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“GiGi! We got ice cream!” Leah hollered.

A few seconds later, she came running into the kitchen with AJ behind her. Ajoni followed carrying a couple of shopping bags, but the moment he spotted me sitting at the island, his expression hardened.

“Gee, I got that stuff you wanted,” he told Mama, setting the bags on the counter.

“Thank you, baby,” she replied.

Leah came over and hugged me while AJ spoke before heading to the refrigerator. Ajoni put the groceries away without acknowledging me.

“Ajoni, can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked as he started toward the doorway.

“Not right now, Kat,” he answered.

“Joni, please. I just wanna explain something,” I begged.

He stopped and looked at me before asking Mama to take Leah to her room. Pat followed them out of the kitchen, leaving us alone.

“Kat, what the fuck is left to explain?” he questioned. “You embarrassed me, Tae, and Saint at my wife’s baby shower. What else you got to say?”

“I wasn’t tryna embarrass anybody, Ajoni. I recognized Saint’s resemblance to Frank at the wedding, but I wasn’t sure until I heard his father’s name.”

“So you been thinking about this shit since my wedding and never thought to come talk to me?” he demanded.

I lowered my eyes. “I should’ve said something sooner.”

“You damn right you should’ve,” he snapped. “And that’s not even my biggest problem. You could’ve given me and Tae that nigga’s name years ago. You ain’t have to know for sure if he was our father.”

“I didn’t wanna send y’all looking for somebody who might not have been your daddy,” I explained.

“That wasn’t your fucking decision to make, Kat,” he replied. “We asked you for years, and you kept telling us you didn’t know shit. Now come to find out, you had names you could’ve given us.”

I couldn’t argue with him. He’d spent his childhood asking questions I hadn’t given him the chance to answer for himself.

“I’m sorry, Ajoni,” I told him. “I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes with you and Tae.”

“Yeah, you have. But I’ain tryna sit here and go through all that shit with you,” he replied. “Gee and Ma Pat raised us, and we turned out just fine. I’m not looking for somebody to come be my daddy at this age. I just wanna know the truth.”

“I understand,” I answered.

“Then respect the fact that I’on wanna deal with you right now,” he told me. “Me and Tae gone handle this shit with Saint, and whatever we find out… we’ll deal with it.”

I nodded, realizing there wasn’t anything I could say that would change his mind.

“I won’t bother you about it anymore,” I promised. “Whenever you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here.”

“Aight,” he replied, stepping away from the counter.

I grabbed my purse and headed toward the doorway, stopping before I left.

“I love you, Ajoni,” I told him, but he didn’t respond.

I found Mama and Pat in the living room and told them I was leaving. Mama hugged me before I kissed Leah goodbye and headed outside.

Once I got into my car, I sat there thinking about my conversation with Ajoni. He’d never been one to argue with me about the past, but today he’d made it clear how much my decisions had affected him.

Tae wasn’t speaking to me either, and I knew better than to force a conversation with him. Both my sons had every right to be angry.

I started my car and pulled out of the driveway. Whatever those DNA results revealed, I hoped Ajoni and Tae finally got the answers I’d failed to give them.