“You guys just missed her feeding,” the nurse smiled at them.
“How did she do?” Knowledge asked.
“She doing better.”
Asia just stood there looking at her daughter while Knowledge spoke with the nurse. Despite her being so little, she was beautiful. She couldn’t tell if she looked like her or Knowledge more. She walked over to the sink and washed her hands before going back to the incubator and putting her hand in it.
“Hey, mama.” She smiled as Wysdom gripped her finger. She turned towards Asia like she knew her mommy was there. “I’m sorry,” she said as tears blurred her vision.
Knowledge stood back to let them have their moment.
“You have to get better for mommy so I can take you home. Your brother is anxious to see you and hold you. Your room is so pretty and pink.” Asia smiled.
She couldn’t believe that she was treating her daughter like that due to the guilt that was eating her alive. Deep in her heart, she still believed that she was the cause of her being born prematurely.
“Besides, we have to go shopping and milk your daddy’s pockets. Maybe we can take Serenity with us,” Asia laughed as she glanced over her shoulder at Knowledge.
“Just don’t be a spoiled brat like your mom.” Knowledge smiled.
“And please don’t be a hater like your dad.”
For the next hour, Asia and Knowledge stayed at the hospital with their daughter. Asia spent time talking to her so Wysdom could know the sound of her voice. A couple of times when she was talking to her, she caught her smiling like she understood what she was saying.
The moment that Asia laid eyes on her daughter, all her depression seemed to immediately disappear. She felt complete at that moment and couldn’t wait for the day she could carry her out of that hospital for good.
~~~~
Anika woke up when she felt the mattress moving. She jumped up to find Symir sitting on the other side of the bed, using the remote to turn the TV on. She looked up at him and glared at him.
“Why are you here and how did you find me?” she asked with an attitude.
“Well, good morning to you, too,” he chuckled.
She rolled her eyes at him and got out of the bed. She walked to the bathroom and slammed the door. She shook her head at the toiletries and clothes he had brought for her. Nika thought it was funny how just last night he was close to killing her and now he was acting like things were okay between them.
While Nika was in the bathroom, Symir called everyone up letting them know they were having a meeting tonight and it was not to be missed. He was tired of playing this cat and mouse game with Cordae and Linx. All this shit needed to end, and he was going to make sure it did.
When she came out of the bathroom, Nika sat on the other side of the room glaring at Symir. She never thought she would see the day where the sight of him made her sick.
“Why you looking like that? Hurry up so we can go home. I got some stuff I need to take care of.”
“Why are you here?” she asked, ignoring everything he had just said.
“Yo, I know you just heard what I said.”
Anika chuckled at him. “I’m not going anywhere with you and I’m damn sure not going back to your house. You wanted me out, so I’m out.”
Symir sighed and ran his hand over his face. He got off the bed and walked over to the chair Nika was sitting in and kneeled down in front of her.
“Anika look, I’m a grown ass man who can admit when he is wrong. I was wrong as hell for putting my hands on you and for coming at you sideways. You of all people know that I’ve been stressed out. I’m not just using that as an excuse either. When I saw the pipe and the drugs, I instantly started fearing the worse and handled things the wrong way.”
Anika just sat there staring at him with her arms folded. She wanted to forgive Symir because he had forgiven her so many times, but her heart was aching. The one person who stood by her side and had always been her savior had hurt her.
“Really, Anika? Talk to me. I don’t understand silence.”
Nika sighed. “I heard every word you said, but I need some time alone and to myself to figure some things out,” she said as she reached in her pocket and handed him her ring.
“What the fuck is this?” he asked with his face scrunched up.
“Your ring,” she said.
“Nah, we’re not about to go through this shit. I already apologized so this shit is not about to go down like that.” Symir shook his head.
“Symir, look, I’m tired of being your charity case. I know the only reason you kept coming to get me and being by my side is because you felt like you had to since we have a daughter together. Last night just proved to me that you look at me like everyone else does and you see the same thing they do. You see an ex-drug addict.”
“Nika, cut the bullshit you know…”
“You had to be a damn fool to think you could turn a fucking crack head into a wife. Remember that?” she cut him off mid-sentence.
Symir rubbed the back of the neck. “You know I didn’t mean that shit. I was speaking out of anger.”
“So.” She shrugged. “Aren’t you the one who told me to say what you mean and mean what you say?”
Symir chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t do this shit to me, Anika. You can’t leave me right now.”
“I just think we need some time apart so we can just get our minds right.”
“Fine. You can have the bedroom and I’ll sleep in the guest room across from Asia.” He shrugged like it was nothing.
“Symir…” Nika started but then stopped. She knew there was no winning when it came to him. She was either going to walk out of this room on her own or he was going to carry her out.
“Fine, let’s go.”
Symir sighed. He was two seconds away from throwing her over his shoulder. He was happy she chose the easier way out instead.
~~~~
Since being shot, Linx had decided to finally take heed to Cordae’s words and chill out for a minute. He just knew that breaking into Asia’s house and fucking her up was going to be a piece of cake, but she fooled the hell out of him.
“I tried to tell your stupid ass, but I see you like to learn the hard way.” Cordae shook his head with a smirk.
“Man, we need a bitch like that on our team. Her ass was ready,” Linx half-joked.
“Maybe now you will listen to me. I’ve been putting together a foolproof plan and you’re being the fool that’s going to fuck everything up.”
Linx rolled his eyes at Cordae. “All this hiding out and laying low shit you want me to do is fucking up my money. Besides, I’m not the one that nigga is after. He has no clue I’m in on this shit with you,” he said with confidence.
“Sometimes I hate that fact that you’re blood. That nigga is not stupid. Just because he ain’t kicked in your door, put two in your head and walked out like ain’t shit happen don’t mean he don’t know you’re in on this,” Cordae tried to school him.
“If this nigga is so fucking smart and has all this power, why the hell you wanna go after him?”
“Because that nigga has something that belongs to me!” Cordae yelled.
Cordae wanted so bad to see the demise of Symir. He felt like it should be his name ringing bells in the streets, not Symir’s. His dad Tone had been the one running shit until he got locked up over some petty bullshit. When he was gone, that’s when Syrus moved in and fucked everything up.
“You’re a fucking nut case,” Linx chuckled. “You wanna take over for a nigga that didn’t give a shit about you. He kept you and my auntie a damn secret up until the day he died. You found out about Knowledge and Patience at that nigga funeral. So again, why do you care?”
“Mykus, just shut the fuck up talking to me before I kill you my damn self! I don’t give a fuck about shit you’re talking about right now. The fact still remains that he was my dad and Asia killed him. I can’t let that shit go down and the fact that Symir kn
ew who I was all this time lets me know that nigga don’t give a damn about me.”
“He’s a dumb ass because ain’t no way in hell I would put on the son of the nigga who killed my pops.” Linx shook his head.
“Let me get the fuck up out of here. Like I said, lay low until I say otherwise, stupid ass.”
17
For the past month, Symir had been on the prowl for Cordae and Linx but it seemed as if they had disappeared off the face of the earth. He knew otherwise, though. He knew they were sitting back planning how and when to strike again. Symir was smart though. He knew no matter how much money or power he had; he wasn’t invincible.
“Hello?” Symir answered his ringing phone.
“My senses are telling me that everything is not okay, and my senses never steer me wrong,” Vinny, his connect, said.
“Well, I’m happy to see you’re up on things,” Symir said, letting him know he was right.
“Hmmm, I hope you are taking care of your lawn. I would hate for the grass to get too high and you miss the critters that are lurking,” Vinny spoke in code.
He had to call Symir because Cordae called him trying to meet up with him. He thought that was kind of odd, seeing how he never directly did business with him. Instantly, he sensed some disloyalty and decided to call Symir to check on things.
“Always. It’s just one critter that I let get away from me and now he came back with a friend,” Symir said.
“You are very smart, just like your father was. I have no doubts that you will take care of this situation. I just want you to be safe and keep the family safe as well.”
“If I don’t do anything else, I make sure they are good,” he assured Vinny.
“Very well. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to let me know.”
“I won’t, but I have everything under control.”
After his phone call with Vinny, Symir knew for sure that he had to take care of the two pests that had been irking him. He didn’t care if he had to kick in every damn door in Florida until he found them.
As if all this wasn’t enough to stress him out, Anika still wasn’t wearing his ring and they were still sleeping in separate bedrooms. He wasn’t going to lie and act like the shit didn’t hurt because it did, but he knew he had no one to blame but himself. He wasn’t going to complain about the arrangements too much because she was still at the house and that was good enough for him.
“What y’all doing?” he asked Anika and Asia who were sitting by the pool.
“I was just telling Nika how Knowledge wants me to have a sit down with him and his fiancé,” Asia said.
“I think that’s a good idea.” Symir shrugged.
“I don’t agree,” Asia said. “What good could possibly come out of that? The last time I was even in the same proximity with her ass, she thought it was okay to put her hands on me. She better be glad I wasn’t in the right frame of mind because her ass would have been kicking up daisies.”
“Y’all need to do it because it’s time to put all the bullshit aside and lay everything out on the table. You two need to have some type of agreement because your daughters are sisters,” Nika said.
“No, Knowledge needs to explain everything to her on his own. That’s his fiancé, not mines,” Asia explained.
“First of all, stop calling that girl his fiancé.” Nika rolled her eyes. “He couldn’t possibly be his fiancé when he’s been kicking in that damn door every day just to see you.”
“The only reason is because we go see our daughter every day. I have already let Knowledge know that there will be nothing else between us except for Wysdom. The bitch already think I’m a home wrecker,” Asia spat.
“You love him still?” Symir asked his sister, already knowing the answer.
“No,” she lied. She didn’t know what she felt for Knowledge. One minute she couldn’t stand the sight of him, then the next minute she just wanted to be held tightly in his arms.
“So you’re lying to me now?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you still love Anika?” she retorted.
“Hell yea and I know her punk ass still loves me. That’s why she’s still here, but we’re not talking about us right now. We’re talking about you and Knowledge,” Symir said while Anika playfully rolled her eyes at him.
“It’s complicated, Mir. Look at me and tell me, do you honestly think there’s a chance that me and Knowledge could ever be together? First of all, we weren’t’ supposed to be messing around in the first place, per your rules. Then, come to find out that my simple ass decided to fall for his ass, only to find out that he had a fiancé and daughter already. They were together for six years, so what the hell I need to get my hopes up for?”
“I know he may have went about things the wrong way, but that nigga does care for you. It’s just crazy how everyone sees it but you,” Symir said.
“I don’t want him to care for me. I want him to just hurry up and marry Chelsea so I can find someone who loves me the way I need to be loved. Why does everybody get to have the perfect love story but me?” asked Asia.
“Who wants that perfect love story anyways? Cliché, cliché,” Anika sang to Asia. “For real though, girl. Perfect love stories are boring. Look at me and your brother and all the bullshit we have been through. All I know is, if it’s meant for you two to be together, it will happen and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
“Yea, kiddo. What she said,” Symir laughed as he ruffled his sister’s hair.
Asia just sat back in her chair and sighed. She didn’t care what anyone said. She knew she and Knowledge would never be able to work out and be together. Why would he want to be with her instead of someone he had been with since he was a teenager?
~~~~
Linx paced the living back and forth with his thoughts all over the place. Cordae had him hiding out in another city and he didn’t like it. He needed some action to go down and didn’t see how that was going to happen by hiding.
“Nigga, what the hell is wrong with you?” Cordae asked as he walked in the house.
Linx was about to answer until he looked up and noticed Cordae wasn’t alone.
“Who is this?” he asked with his face scrunched up.
“This,” Cordae said, “is our most valuable player.” He smiled.
“Does Symir know you’re here?” Linx asked.
“Does it matter? I’m here to help y’all out so why would I care if he knew?”
“I need for both of y’all to shut the fuck up,” Cordae spoke before the situation got out of hand. “Just know we’re all in this together so we can argue about whose dick is bigger later. Right now we have more important things to worry about.”
“Damn, is anybody over that way loyal?” Linx laughed as she shook his head. “What’s your name anyways?”
“Just call me C.”
“C, huh?”
“Yea,” C said with an attitude.
“Well alright, C. What are you supposed to do?” Linx asked.
“Everything you failed to do,” C answered.
Linx didn’t appreciate the idea of Cordae bringing other people in on this shit that they were trying to do. He didn’t know this damn ‘C’ so therefore he didn’t trust them. Ain’t no telling if they would tell or not if shit got hot. All he knew was if he felt the least bit uneasy around C, his gun would put him at ease.
18
Asia sat in the NICU talking to Wysdom. She was getting stronger and stronger each day. Her lungs were developing well but they were still worried about her heart. Apparently, she had a murmur in her heart that the doctors wanted to keep an eye on to make sure it didn’t get worse or turn out to be something different.
The nurses even let her feed Wysdom and change her diaper now. Asia was ecstatic that her baby girl was making progress. She was counting down the days until she would be bringing her home. As she sat in the rocking chair, she stared into her daughter’s eyes. Asia’s chest swelled with pride. Her
kids were the best things that had ever happened to her.
“Mommy loves you,” she smiled. “My little sweetie pie.”
At that moment, Asia had no worries. She felt complete whenever she held Wysdom in her arms. She would spend all day up at the hospital when she didn’t have anything to do. She had finally told Symir that she was out and didn’t want to be in that life anymore, he sighed with relief and was happy. He didn’t want his sister getting caught up in that life anyway.
“She has been making so much progress. In the last month, she has gained two pounds, which puts her at five pounds now,” Jennifer, the nurse that was assigned to take care of Wysdom, informed her.
“I’m so happy. She had me scared for a minute.” Asia smiled.
“No worries. At the rate she’s going, she should be home within the next couple of weeks. The doctor just wants to make sure everything is fine with her heart, but we haven’t seen anything that would be detrimental,” Jennifer explained.
“Oh, thank God,” Asia sighed. “I can’t wait to take her home. I would feel so much better with her there with me.”
Jennifer just smiled as she left the mother-daughter duo to themselves. Asia’s phone beeped, letting her know she had a text message. She looked down at her phone and noted that she had a picture message from Cole. She clicked on it and it was a picture of some black and silver Michael Kors Ugg boots for babies. She laughed as she texted him back.
They’re adorable, but we live in Florida. We don’t get snow.
Not even a minute later, he texted her back.
Cole: It’s doesn’t matter. I want her to have them so she’s going to wear them punk.
Asia just shook her head. She couldn’t even argue with him. Ever since she asked Cole to be Wysdom’s godfather, he had gone all out with buying stuff. He bought her a crib, bassinet, diapers, clothes, shoes, socks, the whole nine. When she told him that she already had a crib and bassinet, he said it was cool because he was keeping it for his house so she could sleep in it when she came to visit.
He was excited like he was the one that was having the baby. Everyone’s heart broke when they found out Wysdom was premature, including Asia’s. Now she smiled at the fact because she chalked it up to mean that God wanted them to meet sooner.
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