“Not yet. Heh. Heh. Heh.” Tasha breathed.

A couple of nurses helped her onto the bed. One of the nurses turned to me. “Are you the father?”

“I am.”

“You will have to wait in the waiting area with the children. We will keep you updated.”

“Somebody will be picking them up shortly,” I told her, and I dialed Angel.

She picked up on the first ring. “The GPS says I’m sixteen minutes away.”

“Yo, hurry up. I’m not saying get into an accident, but hurry.”

“I got you, my brotha.”

I took this opportunity to go move the van that I double parked in front of the entrance. After I parked it, we stood in front waiting on Angel. The boys had a hundred and one questions about what was going on with their mother. Angel finally pulled up, and I told them to behave and I would see them later. I dashed back inside.

Once back in her room, the doctor, whose badge identified him as Dr. Monroe Fuller greeted me. “You must be the father?”

“I am.” He shook my hand. “Well, you can calm down, Dad. This was a false alarm.”

“False alarm? She was just having labor pains. Is she and the baby all right?”

“This seems to be a case of Braxton Hicks. The contractions have just about stopped. We’re going to keep her for at least twenty-four hours, for observation. We’ve already notified her physician that she is here in our care.” Doctor Fuller continued. “I want her on bedrest. No housekeeping. No cooking. No grocery shopping and especially no intercourse. No upsetting her. She has to remain calm.”

“How much longer before the baby is due?” I asked. I was still a little suspicious in the back of my mind.

“She still has six and a half weeks to go, but if we can keep the bun in the over for at least five weeks, that will make us all happy.”

Six and a half weeks to go. I thought about the timeline of events. The rape with Kyron happened immediately after we fucked. I counted back to when I went to jail in California almost seven months ago. The timeline was fucking with my head. I kept trying to dismiss it; I had to take Tasha’s word for it. This was my baby. The DNA test said it was. I grabbed Tasha’s hand. She was lying there with her eyes closed, IV in her arm.

“We’ve given her a mild sedative and something to stop the contractions, and she may be a little drowsy for a few hours.”

“Thanks, doc.” I shook his hand again and he left.

I leaned over and kissed her lips before placing my lips to her ear. “You think all that fucking we did caused this?”

My baby smiled but didn’t open her eyes. “I told you to slow down.”