A Thug's Wife (Full Length Novel) (3 page)

As bad as Zaria wanted to walk away, she just couldn’t. The thought of another woman winning and taking what was meant for her outweighed everything that told her she should walk away. She wouldn’t let Tianna have him or
any other woman for that matter. No one would understand her, but no one knew Quasym like she did. She wouldn’t have stayed with him for seven years if he were as bad as other people viewed him.

“Get her out of here, Sym! Now!’ was all Zaria said as she b
roke away from Quasym and rushed to the bathroom to get herself together.

Moments after Zaria entered the restroom, her sister Cherie and her good friend Yessenia came in behind her. They rushed to her, wrapping their arms around her as she cried.

“It’s gonna be okay sis, don’t cry,” Cherie told her. She let Zaria go and ran to get a few paper towels. She stepped back over to Zaria and dabbed at the tears hoping to keep her make up untarnished.

“Who is that woman, Zaria? What in the hell is going on up i
n here?”

Yessenia was confused as she tried to console her friend. When she showed up to do Zaria’s hair for the wedding, she’d never led on to anything being wrong, and when she asked her why she was a no-show for the bachelorette party, she only told Ye
ssenia that she wasn’t feeling well. She had assumed that everything was fine and that Zaria only wanted to be sure she was well rested for the big event. 

“It’s Sym’s baby mama that Zaria just found out about last night,” Cherie answered. She pulled a fe
w strands of hair from Zaria’s face and ran her fingers through her bangs.

“Oh, my God. His baby mama? Oh damn. I had no idea.”

“Well none of us did. We all just finding out and as you can see mama is amped and that just added all the fuel she needed to try to stop this from happening. She does not want this to take place. I wouldn’t be surprised if mama had that girl come up here.”

Zaria looked into her sister’s face and wondered if that were somehow true.

“Cherie, don’t tell me mama put that bitch up to this shit. I know you wouldn’t have said anything unless you knew for sure.”

Cherie didn’t say anything, but only stared at her older sister knowingly. She had done everything possible to keep her mama from going through with the foolishness, but Tammy wa
s dead set on keeping Zaria from marrying Quasym. She wanted Zaria to be with a baller and Quasym just wasn’t it.

“I can’t believe her, “Zaria shook her head. “Go out there and tell them that the wedding is still on and make sure that bitch is gone.”

Chapter 4: Baby Blues

Days later, Yessenia sat on the examination table in the doctor’s office waiting for the doctor to come in and speak with her. Although the weekend had been a crazy one, she was glad that things worked out with Zaria and Quasym. In the end, the ceremony ha
d been a beautiful one despite the lengths Tammy and Tianna had gone through to mess things up.

Yessenia didn
’t like the fact that Quasym had been hiding a child from her girl, but she knew that Zaria loved that man, and she wasn’t the type to tell her friends what they should and shouldn’t do. She was the kind of person that would give her opinion and support you in any decision that you decided to make thereafter.

As Yessenia waited for the doctor, she thought about her husband Devon and wondered what she would make for dinner this evening. She loved cooking and taking care of her man. They had been married for three years and loved every minute of it. There were times where things would get hard in their relationship, but it always seemed to work itself out. Yessenia worked in a beauty salon and was months away from attaining her cosmetology license.

Her dream was to own her own shop and have a wealth of customers that she did hair and makeup for. She knew that it would be a struggle since Devon and he
r were already having a hard time trying to make ends meet, but she wouldn’t give up hope.

“Mrs. Butler, how are you today?” the doctor asked the moment he entered the room.

“I’m great, Dr. Attaway. How have you been?”

“Very, very busy. I see that you a
re still not pregnant. Have you been doing everything that we talked about at your last visit?”

Yessenia sighed and lowered her shoulders. She had been trying to get pregnant for the past year and a half but to no avail. It seemed like no matter what she
tried, nothing seemed to be working. The doctors insisted that it was nothing wrong with her and that she was perfectly healthy with very fertile eggs. She just didn’t understand it and was saddened that it wasn’t happening for her. There was nothing more that she wanted than to give her husband a child and complete their family.

“Yes, I’ve been checking my temperature every morning. I’ve been using all the test you recommended and even started eating better. I just
don’t know what else to do, Doc. Please help me out here; it has to be something wrong with me.”

“Mrs. Butler there’s nothing wrong with you as far as fertility issues, but I do have some concerns about your weight. It seems you picked up fifteen pounds in the last month, and your sugar levels a
re increasing. You weigh two hundred and fifty-seven pounds now. You’re almost in diabetic range, and that is not something that you want to take into a pregnancy when it does happen. I need you to be sure you are eating better and to work on losing some weight.”

Yessenia looked a little offended when the doctor told her to lose some weight. He’d been her doctor since she’d been a little girl and for as long as she had been coming to him, she’d always been big. She didn't understand what was so differently
now that he felt the need to gripe about her weight when he’d never done so before.

“I’ve always been a big girl and you know that, Dr. Attaway.”

“I know Mrs. Butler, but before your weight has never been a problem and if you continue to gain more and continue on with those unhealthy habits of yours it will be a problem that you don’t want. I need to see you back here in three months. In the meantime, get in the gym, follow the eating guide the nutritionist gave you, and let’s see some change.”

“Are you se
rious?”

“Yes, I am very serious. Come on now, Mrs. Butler, I’ve cared for your whole family. Your grandmother was one of my very first patients up until the time she died. Died of diabetic shock. Do you remember that?”

“Of course I remember it very well.”

“Well I shouldn’t have to tell you how it important it is for you to get your life on the right track, health wise. Don’t give me the same push back that I had to take from your grandmother. You’re still very young and thank God you still have a chance t
o avoid the same illness that has taken family members from you.”

Yessenia exhaled and crossed her arms over her chest. She rolled her eyes at the doctor, pissed that she was here to find out why she still hadn’t gotten pregnant, and he chose to spend thei
r visit talking about her weight. Yessenia didn’t mind at all being a big girl. She loved every curve on her body and was the definition of confidence. She had never been a skinny chick and didn’t plan on ever being one.

The moment Dr. Attaway left out of
the room; Yessenia stood up and walked to the full length mirror that was attached to the back of the door. She smiled as she went over herself from head to toe. Her hair was cut short, inspired by the singer Rhianna. She had a full round brown face with chubby cheeks and full lips.

Her breasts were a full set of Double H's and her waist was rather small for her size. She stood to the side and admired the curve right beneath her back and then shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t see a problem with the two hundred and fifty-seven pounds
that Dr. Attaway was complaining about. Yessenia loved the way she looked, and she knew for a fact that Devon loved every part of her too.

She exited out of the doctor’s office without even making a date for her next appointment. In fact, she was thinking
that this would be her last visit to Dr. Attaway. She didn’t care if he had taken care of her whole family and her, her whole life. He was old, and she sensed that he no longer knew what he was doing. It had to be a reason she wasn’t getting pregnant and if Dr. Attaway didn’t have the answers she needed, then another doctor would.

***

You can
’t keep your hands off me, touch me right there, rock my body. I can’t keep my hands off you; your body is my party. I’m doing this little dance for you. “
Aye turn up, turn up Ci Ci!”

Yessenia rocked her shoulders to Ciara’s
Body Party
as she turned down the block where she shared a small home with her husband Devon. She bobbed her head and snapped her fingers along with the beat up until she spotted Devon’s truck sitting in the driveway. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion as she wondered what he was doing home so early. Pulling into the driveway beside him, she placed her car in park, turned the engine off, and hurriedly jumped out.

         The moment she stepped f
oot on the top step; she could smell the weed aroma coming from inside. Pulling the door opened, she stepped into the house, and there sat Devon shirtless with a blunt hanging from the tip of his mouth with the lower half of his body wrapped in a towel.

      "Baby, what are you doing here? And what I tell you about smoking that shit in the living room? I can smell it all the way outside."

        "I lost my job today," Devon said stoically.

         "Excuse me?"

          "They found out the real reason
I'm on probation and they let me go. Told you this nine to five shit ain't for me."

           "Baby fuck them. You can go and get another job just like you got that one. Now is not the time to give up.  I stopped by a fertility doctor on my way home toda
y and met this amazing couple in the waiting area. They said they had been trying to get pregnant--"

             
“There you go with that baby shit again. I’m not trying to hear that shit today, Yessenia. Save it.”

             
“Well I just thought that you might like to know that I finally found somebody that could help us get pregnant. I’m not going back to Dr. Attaway. I know that this doctor I found is our last hope.”

             
“I’m not trying to have a fucking baby right now! You think I wanna bring a shorty into this world only making $7.50 a damn hour. How the fuck can we raise a child on that shit when we barely making it ourselves?”

             
“It’s possible. My mother did it and so did your mother. If I gotta pick up another job then I will. I want this baby Devon, and you will find a better job.”

             
“Nobody wants to hire a convicted damn felon that’s still on probation! We got plenty of time to have kids, but now is not the time for that.”

             
Devon stood to his feet. He took a huge tug on the blunt and blew a thick cloud of the green in the air. Clasping his towel tightly around his waist, he prepared to leave the room when Yessenia stood in front of him.

             
Yessenia stared up at her husband’s 6’3 frame and placed her hands on his large pecs to stop him from leaving. She ran her fingers through his beard and looked into his huge, round brown eyes.

She admired his cocoa brown skin and knew that she was the luckiest woman in the world. Devon was so beautiful to her, and she loved every bit of him from the inside out.  She knew that life had been fru
strating from him starting when he tore his ACL in high school, tearing a hole into his dream of ever having a chance in the NFL.

Devon had a very promising career as a linebacker and was well on his way to the top when the physical injury he suffered put
a stump in those plans. Devon took it hard and was devastated when he found out that he would most likely never be able to play football again and just like every young black man in the hood when all hopes of their dreams have been lost, he took to the streets.

He started hustling alongside Quasym and was doing alright for himself until someone tried to rob him. In the end, he ended up shooting the guy in the back, leaving him paralyzed and Devon facing major time in prison. Fortunately for him, due to th
e circumstances and the fact that it was his first offense, the judge ordered him to serve ten years on probation.

             
He’d gotten off lucky and was able to fly under the radar ever since then. It wasn’t until he met Yessenia and her constant talks over time that she inspired him to do something different with his life. She had given him a better view on things and had him thinking that walking a straight line might not be so bad, but now after being fired from his third job in less than a year, he was starting to feel different.

He knew that Yessenia hated any time he mentioned going back to the streets so, for now; he wa
sn’t even gonna tell her that it was going to happen. He hated to hide things from her, but she wouldn’t understand.