A/N

This is after Christmas.

🎙

"Hey Cha! How you doing?" Key asked smiling slightly at Chalynn. She returned the gesture, her hazelnut colored cheeks a rosy red from cold bitter air.

"I'm well, how are you Markeyvius?" This was the first time she had seen him since the Christmas party at King's. He was letting his hair grow out, but it looks like he had just had it freshly lined up. His facial hair as well.

His coat was off so that meant he had been there a little bit longer than she had and Keisha was coming in right behind her.

"Pretty good. Thank you for coming. Hey ma." Key hugged his mother and helped her with her coat while they waited for Dr. Allen to come out of the room to bring them back.

"Hey baby. You look handsome." Keisha complimented him, absentmindedly, Lay nodded her head in agreeance and tried to play it off by tilting her head back and flicking her 28 inches over her shoulder.

"Lay look at that belly, you look so pretty." Keisha walked over to Lay and got a look of confirmation before rubbing it softly.

"Thank you mama Keisha. Yep they just keep on growing. My stomach has been cramping and my back has been hurting though. Ever since we came back from Orlando." Lay complained placing a hand on her back.

"You gone take Lay's coat?" Keisha asked looking between him and her.

"She looked cold so I wasn't sure." He shrugged taking Lay's coat and hanging it up.

"Cathey family? Dr. Allen is ready for you." The receptionist smiled widely at them as she held the big grand oak door open for them to walk through. The three of them walked through the door and was greeted by Dr. Allen.

"I thought you said you were bringing your mom, not your sister." Dr. Allen complimented her, she tried to stick her hand out but Keisha blushed and gave her a hug.

"Girl. You better stop! Tryna flatter me and what not." They released from the hug and Dr. Allen looked at Chalynn. Key stood there with his hands in his sweatpants.

"You must be Lay! More beautiful than described of course. Aw look at that belly." Dr. Allen cooed bringing Lay in for a hug.

"Thank you, I'm almost six months now. Due in May." She said proudly.

"I've heard all about it. Make yourselves comfortable please. Have a seat. I'll try to get you all out of here before the winter storm hits. Markeyvius, sit in the middle please. You look a little nervous." She grabbed her notepad. Lay sat closest to the door while Keisha was next to the door. The big couch fit them all comfortably.

"Thank you all for coming to his session. You two ladies have had huge impacts on his life and of course his great grandma as well but she's not here. I do want to let you know that we have an NDA. Absolutely nothing we say in here can be repeated or written down. Anything you want to say can be said. There are no recorders or anything like that in here. Shall we get started?" The three of them nodded their heads.

"I already know I'm going to cry. Do you have any tissues?" Lay giggled but she was already about to cry.

"Here yo cry baby ass go." Key shook his head and huffed, seeing Lay cry was a weakness for him. It made his heart want to jump ship. He wasn't so sure that he wanted to go through with the session. Lay mushed his head.

"Do you want to tell us what you're feeling Lay? We haven't started yet and you're already crying." Lay took the box of tissues from her hand.

"I feel pregnant," the group laughed and then quieted down as she spoke, "This is all that I've wanted for him and from him. To get some help. I always wanted him to get help for me and the baby but I'm glad he did it for himself so that he can do it for his son you know." She wiped her eyes and sniffled a little.

Key had his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together and he was leaned forward staring straight at the floor.

"What was a moment in time where you realized he needed help?" Dr. Allen crossed her legs over the knee and leaned forward. She didn't have to ask any questions, the pregnant mother was spilling all her emotions on the floor.

"And we can say anything right?" Lay looked around the room for confirmation.

"Yes." Markeyvius and Dr. Allen both spoke at the same time.

"There was this night before I knew I was pregnant where he was sitting on the edge of the bed and he his eyes were glazed over. I knew it wasn't him. I just knew it. I was trying to get him to come back to me but it wasn't working. He was mumbling about how he had to save his mom, long story short the next thing I know. I'm pent up on the wall with his hands around my neck loosing oxygen. My sister had to come save me and I lied to the cops about it. After that Key made love to me to apologize for what he had done. After he went to sleep, I cried and cried begging God to help him because I love him so much but I knew there wouldn't be much more I could take. After that night though, everything was good for awhile." Keisha gasped once she heard Key choked Lay up a wall. Although it wasn't him she was still very upset.

"Wow .." Dr. Allen was at a lose for words which didn't happen often.

"I didn't know what was happening until after it happened and Marlee brought me back to reality. You know I would never lay a hand on you Cha. I wasn't sleep that night. I heard you sobbing but I just laid there. I didn't know what to say or do and I figured you would've just wanted me to leave you alone." Key's eyes held a lot of sorrow. Lay didn't deserve anything that happened to her while they were together.

"I know that. I knew that then. I stuck beside you through thick and thin, Markeyvius. I really did but you didn't care about that because you still left me. Pregnant and alone." Lay burryed her emotions but once she went to therapy for them in Belize, they all came back to the surface. Typically she wouldn't be so vocal but one thing she has learned. If it doesn't get talked about it won't heal.

Dr. Allen was impressed with how well this was going. Keisha sat back and listened though.

"I-" Key tried to rebuttal but Lay wasn't finished.

"I begged you to stay but no, Aubree came first. For what reason? I have no idea. I played mommy to a baby that wasn't even yours. Sorry in advance mama Keisha, you wanted pussy? I gave it to you on a fucking platter. You was hungry, I made sure you ate. I proved my loyalty to you time and time again Markeyvius. Held your gun in my purse when we got pulled over. Yo fucking family loves me. Not to mention you dogged me in front of everybody at Eli's party and that's just half of the shit you did to break my heart." Lay had sniffled a million times by now.

"Lay you never bring up the shit you did wrong though and while it's not as much as I've done where were my apologies? I'm not negating from the fact that I've done wrong but you've hurt me too." Key looked at Lay who didn't want to look at him.

"What have I done to hurt you?" Lay asked genuinely, she was curious. He had never spoken of anything until now.

"You never trusted me Lay. The first time I took you on a date you had it out for me, you belittled me. I feel like you were always talking down on a nigga even when I tried my hardest to please you. I was loyal to you until the very day we decided to cut things off between us. You slept with my right foot. While pregnant with my seed. Come on na. You say you wanted me to get my shit together for ya'll but I tried Lay and since you never believed what a nigga said, you went and got 'revenge' but I was telling the truth the whole time. Then you slapped me at Eli's party? I can't be too mad about that one but still."

"You're right. I never trusted you. Right when I was beginning to, you showed me exactly why I shouldn't. I apologized for belittling you that night. Key, you slept with somebody else and then still slept with me and after that you wanted to get back together. So you shouldn't have left me period. How was I going to trust you after you slept with somebody you told me not to worry about? I slapped you after you had me pinned on the wall. I was being sexually assaulted and you were doing what? Picking Aubree to be your dancer for the night." Keys eyebrows raised, because she wasn't wrong but at the same time he didn't know what was going on.

"I took care of that nigga though." Key mumbled, Lay turned her head towards him.

"W-what did you say?" She asked, but now everybody was paying attention. Keisha was very entertained, perplexed and sad because she didn't know their relationship was like this.

"I killed 'em. Slowly. When it comes to you ima always kill 'em." Key couldn't believe he admitted to that.

"This is like my favorite soap opera." Dr. Allen lightened the mood a little but the stare between Lay and Key was heavy.

"I'm sorry Markeyvius. I really am. For never trusting you. I set us up to fail by not believing we would work. Sleeping with Black really crossed the line, I was just hurt and wanted you to feel the same thing I did. I should've never put my hands on you especially at a kids party."

"I am sorry Chalynn. For everything I did to hurt you even when I didn't know that I was hurting you. I'm sorry for all of the manipulation tactics I used. I'm sorry for making everything about me. I want you to know from the bottom of my hear that I love you. I wish I showed you that more while we were together. I apologize for leaving you pregnant, alone and scared. I hope that we can move forward and leave this in the past." Key placed his hand on her growing belly causing an uproar in her stomach.

"I accept your apology and I would like to move forward as well. Thank you for communicating with me and listening to hear and not respond. I appreciate that."

"And I appreciate you listening to me and accepting my apology." Kesha wiped her own eyes looking at the two who had matured so much.

"Lay or Key is there anything else you two would like to say to each other?" Key shook his head no but Lay opened her mouth but thought against it. Key raised his eyebrow at her but didn't say anything after that.

"Key, I wanna go back to when you were trying to save your mom and that resulted in you choking Lay ... what exactly were you trying to save her from?" Dr. Allen asked, she wished she had some popcorn cause it was getting way too juicy for her.

"My dad. I was recently informed that I killed him. He was beating my mom and I couldn't take it anymore so I shot him and she took the fall for that." It was Lay's turn to gasp though. Key went on to say how that hindered his relationship with his mother and how he wished she would've told him about it but he understood why. Keisha didn't have much to say because they had talked through their differences already.

"You all did such a good job today! Did my job for me. Markeyvius, I am proud of you for opening up. It was lovely to meet you all but you need to get going. The snow is picking up." Dr. Allen looked outside of her giant window.

They all bundled up once they said their goodbyes. Keisha left out first.

"Shit." Lay cursed looking at the Uber app.

"What's the matter?" He asked zipping his coat up.

"Uber isn't working. Since the snow storm they act like they can't drive." Lay sighed shaking her head.

"Come on. I'll take you. Where's Eli?" He asked, she let him know she was at daycare.

"You sure? I don't wanna intrude on your plans if you have any." Lay shook her head.

"Girl come on and be careful."

*

"Can I ask you something?" Key asked as they pulled up to his house. Since Lay lived thirty minutes away from the daycare and it was mostly back roads, she just instructed to go to his house until it blew over.

"Sure." Lay smiled as she sipped from her water bottle, she gave him her full attention.

"How come you were dissing Marlee at the Christmas dinner?" He asked drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Because she chooses you and your people. She crashed my car and destroyed my apartment and stole thousands of dollars from me. I'm done with her ass." Lay sighed turning away, she watched the snow fall on his truck.

"I can see the first one but Marlee has been staying with me since the day you left. As far as I know, she had never stepped foot inside the apartment again. I don't think she would steal from you either." Lay's mouth was agape.

"If not her then who?" Lay asked out loud, she was going to get to the bottom of it. One way or another. She pulled out her phone to do some research.

"Can I ask one more question?" He asked but more serious.

"Sure." But she was fixated on her phone.

"What were you going to say at the therapy appointment."

"That I wish you didn't move on." Lay was happy she was searching for something so he couldn't see her face fall. Key slowly nodded his head.

"Those bitches!" Lay exclaimed as she pressed play on the camera footage. They were so dumb that they didn't look up.

"Who is that?" Key squinted looking at the footage.

"Bria and Golden."

A/N

Uh Oh friends .. how we feeling bout it???