Crossing Boundaries
She and Royal went downstairs, and she could tell from the mood, either Jubi or Nyx blurted something out because, despite the other five people in the room pretending they weren’t curious, their behavior said otherwise. Their postures as they all stood around in the giant kitchen were almost laughable.
Koda and Keshaun were both lounging far too casually, their arms crossing and uncrossing nervously. Bram was studying her intently. Imani and Cliff, who came to babysit Precious for the day while the other grown ups moved furniture and belongings, were openly staring. Nyx and Jubi were both staring at the floor guiltily.
“Where’s Precious?” Famke asked curiously, moving to the refrigerator to get a bottle of water. Let them stew. One of her girlfriends needed a kick in the ass and she wasn’t sure which it was.
“She fell asleep on the sofa.” Imani motioned to the living room. She moved to Royal. “Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he frowned at her.
“No reason. You seem upset,” she fished.
He rolled his eyes and whacked Jubi across the back of the head as he stepped past her.
“What? It wasn’t me.”
“An emergency? Seriously? I thought she hacked her arm off.” Royal looked to the guys, “let’s get the rest of the stuff unloaded and then we’ll order pizza before the kiddo wakes up. She wakes up hangry.”
Famke grabbed another box from the floor and started to walk away when Imani stomped and moved in front of her to block her path.
“Seriously? You’re not going to tell us?”
“Tell you what?” she purposefully played dumb. For the last several weeks, Imani had been trying her best not to be confrontational but failed multiple times with Royal having to put her in her place time and time again. Her behaviors were not easy to change. Though she’d only gone to one therapy session and claimed the therapist was mean to her. She was still constantly arguing with Royal over her supervised visits and even Cliff was losing his patience with her. Famke was over the woman interfering in the name of family.
“Are you pregnant or not?”
“It’s none of your business,” Royal moved to stand in between his mother and Famke.
“Isn’t it? We’re family.”
“Yes. You are family. However, I’m fairly confident you were not in the room when Famke and I were making love so the outcome of such activities, don’t involve you. If we wanted to discuss with you, we would.”
“You used to tell me everything!” Imani folded her chest.
“Not everything but even if I did, I’m realizing now, you aren’t in the right headspace for me to rely on. Since Prince passed away, you have been worse than ever with your behavior. You were always a strong confident woman Mom, but his death turned you into a raving lunatic. Now, drop it.”
“Cliff, are you going to let him talk to me like this?”
“Yes.” Cliff shrugged. “Imani, he’s right. You have changed. You’re not the same and while I appreciate how much you want to keep your family together and to be part of each other’s lives, if Famke and Royal want to share news with us, it’s not for you to force it.”
“Because she’s going to have an abortion,” Imani folded her arms angrily.
“Which would be none of your business, Mom!” Jubilee jumped up in defense of Famke. “How dare you talk to her like this?”
“I’m tired of you all telling me how selfless she is, yet the reality is, she’s using Royal. I know she is. She wants his money.”
“Where do you keep getting this shit from?” Jubi groaned and threw her hands up in the air.
“Kara and Ambrosia were at the hair salon a couple of weeks back.”
“Yeah, yeah, where Kara told you I was sleeping with her husband.”
“He’s still married, Jubi” Imani snapped at her and pointed a finger at Keshaun, “you’re throwing your marriage away.”
“My wife had four affairs, aborted a child from one of those affairs and racked up a quarter million dollars in gambling debt over an eighteen-month period but sure, I’m throwing it away.” Keshaun shot back. At Imani’s stunned expression he shook his head, “she didn’t tell you any of that though, huh? She wants to paint me in the bad light and went to you knowing you, with your big mouth and strong opinions, would cause shit for me and Jubilee and since she’s pissed off at Royal for helping me with the surveillance stuff which was presented to her lawyer, she’s going for him and Famke too.”
“Mom, this has to stop,” Royal interrupted. “Your involvement and constant criticisms of our lives are unwelcome. We love you but your behavior has become toxic and well,” he shrugged as he bluntly spoke his mind, “abusive.”
“Abusive? You’re calling me abusive?”
“Yes. Part of the therapy I’ve been doing has been to go over the pattern of my own behavior and where it stems from. Your controlling nature, calling us at all hours of the day, making demands on our time and our space, disrespecting our boundaries and our limitations, are all forms of abuse. I’m done with it. I warned you, if you kept coming for Famke, I’d cut you off.”
“Cliff, say something,” Imani growled at her husband.
“What exactly would you have me say?” He argued with her shaking his head. “You keep sticking your nose into things which don’t have anything to do with you. Why were you meeting with Kara and Ambrosia?”
“I didn’t give a shit about Ambrosia. I dislike the girl, but Kara was part of our family and she’s hurting. They know I go every Saturday to get my hair done. She showed up and asked to talk to me and let me know what was going on.”
“She isn’t your child.”
“But Jubi is, and her actions affect this family. She’s going to be known as a homewrecker.”
“My home was already wrecked,” Keshaun threw out.
Imani turned back to Famke, “my family didn’t treat me like this before you.”
“Imani, I’m not at fault here.” Famke defended herself. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“You’re pregnant, once again with a child of one of my sons and you think you’re blameless? You’ll kill that baby just to keep me away from it. First keeping me from Precious and now this one.”
“Excuse me?” Famke felt her fists clenching and Bram pulled her backwards.
“Whether or not we are pregnant and what decisions we would make concerning such a pregnancy is none of your business.” Royal growled furiously.
“I want to know,” Imani lifted her chin defiantly, not looking away from Famke’s furious gaze. “What made Prince so special you would have his baby but not Royal’s? I think she’s been lying all this time. She was in love with him. She and Prince were in cahoots and were going to be a family with Precious before he died. She’s using Royal as a replacement simply to keep her grip on our baby girl but he’s not good enough for her to have his child. You only want to have Prince’s baby, not Royal’s because you don’t love him the way you loved Prince. Admit it!” Imani screamed at the top of her lungs. “Admit you were in love with my son. Tell the truth.”
Famke was stunned, “what?”
“Prince told me the truth.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Royal stepped in between them.
“I’ve known since Thanksgiving last year. Prince confided in me he was struggling in his marriage. He told me about how he met Famke when she was at the hospital with her brother and how they’d fallen in love. He told me it always was the plan for him and Famke to reconnect. It was why there were no adoption papers. She was in on it. She seduced him right out from under Mindy while Mindy was struggling. I begged him not to throw his marriage away on some floozy who would screw around with a married man.”
Famke’s legs felt weak at the accusations Imani was throwing out.
“You did this,” Royal looked to his mother accusingly.
She turned her head at him, “What?”
“You did this. He came to you with his problems and instead of being a loving supportive mother, you forced him to stay with a woman he was miserable with. He started with the drugs right around then. He knew you would never support him if he left his wife, so he started drugging her. She went insane and was taking it out on a child, a child you allege to love. This is your fault.”
“No!”
“Yes,” he gave a heartless laugh, “this makes so much sense. You kept at him, the way you’re bugging Keshaun right now, to work on his marriage. He saw no other way out than to get rid of his wife. You did this.”
“She’s lying. Prince told me.”
“Prince lied, Mom. You have the proof.” Royal cut her off. “His own letters prove he was lying. He went to her workplace and never went in to speak to her. If he thought she was going to him, he wouldn’t have hesitated to go to her. He was a lying manipulative piece of shit. He was trying to make himself look good to you, so he lied. You believed his bullshit, but you made him feel bad and trapped and his behaviors demonstrate this. I couldn’t figure out what switched in him to make him resort to trying to kill his own wife and it’s this. You guilted him into staying. No wonder you’re struggling with your own guilt. You single-handedly created a monster and destroyed three lives.”
“This is her fault!” she pointed at Famke. “Tell him. Tell him the truth. Tell him you were thrilled to have Prince’s baby, but you don’t love him enough to have his.”
“Mom,” Royal’s voice was calm, “you need to get out of my house.”
“No. Not until she confesses. She had an affair with a married man, and it made his wife crazy. She was happy to have his baby but not yours. It all makes sense.”
“Mom. Leave now.” Royal spoke again. He looked to his father, “you either remove her or I call the police to remove her, but she is no longer welcome near me, Famke or Precious again.”
“No!” Imani yelled. “You can’t take her from me.”
“You did this yourself.” He shook his head, “for the record. Famke isn’t pregnant. We did two tests and they both turned out negative.”
Imani’s mouth opened and closed. “She’s not pregnant?”
“No.” Famke, “I’m not pregnant.” Bram rubbed her shoulders softly. “Just late for the first time in my life.”
“Imani let’s go. I’ll take you back to New York.” Cliff looked to Royal. “I’ll call you later.”
“Sure Dad.”
As Cliff pulled a protesting Imani out of the house, Famke looked around the kitchen in disbelief. She was numb and confused and she admitted frightened. Did any of these people believe the words Imani spewed?