by King, Deja
“I feel you. If it were my child, heads would roll. Nobody would be immune but I don’t recommend you follow that path. Let the legal system do what it does first. If for some reason they fuck it up then we can go back to your list. But for now you have to fall back.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that. The system already failed Aaliyah and the only reason the truth came out is because Quentin found the missing link to bring all this shit together. So let’s just say I’m not really confident with their services.”
“Under the circumstances, that’s a fair statement but, Precious, you have way too much to lose. Trust me on this. Let the legal system do their job. You go out here playing vigilante you’re going to end up in the exact same place you fought to get Aaliyah out of.”
“Point taken. I’ll give it some time to see what happens but Chantal and Justina will pay for what they did to Aaliyah, so for their sakes they better pray that punishment comes from the court of law, because my penance is a life for a life.”
“I got that. All I’m trying to do is make sure Aaliyah and Xavier both grow up with their mommy.”
“I feel you but let’s go,” I said, looking down at my watch. “Court is about to resume and you know I can’t be late.”
“And I don’t want you to, so let’s go.”
When we got back to the courtroom the first thing I did was look for Supreme. My eyes were darting all around but there wasn’t a trace of Supreme. There is no way he would miss this. Supreme knows that Aaliyah needs his support and so do I. I went to take my seat with a heavy heart. I felt a pair of eyes burning a hole through me and when I turned to see who it was, I realized it was Nico. Before I turned my head back around I checked out the other side of the courtroom and noticed T-Roc. Chantal and Justina were nowhere to be found which stunned me. I thought about what Genesis’s said and he might’ve been right. Had T-Roc been in touch with an attorney and started building a defense for his wife and daughter. If he had he was a piece of work.
“All rise . . . ” I heard the officer say as my mind was still struggling to figure out where Chantal and Justina had disappeared to. Before I gave my full attention to the judge I scanned the courtroom one last time and Lorenzo wasn’t in attendance either. Genesis and Amir were standing together and right before I turned away I noticed Supreme walk through the doors. Praise The Lord Supreme is here, Aaliayh would’ve been devastated, I thought before sitting down.
“Damn, I hope this shit is finally over and Aaliyah will be able to come home,” I whispered under my breath before saying a quiet prayer. I was also praying that Supreme would come sit next to me but when I glanced towards the door again he was sitting down in the back.
“After speaking with both attorneys in my chambers and due to the testimony of Chantal Morgan I move to have all charges against Aaliyah Mills Carter dismissed with prejudice. Court dismissed,” he said pounding down his gavel.
“My baby is finally coming home,” I said out loud with the biggest smile on my face. I wanted everybody to hear the joy in my voice. At this moment I wanted to celebrate Aaliyah but soon my focus would be on making sure everybody responsible for having her spend all those months behind bars paid in full.
Aaliyah
“I can’t believe I’m going home,” I hugged Mr. Anderson and said.
“You deserve it. “
“So I can just go?”
“We have some paperwork to fill out but yes you will be going home today. Now go hug your family. I know you want to,” Mr. Anderson smiled.
I found myself walking slowly towards my family. For whatever reason I felt nervous. It was weird. Spending all those months in jail made a small part of me feel like I didn’t know them anymore.
“I’m so happy you’re coming home,” my mom said, greeting me with a big hug and kiss. “We missed you so much. Xavier is going to be so happy to see his big sister,” she gushed.
“My baby girl is coming home where she belongs.” Nico squeezed me so tight, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. “My world has not been the same without you in it.”
“Neither has mine,” Amir said, coming for ward. “Aaliyah, I’m thrilled you’re coming home but I knew you would.”
“Don’t speak to me.” I snapped. I heard the sound of aahs coming from all around me. “You walked away from me when I was at my lowest point in jail because you wanted to stand by your sweet and innocent Justina. While I sat at the table with my attorney fighting for my freedom you stood and held hands with my enemy, the snake responsible for putting me in this predicament. Now that I’m free you have the nerves to show me love. Take that bullshit someplace else.”
“Aaliyah! Don’t speak to Amir like that,” my mother said, taken aback by the words that just came out of my mouth.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Mills, I understand why she’s upset. Aaliyah, I just hope one day you can forgive me.”
“It ain’t gon’ never happen so stop hoping. Now excuse me I want to go speak with my dad.” I hurried off to the back of the courtroom and ran into the arms of my father. I needed his love just as much as I knew he needed mine.
“Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear as I held him tightly.
“No, but I’m going to get there.”
He held me by my arms and pulled away from my embrace before saying, “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I know lately I haven’t been here for you the way I should and I’m sorry. But I love you more than you could ever know.”
“I know you do and, daddy, please don’t leave us. I know what you found out in court has hurt you so bad but please, I’m begging you not to leave us.”
“I will never leave you or Xavier. The two of you give me a reason to live, never doubt that.” Then my father held me and I knew that meant he was gone, he wasn’t coming back home and once again my heart was broken.
3 Months Later
As i sat outside watching Xavier doing flips into the infinity pool I smiled at how happy he seemed under the circumstances. He was a soldier just like our father. Him being gone seemed to hit me the hardest. I was still expecting my dad to come back home but he wasn’t. He did spend a lot of time with us especially Xavier, they seemed closer than ever but it wasn’t the same. Then there was my grandfather he had been in a coma for months. The only reason they wouldn’t take him off of life support was because the doctor said that there was still brain activity. That made us optimistic but it didn’t help when all you wanted him to do was wake up. Before the tears began to escape my eyes I heard my IPhone ringing. A number I didn’t recognize came across the screen but I decided to answer.
“Hello.”
“Is this Aaliyah?”
“Who’s asking?” the voice sounded familiar but I didn’t like the fact they were calling my phone but unsure if they were speaking to me.
“This is Peaches.”
“Omigoodness! Peaches, how are you?”
“I’m good. When I heard you got out I wanted to call you but I couldn’t find your number anywhere. But I just found it and so you know I had to call you. How you doing?”
“Things are cool. I’m free so that makes things great.”
“So what have you been up to?”
“Nothing really, I’m still getting used to being out and not locked up. I’m debating on whether I’m going to start school this fall or try modeling again. I haven’t figured anything out yet. How about you?”
“I have a lot going on and I want you to be a part of it. You up for lunch?”
“No I’m here with my lil’ brother. I can do dinner.”
“That works for me. I’ll hit you in a couple hours and we can decide where to go.”
“Cool, I’ll talk to you later.” When I hung up with Peaches I got excited about hanging out with her tonight. Since Justina and Amir were no longer my best friends the only people I had been around the last few months were family. It would be nice to be around somebody my ow
n age.
“Xavier, be careful,” I heard my mother call out, interrupting my thoughts. “I always get scared seeing him do those flips in the pool. I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself,” my mother said sitting down next to me.
“I wasn’t expecting you back for another couple of hours.”
“The meeting at my attorney’s office wrapped up sooner than I thought it would.”
“What were you meeting with your attorney about?”
“Your father has filed for legal separation. It’s that step we have to take before getting a divorce.”
“I can’t believe you guys are really going through with this,” I said, shaking my head.
“I can’t force your father to stay with me. He’s made a decision and as much as I don’t agree with it, there isn’t anything I can do.”
“Too bad you didn’t think about that before you cheated.”
“Aaliyah, your father and I were having problems way before that and not to excuse it but that’s one of the reasons why I cheated. When you’re not being fulfilled at home you tend to go elsewhere. You’re too young to understand any of this but one day when you get married you will.”
“I don’t ever want to get married. Not if it’s going to end up the way it did for you and dad.”
“You say that now but when you meet that special man that captures your heart all reasoning goes out the door.”
“I don’t want to be hurt by a man again.”
“Are you talking about Amir?” I looked away not answering my mother’s question. “Amir didn’t mean to hurt you. He’s young and he’s going to make mistakes. You’ve known him almost all your life. Don’t throw that friendship away because of his poor judgment in one situation.”
“So am I supposed to forgive Justina too?” I asked sarcastically.
“Of course not, that’s totally different.”
“How is it different? Amir stopped coming to see me in jail because of Justina. He chose her over me. How can I forgive that?”
“Aaliyah, it’s not a competition. You have to understand the dilemma Amir was in. You’re his best friend and Justina was his girlfriend. He cared about both of you. He had no idea that Justina was setting you up.”
“Yeah, she and her mother set me up and they’re both still walking around free while I had to sit in jail for months when I did nothing wrong. What sense does any of that make? I told Amir I was innocent.”
“And he knew that but I don’t think he believed Justina was straight up lying. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt but he realizes he was wrong.”
“I wonder now that the truth is out has he turned his back on Justina like he did me.”
“The only way you’re going to find out what’s going on with Amir is if you sit down and talk to him.”
“I’m not ready to do that and I don’t know when I will be.”
“I understand but don’t become bitter and close yourself off because of what happened. You’re so young and smart. You can accomplish whatever your heart desires and you’ll have our complete support.”
“I don’t know what I want to do.”
“There’s no rush. Take your time.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“I know you will.” My mother gave me a warm smile. I knew she meant well but I had this bottled up animosity towards her, Amir and just about everybody else. Part of me was mad at the world and the fact that Chantal wasn’t in jail didn’t help. “I was thinking the three of us could go out to dinner tonight,” my mother suggested, as if she could tell my mind was wandering off to another place.
“I would but Peaches an old friend of mine called and invited me to go out.”
“Peaches . . . I’ve never heard you mention her before.”
“She’s somebody I knew from when I did some modeling,” I lied. My mother would have a shit fit if I told her she was my old roomie from jail.
“I think that would be good for you. You haven’t been out with any of your friends since you got out of jail. You need to try and get some normalcy back in your life.”
“Well hopefully this girl date will be the start of that,” I beamed. I meant that shit too. I wanted to feel young, sexy and full of life again. Moping around the house and doing everything with my mother and brother was cool at first but now it was becoming redundant. It was time for me to start living life again.
While i drove over the George Washington Bridge I was blasting Trouble’s mixtape, 431 Days that I had downloaded online. Because I was sitting in the house all day everyday, I had become a hip-hop music connoisseur and his shit was by far my favorite. While Hustle & Ambition blared from my speakers, the words resonated with me because currently I had neither. It felt like I was lost in the world with no direction and that was a fucked up feeling. I had the song on repeat as I made my way into the City and headed towards Soho. I needed to get my mind right and escape this funk I was in. Jail took away eight months of my life; I didn’t want it to take eight more.
When I pulled up to the restaurant I parked my car across the street in a parking garage. That was the main thing I hated about coming into the city you could never find parking and paying was hella high. But I wasn’t going to take any chances on my new all white Range Rover getting towed. It was a gift from Nico. He called it my coming home present. When I stepped out the sunshine hit my face and a boost of energy came over me. That was one of the great things about summertime, at 7 pm the sun still shined bright. For the first time in a while I did actually feel cute today. I had on some skinny white jeans with a V-neck white tee and some bubblegum pink open toe platform heels to give my outfit some pop. I had my curls lifted high in a ponytail with a couple of loose curls falling over my eye. My hoop diamond stud earrings and soft pink lip-gloss complimented the look perfectly. My outer appearance was on point now all I had to do was get my inner spirit right.
When I entered the restaurant I noticed Peaches sitting at a corner yapping hard on the phone. Whoever she was talking to had her in deep conversation, so much so it took her a minute to even see that I was about to sit down. She held her finger up, signaling for me to give her a second. I sat my purse down and called the waitress over to order me a drink. As I was about to flip through the menu to decide what I would be ordering I damn near lost my appetite. I had to do a double take. Why does bullshit seem to follow me? Is that really Amir and Justina sitting together having dinner, please let my eyes be playing tricks on me. But they weren’t. The shit was real and I was ready to turn this restaurant out.
“Hey girl! I’m used to seeing you in orange jumpsuits but you walked in here looking like a star,” Peaches smiled standing up to give me a hug. It took me a sec to stand up too because I was too busy eyeballing Amir and Justina.
“You over there looking like a star too,” I finally said, kissing Peaches on the cheek and I wasn’t lying, she was a bad bitch. She had a super short haircut that highlighted her striking features. Her skin was so chocolate and smooth; you were tempted to rub your finger across her face to see if she was real.
“So what’s going on wit’ you?”
“Nothing, getting used to being free . . . what about you?”
“Girl, I got used to it real quick. Back in the game making major paper. My people came through for me like they said they would.”
“That’s what’s up. I’m still trying to figure out what I’ma do with my life.”
“I told you before I got out that when you beat them charges I wanted you to partner up with me.”
“Man, you still on that,” I stated raising an eyebrow.
“It ain’t changed.”
“Why me?”
“I’m doing so much business I need a partner and I don’t trust none of these hoes out here. But you . . . you showed you is a real down ass bitch when we was locked up together.”
“I hear you but I dabbled in some illegal shit before I got locked up for that other bullshit and the feds ran up i
n my man’s crib and locked both of our asses up. If it wasn’t for my grandfather they would’ve tried to stick me with some serious charges. I believe my ex is still locked up behind that shit.”
“I feel the hesitation but how I run my operation is tight. It’s getting too much for me to handle by myself but I don’t want that money to stop.”
“How much you making?” I couldn’t lie Peaches had me curious.
“I’ll put it like this. If business keeps booming I’m on my way to be a millionaire.”
“Bitch, stop lying.”
“I kid not. I got the direct plug that give me bottom basement prices. I deal with the top dudes and they got spots allocated and want to give me more but I’m afraid to say yes because I know I can’t handle it and I don’t want to take on too much and then fuck up.”
“I feel you and I appreciate you thinking of me but I don’t think it would be a good move for me. My family would fuckin’ flip if they found out.”
“They wouldn’t have to know.”
“Shit I have all that money coming in, I’ma wanna spend it.”
“Your people got paper, they’ll just think you spending what they got.”
“I think I’ma have to pass.”
“Girl . . . ”
“Aaliyah, I thought that was you,” I heard Amir say interrupting Peaches. I was so engaged in my conversation with Peaches I didn’t even notice him walking up and Justina’s dumbass had the boldness to be standing right behind him.
“What do you want?”
“I’ve called you and left a ton of messages but you haven’t returned any of my calls. I even came by your house a few times and your mother always says you’re not home.” I peeped Justina rolling her eyes on the sly.
“Hoe, you begging for a beat down . . . ain’t you,” I spit, unable to ignore Justina’s presence any longer. “You and your grimy mother still walking around this motherfucker free. So you know, your mother can try to check into as many crazy houses, surround herself with a bunch of attorneys but they’ll only be able to keep her out of jail for so long. Then you have the nerves to act like you got amnesia and can’t remember who shot you . . . it was yo’ damn mama fool.”
