just my bra and panties. "Am I getting some or am I still in the dog house?" He asked me. "You're still in the dog house but you've managed to turn me on in four minutes so I'll give you something for that." I said after a minute of making him sweat. "No, you let me give you something." He smirked. I stood from the couch while reaching behind me to unsnap my bra that I threw at him. "Come and give it to me then, Daddy."

------

I sat in Adia's room on the floor while she played in my hair. She's always had some sort of obsession with hair so I let her comb or brush mine at times. Don even let her brush his hair but only when it was a little grown out because in his words "She's my daughter and I love her to death but she's not going to fuck my caesar and waves up." I thought he was ridiculous for that. It was almost time for his old ass to be going bald anyway.

"Ow, Dia." I said when she brushed my forehead. "Ow, Mama!" She said to me. "I didn't hurt you, you hurt me." I laughed. "Mhm." She hummed and continued on with her business. By the time she was finished I had barrettes all over and a few tangles. "Pretty." She awed. I stood up and went to the mirror above her dresser and looked at my reflection.

I looked good and crazy but it would just have to look good and crazy for my child to be happy. "I do look pretty!" I said turning to Adia and held my hand out for a high five that she gladly gave. She let a giggle out as I picked her up and kissed both her cheeks. "I love you, Dia." I told her. "Mhm." She gave me her favorite response to everything.

"What the hell?" Don said when I walked into our bedroom. "Shut up." I laughed. "You better stop letting her do that to you." "It's not like I'm going out in public like this." I told him. "Thank The Lord." He mumbled making me throw a pillow at him. "Don't start Adonis, speaking of starting I need you to go and start that grill. Tati and Ronnie will be here and my parents and Ant just went ahead and invited themselves so we have a lot of food to cook." I let him know.

"They bout to be eating some cheese and crackers" He said. "Get your ass in that backyard be for you end up in the doghouse again." I threatened. "All I gotta do is long dick yo stubborn ass and you'll be forgiving me. Sounding like Yvette from Baby Boy 'Imma cook, imma clean.'" He said in a high pitched voice. "Kiss my ass." I rolled my eyes. "Stop playing!" I screamed when I felt his teeth sink into my left cheek. "Didn't want to kiss it so I figured I would bite it. What's the difference?"

"I'm going to get started on the sides, you hook the meats up." I said to him as I got ready to go check on the kids and head for the kitchen. "Why can't we work together?" He asked wrapping his arms around me from behind. "You know I can't grill." I told him. "I'll teach you." "I'll think about it." I said while turning and standing on my toes to kiss him. "Get off my Mama!" Junior yelled trying to break us apart when he walked in the room.

"Ew!" Adia said. "Didi! Help me!" Junior told her. Don continued to peck my lips over and over as the kids tried pulling us apart. "You better get these crazy kids." Don mumbled. "They're yours, you handle them." I said. I tried to walk off but Don pulled me back. "They're ours. We made them, you and me. Alone together." He corrected me. "I think you're right about that." I said kissing him again against the kids protest.

"I love you Adonis." "I love you, B." He smiled down at me. "You love me and Didi too?" Junior asked from below us. "Yes, we love you too." Don said picking him up and doing the same with Adia. "Me too." Junior said hugging Don's neck and ordering his sister to do the same.

-------

I sat on the back patio that led to our backyard and watched my family. Everyone was out there enjoying each other's company, even Ronnie was having a good time and he just met them all. I never thought that I would be in this spot that I'm in a few years back.

I'm a mom to two kids and I have a wonderful husband, who gets on my nerves from time to time. I've put him through some things and he has done the same to me. No matter what we always come back to how we should be, what couple doesn't go through shit?

"Why aren't you out there enjoying the family?" Don asked stepping up on the patio. "I was just thinking but I'm going now." I told him. "Can I know what you're thinking about?" He grabbed my hand to stop me from walking away. "Just everything. Remember when I didn't want to be married to your ugly self?" I laughed. "Girl, you tried! I'm sexy! Shit, you wanted me for something."

"That's because I fell in love with you and I am in love with you. That's never going to change." I said honestly. "I sure thought it was last night." He said. "No, I was just disappointed in you. But that's in the past." I wrapped my arms around his waist and he slid his hands down to my ass. "You think they notice that we aren't out there?"

I looked behind me at everyone and back to him. "Doubt it." I smirked. "Good, let's go work on number three." He picked me up, my legs went around his waist instantly. "You know when we work on it, we don't get pregnant." I told him. "Alright well, let's just go and have sex." He laughed. "Fine with me." I said before he led us into the house.