by Nako
Mahogany gasped, “OH MY GOD!” She wasn’t expecting this at all.
Trays of catered food from her favorite places to eat in the neighborhood were in the kitchen and she also spotted a few gold bottles of Ace of Spades.
Kareem ran into her arms and kissed her on the lips. “You’re Number one mommy!” he handed her the poster she made.
Her baby was her number one fan and the ultimate reason of why she did all of this in the first place.
Him and Genesis.
She motioned for him to come over and she hugged them until she cried. They were on their way to the top, her and her boys.
“Love you, big sis,” Genesis whispered in her ear.
The sight before the others was a heartfelt one. She wished that her mama was home to see this shit happening, but hopefully in due time.
“WE MADE IT!” she told him, happily.
Porter played the song and it came blaring through the Bose speakers he had installed in the house.
Everyone started dancing and rapping the lyrics along with Mahogany.
She made her way to her man and gave him the juiciest kiss he had ever received in his life.
“Grateful for you, P.”
She’ll never grow tired of showing her appreciation to and for him. He was the best thing that ever happened to her.
η
Jillian sticking her head in the crook of his office door used to be something that was familiar, almost four to five times a day. However, seeing her round shaped face today only made his stomach churn, but he was Porter Bavay, he gave everyone the same pleasant ass plastered expression. Sometimes it was warm and genuine and other times it masked irritation of being interrupted while he was in the high swing of things. As in today.
“What up Jill?” he asked, searching his desk for a red pen. She could tell that he wasn’t in the mood for her today. She also didn’t care.
“Got a second?”
He really didn’t, today was a busy one for him. Mahogany had a number one hit. The video had secured her the spot, so it was time for him to up the ante and make her an official superstar. His goal was to drop another song in six weeks with the video. She’ll be nominated for Best New Artist in no time.
“Uh, not really. But come on in, what’s up? How are the kids?” he asked shit that he knew parents called about.
And as he expected, a bright smile crossed her face as she fished for her iPhone in the deep of her pockets.
“Oh my God, P. I took the cutest picture of them this morning before I left the house,” she gushed as she looked for the picture.
Her camera roll now consisted of nothing but the twins. She was one happy mom.
“Awww,” he cooed. His baby fever was often mixed with grief.
“You’re a great mom, Jill.”
Jillian thought about the child that she aborted. The child he knew nothing of. The child that would’ve destroyed her career…
“You good?” her mind went somewhere, and he wanted to know what she wanted so he could get back to work.
She slid her phone back in her pocket as she nodded her head. “Yeah, I know you’re busy. It’s my first day in the office, fresh off maternity leave. I’m fired up and ready to get back to work. Do you need me to handle anything?” She would’ve preferred to resume her position since he’d returned as the head honcho.
“Nah, Juice is amazing. You don’t like the VP position?” She was promoted before he left.
“Yeah, I miss traveling though. Damn, Juice stole my job,” she said playfully, but he heard the bite in her comment.
“That’s my ace,” he gave him the title that Jillian once proudly held. She was hurt.
“Does this have to do anything with the altercation between me and your girlfriend?”
He was confused. “With you not wanting to be the VP over an assistant?”
Who would choose to go back to running errands for a nigga?
“I’m saying…”
He had shit to do. “You’re saying that you want to downgrade?” She would be dumb as hell and plus, he had a lot going on. She was married with two kids where he needed someone whose schedule was more open and flexible.
Jillian was clearly breastfeeding, he saw the remnants on her silk blouse.
She took a deep breath, “I’m asking you are we good?” she cleared it up.
“We’re great. I thought I told you that when you texted me.” He could be tripping, but this conversation sounded familiar.
Porter was being dismissive, and she knew it was because of that bitch.
“I’ll let you get back to work. VP is fine,” she recanted.
“Cool, welcome back.” He opened his work book and jotted a thought down before it slipped away from him. Jillian stood before him, wanting to say so much more, but nothing came out.
“Jillian, everything is cool. We’re still family. Get out of your head,” he clarified because he literally saw the wheels turning in her head.
She admitted, “Doesn’t feel that way.”
He didn’t know why because on his end, he was straight. In business, you had to learn how to let bygones be bygones and she was a hard-working woman, he’d be stupid to let her go.
He held his hands up to show that he was indeed not holding any grudges.
“I promise, everything is everything. I have a great thing going with Juice. Him and Mahogany get along great since she’s my current…. focus.”
She nodded her head. “Understood.”
Jillian damn sure wasn’t trying to work closely with her, so she bid her goodbyes and went into her office to get back on track. He was sort of shocked that she didn’t congratulate him on the number one, but it was the always the closest ones to you….
Porter never regretted fucking her all those years ago because it was a one-time thing, but now he was wondering if she was still stuck on him. If she was, she needed to get over him and quick. Mahogany’s “These hoes just wanna fuck you” radar was crazy strong.
His phone rang, and the caller id said QB.
“My mans, what it do?” he answered, happily.
Quentin Brooks praised his hard work, “Congrats on that number one, baby.”
Porter then picked up a copy of print out from Billboard.com as he said, “Hey man, this is only the beginning.”
η
“Sued?” What money did she have to be fucking sued over? This hoe was tripping, and Mahogany wasn’t the one.
Casey went to open his mouth and explain to her that things happened like this all the time in the industry and not to worry.
Porter asked her, “Do you know this person?”
“YES, THE FUCK I DO!” she spat, nastily.
That hood bitch knew it could creep right out of here in a hot second. Casey cringed at the profanity falling from her crimson painted lips.
Porter took a deep breath. “Who is she, baby?”
He would fix this situation. They were surprised that it happened so soon, literally on the brink of her first number one hit. The vultures were waiting to attack.
“She was in the group with me…my…best-” Mahogany couldn’t even call give her the best friend title. Tears rushed to the rim of her eyes, this hoe had really tried her.
“I can’t believe this.” All she had done for her and this is what she does?
Unbelievable.
“Well, believe it. Next, it’ll be your aunts and cousins, trust me,” Casey spoke from experience.
He’d been an entertainment lawyer for years and betrayal came from the family first. Blood didn’t mean shit to him simply because of how he’d seen his clients be trashed in the courts.
“I don’t have no family, she was my family. It’s her mama that’s suing me. Neka’s ass don’t have no money and she’s in jail!” she rattled off.
“JAIL?” Porter and Casey screamed at the same time.
Mahogany wiped her eyes, not caring that she was smearing her eyeliner.
“Yeah,
so I know she had her mom do this,” she nodded her head.
“I’ll have this tossed out before you go to sleep tonight, no worries,” Casey scoffed.
If anything, they better hope that he don’t turn around and sue their asses for wasting his damn time.
“Why is she doing this?” Porter had a few questions only because there was still an eerie mystery surrounding the details of her mother’s incarceration, her ex and the best friend going to jail. Things were sketchy.
“Who the fuck knows? She’s jealous and to this day I don’t know why, she betrayed me. Not the other way around and that’s facts.” She banged her fist on the table.
“Give us a second, bro,” Porter asked Casey to step out of the room.
Once they were alone, he pulled her chair to his and lifted her chin.
“Help me, help you. What’s really going on?”
He was done beating around the bush.
She heard the tone of urgency in his voice and knew she had to finally tell him everything.
“I trust you…” he threw that out there hoping it’ll remove any hesitation that she had to be upfront and honest, for once and for all. Some people felt that omission wasn’t lying, but to him it was.
“I know you do, Porter that’s not the issue. I just hate talking about the shit. It raises my blood pressure.”
He wasn’t trying to hear that, and it showed on his face.
“Okay, so you know we was doing the cards and stuff… anyway, I was dealing with Genesis’ ass so Neka started going on the runs with Raheem. But you know this is my best friend and my nigga, never in a million years did I think they were…” She closed her eyes and tried to conceal her anger and hurt. To date, it had been about six years since she found out the truth and that day still hurt like hell.
“They were fucking?”
She wiped her fallen tears away. “P, she was in love with my nigga.”
It didn’t take her long to put everything together and when she did, if Neka wasn’t in jail she would’ve killed that hoe.
“How did you find out?”
She took a deep breath. “So, they get caught and had to do some time. Apparently, when they ran their names all kinds of stuff came up.”
“Your name wasn’t mixed in none of it?” he was curious. Did she snitch?
“No, I had been stopped doing that by then. We were up, so my ex was like you can stay at home and be a housewife or whatever.”
Neka was jealous. She never knew until after they both were behind bars.
“I’ll never forget the day I went to visit her, as I always did…so I was going broke keeping money on both of their books, visiting them and meeting with a lawyer to get them out of there. Like losing my damn mind trying to keep their heads up above water…”
“You getting thick, Neka. What they feeding you in here?” she asked her best friend as soon as she plopped her juicy behind on the metal chair.
Her friend didn’t sound or look too happy to see her.
“Bitch, what’s wrong?” She knew instantly that something was wrong.
“Girll…” she shook her head, nervously.
Mahogany assumed that she may have been jumped or worse…raped.
“Some hoes in here fucking with you, Neek? Do I need to get in touch with my people?” Her mother had a reputation in the prison system and was well-respected. She had no problem getting her best friend some protection in here.
“Nah, nah, I’m good… Girl, why am I fucking pregnant?”
Mahogany was shocked to hear that because as far as she knew she was single and focused on her money.
“By who?”
Neek was too embarrassed to say the name. “A loser…a fucking loser,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Are you gon keep it?” They both had no problem going down to the clinic. Neek had been getting abortions since she was fourteen. They were some get money bitches, they had no time for kids.
“Yeah, I am.”
Mahogany figured she had a plan since she decided to keep it, so she left it at that.
“I’m confused…are you telling me that Kareem is?”
She erupted. Tears fell profusely, and she was now sobbing uncontrollably.
Porter wrapped his arms around her. “Trifling ass nigga.”
Mahogany hated the day she had put two and two together. Kareem was only a few months older when she noticed that some of his features resembled her man and not to mention Neka was certain on the name…
She visited Raheem first and forced him to tell her the truth, that was one bogus ass conversation.
The only thing she remembered him saying over and over again as he refused to even look at the baby, “That’s not my fucking baby. That girl lying. She’s jealous of you.”
What was crazy is that she never told him that Neka blasted him out. He told on his damn self. She never visited him or her again. How Raheem kept getting her number was what baffled her. When she told her mother what happened, she had Neek jumped in the bathroom.
Her family never tried to get Kareem, nor had they ever offered her a dime to raise him. She took him and loved him as her own and now this bitch wanted to sue her claiming that she stole her identity. The papers suggested that Mahogany never wanted to rap and a whole bunch of other bullshit.
“I’m going to handle this baby,” Porter promised.
She shook her head. “Nah, I’m going to see that bitch,” she said through clenched teeth. Neka had the game fucked up if she ever thought that she was going to eat off her plate.
η
“You told Casey that you had your own lawyer?” his tone was somber, so she wasn’t able to decipher how he was feeling.
She had a bowl of fruit on her lap and was high out of her mind when he found her in the den catching up on her guilty pleasure, ratchet television.
“Uh yeah, I figured he would tell you.”
He turned the light on, closed the door and motioned for her to pause her show so that they could talk.
“Why didn’t you tell me is my question?”
He seemed bothered, but how could he be when it was her money?
“Is it an issue?” now, she had a damn attitude.
“Mahogany, it’s embarrassing that’s what the fuck it is. We talk about everything else, but when it comes to business you failed to mention that you went and got a lawyer?” He was caught off guard and it didn’t feel good, especially when he’d always been one hundred with her, about everything.
So more than anything, he was hurt.
“I wanted to make sure that the numbers were right and stuff, that’s all,” she said causally.
Who was this bit-
Nah, he wouldn’t go there.
Who was this woman sitting before him because this wasn’t his sweet baby?
“Did I do something?” he was lost and wanted to know what the fuck was really going on. She wasn’t keeping it real with him right now.
“No, why you ask me that?”
This was a mind game and he didn’t play those, especially not with the love of his life.
“You trust me, right?” that’s all he wanted to know.
She did. She really fucking did. On soul, she trusted Porter, but when it came to her money and her family…. she had mouths to feed and Yara’s words played like your favorite jam on repeat.
She couldn’t be another, “she had a lot of hits but no money” stories.
A nigga would have to die behind that shit. Period.
“I think you’re taking this the wrong way,” she attempted to digress.
Now he was getting mad.
“Dawg, I’m taking this shit how you fucking giving it to me. Stop talking to me like I don’t know how the fuck you really feeling right now. You don’t trust a nigga. I get it and that’s cool. Do you. I never wanted or needed nothing from you and that’s on my kids.” He took it there and it wasn’t called for.
Mahogany got up from the couch to face him. “P
.”
He was done talking.
“Nah, watch your shows baby. I’m good.” He needed a minute to himself.
And what was even more fucked up was that she didn’t come after him.
About that money, them tables were sure to turn. He was heavily offended.
She heard a loud crash, which told her he knocked something over.
Mahogany waited until she was sure that he had left before she came out the den and went to get her phone off the charger. She called Yara and she texted her, “Hit you when I’m free.”
“FUCK!” She didn’t expect Porter to be mad about her inquiring about what was happening so far.
He seemed so offended.
Should she care though? She really didn’t know what to do or how to feel. However, the look on his face crushed her soul in a million pieces.
Mahogany called him an hour later, but he didn’t answer. Porter was across the city at his friend Big Mo’s house, needing a listening ear.
He felt betrayed and tried. He would never undercut her. He had his own fucking money.
Moses Parks was his good friend and because P was familiar with the situation that he and his wife were once in, he wanted to know if he was overreacting.
“Somebody got in her ear.” That’s the only way Mo was looking at it.
“But who? She don’t got no friends.”
Porter called Juice to get to the bottom of this whole lawyer bullshit, but Juice seemed oblivious.
“You were pushing her to hang around your people, you think it was one of them?”
Porter shook his head. “Hell nah.” Who would even think about going behind his back and doing that and let alone, why would they be all in his business like that?
“It’s the principle with me. I’m cool on you wanting to know more about your business, but for my partner to know before me…Big Mo, the shit was embarrassing as hell,” he presented his position.
Big Mo felt where he was coming from. “I get it. trust me.”
“She was looking at me like I owed her or been taking from her…man I done did so much for this girl…ain’t never kept a tab or a receipt. Did that shit from the heart. I’m helping her raise her fuckin son...lil nigga not even her child! I’m raising him with joy at that.” He was hurting.
Never in a million years did he think she’ll come at him like that.