😗sorry for any mistakes

Atlanta, GA

September 1st

Monday

"Ima kill this bitch" Matthias mumbled as he pressed the down button to the elevator. He was fuming at the moment leaving from work. He loosened his tie before snatching it off altogether then the bell ding that the elevator was there.

He got on and pressed the first-floor button before the doors closed and he went down. Once he got to the floor the doors opened and he immediately started hearing yelling.

"I'M HIS CHILD'S MOTHER! Let me up you dumb ass!" He saw Cora yelling at the security guard who was trying to hold her back and kick her out.

Matthias shook his head "I got her Tom, Thank you" He said and snatched Cora by her forearm as she yelled for him to let her go. He dragged her outside into the empty parking lot, lucky everyone had gone home for the day and nobody would be in his business.

"YOU GOT LIFE FUCKED ALL THE WAY UP COMIN' TO MY FUCKIN' JOB" His voice boomed as he harshly let go of her and pushed her a little.

"BRING ME MY DAUGHTER NIGGA!" She yelled and pushed him but he didn't move.

"Yo' daughter?" He bitterly chuckled. She had some nerve to come and try to claim Kennedi as her daughter. She was the last thing from a mother and she had no right.

"Yes! You got my daughter on tik tok going viral with some fat bitch. Really Matt? You go this low to try to replace me in her life" She said, sounding offended as her eyes filled up with nothing but hurt.

"Keep my wife out yo' mouth. That's only yo, first and last warnin' " He warned, glaring at her. It already pissed him off that she came to Ailani's job last week trying to start some mess but speaking about her was going to make Matthias actually put his hands on her.

"You got some nerve ta' be comin' back because you see how happy MY daughter is. You never gave a fuck about her but now you see someone doin' somethin' you can't, you're mad?" He asked as she blankly looked at him.

"Yes! You don't understand what I went through!" She said with tears in her eyes, he just blankly looked at her. He didn't see why she was crying nor did he feel even the slightest bad for her.

"PPD Matt!"

Matthias still blankly looked at her. He didn't mean to sound heartless but he didn't care. He didn't believe her either. "PPD Cora? That's yo' excuse?" He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"That's y'all problem with black men! Y'all are selfish and don't understand what women go through after having kids! How our body changes and our mental state changes" She said with tears streaming from her eyes.

"You never gave a fuck bout my daughter since the beginning! The times you tried ta' keep her away from me because you were jealous and fuckin bitter. If you had PPD you could have said that and we could have got help" He said, breathing heavily.

Matthias knew how serious PPD was, his mom went through it after she had the twins. But he just couldn't believe she had PPD, everything before the time they broke up to now just wasn't adding up to him.

"You never cared. My baby has to go to therapy at 6 years old because of you. You left her, she was only 4 bro and you fuckin' left her for some nigga. You let that nigga do whatever to her and now she has to suffer because of it. SHE WAS 4 and you said she was being fast" He said getting emotional. He hated talking about the trauma Kennedi had to go through at 4 years old. She was innocent and was about to be taken advantage of with no one to protect her.

"That's—"

"She has PTSD, anger issues, and abandonment issues. She still has nightmares about why that nigga tried to do to her and how uncomfortable and scared she was. You don't wipe her tears every time she cries wondering why the person that brought her into this world, why the person she was supposed to feel safe around made her feel scared and hated"

"You left her alone, scared. With no food, no water. You took it all out so she wouldn't have anything. My baby was walking the street at 4 years old, scared and confused if I didn't come over that day, who knows what could've happened to her and you say you did all that because of PPD" He scoffed, shaking his head and blinking a few times so he didn't cry in front of her.

"Yes, and I apologize for that I just want to see her. She needs her mother, not that wannabe" She snapped.

"See her? You smokin' dick if you think I will ever let you see a hair on my daughter. You can't apologize for that, you can't take back everything you did back. She is young but she knows that you don't love her. She knows the truth about you without me even saying it cause she saw it with her own eyes."

She bitterly chuckled "No, you and that whatever brainwashed her against me but that's fine. Ima just take you to court, I tried to be civil now we have to get the law involved" She smirked.

He chuckled a lil "Cool. Do that, you're still not getting her and I'll make sure I do everything in my power to make sure you don't get close to her" He looked her up and down.

"Come round me and my family again, that's yo' ass" He shrugged, turning around and about to walk away.

"Is that a threat?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest.

He turned around again to look her dead in the eyes "It's a promise, don't get the two confused" He smiled before walking away again.

_________________

Matthias sighed walking into the house. He closed the door behind him before turning the alarm off. He stumbled a little trying to get his way to adjust to the darkness. He turned the alarm back on, cringing at the sound it made as his head was pounding.

After the little argument he got into with Cora in the parking lot, he needed a drink. That one drink turned into six. So he was a bit drunk and just wanted to get in his bed.

He took his time adjusting his eyes before he made his way upstairs silently. It was 11 PM and he knew the girls were already in bed. Once he was finally upstairs after what he thought had taken him forever to do, he walked down to his room only to see Ailani mugging him while laying on the bed when he walked in.

"Where have you been? I've been callin' you all night." She continued to mug while he just ignored her. He put his phone and wallet on the nightstand and then took his shoes off.

"Hellooo? You can't hear now? Are you drunk?" She asked.

He ignored her again and went into the closet to put his shoes inside and put his suit jacket up. Matthias was usually better at communicating but at the moment he didn't want to talk even though he knew he owed her an explanation as to why he missed dinner and was ignoring her call all night. But he just wanted to sleep.

He walked out of the closet, she was standing in front of the door frowning causing him to sigh. She just shook her head "What is wrong with you?" She said, unbuttoning his shirt.

"Do you know anything could've happened to you and I wouldn't have known? You could have got pulled over while drunk or in a car accident Matthias" She grumbled, helping him out his shirt.

"Sorry" He mumbled as she took the hair tie off her wrist and pulled his braids up into a ponytail. "I know" She sighed and grabbed his hand to walk into the bathroom.

"Brush your teeth first while I start this shower" She put him in front of the sink, putting his hands on the counter so he could balance himself and not fall. Matthias could unless old his liquor perfectly but tonight too much was on his mind.

After he finished brushing his teeth, Lani put the shower cap on his head once she was finished turning the shower on for him. He sighed when she walked out of the bathroom without even looking at him, he knew she was mad at him.

_________________

Atlanta, GA

September 2nd

Tuesday

🎶And you ain't gotta worry when you with me

I vibe with your mental because you get me🎶

Ailani bobbed her head to Close to you by Drezzy as she filled up her oil body since she needed to rest stock. m

She could fill Matthias burning a hole in the side of her face but she kept choosing to ignore it. They both decided to stay home from work today mainly because Ailani wanted to make sure he was okay. He had a bad headache this morning and she didn't think it'll be a good idea for him to go to work knowing his head was killing him.

They were currently in their shared office which Lani loved because they were together. At the moment she didn't like it so much because she was giving him the cold shoulder.

What he did yesterday was very reckless and she didn't understand why he would put himself in a messy situation like that. He wasn't sloppy drunk, thank God but she being drunk and driving home was what had her rubbed the wrong way.

"Baby" She heard him call out, she mentally rolled her eyes before looking over at his desk. "Are you hungry or something?" She asked.

He shook his head "I wanna talk" He said putting his pen down.

She nonchalantly shrugged "Funny, I wanted to talk yesterday and you ignored me now I'on wanna talk" She scoffed, standing up from the floor. She made sure the tops were on the bottles first before taking her gloves off and throwing them away. She heard Matthias calling out after her but she didn't care she was trying to be firm at keeping her attitude with him.

She did badly want to say forget it some many times today but she stood her ground. Was it probably not worth staying upset with? Yes, but she felt like she had the right too. She was up all night checking his location and calling him. She was about to wake up the girls to take them to his parent's house just to go look at him.

Then him coming home and ignoring her made him even more upset than before.

She went into the kitchen to see what she could make for lunch. She looked at the time on her Apple watch to see it was 12:47 PM. She started thinking about what she should cook for dinner.

She had to pick the girls up from school at 3:00 PM and wanted to have what she was going to cook in her head already. They weren't going to daycare after school since they were both at home today.

She decided to just order something. She closed the refrigerator before fixing her shorts since they were getting swallowed by her ass. She walked back into the office, ignoring Matthias' stares and how annoyed he looked. She bent down to grab her phone up off the floor.

"You want something from Olive garden? I'm going to go pick it up" She said briefly, stilling on the couch in the office. She crossed her legs before opening her phone, going to safari, and looking up Olive's garden menu.

"I want you to talk ta' me" He huffed, getting up from his chair. She blankly looked at him "Do you want something from Olive garden?" She asked again, as he now stood in front of her.

"Baby I'm sorry" He sighed, she rolled her eyes and looked back at her phone.

"You're only sorry because I'm mad. You weren't sorry when you were ignoring me or gettin' drunk without someone being there with you. You weren't sorry when you didn't pick up the one not even once just to say you were okay and that you'll be home soon" She ranted.

"Yes, I w—"

"You scared the hell outta Matthias. I didn't know where you were, you kept declining my calls and ignoring every text. Your location kept going out, I was so" She took a deep breath to calm herself down. He sighed and sat next to her and pulled her onto his chest.

The world was so evil nowadays so him not telling her anything or even giving a simple text that he was okay was what upset her. Black men are dying left and right and she doesn't know what she would do if he was next.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, mama. I promise it won't happen again" He said, she wrapped her arms around his tightly and relaxed her body, enjoying being in his arms.

"What happened? You never go drinkin' alone, what change last night?" She asked, leaning her head up off his chest and looking up at him. She watched him blow out a long sigh through his mouth.

"Cora came ta' my job yesterday," He said, Lani instantly rolled her eyes at the mention of her. She didn't know why people like to come to people's jobs to show out and do the most, especially when they're wrong.

Cora tried to pull that at her job when she first came back. Lani immediately kicked her out and threatened to call the police. She hated messy people trying to conflict with someone at their job, it was very immature and disrespectful. Coming to someone's job just to start problems.

Her problem wasn't even with Ailani because she didn't know her.

"She said she was going to take me to court for Ken" He bitterly chuckled, her eyes widened and she moved off of him "What? She's been gone for what? 2 years, now she wants to come back like nothing happened?" She made a face.

He rubbed his hands down his face "Apparently she saw a video of you on tik tok with y'all she didn't like it so now she wants joint custody" He huffed, looking up at the ceiling.

Ailani jerked her head back "That's bullshit" She said a little more heated than before. "Wait, you want me to delete the video?" She asked.

She always asked before posting any videos of Kennedi on social media. That was his child first and he always had to have the say-so first when it came to that. She only had 147k followers on tik tok, mainly for her business but the one video of her, Sarayah, and Kennedi doing the 'I like' challenge did do numbers.

He shook his head "Baby i'on care what you post of Ken. As long as she's not harmed i'on care." He reassured her.

"That's why you were drinking last night?" She asked, He sighed before nodding.

"You know how the system is when it comes to mothers wanting custody. I'll be damned if we had to do joint custody. The only way she's going to get close to my baby is by watching a tik tok video" He scoffed.

Lani started laughing a little "Not the tik tok video" She chuckled.

"I'm deadass, then she tried to use the excuse of her having PPD and how I should cut her some slack"

"PPD is really serious, it changes a lot more than people realize" She reminded him.

"I understand that completely. My Ma had that after the twines but she doesn't have it. I stand that she never cared about my baby, not once. No matter how bad PPD will mess you up, you're not going to take all the food and water out of the house and leave your 4 years old child there alone to die. You're not going to call your child fast and say they're jealous of you after they try and tell you what someone did to them. So she can miss me with that PPD shit" He ranted, getting angrier. Lani rubbed his arm to calm him down.

She understood his frustration and his anger. Some people just threw the word PPD around too loosely when it's actually real mothers going through that.

"S-She told my baby she hated her. She told her she hoped someone came and hurt her." His voice dropped, and Lani's heart started to break when she saw the tears slipping from her eyes. She pulled him into a hug knowing that this was hard for any parent to go through.

"Now she sees Ken having a real mother figure in her life and trying to take that from her. She's not gettin' my daughter dawg, I'll die before I let her get custody of my daughter again. She's happy now, she's been doing so well in therapy and school, why does she tryna take that from her" He sniffed, wrapping his arms around Ailani and holding her tight.

Ailani could feel the tears in her eyes, she desperately tried not to let them escape. She put her chin on top of his head, rubbing his back ever so gently. She hated this for him and Kennedi but she was going to have both of their backs every step of the way.

_________________

"Okay, and what 7 plus 8?" Matthias asked as he sat at the table with Sarayah and Kennedi, helping them with their math homework while Ailani was frying the chicken.

"15" They both answered.

He nodded "Now put the 5 at the bottom and carry the 1. What's 6 plus 3?"

"9"

"Add the 1 and you get your answer" He instructed, getting up from the table. "Y'all need help with the rest or y'all got it?" He asked.

"We got it,"

He nodded before walking into the kitchen. He was about to get something to drink but stopped when he saw Lani bent over the counter while on her phone. He guessed she didn't know he walked in since she didn't say anything but she was too busy debating if she should sell her house or not.

He snuck behind her and smacked her ass hard making a loud sound. She instantly stood up straight and turned around to hit him in the chest. "Matthias stop! I'm sensitive" She whined.

"Aw, I'm sorry baby, lemme rub it" He fake pouted, she grinned when he started rubbing on her ass. "Stop rubbing on me like that before I bend over this sink" She winked before leaning up to kiss his lips.

She moaned inside the kiss when he slapped her ass. "Mm stop, they are in the next room and you tryna do something" She giggled, as she started to kiss on her face. "Upstairs ain' that far love" He whispered into her ear. Lani felt a shiver go down her spine, she bit her lip and looked at him.

"So this is how you used to do yo' groupies in college?" She raised her eyebrows, Lani just couldn't help herself, she just had to.

He sucked his teeth and started laughing "Baby, why are you so jealous?" He smirked, flicking her bottom lip that was poking out.

"The way my bestie down there is handling business" She pointed to his dick "Oh Ima be jealous forever that anyone else got that besides me" She playfully rolled her eyes, pushing him off of her.

He started laughing "You know you are the only one I wanna be with," He said, wrapping his arms around her waist and putting his head on her shoulder. She started smiling, reaching up to rub the side of his face "Because you loveee me" She dragged, picking her phone back up with her free hand.