The Wrong Side Of Love 3: A Hood Love Story

by Charmanie Saquea

  Almost a half hour later, Jaliyah was still sitting on the bed waiting for Tariq so they could talk when she realized the house was a little bit too quiet for her. Leaving the room and going downstairs, she noticed everyone was gone.

  “Dumb ass nigga,” Jaliyah mumbled as she dialed his number.

  The phone rang three times before she was sent to voicemail. Hanging up and calling right back, she got the same result. Jaliyah took a minute to calm herself down before dialing her doctor’s office. Since Tariq wanted to act like a bitch, she had something for him.

  ___

  Zeek walked into the room happy to see his lawyer. It had been a total of three weeks since he had been locked up and they were almost set to go to trial. Zeek wanted to speed this shit right along so he could be out in time to watch his child come into the world. He still hadn’t heard from Coco because, against his wishes, she went back to California and wasn’t answering his phone calls.

  “What’s up, Wolf? Tell me something good,” Zeek said as he sat down.

  “Well, Zeek, I have some good news and I have some not so good news.”

  Zeek shook his head. “I don’t like the way that sounds, Wolf.”

  All of a sudden Zeek was starting to have doubts. He didn’t like the fact that his freedom was lying in the palm of José’s hands. As bad as he wanted to deny Nina’s visits every time she came to see him, he knew he couldn’t because that would give José leverage to keep him locked up and have him sentenced. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the rest of his life behind bars so he was going to continue to play his part for the time being.

  “Well, good news first. It looks like their case against you is definitely falling apart so on that part, we have nothing to worry about. Now, the bad news is they’re trying to bring up some new charges on you and they are very serious,” Wolf told him.

  “Can’t stick me with one so they’ll try to hit me with another. What did I do now?”

  “According to Red…Elias,” Wolf corrected himself, “murder. Before you ask, he says he knows without a doubt you killed Chanel.”

  “Chanel’s dead?” Zeek asked, feigning dumb. “Wow, how could I have killed her when I wasn’t even here?”

  Wolf looked at Zeek for a few before that cocky smirk Zeek loved wearing appeared on his face. Wolf just smiled and shook his head at his client. He was far from dumb and knew all about how Zeek got down. He had been around since before Chico even brought Zeek into his family.

  “Chico taught you well,” Wolf said in a low tone just in case.

  Zeek nodded his head in affirmation to let Wolf know that he did in fact kill Chanel but he wasn’t worried about getting caught. It was simply Elias’ word against his and he surely had no proof. When it all boiled down to it, Zeek had a solid alibi that he was in Cuba the whole time. They could just ask his wife.

  “Listen, Wolf, I need you to do me a solid. Get Jacole’s address for me and send her a check for $50,000. Let her know that’s to get whatever else she needs for the baby and the rest is to go into her account. Get word to Marco to come see me also,” Zeek instructed.

  “Baby?” Wolf smiled.

  “Yea, that was my exact thought, too. Now you see why I gotta get the fuck out of here?” Zeek sighed.

  “Trial begins next week, Zeek, but I will get on that as soon as I leave,” Wolf assured him.

  Zeek nodded his head because he knew Wolf would handle everything for him. Even though Coco was on some other shit, Zeek was still going to do all he could do from where he was until he was free. He knew more than likely Coco already had everything together but just in case, he had Wolf write a check.

  Chapter Four

  Coco was now officially eight months pregnant and she was feeling every bit of it. Her doctor was worried about her because she had pre-eclampsia. Her hands and feet were so swollen that she hated to look at them. To make matters worse, she found herself feeling very nervous today because it was the start of Zeek’s trial. His sisters and Ms. Joyce flew to Detroit to show support. Even though Coco was pissed at him and wanted nothing to do with him, she didn’t want her son to grow up without a father.

  “Here,” Ishmael said, handing her an envelope.

  “What’s this?” Coco asked as she rubbed her belly where her son was moving wildly.

  “It was in the mailbox,” he told her.

  Coco’s face scrunched up as she wondered why Zeek’s lawyer was sending her mail. It was mailed directly from his office and immediately she began to think the worst. I know this nigga not asking for a DNA test, she thought as she ripped the envelope open. When she opened it, two pieces of paper fell out. The first one she picked up was a letter from Wolf Platowsky. After she read it, she quickly picked up the check. “Oh my God!” she squealed.

  “What is it?” Ishmael asked curiously.

  “Zeek had his lawyer send me a check for the baby. He says whatever I don’t use on the baby to put it in my account,” Coco explained.

  She noticed the look Ishmael had on his face and knew he wasn’t too thrilled about it. Even though Coco was pregnant, she and Ishmael were together. They were refraining from any sexual activity due to her being pregnant but they were definitely an item. The last thing Coco had planned to do when she moved out here was to jump headfirst into a relationship but it happened. Megan had introduced her to Ishmael and it was a wrap from there.

  “Say it,” she told him.

  “Nothing, I’m good. You hungry?”

  “I’m pregnant, when am I not hungry? But don’t do that, Ishy. If you got something on your mind then speak it.”

  “I could be wrong but that nigga is trying to buy his way back in. Yes, maybe he did want you to get stuff for the baby but that wasn’t all that money was for. That’s why he sent way more than you would need. That nigga not slick, Coco,” Ishmael told her.

  Coco knew he was probably right because the thought had crossed her mind as well. Every day since she had left Detroit, Zeek had been calling her phone but she had been ignoring his calls. It was funny how all of a sudden he was sending her a check thinking that would get him back in good with her.

  “Well, even if he is, it wouldn’t matter, Ishmael. I’m not dumb. I don’t want Zeek. The only thing I want and would never stop him from doing is being a father to his son. Other than that, there is nothing between us. He has a wife and I have you,” Coco said as she wrapped her arms around him.

  She let out a little chuckle as her son started moving wildly, kicking Ishy all in his back. Ezekiel III was a very active little one but Coco loved it. There was no greater feeling than feeling her child moving in the womb.

  “He wants you to feed us,” she told Ishmael.

  “Yea, I bet,” Ishmael laughed as he fixed Coco’s pregnant, greedy ass something to eat.

  ___

  Zeek stroked his newly grown beard as he listened to the prosecutor state a bunch of bullshit. He was doing everything in his power to paint Zeek as a monster but there was no evidence to support anything he was saying. Even the judge was looking annoyed. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his mom, sisters, cousins and even Jayliah there in support of him seated in a row with Nina. Even Elias’ snake ass was there with a goofy smirk on his face.

  “You’re going home a free man today,” Wolf whispered to him confidently.

  “I think I’ve heard enough here,” the judge said as if he was irritated while banging his gravel. “Does the defense wish to add anything else?”

  Wolf rose to his feet before glancing down at Zeek then averting his attention back to the judge. “We would, your honor.” He adjusted the jacket of his suit and took a step around the table. Cockily, he spoke in the direction of the prosecutor, words that would change things for sure. “The defense would like to motion to dismiss the case.”

  A wave of murmurs erupted throughout the courtroom. Over the noise, the sound of the gavel being hammered against the wood that surrounded the Judge’s bench could be he
ard.

  “Order… Order… Silence!” the Judge hissed. The voices got lower and lower and eventually faded to complete silence. “On what grounds, Mr. Wolf?”

  Wolf cleared his throat before picking up the manila envelope that rested on the table behind him. He stood tall. Shoulders straight, feet evenly apart, and more importantly, he looked completely unbothered. There was a reason Zeek paid him as much as he did and it was showing. “The state has failed to present any credible evidence that corroborates the story they are telling in a poor attempt to adjudge my client guilty. The claim that evidence was lost… Okay. In addition to that, they were unable to produce the witness who could tie my client to the crime. Your Honor, this is turning up to be nothing but a witch hunt.”

  “I’d have to agree. Due to the insufficient evidence and lack of witness support, this case is dismissed.”

  Bang, Bang

  Zeek couldn’t believe what he was hearing. However, once the gavel came down and the judge spoke the famous words, “Court is adjourned,” it became real.

  He jumped to his feet and wrapped Wolf in a brotherly hug. “Good looking,” he spoke into his hear.

  After breaking the embrace, Zeek turned toward his family to see Elias making an exit. He didn’t focus on that too much, the time to address him would come. He looked over at the row where his family sat, some crying tears of joy and some just happy as hell. He returned the enthusiasm before turning back around and hearing the instructions being given to him by his attorney. He didn’t really pay attention to what was said. The only thing he heard clearly and understood was that in a few hours he would be walking away with his freedom.

  She really didn’t come, Zeek thought to himself about Coco while being ushered back to be processed and released.

  Chapter Five

  Coco woke up to the sound of someone banging on her door. She groaned as she threw the pillow from over her head and slowly got out of the bed. She couldn’t seem to get comfortable last night due to the back pains she was having and they seemed to have returned. Coco rubbed her belly as she made her way down the stairs.

  “I can’t wait until you come,” she told her son.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  “I’m coming!” she yelled.

  She was wishing that Ishmael didn’t have to go into work early so he could be the one answering the door for her. As soon as she reached the door, she swung it open, ready to go the fuck off on whoever was on the other side. Instead, she stood there in shock.

  “What’s up, baby mama? You miss a nigga?” Zeek asked with a silly smile on his face.

  Coco stood there stuck on stupid as she looked at the man she had spent the last month and a half hating since she found out he went and married another bitch. Unconsciously, she licked her lips as her eyes roamed his body. Zeek was standing there looking like a chocolate God in an all-white linen suit with his top open to show his wife beater.

  “Zeek…I…How?” Coco stammered.

  Just then, her son started moving and kicking wildly as if he was playing soccer. She put her hands on the spot he was kicking and Zeek followed her movements with his eyes. When he saw her belly move, his chest swelled up in pride. Zeek moved Coco’s hand out of the way so he could feel his child kick while slightly pushing her back so he could close the door.

  “Daddy’s home,” Zeek smiled brightly. His smile was quickly washed off his face when he felt a sting on the side of his face. He didn’t see it coming but he should’ve expected Coco to slap the shit out of him.

  “You ain’t shit! Why the fuck are you even here?” she yelled.

  Zeek bit the inside of his cheek as he pushed Coco back until her back was on the wall without hurting her before getting in her face. “I understand that you’re mad right now and I’m not saying you don’t have the right to be but you better calm your little ass down while you’re carrying my child,” Zeek told her through clenched teeth.

  “Who said he was yours?” Coco asked with a raised brow.

  “Oh, so I’m having a junior?” Zeek’s smile was a mile long.

  Seeing Zeek so happy was pissing Coco off even more. She didn’t want him to be having a joyous moment while she was feeling slighted. “Like I said, who said he’s yours?” Coco asked with her arms folded.

  “Nice try, Co, but you have to come harder than that. I’m not the average nigga so saying shit like that doesn’t faze me. I know how you get down as well as how you don’t get down so stop talking crazy and come fix a nigga something to eat. I’m hungry as fuck,” Zeek said.

  Coco rolled her eyes and huffed as she followed behind him to the kitchen. “Where’s your wife?” she asked sarcastically.

  “Where she needs to be. Now shut the fuck up,” Zeek told her. The last thing Zeek wanted to do was talk about Nina with Coco. He knew he would have to explain everything to her but he didn’t feel as if that time was right now. That shit was awkward as hell for him.

  “How could you?” Coco asked.

  Seeing Coco standing there looking as if she was about to cry was too much for Zeek to handle. He turned and walked back out of the kitchen. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice but Coco still heard him.

  Coco sighed in frustration as she started taking pans out so she could fix her and Zeek some breakfast. Look at this shit, Coco thought to herself. It was funny how she was just hollering about how she wanted nothing to do with him last week, yet here she was in the kitchen cooking breakfast for a nigga that was married to someone else.

  Zeek laid on Coco’s couch with his arm over his eyes as he thought about some things. He was in California to stay until Coco had his son and even after. He wasn’t leaving and going back home without them. There was no way in hell that he was living on one coast while they were living on the other. That shit wasn’t happening.

  Zeek was shook from his thoughts when he heard Coco’s front door opening.

  “Baby!” Ishmael yelled.

  “The fuck?” Zeek said as he sat up.

  When Zeek looked up to see Ishmael, the one nigga he couldn’t stand besides Elias standing there, he instantly got pissed off. The fact that he was calling Coco baby didn’t help.

  “The fuck you doing here?” they asked each other.

  Coco moved into the living room as fast as her pregnant body would allow her to defuse quickly the situation before it could escalate. She found Zeek sitting there looking as if he was ready to rip Ishmael’s head clean off his body.

  “Is—”

  “Ishmael, the fuck you doing calling my girl baby?” Zeek asked as he stood up, throwing Coco off.

  “Your girl, huh?” Ishmael chuckled. “Coco, you his girl?”

  Coco rolled her eyes at the amount of childishness that was going on right now. She didn’t want these niggas coming to blows in her shit but she wasn’t about to dignify anything they’d just said with a response. She was still stuck on the fact that they knew each other.

  “You hungry?” she asked Ishmael as she turned around to go back in the kitchen.

  Sure enough, Ishmael followed behind her just like she knew he would.

  “So that’s what the fuck we doing now, Jacole?” Ishmael asked her.

  “I’m not in the mood right now, Ishy, okay? My fucking back is hurting and my son seems to think my stomach is a damn jungle gym this morning,” Coco let him know.

  “Then why the fuck are you cooking that nigga breakfast. Fuck that. Why is he even here?” he yelled.

  “Fuck you mean, why am I here? I have the right to be wherever she and my son are! Don’t forget, Ishy, you’re just something to do because I wasn’t around,” Zeek let him know.

  “Nigga, watch who the fuck you’re taking to! That’s your problem now. You love trying to take shit that don’t belong to you!” Ishmael yelled with fire in his eyes.

  Even though Coco’s interest was piqued and she wanted to know what they were taking about, she was tired of the back and forth bullshit. “Both of you shut the fuck up and
sit down!” she yelled. Both of them looked at her like she was crazy but did as she said. Zeek told her to calm down before she upset his son but she ignored him. “Ezekiel, you are absolutely right. You have the right to be around your son and I want nothing more than you being a part of his life. But don’t get shit twisted around here, you have a fucking wife that you have to go back to at the end of the day so there is nothing more between us than our son,” Coco let him know.

  Then she turned around to look at Ishmael who had a satisfied smirk on his face. “You though, Ishmael, you really surprise me. I’ve never hid the fact of who my sons father is and you knew about him the whole time but the fact that you failed to mention you knew exactly who Zeek was and that you had some sort of beef with him really makes me feel a way.”

  When she said that, the smirk was wiped right off his face. “Now hold up, Coco—”

  “No, you hold up, I think that was bogus as hell. You might not think it’s a big deal but I do,” Coco let him know. “Ishmael, Zeek is here now and I’m pretty sure that he’s not leaving any time soon. I don’t want any more bullshit from either of you until I have my son. After that, y’all can do whatever the fuck you want to do.”

  “Fuck that nigga,” Zeek waved him off.

  “Shut up,” Coco popped him. “Where you staying?”

  “Right the fuck here! Fuck you mean, where I’m staying?” Zeek looked at Coco like she was crazy.

  “Fuck outta here! Better check into a hotel or something,” Ishmael spat.

  “What did I just tell y’all?” Coco said in frustration.

  “Man, fuck all that extra shit. Coco, tell him to fall the fuck back for now. I’m here now and ain’t shit he can do for you that I can’t,” Zeek told her, giving her a look that let her know he wasn’t playing.

  Sighing, Coco looked over at Ishmael without speaking. Ishmael looked at her with his face scrunched up before giving her an evil look and jumping up. Coco knew that he was beyond pissed right now but she couldn’t chase after him. It was just like Zeek to fuck things up for her when they were going good.