The Last Chance

by Darrien Lee

  “Let me call the guys first, and then we can stop for lunch on the way.”

  Keilah pushed the button for the elevator. As the doors opened, Roman told his assistant that he was leaving for a couple of hours. After giving her a few more instructions, he stepped onto the elevator beside Keilah, and they began their descent to the first floor. When they exited the elevator, Roman led Keilah down a back hallway and into a garage to his car. Once inside, he called all the brothers and told them about Keilah’s request. As expected, they were just as curious as Roman was about the meeting.

  Before pulling away from the building, Roman told Malachi where his car was, and that he was taking Keilah to lunch before meeting up with everyone for the meeting. All agreed, not realizing Keilah’s news would change all of their lives forever.

  At the restaurant, Keilah found the opportunity to call Keytone when Roman excused himself to go to the rest room.

  “Hey, I don’t have much time to talk,” she said. “I’m out to lunch with Roman right now. I’m just calling to let you know we’re having the meeting at Malachi’s in a few hours. I want you close by when I break the news to them so be in the area.”

  Keytone sighed. “I don’t know if this is a good idea, Keilah. I don’t think they’re going to be able to handle this kind of bombshell.”

  “You let me worry about them. Just be in the area. I have to go. Roman’s on his way back to the table. Good-bye.”

  Keilah quickly hung up the telephone before Roman got to the table. He sat down and asked, “Who was that on the phone?”

  She looked at him in amazement. “Aren’t you nosy?”

  He picked up his menu and chuckled. “Whatever.”

  Keilah scanned her menu as well and decided on a grilled chicken salad. Roman selected a sirloin, medium-well, with steamed vegetables. After the waiter left their table, Roman looked at Keilah and asked, “How serious are you and Michael?”

  “We’re cool,” she replied.

  “What does that mean?” he asked before taking a sip of raspberry tea.

  Keilah took a sip of lemonade and smiled. “It means that I brought Michael out here for you guys to meet him because we’re already married.”

  Roman leaned back in his chair and threw his napkin on the table in anger. “I know you didn’t get married without talking to us first?”

  “I’m over eighteen, Roman. I didn’t need permission from any of you guys,” Keilah reminded him.

  Roman frowned and pointed his finger at Keilah. “That is about the most asinine thing you’ve ever done, Keilah. How could you do something crazy like that before discussing it with us?”

  Keilah giggled upon seeing her brother’s reaction.

  “Keilah! Are you guys married or not?” he repeated.

  This caused Keilah to laugh even harder. She waved him off, and once she could catch her breath, she answered, “No, we’re not married.”

  Roman picked up his glass of raspberry tea and shook his head. “You play too much, Keilah. That wasn’t funny at all.”

  “Yes, it was. You should’ve seen your face.”

  “Seriously, Keilah, what are your plans?”

  Keilah folded her arms and thought for a moment. “If you’re trying to ask me if I’m in love with Michael, then the answer is no. But, you never know. Things could change.”

  Roman’s studied her. “Michael seems to be a nice guy, but he’s a career military man, which means if you two hooked up and had kids, they would be army brats.”

  Now it was Keilah’s turn to frown. “Whatever. I’m not moving my kids around the country. Besides, Michael works at the Pentagon, so he rarely travels.”

  “Does he have to go to Iraq?” Roman asked.

  “Sometimes. He has to also go to cities like New York and Chicago. I don’t know where else.”

  “He’s just doing his job. I think it would be cool to have a job traveling around like that,” Roman pointed out.

  “I guess, but going over to Iraq is dangerous,” she admitted.

  He laughed. “And you don’t think what you do is dangerous?”

  She leaned back in her chair and giggled, “You’re right.”

  He sipped a little more of his tea, and then the waiter arrived with their meals. After inspecting their selection, they blessed their food and enjoyed their meals and the time shared together.

  An hour or so later, Roman and Keilah pulled up at Malachi’s house and found the rest of the family, including Michael, already there. When he put the car in park, he looked over at Keilah and noticed she seemed to be nervous. “Are you okay?”

  She reached for the door. “So far so good.”

  Roman grabbed her arm, preventing her from exiting the car. “You don’t look well. Is there something you want to tell me before we go in there?”

  She looked at him. “I’m fine, Roman. Let’s go.”

  He released her arm and allowed her to get out of the car even though he believed she was holding something very serious back from him. They entered the house together and found the rest of their brothers sitting around the pool. Michael was aware of the family meeting and gave the Chance family privacy by playing with the dogs in the yard and around the pool. When Keilah walked out onto the deck with Roman, Genesis hugged her. “Hey, sis. What’s so important that you had to call all of us together?”

  Keilah walked over to the table and took a seat. She put her hands over her face for a second before speaking. Malachi walked over and handed her a glass of wine. “Here, you look like you could use a drink.”

  She looked up at him with weary eyes and whispered, “Thank you.”

  Keilah swallowed the wine down with one gulp. When she sat the empty glass on the table, all eyes were on her. “OK, I can see you guys are anxious to hear what I have to say, so here goes.”

  She took another deep breath and walked over toward the pool, and then turned to them. “I want you guys to let me finish before you say anything.”

  Luke stood and said, “OK, Keilah, just get on with it.”

  With tears in her eyes she said, “I need to make a call first.”

  She pulled her cell phone out of her purse. With all eyes were on her, she punched in a series of numbers and whispered into her phone. She hung up her cell phone and said, “I would appreciate it if you guys would stay right here. I have to go into the house to get something before I continue.”

  Once she disappeared into the house, Roman said, “I don’t like this. Something’s wrong.”

  Malachi said, “I agree. I feel like Keilah is handling us.”

  Luke replied, “Let’s just wait and hear her out.”

  A few minutes later, Keilah stepped out on the deck with Keytone following close behind her.

  Malachi jumped up out of his seat and yelled, “What the hell is he doing here?”

  Keilah put her hands up in defense. “Wait. You guys have to listen to what I have to say, because it’s going to affect all of you.”

  She took Keytone by the hand and led him over to a seat next to hers. “Sit here, Keytone.”

  Keytone wasn’t afraid of any man, but he had history with the Chance brothers and things could get serious.

  Luke calmly asked, “Keilah, have you lost your damn mind? Why did you bring Keytone into Malachi’s home?”

  Keilah not only saw the wrath in her brothers’ eyes, she could feel it. “I brought Keytone here because we needed privacy to handle this. We wouldn’t be able to get privacy in a club or a restaurant, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to have this meeting at the casino either. Look, I brought Keytone here because he has a place here. What I’m trying to say is that Keytone contacted me a year or so ago and told a story—a story that threw me for a loop, and I didn’t believe it until I had the proof in my hands. I found out that Daddy cheated on Momma once and a child was born out of that affair. That child is Keytone. He’s our brother.”

  “That’s some bullshit,” Malachi yelled. “There’s
no way in hell Keytone is a Chance.”

  “It’s true, Malachi,” Keilah said in defense. “I had DNA tests done. He’s definitely our brother, and I think it’s only fair that we accept him as part of our family.”

  “Keilah, why would you drop some shit like this on us?” Genesis asked. “How long have you known?”

  “About a year,” she admitted. “This was hard for me to accept in the beginning, and I know it’s going to be hard for you guys as well, but it’s real.”

  “How long have you known about this, Keytone?” Luke calmly asked.

  “My mother told me when I was around sixteen,” he admitted.

  “Did Daddy know about you?” Luke asked.

  “According to my mother, Joe knew about me after he got back together with your mother, but he made it clear that he wasn’t going to leave his family. He did provide for us and came around every once in a while to see me. Look, what happened between Joe and my mom was just a one-time thing,” Keytone said as he stood. “I’m not here to cause you any problems. I came here because Keilah asked me to, and she felt like you guys needed to know the truth.”

  “So you knew we were family when we worked for you, huh?” Malachi asked.

  “Yeah, I knew. I also knew that you guys were just doing what you had to.”

  Luke looked Keytone in the eyes. “You’ve always had a reputation for being hard and not letting members of your crew just walk away from the organization. Did you let us go because you knew we were related?”

  Keytone folded his arms. “Isn’t it obvious? You had no business working for me in the first place.”

  “You were wrong for not telling us. We had a right to know,” Luke replied.

  “I did what I thought was the right thing. Coming here was Keilah’s idea. If it was up to me, you guys would’ve never known, but I’m getting older, and I wanted a relationship with my sister.”

  Roman asked, “Now what?”

  Keytone stared at Roman and replied, “That’s on you guys. What I came here to do is done.”

  Malachi yelled, “Is it? Keytone, guys like you always have an agenda.”

  Tears began to roll out of Keilah’s eyes. “I’m sorry I ever brought you here, Keytone. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “No,” Luke yelled. “The right thing would’ve been telling us about this from the beginning.”

  Keytone took a step in Luke’s direction and in Keilah’s defense. “Leave her alone. Joe is the one you should be angry with, not me and especially not, Keilah. Get over yourselves. Not everyone wants something from you. I know I don’t.”

  Malachi, Roman, and Genesis jumped out of their seats when Keytone approached Luke. They were ready to kill if they had to in order to protect Luke. Luke put his hand up to his brothers for them to stand back. Luke knew Keytone wasn’t about to get violent with him under these circumstances. All the commotion on the deck got Michael’s attention. He walked over to the deck and asked, “Is everything OK?”

  Keilah smiled and said, “We’re fine, Michael. Why don’t you take a dip in the pool or the Jacuzzi?”

  “I think I will, Keilah,” he replied as he studied everyone’s expressions and could see there was some tension, but what was going on was obviously a family matter and he was just a guest. Michael went into the house to change into his swimming trunks.

  After he was out of earshot, Luke turned to Keytone and asked, “Well, what do you want, Keytone?”

  Keytone ran his hands over his head. “Not a damn thing. Look, we’re family and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. If you don’t believe me, then feel free to order another DNA test, but at this point, I don’t give a damn. Keilah and I just thought you guys needed to know. The only reason I agreed is because I didn’t want any misunderstandings if you ever saw Keilah and I together.”

  “So you’re saying you’re not here to try and muscle in on our businesses?” Malachi asked.

  “I could care less about your goddamn casinos, Malachi. I have my own thing going on, so you can relax,” Keytone said angrily.

  Keilah jumped in. “You guys need to stop it. You have no reason to be mad at Keytone, because Daddy was the one who put us together. We are family, so get used to it.”

  “As crazy as this seems, Keilah, you’re right,” Luke replied as he stood and approached Keytone. “Before we acknowledge you’re our brother, I want to have our own DNA test done. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Keytone responded.

  “Secondly, I’m sure you know that you’ve made a lot of enemies over the years, and I don’t want my family or our casinos associated with you or your organization. And that’s nonnegotiable.” Luke continued.

  Keytone scratched his chin. “I understand you guys did what you had to do to help your mother when Joe wasn’t around. The good thing is that he did come back. Joe was a smart man. He just had responsibility issues.”

  Genesis jumped out of his chair. “Don’t you talk about our daddy.”

  Roman held Genesis away from Keytone. “Hold up, Genesis. Keytone is right. Daddy did have a problem hanging around when things got tight. We can’t ignore the truth.”

  Keytone shoved his hands inside his pockets. “At least you guys know what it’s like to have a dad around. I only saw Joe in passing. Maybe an hour, tops, was the most I spent with him on any given visit. You should be thankful you had him in your lives the way he was.”

  The Chance siblings listened as Keytone spoke about Joe.

  “Where do we go from here?” Roman asked.

  Keytone turned and walked toward the French doors he entered through. “We don’t have to go anywhere as far as I’m concerned. Keilah, I’ll be in touch.”

  “Wait. Don’t leave now,” she pleaded as she followed him.

  He stopped and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “No, your brothers need time to absorb all of this. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  Keilah grabbed Keytone’s arm and said, “Hold up, I’ll walk you out.” When she returned she faced four angry pair of eyes.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I did what I thought was right, and the only reason I kept it from you this long is because I was waiting for the right moment to tell you. I knew you guys were going to be pissed, but I was hoping you would understand that Keytone didn’t create the problem, Daddy did. Besides, I didn’t want you guys to get hurt.”

  Malachi picked up the wine bottle and threw it against the side of the house, shattering glass everywhere. “Too late,” he yelled. “Nothing could be worse than finding out somebody like Keytone is a part of our family, and I still can’t believe you brought him into my house.”

  Keilah lowered her head. “He’s not a bad person, Malachi. He’s really very sweet. He’s even trying to find out who attacked me.”

  Genesis jumped out his seat. “Well you tell him to stay out of it.”

  Luke spoke up. “You have to admit that if anyone can find out who attacked Keilah, it’s Keytone. He’s connected to the streets, and he knows how to get people to talk. He might even find out what X is up to.”

  “You guys know what this means, don’t you?” Roman asked.

  “Yeah, Daddy’s will,” Luke responded. “His will said the casinos are to be left to all his surviving children. That would include Keytone.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Malachi yelled. “Keilah, look what you’ve started.”

  Keilah walked over to Malachi and pointed her finger in his face and yelled, “I didn’t start anything! If Keytone wanted anything from us, he could’ve approached us a long time ago! He’s known about this for years!”

  Roman intervened. “Sit down, Keilah. Look, everybody needs to calm down. Daddy’s dirt is not Keilah’s fault.”

  Michael exited the house and walked over to Keilah. “What’s going on down here? I could hear you guys yelling all the way upstairs. Keilah, are you OK?”

  “She’s fine, Michael,” Malachi blurted out.

  “Stop speaking for me, M
alachi!” she yelled as she got in his face again.

  “Somebody needs to. You’re out of control, sis!” he yelled back at her.

  Michael quickly separated the two and said, “Now wait just a damn minute. I can’t stand here any longer and let you guys treat Keilah like this. She’s your sister for God’s sake, so whatever’s going on or misunderstanding you have, it needs to get cleared up without all this hostility.”

  Malachi looked at Michael with fiery eyes. “Stay out of this, Michael. This doesn’t concern you.”

  Michael folded his arms and defensively said, “You’re right, Malachi, but whatever is going on, Keilah doesn’t deserve to be ganged up on by you guys.”

  Keilah put her hands up in defense. “Michael, it’s OK. I’ve been going to battle with my brothers all my life. Look, guys, I’m tired. I love you and I don’t want to fight with you anymore. What’s done is done, so you all do what you want about Keytone because I’m through with the whole thing. I’m going upstairs to lie down for awhile.”

  Michael took Keilah by the hand and led her into the house and up the stairs to their room. Once they were out of sight, Malachi mumbled, “This is some bull.”

  Upstairs, Keilah crawled into bed. Michael lay down next to her and pulled her into his arms. Keilah whispered, “I really appreciate you standing up for me, Michael. Not many people would go up against any of my brothers, let alone all four of them.”

  He kissed her and said, “I love you, Keilah. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

  Keilah lay there in Michael’s arms. She turned to him and said, “You sound like you really mean that.”

  He linked his fingers with hers and said, “I do, Keilah. If I had it my way, we’d get married right away.”

  She sat up and said, “Married?”

  “Yes, married. I told you before that I knew you were for me. I want children by a woman with your strengths, intelligence, and beauty.”

  Keilah looked into Michael’s eyes. Had she seen him wrong all along?

  “What do you say, Keilah? I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I believe in love at first sight. Can’t you at least think about it? We can offer each other so much.”