The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,97
with me no more. But you couldn’t do it yourself?”
Kyra lowered her eyes. She regretted the way she handled their breakup, which was nothing more than full abandonment. But no one understood the power Leonard had over her. Kyra had to lose everything to finally find the strength to break free. She feared that if she talked to Leonard, even from jail, he would’ve convinced her to believe in him again.
“What do you want now?” Kyra asked. She didn’t feel weak at all anymore. The worst Leonard could do was sue her for visitation rights for Kat. And even that was no longer a frightening scenario. Not with Donovan by her side.
“I want you to come back to me.”
Kyra shook her head. “That’s never going to happen.”
“Why not? I still love you, Kyra. And I know you love me, too. I see it in your eyes.”
Kyra frowned and blinked away whatever misleading messages her eyes were giving off. “Leonard, getting back with you is the absolute last thing I would ever do. I’d turn my kids in to CPS myself before I do some mess like that.”
He flinched. “Kyra, this ain’t you, baby. Why you talking to me like that?”
“This is me now,” she said. “This is the me you made, Leonard. And stop calling me baby.”
“Come with me,” Leonard said. He took her hand. “I got this rental. Let’s go somewhere and talk.”
Kyra jerked her hand away. “I’m not going anywhere with you. We talking now, and you ain’t said nothing.”
“I got a room,” Leonard said. “Come with me. We need to, we need to talk things thing out, Kyra. You all mad. You need to calm down. Relax a little. Get you a little taste, so you can think about what I’m saying…”
“A little taste?”
“What?”
“I heard what you said.” Kyra had her hands on her hips now, the last of her compassion gone.
“I didn’t say nothing.”
“Whatever, man. Are you high right now? You still shooting up?”
“No! Why you gon’ say some shit like that?”
“Let me see your arms.”
“What?”
“Let me see your arms, if you not getting high.”
“Man, this some ol’ bullshit,” Leonard said. “I love you, Kyra. I never did nothing but love you. I treated you the best I could, better than I treated anybody!”
Kyra rolled her eyes. She took note of how Leonard still wouldn’t show her his arms as he embarked on a tirade about how much he loved her and how wrong she did him.
Kyra listened because she wanted to know how long he’d be there before he mentioned Kat. She would’ve cut his rant off, however, if she knew Aunt Ruth was on the phone with Donovan at that very moment, divulging her ugliest secrets.
By the end of his speech, Leonard was crying. Kyra was pissed because she gave him this much of her time. She knew Donovan had called her by now. She hoped he would round the corner in his truck, so she could show him the loser who was threatening to take her to court.
“What does all this have to do with Kat?” she asked.
“Yeah. And I want my baby, too!” Leonard said. “Where she at? Let me see her?”
“Get out my face,” Kyra said, shaking her head.
“You can’t stop me from seeing my daughter!”
“Call the police and show them the papers that says today is your visitation day. I’ll wait on you. I’ll be right here.”
“I’ma sue your ass. You can’t take my daughter out of state.”
“What’s your daughter’s middle name?” Kyra asked.
Leonard didn’t even try to guess.
After five seconds, Kyra told him, “Leonard, if you get cleaned up, I’ll do whatever I can to allow you to be in Kat’s life, even if it means I have to move back to Little Rock.”
“I am clean. You don’t know what you talking about.”
“Boy, you just tried to give me a taste three minutes ago. You full of shit, and you know it. I don’t wanna be with you no more, and you know you don’t give a damn about Kat. So why don’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want child support from you or nothing. I just want you gone.”
He sneered at her before spitting his worst venom. “You chose to get on that dope, Kyra. You remember that shit?”
Kyra shook his comments off easily. She knew who she was then, and she knew who she was now. “You’re right. And when I was high, they wouldn’t let me have my kids. I got clean, and they