Epilogue

SIX MONTHS LATER…

"One more push, Yolani!" the doctor hollered to me.

Gritting my teeth, I squeezed the hell out of Cemone's hand as I pushed for my life.

This whole experience had been one for the books. I'd been having contractions for twenty-four hours it seemed. The pain was so unbearable that I eventually vomited. The only solace I had was getting the epidural, but as I pushed my baby boy out, I couldn't figure out what exactly that fucking epidural was doing. I felt everything.

A ring of fire blazed between my legs as the nurses and Cemone began to cheer, letting me know my son was coming out. Taking a deep breath as the nurse had advised, I gave one more good one and finally heard the sounds of his adorable cries.

Without warning, they placed him on my chest, and when he looked up at me, he had the prettiest set of gold and jade eyes, just like his father.

The nurses cleaned me up as Cemone stared down at him, and I could see the awe in his expression. Taking our baby boy, who we decided to name Caylin, they put him on the scale to get his weight.

"Aye, don't be all rough and shit," Cemone barked to them.

He always claimed someone was being rough with his baby, even while in the womb. I thought it was cute though.

After getting his weight, they talked to me for a bit on how to get him to latch. When he did it immediately, Cemone rejoiced, saying he was definitely his son, with his freaky ass.

While we waited on our meals that Cemone had specially ordered, he took him, cradling him to his chest while taking him in for a moment.

It was crazy to me that the man everyone, including me, used to think was a neglectful father was nothing of the sort.

"He's so adorable. Hopefully, he'll look a little bit like me." I smiled, watching the duo.

"He won't," Cemone retorted, making me laugh. "You know all yo' daddy had to do to get you here." I laughed at that as he talked to our son. "Yo' mama was mean as fuck, but I kept the pressure on her ass. All so I could get you." He kissed him. "I love you, man."

I sat back, watching and not wanting to interrupt their bonding moment as Cemone talked and talked. He kept it up, even when our specially prepared food came, holding him close as he ate almost like he didn't want to let him go.

"Now that you got him, seems like you don't need me," I joked.

"Nah, I'm gon' always need you." He got up to kiss me. "You and now him are the reason for everything for me. Real shit. Thank you for everything, baby, for real."

"I'm gonna always need you too. I love you."

It was true. Cemone had changed my life in many ways, even with my health because Dr. Kelly had come through, changing my medicine to be just one pill a month with no crashing. They still weren't able to diagnose me, but the pill she prescribed made my bloating abdomen and paralyzing limb pain virtually non-existent. Now, Yailey, my mom and even my dad were especially just as obsessed with him as I was.

"I love you more. Get some rest, love. I'll wake you up when we need you."

That was music to my ears as I lay back. It didn't take me long to doze off at all. And throughout the night, Cemone was so perfect. He did all the work so I could rest. All I had to do was breastfeed and cuddle him when I was awake during our stay.

I couldn't believe I had almost written Cemone off because of what I thought I knew and his reputation. I quickly found out, though, that it was true that a man would be different when he had feelings for you.

*FIN*