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“He told me what you told him, about being infertile?”
I nodded, fought back the tears that formed every time I thought about that.
“And he told you, or tried to tell you about his children?”
I looked at her for a moment. “Yes, ma’am.”
She opened the photo album to a picture of two smiling little chocolate boys. “Darwin and Jovani. The two oldest. Stair steps. I think they were four and five in this picture. They’re twenty-two and twenty-three now. Their mother is a girl named Latisha. She was Zo’s girlfriend at the time.” She flipped the page to a little brown boy sitting on a teenage girl’s lap. “This is Luke. He was two in this picture. He’s about twenty now.” Moving her finger to the next page, she pointed out a lighter-skinned little girl. “Kerry. She’s actually in the middle of the boys. She’s twenty-one.”
She slid the book over to me. “Four kids. Three different mothers. He didn’t have a relationship with Luke’s or Kerry’s mom from what he tells me. They just sort of happened. He was fifteen when his first child was born, eighteen when he finally had sense enough to stop spreading his seed all over Chicago.”
I stared down at the pictures, then looked up at her. “He’s sure they’re all his?” I had my suspicions about the girl. She didn’t resemble Lorenzo at all.
She shook her head. “No, but he supported them all financially anyway. Look, honey, what you’ve got to understand is the Zo you know and love didn’t exist back then. He was young and foolish, just about worried me to death running the streets, selling drugs, sleeping with all those girls, some his age and others were grown-ass women. And I’m pretty sure he got into some deeper illegal mess that I don’t even want to think about.
“He didn’t help raise those kids, didn’t even have the desire to until he finally stopped selling drugs and decided to move back here. It was like leaving that mess behind helped open his eyes to what’s important in this life. That was eight years ago, and everything you see now? The suits he wears, the business man he is? That’s his way of shaking off his past. He tried to get to know those kids, but they weren’t having it. Jovani and Darwin still won’t give him the time of day unless they want money from him, and he just keeps giving it to them out of guilt. Luke is locked up right now, but he still won’t have anything to do with Zo. Kerry’s the only one who’ll even talk to him on the phone. But that’s only when he can catch her. He pays for her to go to grad school, I think it is. But none of them will really let him be a father now.
“But…”
“But nothing. He showed you Darwin’s Facebook page, right?”
I nodded.
“Do you know he had to make a fake account for that boy to accept his friend request? Those children are angry at him, because he was never there and I can’t blame them, but our Zo is not that man anymore. He wants to do better. He would if he could. Look, I didn’t tell you about these kids before, because I felt it wasn’t up to me to do it. But I’ve got to intervene now, because my boy needs you. He loves you.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I know. I’m going home to him tonight.”
“Good.”
