Jaylin's World by Brenda Hampton Page B

a few bruises on his face too. Wanting him to open his eyes, I stepped forward. I rubbed his hair, already stunned that he looked like a lighter-skinned LJ. As I continued to touch his hair, he slowly switched his head to the other side. That’s when I whispered his name, and, I admit, even that pained me. Because even with his eyes closed, I had known the truth.
    Moments later, he sucked his tongue, then swallowed. His eyes shot wide open and stared right into mine. I took a double look, seeing that they were gray just like mine. Almost losing my balance, I stumbled backward, dropping into the seat behind me. All kinds of shit was going through my head, but at the top of the list was ... Nokea. What in the hell was I going to tell her? My heartbeat had picked up and my hands had a slight tremble. The wrinkled lines on my forehead were laced with beads of sweat. I was nervous, because at that very moment, I knew that the perfect life I’d had with Nokea was about to change. A few seconds later, I could hear Scorpio outside the door talking to someone. Bruce Jr. started moving around a bit, and all I could do was sit there like a mannequin. When Scorpio came into the room, I remained in the chair. I gazed down at the floor, shielding my face and unable to look up at her.
    â€œTell me something,” I said, clearing mucus from my throat. “Why in the fuck do you keep on doing this shit to me? Please, please tell me why, so I can understand the kind of woman you really and truly are.”
    I finally looked up and she stood dead in her tracks, speechless. She had a soda can in her hand, which she carefully laid on the serving table.
    â€œDo what?” she softly said, rubbing back her long hair. “What are you talking about?”
    My blood pressure was rising by the second. I just knew she wasn’t going to lie to me, was she? My face scrunched up and I stroked my goatee—hard. I nudged my head toward Bruce Jr. “Who—who in the hell is his father?”
    â€œIt’s Bruce,” she said, lying her ass off. I couldn’t believe it.
    â€œDo you think I’m that fucking stupid? I don’t need you to validate a gotdamn thing for me. Just by looking at him, it’s obvious. How could you keep something like this from me?” My voice rose even higher and my fist swung out to hit the air. “Gotdamn you, Scorpio, how could you!”
    She clenched her hands together to stop them from trembling. “I—I just found out when he came to the hospital and needed a blood—”
    I jumped to my feet. “You’re a fucking liar!” I pointed to my son. “There ain’t no way you lived with him every damn day of his life and you didn’t see me! Do you really want me to believe that?”
    She jumped from my loud voice; then she lowered her head. When she lifted it, tears rushed to her eyes. “I’m sorry. I did it for you. I—I didn’t want to break up your marriage. I knew that finding out about him would devastate you, and I couldn’t hurt you anymore.”
    â€œYou expect me to believe that bullshit? For real? You kept quiet because you didn’t want your marriage to end. You know damn well you wasn’t thinking about me or my marriage.”
    â€œIt’s the truth!” she shouted. “I swear to God that I did it for you, and I would do anything ... anything in the world for you. I knew Bruce Jr. looked like you, but I kept telling Bruce that he looked more like my father than anyone. I tried, Jaylin. I really did try not to hurt anyone.”
    I was so damn distraught. I couldn’t believe that Scorpio had pulled this shit on me again, and just like every single child that I had, with the exception of Jaylene, the women in my life were playing games. This was yet another child that I didn’t get a chance to see come into this world, and one that had been kept from me. I was beyond pissed, and being in