Chapter 33: Mama

“There’s my baby! Bout time!”

“Hey, Mama,” Jalen said as he hugged his mother, Deborah Moss, and entered the house.

“What’s wrong baby? You sound exhausted. You know you can’t be running yourself into the ground building all these houses and stuff.”

“It’s not that, Mama,” Jalen said. “C’mon, let’s sit.”

Deborah watched her son carefully as they sat down on the couch. She could see it all over his face that something was weighing on him heavily.

Jalen had always been independent, always handling things on his own. For him to have come here like this, something serious must have been going on.

“Jalen, baby, talk to me,” she said gently, placing a hand on his knee. “What’s got you lookin’ so worn out?”

Jalen exhaled deeply, rubbing his hands together before finally looking at his mother.

“Mama ... I got somethin’ to tell you, and I don’t even know how to start,” he admitted.

Deborah tilted her head. “Well, start from the beginning.”

Jalen nodded, gathering himself before saying, “Mama, I—” he hesitated, then finally pushed the words out, “I got four women pregnant.”

The room fell dead silent.

Deborah blinked. Once. Twice. Then leaned back against the couch, exhaling sharply. She looked at Jalen as if trying to process whether she heard him correctly.

“Four?” she finally said, her tone unreadable.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jalen answered, unable to look her in the eye at that moment.

Deborah shook her head slightly, then let out a dry chuckle. “Boy ... What?”

Jalen sighed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “Mama, it ain’t what you think. I ain’t out here just bein’ reckless. I care about all of them. It’s—It’s complicated.”

Deborah stared at him, her motherly instincts warring with her disbelief. She knew her son. He was not the kind of man to be careless, a deadbeat, or trifling ... but four women?

She finally spoke, her voice firm yet full of concern.

“Tell me everything, Jalen. From the start. Every detail. Right now.”

Jalen nodded. Then he told her everything about Sydney, Kristen, Megan, and Rachel. He finished by explaining where things stood with each of them, including Rachel’s feelings of betrayal after being told about the other women.

By the time he finished, the sun had shifted, and the room was heavy with silence.

Deborah hadn’t interrupted once. Now she just sat in stunned silence, processing everything. She had barely moved during that whole time, aside from occasionally shaking her head, rubbing her temples, or letting out deep sighs.

Jalen sat across from her, hands clasped together, clearly waiting for a lecture or an explosion, but instead, his mother just stared at him.

Then after several tense moments, she finally spoke.