Thirty minutes later, I was pulling up to the school. I took my blazer off that I was wearing, grabbed my Louis Vuitton bag, and headed inside the building. Bria was in Pre-K, so I had to go outside where they were on the playground, in aftercare.
“Hi, I’m here to pick up Bria Harris,” I said to the teacher sitting at the desk outside.
“Yes, her dad called and said a Breesha would be picking her up. Can I just see your ID?” she asked me.
I went inside my purse and showed her my ID. She took a look at it and handed it back to me.
She called Bria’s name over the radio and told me to wait. I walked over to the playground and spotted Bria sitting at a table by herself coloring. The teacher walked over to her and said something and she turned around and looked at me. A huge smile came on her face as she put her coloring book in her Cinderella book bag and ran over to me. We had become very close over the past month.
“Hey cutie,” I said once she had reached, me and picked her up and placed a kiss on her cheek. I walked with her still in my arms to the teacher that was sitting at the desk and signed Bria out.
“Breesha. I didn’t know you were getting me today,” she said after I placed her down and we headed to my car.
“Yes, your daddy wanted me to pick you up today. How was school?” I asked once we got to the car.
“It was okay,” she said.
I sat her in the back and put her on her seatbelt. I made a mental note to ask her why she was sitting by herself when I came and got her and not with her other classmates. It was still early, and I wanted to have some fun with my little lady. I decided to take her to the mall and do some shopping. When we pulled up to the mall, I got out and went to the back and helped her out. She held my hand like she always did, and we headed inside.
“Where to first?” I asked.
“Justice,” she said, smiling. This little girl loved that store.
For the most part, I picked out the majority of the outfits, but I let her choose the last one. I wanted to see how that one would look on her, so we had to go to the fitting room. Bria was small for her age, so I wanted to make sure everything fit that I had gotten for her.
We walked inside the dressing room, and I sat on the bench and let Bria change. She insisted on being a big girl, so I let her do it all by herself. When she lifted her shirt, her back was turned to me and something stood out to me. She had a big purple and black bruise on the top left of her back. It looked like someone may have punched her or maybe even kicked her in it. My first reaction was maybe something happened in school, but I didn’t want to assume, so that left me no choice but to just ask her.
“Bria come here,” I said, scooting up closer to the edge of the seat that was in the fitting room.
She walked over to me and I turned her around and inspected her back. This was a newly formed bruise, so this couldn’t have happened not even less than two days ago. I could look at the area and tell that it was swollen, and I knew that it had to be causing her pain. No wonder why she was so quick to jump out of my arms when I picked her up from school. I guess my arm must have hit the spot on her back, which caused her to ease her way down back on the ground and reach out to hold my hand.
“What happened to your back?” I asked.
She quickly turned around and tried to put the shirt over her head. I helped her put it on, and she didn’t say anything. It was like she was afraid to even speak. It was like whoever had done this to her had threatened that she better not say anything because looking at her, she was shaking. This wasn’t an accident then. Someone had intentionally put their hands on her.
“You can tell me. I promise I won’t say anything,” I pleaded with her.
She started crying, and I swear that shit broke my heart. I had to try and fight back my tears as well. I looked at her and it felt like I was looking into the eyes of myself when I was a little girl. I remember my mom beating my ass and leaving bruises on me, and telling me that I better not say to anybody. I remember having to make up lies to my teachers, telling them that I fell, but I didn’t want Bria to have to lie to me. I wanted her to tell me the truth so that we could stop this situation right now, and so that it didn’t get worse.
“You promise?” she cried.
“Yes, now what happened?” I asked.
“I was crying because I wanted Mommy to drop me off at daddy’s house. Her boyfriend Fred was there too. Mommy told me to shut up and to go back in my room and I was still crying, and Fred got mad and punched me. Mommy told me I better not say anything to daddy about it. Breesha please don’t tell daddy,” she cried, wrapping her arms around me for dear life. At that moment, I lost it. I wasn’t able to fight the urge to keep my tears at bay. I quickly wiped them, because I didn’t want Bria to see me crying too.
“I won’t tell him,” I lied, because there was no way that I was going to be able to keep this away from her dad. Shit, Dontae might fuck around and kill me too if he found out that I knew this whole time and never told him.
There was no way I could keep that a secret. If I never would have noticed the bruise on her back, this probably would have continued to happen. There’s no telling how many times that man done put his hands on her. And for Sharice to just let the nigga do it, I had no respect for the bitch. Bria continued to try on her other outfits, while I sat there shock. When we were finished, I put all the clothes back on the hangers and went to the front to pay for the items.
“You hungry?” I asked her when we were leaving the store.
“Yes,” she smiled.
I couldn’t see how a mother could let a man mistreat her own daughter. I mean, this girl was so beautiful and smart and I’ve never seen her misbehave, even though I’ve only known her for a short amount of time.
“What, do you want to eat?” I asked.
“Hmm McDonalds,” she said.