Page 17 of To Hades & Back
Jin’jer’s eyes turned into slits. “I didn’t abandon my son. I was told that my son died after birth. I loved my son and was prepared to take care of him.”
The waitress came back to the table with our food. Once it was set down and the waitress left, Jin’jer continued. “As far as you moving to Boston, did you ever get in contact with my parents? I know you never got in contact with me.”
Dedra took the time to drench her steak in steak sauce then cut into it. I wasn’t going to trip about how cavalier she acted. I wanted Dorian to see his mother in her true light if he never had. Something told me that he knew she was shifty. “I did get in touch with your parents. They weren’t happy, but such is life.”
“Ma, what does that mean, such is life? Did you ever take me to meet them? I never remember meeting them,” Dorian asked.
She took a bite of her steak. With a mouthful of food, she said, “I took you over there and told you to say in the car. They had a fit when I told them who I was. I eventually left.”
“What made you eventually leave?” I asked. I started to hear what she wasn’t saying. Before she could respond, I held my hands up. “Actually, nah, I already know what it was. It was a money grab, right? You told them to give you some money and you’d disappear, right?”
Jin’jer laughed. “That sounds about right. They sure had the money to keep their little secret, or should I say mine. How much was my secret worth?” She took a forkful of her salad and put it in her mouth.
Dedra suddenly became timid. Dorian didn’t share many similarities with his mother, Jin’jer, but that scowl he wore was a twin to his mother. “Ma, did they give you money?”
“Yes, boy, that was the least they could do. When I adopted you, I stopped getting assistance from the state. I had to take care of you somehow.” When Dorian asked her how much they gave her, she glared at him. “They gave me five thousand a month. How do you think I paid for all of those extracurricular stuff you wanted to be in?”
Dorian held his head down. This shit was sad, but I hated to say that I wasn’t surprised at the least. “So, something isn’t making sense. All those years, you never said shit to him about who his mother was. All of a sudden, you wanted to reveal this big secret. What happened, they stopped giving you money?”
There was no way this bitch just suddenly decided to have a heart and reveal this big family secret. I wouldn’t say that she didn’t take care of Dorian, because he didn’t look to be struggling. Now whether she took care of him emotionally was debatable.
“That’s exactly what happened.” Jin’jer answered my question. “If I had to bet, it was around six months to a year ago. Dorian, when did you start working?”
When he said that he’d been working for almost five months, Jin’jer and I laughed. “I think you told him hoping that he would go to his grandparents, they get spooked and start giving you money again. You adopted him because you saw dollar signs.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter what I saw. I took care of your son, so you should be thanking me. Yes, I took money from your parents, and I used it to help take care of him. It wasn’t like I went out and bought drugs with it. Hell, they didn’t miss it, obviously. Dorian, you never went without, so don’t act like you did,” she scolded him.
Dorian stared at her for a beat before he responded. “Ma, I never said that you didn’t take care of me, but come on. I remember asking you since I was like twelve if you knew who my parents were. All you ever said was that it didn’t matter because they didn’t want me, when the whole time you knew exactly who my mother was. You could have told me, but you just kept getting a check. What kinda shit is that?”
Dedra threw her hands up. “Oh my God! Now everyone knows everything. Dorian, meet your mother. Jin’jer, meet your son. Happy now? Jin’jer, maybe you can help with some of his expenses since I’m no longer getting that assistance.”
“You call blackmail assistance, huh?” I asked incredulously. “I guess getting a fucking job was too much like real work?”Where are my sisters when I need them? I need them to come slap this bitch.From the expressions on Dorian’s face, I could tell that there was a shift in the atmosphere.
A price tag.Everyone put a fucking price tag on my damn son. First, it was eight hundred thousand dollars, and who knew what the administrator of the hospital got just for herself. Then you had Dedra getting the check from the state for my son until she realized there was a bigger cash cow to milk. She moved her ass to Boston to extort my stupid ass parents. What was the price tag that time? Five thousand dollars a damn month.
This woman thought it was okay to sit here in our face, eat the expensive ass Tomahawk steak that she ordered on our dime, and talk her shit. If my bitch ass parents hadn’t taken my son and lied about him dying, I would have had my baby boy, not this money hungry bitch.
“You call blackmail assistance, huh? I guess getting a fucking job was too much like real work?” Hades asked her with a twisted face. He was just as disgusted as I was.
Dedra’s eyes tightened. “You know what’s like real work? Raising someone else’s son is like real damn work.”
Dorian shifted in his seat to turn his body toward her. He leaned one of his arms on the table. “Ma, the more you talk, the more it sounds like raising me was some kind of burden to you. Now that you’re not getting money for me, I’m a burden. Is that what it is?”
“I never said it was a burden, but the money was very helpful, Dorian. At the end of the day, the reasons don’t matter. What matters is that I took care of you when no one else wanted to.” Dedra’s voice was laced with entitlement. Like she did a favor to someone, so she had a right to do whatever she did.
For most of this conversation, I’d sat here and listened while I ate my damn salad. I was trying to keep myself cool because this whole situation was unfortunate. Well, it was unfortunate until Dedra just admitted to putting a price tag on my son’s head. I closed my eyes for a second before I put my fork down to address this bitch. “Dedra, you have one more time to insinuate that I didn’t want my son. We’ve already had the conversation about what the fuck happened and why the fuck I wasn’t able to take care of my son. They told me he was dead!”
Hades’s hand gripped my thigh. He leaned toward me and kissed my temple. That was all it took for me to calm down. No words were ever needed from him for me to calm down. He had the magic touch in more ways than one. The waitress came to the table to ask if we wanted dessert. Dedra’s ass said yes.
After she finished with her dessert order, the waitress asked me and Hades. With a smile, Hades said, “No, we do not. You can bring the checks. We are together, and she’s separate.”
“What do you mean my check is separate? You said that this was on you,” Dedra shrieked. “I can’t afford this.” The waitress rushed from the table.
Hades’s head bucked back. “What made you think we could?” He pointed between the two of us. “We over here with a salad and wings, but your ass ordered a Tomahawk steak.”
“I know she can afford it,” Dedra said and pointed at Jin’jer.
The waitress came back to the table just in time. I was about to slap the hell out of this woman. When she set the check in front of Dedra, she glanced at it, then slid it toward Dorian.What the hell she do that for?I watched as Dorian looked at the check, then huffed. He reached in his pocket and pulled out some money.
