by Nikki Brown
“But he just said there is a possibility that he is alive.” I was grasping at straws, but what was life without hope.
“Ma you didn’t see that car.” Jaako said reaching out to rub my back and I leaned into his shoulder. “We need to plan the memorial.” I nodded my head, I would do it because it’s what they want but something was telling me that my brother was still alive.
Chapter Fifty-One
Kayson
Today was the day of the memorial and to be honest I wasn’t feeling this shit at all. I didn’t want to face the fact that Unc was gone. I had just found out that I shared the same DNA as this man and we didn’t even have a chance to explore that. I know I said that I wanted to keep things the same, but after I found out that I was gonna be father some shit clicked in my head and had me wanting to do things differently. Now, I would never have that chance.
Finding and killing Roger was something that I lived and fucking breathed. I needed to get my hands on him something serious. I would not rest until maggots feasted on his rotten corpse. I needed to feel the life slipping away from him as I watch him take his last breath and until then I won’t be okay with everything that has happened.
“Hello,” I said as I picked up the phone on the third ring. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even realize that my phone was ringing. I didn’t even bother looking on the caller I.D. because Tate was the only one with this number.
“I ran the information on Roger and I found out something very interesting.”
“Speak.”
“After running his known affiliates, you will never guess who came up.”
“Tate, I honestly ain’t in the mood for this right now. We gotta get to my uncle’s memorial and I ain’t feeling this shit so just tell me.”
“Ortiz.” Was all he said.
“I knew his bitch ass was behind this, he just opened up some shit his ass ain’t gone be able to handle.” I gritted my teeth in anger. “You coming today?”
“You know I can’t do that, and as bad as I want to, I just can’t.”
“I feel that.” We talked a little business and he hung up.
I stood up from my bed that I had been sleeping in at Mama’s house. Jenacia was serious when she said that she was tired of my shit and she changed the locks on the doors. After the night Unc got killed, she came and stayed with me over here, but told me that if I wanted my family that I was gonna have to prove it to her because she was tired of the back and forth with me. I didn’t have the energy to argue with her about that. We had too much going on with Unc dying and trying to find Roger, so I let her have that, but after today I was moving back home with her whether she liked it or not. It wasn’t safe for her to be there by herself. Even though I had someone there around the clock keeping an eye on her, she needed me and right now I needed her something serious.
I made sure my green tie that matched the green and brown Gators that I had on was straight and I put on my suit jacket and headed to the house to pick up Jenacia. I took one more look in the mirror and then headed out the door.
When I got there, she met me at the door. She was dressed in a black dress that stopped mid-calf and hugged every curve that God gave her. Her belly was still flat because she was in the early stages of her pregnancy, but just knowing that I had created the life that was growing in her stomach excited me.
“You look beautiful.” I told her, and she smiled.
“You don’t look too bad yourself; it looks like you were peeping through my window though.” She looked me up and down and I did the same and I noticed that her shoes where the same green as my tie and gators.
“Our chemistry is just that strong.” I grabbed her by the waist and kissed her lips.
“If it was so strong, we wouldn’t be staying in separate locations.” She broke away from me and headed to the passenger side of my truck.
“It won’t be that way after tonight.” I followed behind her and opened the door before she could and helped her in. Once she was seated, she looked at me and then rolled her eyes and I chuckled and shut the door.
I walked around the car making sure to take in my surroundings. Neighbors were out, and I noticed the guy who watched the house for me. I nodded at him and then disappeared into the car. I put my seat belt on and backed out of the driveway.
“You know you can’t keep doing this to me, right?” She said, and I didn’t want to argue but I also didn’t want to blow her off, and by the sound of her voice she needed this conversation.
“I’m sorry, a nigga was thrown by that shit Jen, to hear that you didn’t think a nigga was good enough back then to be a father hurt.”
“That’s not it Kayson, it’s not that you weren’t good enough, it’s that you weren’t ready. You were out here with all different types of bitches, running crazy with your brothers. On top of that I wasn’t ready. I was still trying to get my career up off the ground and a baby would have gotten in the way of that.”
“That sounded selfish as fuck.” I said before I could stop myself. I didn’t want to take the conversation in the wrong way, so I took a deep breath, got my thoughts together and continued. “I understand where you are coming from, but I still feel like I at least deserved a conversation. The way you went about it was selfish.”
“You’re right I was selfish, because I did what I thought was best for me,” She stopped and then turned toward me, paused before adding, “and you. I should have talked to you, but I know you Kayson, and you would have tried to talk me out of it and it wasn’t the right time for either of us. I did what I thought was best and that I won’t apologize for, but I will apologize for how I went about it.”
I sat and thought about what she said, and she was right. Neither of us were ready to be parents and I damn sure wasn’t trying to be nobody’s man at the time. Had she had the baby, I would’ve expected her to stay at home and take care of the baby while I ran the streets and did whatever the fuck I wanted to do. In a sense, a baby would have trapped her, and she didn’t want that, and I guess I had to respect that. I really didn’t have a choice, it was done and over with.
She had forgiven me for all the shit I did to her and it would be crazy for me not to forgive her for making a decision to better her life.
“You right,” was all I said.
“Okay?”
“I forgive you and I understand why you did what you did. Just promise me that there are no more secrets.” I glanced at her and she just sat there, she didn’t say anything just stared straight ahead. “Jenacia!”
“Where were you when you didn’t come home?” I knew she was gonna ask that even though I had already told her where the fuck I was, she didn’t believe me.
“Where did I tell you I was?”
“So, you were at Ma Ann’s house? You weren’t with no other female?”
“Jenacia I may do some dumb ass shit but when I told you that you are it for me, I meant that shit. The one thing that you will never have to worry about is another woman, and I put that on my unborn seeds.” I reached over and touched her belly and she covered her hands with mine.
“I believe you.”
“Okay, so stop questioning my loyalty to you, I love you and this is forever.”
She smiled, and we continued on our way to the memorial. I grabbed her hand because knowing that I had her by my side gave me the peace that I needed to get through the day. I needed to work on my temper though because I didn’t want my quick temper to be the reason that I lose the woman that was meant for me.
I had been thinking about running off to get married because I wanted all of us to have the same last name. I needed to talk to Jen to see what she felt about that after we get all this mess out of the way.
Pulling up to the church, I spotted Ma standing out in front looking lost. I parked and helped Jenacia out of the car, she ran over to where Ma was standing and comforted her. I headed in their direction right as my phone rang again, this time I looked at the caller ID because it was
my personal phone and I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t one of my brothers that were in trouble.
“Kaylin?” I asked because I hadn’t heard from her since the day I threw her them bands and gave her my number.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“What’s wrong? Why you sound so down?”
“I need a favor.” She said right as I made it to where Mama and Jenacia were standing. “I need money.” That sent alarms up like crazy because I had just hit her off nice the last time I left, and she shouldn’t need money already.
“Money for what, Kaylin” When I said that, both Jenacia and ma looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“The lights will be cut off soon, Mama doesn’t have the money to pay the bill and we have no food.”
That sounded a little strange to me because when I was over there the last time, Chelley seemed to have everything together, but now all a sudden, the lights are getting cut off and they need money for food. That wasn’t sitting well with me but the one the thing that I refuse to do is turn my back on my sister. Chelley wasn’t high on my priority list but Kaylin was, and I was gonna make sure that she was straight.
“What happened to the money I gave you last time I was there?”
“I ahhh—I umm spent it.” I could tell she was lying to me and I didn’t like it. She didn’t know how I operated just yet, so I wouldn’t hold it against her, but before I handed her any money, we would have a conversation about how I felt about liars.
“Kaylin that’s bullshit, but right now I’m at my Uncle’s memorial I will get with you later and make sure you straight.”
“What about Mama?”
“Kaylin my concern is you, you are my priority.”
“But-”
“No buts,” I cut her off. It was starting to sound like Chelley put her up to this and it was starting to piss me off and I didn’t need that right now. “I gotta go, I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.” Was all she said before I hung up the phone. I looked at it and shook my head.
“Son, be careful.” My mom looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “Chelley ain’t never been who she pretends to be, she has an agenda.”
“Ma-” she held up her hand to stop me.
“I won’t say anything else, but just be careful.”
I nodded my head and we headed into the church to get this over with.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Jaako
The memorial went by like a blur; I didn’t feel like being there. I didn’t want to believe that Unc was gone but realistically, there was no way that he could have survived that. There was no way. I sat back in the pew and looked to my right and into the face of Yameka. Even though we hadn’t really talked about what happened at the restaurant with me and her father, she didn’t hesitate to be there for me when all this shit went down. I knew the conversation was near but right now, I was just grateful for her being there.
The pastor had just called for everyone to come up there and say what they had to say and me and my brothers decided that it was best if we all went up together. Once we were at the front, we just kind of stood there looking at each other trying to decide who was gone do the talking. Of course, Kayson stepped up because that’s who he was.
“Unc was a damn good man.” Kayson started, and I nudged him with my elbow and he glared at me. “Man look y’all gone have to bear with me because a nigga ain’t all polished and shit.” I nudged him again and a few people in the congregation giggled. “Just pray for me.” He looked at me to get my permission and I just shrugged. “Unc, along with Mama, took in four bad ass boys and raised them like they were their own. There aren’t many people in the world that you can say would do that. They loved us and groomed us to be the men that we are today. It’s a shame that someone took his life in the manner that they did. They took a piece of all of us when they took him,” he paused and looked at the huge picture that we had at the front of the church. “If you ever got the chance to know him, then you should consider yourself lucky.” Kayson stepped down and kissed his hand and placed it on the picture and we all followed suit and returned to our seats. The rest of the service went by relatively fast and we were grateful.
Afterwards we all stood outside the church as everyone came and gave their condolences. My blood started to boil when I saw one person in particular. I released Yameka’s hand and headed in her and her mother’s direction.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Krista?”
“That is no way to talk to my daughter.” Her aggravating ass mom said. Her fucking voice reminded me of nails on a chalk board and every time I heard them I just wanted to fucking scream. I hated that woman with a passion. Hell, I think I hated her more than I hated her daughter.
“I don’t know if Raymond told you, but he was my father.” She said with a smile on her face. I knew the bitch was lying because I talked to Unc about the shit in the restaurant that day so I don’t even know why she trying to pull that shit right now.
“Bitch shut the fuck up, you know good and damn well that Unc told me about that shit you tried to pull so lie a-gotdamn-gain. Yo’ ass just looking for a fucking payday and you won’t get it here, so get your money hungry ass away from here.”
“HOW DARE YOU COME TO MY BROTHER’S MEMORIAL TRYING TO SMEAR HIS NAME.” Ma yelled from behind me, I didn’t even notice that she had walked up until she started yelling. “My brother would never produce something as nasty and evil as you.”
“Wanna talk about evil,” Chelsey, Krista’s mom started. “Let’s talk about that evil thing you raised that goes around killing innocent babies.” She pointed at Denari and I put my hands over my mouth because we purposely left that part out when we told Mama about all the dumb shit that Denari had been up to. She snaked her head around and glared at me and then focused her attention on Denari, the look in his eyes read nothing but terror. Ann Barnes had that effect on us and no matter how thugged out we were, when she hit us with that look, we knew what it was. I did not want to be present when they had that conversation.
“Whatever that little bitch got, I’m sure she deserved it.” Mama said shocking the shit out of me. I think that she was just mad at what was going on right now because she would never wish ill on a baby.
“How dare you speak to my daughter like that, you filthy piece of trash. You are all no good, every last one of you and I hope that you all end up just like your no good uncle.”
I don’t know what she said that for because before anyone could stop her, Mama had punched Chelsey dead in her mouth. She didn’t stop there either, she knocked her down and climbed on top of her and commenced to whooping her ass. Krista thought she was gonna jump in and try and help her mama out, but Zemia was there so fast she didn’t know what to do.
“Aye, y’all cut this out, we in front of the church.” I said trying not to laugh and split them up at the same time. “Y’all niggas gonna help me or what?”
“That bitch need her ass beat.” Omari said walking very slow to help get Zemia off Krista. “Come on bae, wit’ ‘cha mean ass.” He pulled Zemia up and wrapped her in his arms. “You fucked that bitch up.” He kissed her on the cheek and backed up her up away from the crowd. “You can’t be doing all that though.”
“Fuck that hoe, they were gonna try and jump Mama Ann.” She said trying to catch her breath.
“I’m good baby, them hoes can’t see me.” Mama said dusting off her dress as we got her up from off Chelsey where she was just throwing down. “Lord please forgive me for my actions, they got me out here acting a complete fool in front of the Lord’s house, but she deserved it out here bashing my late brother’s name.” Just thinking about it must have pissed her off again, because she lunged at them and they backed up. “Just get out of here, why are you here anyway?”
“We just wanted to pay our respects.” Krista said finally getting up off the ground.
“No, you came here to start some shit with that Unc was yo’ daddy shit. Get the fuck out of her
e before yours be the next memorial we go to.” I threatened and then walked off. “I’m sorry everybody.” I said to my family and the nosy people who thought it was okay to just stop and watch.
“Oh, you are haven’t began to be sorry because I need all of you at the house, so we can talk about this baby situation.” Mama said and jerked away from me and headed over to Denari. She got right in his face. “If what the bitch said is true, just know you gonna have to deal with me.” Then she walked off like she didn’t just threaten him in front of everybody.
We all looked at him and his eyes pleaded for help, but he was definitely on his own with that. I shrugged and headed to my car with Yameka in tow. We got in and headed in the direction of my mama house.
“That was crazy.” Yameka said breaking the silence that had filled the car since we left the church.
“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry about that.”
“She just doesn’t give up, do she?” I didn’t know where she was going with the conversation but I didn’t like her tone at all.
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what? I just wanna make sure that this won’t be a constant issue; I mean I gotta career and a lot to lose. I can’t be out here fighting that bitch every time we see her out.”
“And you won’t.”
“Just like today right? I mean this was your uncle’s memorial and this happens.” I could tell that there was something else bothering her, but she didn’t just want to bring it up.
“This is about your dad,” I broke the ice. “No need in beating around the bush, let’s get it all out on the table so we can talk about it and move on.”
“That too.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“Yes and no, he told me what I needed to know but he didn’t want me a part of it, so he cut it short.”
“Listen, I didn’t know he was your dad.”
“If you had known would you have told me?”
