BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (170 page)

Breathing hard, Victor stood looking at the door his "wife" disappeared through, and looking around him, he saw Mundo, "Mundo, please man, talk to your sister for me. I didn't divorce her, I didn't! I swear to God I didn't! You gotta do this for me, come on man, I've been there for you man, you owe me this!"

Shawn snatched him back around, "He doesn't fuckin' owe you, anything! Get the fuck out of here - now!"

"Let go of me man! That's my wife in there! She's my wife! You got no right to keep me from my wife!"

"You want some of me next? Hm pretty boy, that what you want?" Shawn growled at him, refusing to let him continue on there.

"Victor go'on man - let it go for now man." Mundo didn't want Shawn on him. His problem was, that he liked Victor, and he liked Ben. The time with Ben in L.A. he'd gotten to know him a great deal. The fact that his nephews loved him so much, told him a lot about the man. Even so, he didn't want to see Victor put through it by Shawn, that would be too harsh - Shawn would hurt him, of that, he was sure.

Victor felt his eyes fill with tears, hating that he couldn't get to Crystal, to make her listen to him, he had no other choice than to back off. He looked around for Sylvia, wondering where she was - regardless of her displeasure with him, she had always been fair with him, she would stand up for him.

"I'm not gonna say it again, if I grab you, I swear, no holding back, it's me and you." Shawn warned low.

Victor started backing up, "I'll be back!" He promised Shawn.

"Don't come back here, I'm telling you that now!"

"Long as my wife, is in that house - my sons, in that house, I'll be back! You keep your son, Ben - away from my wife!"

Shawn started moving towards him, "Get in your fuckin' car, get the fuck out of here, now! Right fuckin' now!"

"Man - this is bullshit!" Victor's tone changed, almost whining, not wishing to fight with Shawn, "That's my wife in there! That's my wife!"

"TELL YOUR - FUCKIN' MOTHER - THAT - LITTLE BOY!" Shawn shouted at him, "If you had any balls, you might - still have a wife! As things stand, that's over. Now for the last time, go!"

Victor stood at his car door, looking from Shawn, to the house, the window, where he could see, Crystal standing there, looking out at him. The window was open, he knew she could hear them, "CRYSTAL!! I'LL BE BACK! YOU'RE MY WIFE! I DIDN'T SIGN ANYTHING! I'LL BE BACK!" He slammed into his car, started it, and gunned it taking off.

Shawn turned back towards the yard, to look at Mundo, who gave him a half hearted smile, "In the words of that someone from long ago who knew, 'Oh shit!'"

"You can say that again." Shawn mumbled, falling into step behind Mundo who turned heading for the front door, going into the house. What they met was the sound of Crystal having a go at Ben.

"I can't believe you did that! Why'd you have to provoke him Ben? I wish you'd just ignored it all and come into the house."

"You think I'd stand by, and let him snatch on you, pull on you? Yelling at you?"

"I can take care of myself with him, Ben."

"You feel sorry for him, I can see you do!"

"It's not that! He said, he didn't know, that he didn't sign the papers."

"Tough! Don't you forget what led you to getting the papers drawn up in the first place!"

"Ben, I don't wanna fight with you too, all I'm saying is - that I thought he wanted the divorce." She defended gently.

"Oh my god, you're back sliding, aren't you?" He stood shaking his head, he'd splashed his face, cleaned the blood from his nose that had now stopped bleeding.

"No! No I'm not! But this is not easy for me, this is not that simple to deal with."

"Yes it is, it's over, you're divorced, that's that!"

"But he didn't know."

"Don't - fall for it Crystal!"

"I'm not falling for anything, you think this is easy for me, Ben? You think I want this to be happening?"

"I can't believe this! I can't..." Angry, Ben turned heading for the front door, past Shawn and Mundo - who stood quiet staring at each other.

"Ben! Don't be angry! Where're you going?! Why are you leaving?!"

He turned in the door, "Why do you think? I'm not blind! I can see very clearly, whether you can or not!" And slammed the door behind him.

Crystal stood a moment gazing at the door, and then watched through the window to outside, Ben making his way to his car, soon, he too burned rubber off down the road. Looking from there she turned to see Angela standing in the door of their bedroom, Isaac standing beside her, glaring at her; no sight of Darren, she figured he must have fallen asleep, but how, was a mystery to her with all the yelling and fighting going on; and last, her eyes went to Shawn and Mundo.

"I can't believe, this is happening to me." Crystal grieved, confused, frustrated and once more, scared.

"Sweetheart, just - don't forget our talk, remember?" Shawn brought up right away.

"Our talk?"

"The talk - you cut my hair - then picked up the laptop?" He urged as a reminder.

Crystal stared at him a few seconds letting the talk play through her mind, "You knew! Didn't you? That's why the talk? You knew!" She accused.

Shawn sighed, "Pumkin' I only knew, what you knew - what you told me. That's what I knew."

"I heard him say that he called me, is that true?"

"Yes - twice. Once before we left, and once more last week there."

"Why didn't you tell me!" She stomped.

"For the same reason, you didn't go to him with the divorce papers - just like you'd had enough, I thought the same. You needed to be away from here, away from him! For not telling you, I will not apologize! If I could think of a way to keep him away from you, Lord knows, I'd do it!"

Mundo started backing out of the room, once more, staying neutral and out of it.

"Why?!"

"Why?! Because - he's no damn good for you!" Shawn walked up to her, to look her in the eyes, "He will never, make you happy! It's not in him, he's all - piss and wind!"

"You don't know that! Maybe he's changed!" She argued.

"So Ben's right, you're back sliding."

Crystal threw her hands in the air, "Nooo! I'm not - I'm - I hate this! Why does it have to be this way!" She shouted.

"Crystal! You keep your head clear - you're forgetting all the shit he's done to you! I blocked him from you because I knew, you hadn't hardened your heart to him yet, the wound is still too fresh. Now, that worthless prick is back here, poking at it some more, starting the game up all over again."

Crystal stood covering her face in despair, "Oh I don't know what to do!" She fretted. "I'm afraid of not doing the right thing. I wanna do the right thing."

"The right thing for you? Or the right thing for him? Because I can tell you right now, if you do the right thing for him, you're gonna regret it! Do - the right thing for you! Do - the right thing for your boys! Don't let your thinking get clouded up with feeling sorry for him! He's facing the consequences of his actions, and he should! What he's going through right now, is exactly what he deserves! That's how people learn, when their stupid actions, hurt - makes them suffer! It forces them to think! Sometimes it works Crystal, sometimes it doesn't. But one thing, I can tell you - relieve his suffering prematurely, and he'll not have learned a thing! If he's going to learn anything, he needs to suffer through it. You have time, do you hear me?! Look at me!" Shawn grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face, and grew more angry at the moisture once more, back in her eyes, because of him.

"Don't look at the floor, look up at me!" He ordered, brisk with her.

She looked up at him, about to cry.

"Don't you hurry into anything! There's no clock ticking over your head. There's no rush to settle this one way, or the other! You're safe, you have everything you need, right here. Your boys have everything they need, right here - take a deep breath, calm down, and use the time you have. Come here." He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.

She clung to him, still feeling the stress, despite his words, "I don't wanna go through this Papah-Shawn, I just want some peace. I want things to be easy in my life for once, I don't need this drama - and I don't want it!"

"You sound like your mother darlin' and unfortunately, in life where there's sunshine, there too, must be rain."

She pulled out of his arms, "I can handle the occasional rain, but in our life, all we get are storms!" She charged off to her room, where Angela sat with Isaac on the bed, Darren was sleeping in the other room, in his crib where she'd laid him. Crystal landed on the bed behind Angela, her hands on her forehand, fingers in her hair, hating her life at that moment.

"Mama." Isaac softly called to her. "You okay mama?"

She sniffed, turning her head to look at him, "Yes, mama's okay."

Angela moved back against the headboard, letting Isaac sit at his mother's side. "Everything is gonna be okay Crystal, just think about where you are when you're the most happy. That's what I do when I'm upset, I think about the last time I was the happiest ever, and - that's where I like to be. Where are you more happy?"

Crystal looked up at her, hearing her words, and immediately, without any warning or effort, Ben came to mind. When her soul was lifted, and joy infused her entire being, she had been with Ben. Seeing that, realizing that, only made the moment worse. Because while Ben made her feel good to her very soul, Victor still had strings tied onto her heart, and to see him as he was today, tugged and pulled on them in a major way. At that moment, she'd never been more confused.

"Oh Angela, may you never end up in a mess anything like mine! Stay away from guys, dreaming about them, caring about them, giving them your heart, for as long as you possible can, because once you do - it's hell! The wrong guy will break your heart."

"Crystal, Ben doesn't hurt your heart, does he?"

She didn't want to answer that question, because it was just too much right now.

"Mama, we going home?" Isaac asked.

Crystal's moist gaze went to her son, looking so much like his father, an almost complete duplication of him in features and coloring, only he had her eyes. "You wanna go home, to be with your daddy?"

Isaac stared at her for all of fifteen seconds, thinking about it and then, "No - wanna stay here! Can Ben, be my daddy?"

Shocked by his words, Crystal's eyes got big; she pushed herself up to lean against the headboard, "Isaac, don't say that, Victor is your daddy."

"I don't want him to be my daddy."

"Yes you do Isaac, you love your father."

"I'on like him, I'm gon' get Ben - t'be my daddy."

"Don't say that, Victor is your father! You can't get Ben to be your father."

"Em hmmm." He nodded with big eyes.

"No, you can't Isaac."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"YE-E-ES!" He shouted at her and jumped off the bed, marching to the door, "I'm gone t'live wit'Ben!"

"Boy! Don't you start trippin'! You cannot live with Ben, you don't even know where he lives."

"Call him!"

"No!"

"CALL BE-E-EN!"

"Isaac you are trying my patience, quit all that shouting!"

He moved back from the door into the corner behind it, crossing his arms over his chest, face down, eyes glaring up at her, shooting daggers, looking as belligerent as ever.

"Isaac don't be like that - you gonna hurt your daddy's feelings."

"Ben, my daddy!" He grumbled from the corner. "I'm gon' live wit'him!"

"You gonna leave me to go live with Ben? Leave Angela? Gran-papah-Shawn, your grandma, Mundo? Darren?"

"Nooo." He muttered so low, they just heard it. "Ben still m'daddy."

Crystal's head went back against the wall and headboard, feeling like screaming, "Great - give me more, give me more." She mumbled under her breath.

Angela sat quiet, smiling at Isaac, and winked, things couldn't be better if she had planned it herself.

After breaking up the fight, dealing with Crystal, Shawn went outside looking for his wife, wondering how much longer was she going to be with Vivian? Surely Jake had gone back to work by now? If she wasn't back in a few more minutes, he would be heading down the road to check on her. He went to the crew across the road, some of them had left, because there was nothing else to do that day, leaving only a handful behind to finish up the studio. Shawn walked in, they were packing up their tools, cleaning up - the one who tried to grab for Ben, he apologized to. "Hey uh, sorry about that out there, it's just that-..."

"Look man, no need to apologize - it makes perfect sense - I wasn't thinking."

"Daughters, and guys - and I've got another one coming up." He joked.

"Yeah, I've seen her, you're in for one helluva rough road, stay healthy and in shape, you're gonna need it!" He laughed, and then, "Well - this is it, we're done here. We've inspected everything, tested all. All that's left, is for you to move in."

He shook his hand and the other two who were present, "You've done an excellent job! I think I'll start moving in today."

"Let us get out of your way, to get started."

Shawn made his way back to the house, into the basement to start packing his things, once he was done, he would go looking for his wife if she wasn't back by then. On to the second box, the phone rang. "McPherson's."

"Aye man, whassup, it's Dennis!"

"Ah man, timing is great, need the distraction, how ya' doin'?"

"We doin' fine here man, heard about Derrick's wife - man that's some messed up, scandalous shit right there! See, that's why you got to steer as wide as you can away from some of these crazy ass women, they wicked as hell!"

"Dennis, trust me - I've encountered a few in my time, I'm with you on every word. The good news is, she's gonna be okay. Well, health wise anyway, she lost a baby though, she'd been pregnant when it all happened."

"Yeah man, I heard - and Derrick, how he dealing with it?"

"Emmm, not too good to be honest, he's blaming himself. Even so, when we left, he was upbeat, but didn't want anyone telling her about the miscarriage, or, that she now can't have anymore - that's the worst of it, I don't know you know - I just know it was time to get home, give them some room to breathe, heal together."