by Shan
I breathed a sigh of relief when my phone rung and the caller ID showed Rozalyn’s name. I’d called her several times back to back and didn’t receive an answer, “Hello.”
“Daddy!” Tamarion said into the phone.
“Marion, what’s up man? Where your mama at? Go take the phone to your mama.”
“Mama’s crying and granny is sick,” he said.
“What you mean mama is crying and granny is sick? Where is mama at?” I asked. My heart beat rapidly in my chest thinking of all the things that could’ve been meant by what my son just said. “Is somebody hurting your mama? Did somebody hurt granny?”
“Yes and we scared daddy. Can you come home?”
“I’m on my way home son. Everything gonna be okay. I want you and your brothers to hide in the closet and keep quiet until I get there, okay?”
“Okay daddy bye!” he said before the phone went dead.
A single tear fell from my eye as fear and frustration took over. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my damn life, scared of what happened to my mama, to Rozalyn, and what would happen to my kids. I knew that it would take me forever to get to Houston and that bothered more than anything. Knowing that while I was going through the airport trying to book a plane, my family was suffering at the hands of lunatic.
“I should’ve put two in Ron’s head for this shit,” I said wiping tears away with the back of my hand.
“He’s there huh?” Black asked.
“I have a feeling that he is. How along go did you send the security down there?”
“A couple of hours ago soon as Taron told me. I tried to get you but I guess you were already on the plane and on the way here.”
“Muthafuckin’ Sy, Marvin aka Messiah. That nigga got several bullets with his name on it,” I sighed.
30: Messiah
“Why the fuck are you being like this?” I asked Rozalyn but once again she wouldn’t answer me. She only stared at me as if the bullet affected her speech as much as it affected her legs. Soon as Taron gave me the information on where to find Rozalyn, I drove around for a few hours before deciding to just drive down here to Houston. The moment I pulled up to the house, I immediately felt a tinge of jealously cross over me causing me to be sick to my stomach. It was amazing how this nigga could leave a mini-mansion in Miami and then come to Houston and live in a house sitting on the beach coast like people just did this shit everyday.
I sat for two days watching in agony, as Tamar played on the beach with the boys, chilling and just having a good ol’ time like he didn’t have a care in the world. This is the kind of life I wanted ever since I was a kid, the kind of life that my grandfather and brother tried to provide for us but failed to do once they were both murdered. The kind of life that I planned to make for myself and whatever family I had until I was stopped and forced to do time. This life was stolen from me by Tamar and I wanted it back, however I had to get it; I was gonna get it.
“Rozalyn, talk to me! Why are you being like this with me? I haven’t done anything wrong, what have I done to you?” I questioned.
“You killed your parents Marvin?” Rozalyn stunning me when she finally opened her mouth.
“What---how did---who told you that?” I stuttered. “Why are you calling me Marvin?”
“And your brother? Mes—Marvin, you told me you went to jail for drugs. Why did you lie to me?”
“I did go to jail for drugs! You don’t know nothing about me or what I’ve been through! Who told you that bullshit? Your husband told you that? He just wants to take everything away from me!” I yelled swiping the plate of food that sat on a tray in front of Rozalyn to the floor.
“You’re crazy! The fuck away from me!” Rozalyn said looking at me with fear in her eyes.
“I’m not crazy Rozalyn. I’m not crazy! Tell you just like I told my mama and them doctors! I’m not crazy so don’t fuckin’ call me that again!”
I leaned in and kissed Rozalyn on her lips but she turned her head away from me, brought her hand up, and knocked me upside of my head. I looked at her as if she had lost her mind and tried to kiss her again. She’d never turned away from me before so I didn’t understand what her problem was now.
“Rozalyn, why are you turning away from me? I love you baby,” I said and kissed her once more.
“Messiah, Marvin whoever the fuck you are get away from me! You don’t love me because if you did you would have never cut Tamar’s brake line! You could’ve killed my damn kids!”
“He was the only one that was supposed to be in the car! I tried to get him to leave the kids with you!” I yelled.
“You almost killed Zavier, Messiah. You almost killed him!”
I began to pace the floor back and forth, wondering how in the hell did Rozalyn find all of this out. I knew it was possible that Tamar would find out about me cutting his brake line but damn how did she know that I killed my parents and my brother. My record was supposed to be sealed after I left that place and no one was supposed to be able to find out what I had done.
“I just want my money and I want my crown. That’s it!” I bellowed and walked out of the room. I stepped over the old lady that I knocked over the head when I first came into the house and made my way to the master bedroom to search for anything of value. Tamar had to have some money around here somewhere. I pulled out dresser drawers, tossed clothes everywhere, flipped the mattresses over, and then went to search the closet. If I found a little bit of money then I could start my own drug organization and quickly take Miami back over.
I came across a wad of money wrapped in a rubber band and then frowned seeing that it was only a couple of thousand dollars. Stuffing it in my pocket, I left out of the master bedroom and went into the kid’s room to search all over again. I did their room the same way and when I found nothing, I went into the closet, and began to search there. I moved shoes and toys out of the way and froze when I came across something solid and warm. I pulled at it and slid it from underneath it’s hiding place seeing that it was one of Rozalyn’s twins. He looked at me with tears filling his eyes, and then back at his two brothers who were now suddenly standing behind him.
“Who are ya’ll hiding from?” I asked. The twin pointed into my chest and then looked back at his brothers once more.
BLAM!
“Okay, go back into your hiding place. I’m going to close the door and go check on your mama okay?” I pushed the twin back and stood up to leave out of the closet. I didn’t have an interest in hurting the children unless I was left with no other choice. I went back into the room where Rozalyn was and noticed that she was no longer in the bed. “How the fuck did she get out of the bed?”
I looked around the room, under the bed, checked the closet but didn’t find Rozalyn at all. She was supposed to be paralyzed from the waist down so I couldn’t understand where she could’ve gone. I left out of the room and began to search the house frantically knowing that she couldn’t have gotten that far.
“Rozalyn, where the fuck are you? Come on Rozalyn, where are you? I didn’t come here to hurt you! I need my money and I need to reclaim my crown! I will always be king of Miami! Do you hear me? Tamar ain’t shit! My family started this shit for him, if it wasn’t for my grandfather and my brother paving the way for me then Miami wouldn’t be shit. I made it possible for Tamar to make money out here and he owes me for that shit! I am the fuckin’ king and he needs to know that because of me all of this possible. He owes me!.”
BLAM!
I hurriedly turned around and ran in the direction of where the noise had come from knowing that it had to be Rozalyn. I cautiously walked into the master bedroom, looked around but still didn’t see her anywhere. I took light steps keeping my ears open, listening for more noise so I would be able to detect exactly where she is the moment she moved again.
“Roza—“
POW! POW!
Two bullets stung me right in the middle of the back; I turned around to see Rozalyn gripping the handle of a
nine millimeter tightly while pointing it in my direction. I moved a couple of steps towards her but was stopped when she started firing again.
POW! POW! POW! POW!
31: Rozalyn
I shook violently on the bedroom floor, gripping the gun, and still pointing it in Messiah’s direction. I could tell that he wasn’t dead yet because his chest rose and fell rapidly and his leg was moving up and down against the floor. I didn’t know if he planned on hurting me or the kids but I didn’t want to take a chance especially not after hearing what he did to his family. I used my upper body’s strength to slide across the floor to where Messiah was laying at with his eyes open staring into space.
I bypassed him and kept moving until I was in the hallway where I spotted Cheryl laying across the floor. My body became weaker but I kept fighting until I was able to get to her and see if she was okay. Once I made it over to her, I reached in and checked for a pulse and noted that she was still breathing but knocked out cold.
“Tamarion! Boys!”I yelled out and began to shake Cheryl. “Zavier, Zyir! Tamarion!”
Tamarion came running around the corner full speed with his brothers right behind him. I could tell that they’d been crying from the dried up tears on their little faces. I hated that they had to go through all this and regretfully wished that I could take everything so violent and bad that they have seen back. I held my hands out and each one of them came running over to me, hugging me, and kissing me all over. I laughed and was so thankful that I was able to get control of that situation before it got out of hand.
“Tamarion, where is the phone? Can you go get me the phone?” I asked him.
Tamarion nodded his head and took off running into his bedroom and I began to shake Cheryl again attempting to awaken her. She moved slightly but never once opened her eyes to look up at me. I waited until Tamarion came back with the phone and once he did, I dialed 911 to call for help for Cheryl. I didn’t give a damn about Messiah and I hoped that by time they arrived that he had completely passed on and went to hell where he belonged.
***
It was well into the night when Tamar arrived back in Houston to the beach house. Police, along with crime scene investigators, and paramedics, and other staff walked up and through the house for hours trying to figure what had happened here. I explained to them that Messiah had broken into the house, assaulted Cheryl, and then came after me. They seemed to get lost on how I was able to get out of the bed and shoot Messiah down but I made them aware that I was capable of getting out and into my wheel chair when I needed to. They seemed to be okay with my story after I told it to them the same way three times over and then especially after I told them about how he did time in the crazy house and his name wasn’t really Messiah. They said that they will be in touch with me if they needed more information. I watched helplessly as they went through taking pictures of everything, polishing the entire place for fingerprints, and looking around at papers that were sitting out in the open.
“I’m so sorry. So, so sorry,” Tamar said to me and to his mom.
“You don’t have to keep apologizing Tamar, it’s cool. We’re all okay,” I said.
“Ma, you good? You okay?” Tamar asked looking over his mom.
“Tamar, we’re fine. They checked me out and said I just have a bump on my head. I’m okay baby, stop worrying.”
“Damn, I just can’t believe this shit,” Tamar stood up to his feet and began to pace the floor. Some inaudible words rolled off his tongue and his arms swung back and forth, signaling that he was mad.
“Can you please just help me to the bed? I’m tired and just wanna rest,’ I said.
Tamar nodded his head and came over to me, scooping me up from the sofa and taking me into my bedroom. I could understand that he was mad because he wasn’t here when Messiah came but there was nothing that could be done about it. I killed Messiah and thankfully no one else was hurt in the process. It was time for us to forget about what happened and just move the hell on, focus on our children, and just maybe focus on us having a marriage. Tamar wanted us to get back together and work through our marital problems but I was still on the fence about that. No matter if Messiah was crazy or not he still treated me better than Tamar has ever treated me and I will never forget him for that. Personally I just felt like we both needed to work on ourselves before we tried to work things out and be together again.
“How you feel?” Tamar asked once he put me into bed.
“I’m okay. I’m just really, really tired,” I sighed.
“I mean how do you feel knowing that you just killed someone? That’s not something that you can do and expect to sleep well at night.”
“I don’t feel anything Tamar besides the excruciating pain that’s in my neck and shoulders right now,” I frowned.
“A’ight, let me figure out where Dalia left your pain meds at and I’ll be back,” Tamar nodded and walked away.
When Tamar returned with my pain meds, we sat and talked for a little while until he ended up falling asleep in a chair that sat along side of my bed. I watched him as he slept and suddenly wondered if I told him the truth about the twins would he still feel the same way about them or even about me. I knew that if I ever came out and told him the truth about the one simple mistake that I made back before I got pregnant with the twins he would definitely try to kill me again.
32: Tamar
2 months later
“It’s nice but I really don’t think you need to leave Miami,” Taron said looking around the property that I’d just purchased in Dallas.
“Who said I was leaving Miami? I got a house here, a beach house in Houston, and a house in Miami. I’m keeping all of them bro,” I said with a smirk.
“Oh yea I forgot you balling like that. Everybody ain’t able,” Taron laughed.
“Damn right everybody ain’t able. I worked hard to be able to do this,” I said once we got into the car. “So, how is Keymani and Toya doing man? I need to get around to meeting my niece.”
“Yea you do. She is everything in the world to me right now. I never knew that being a father would feel so great.”
“Yea, it’s a good feeling. You know the boys are everything to me man and that will never change even though the twins aren’t mine.”
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you that J.B. stopped through the club last weekend looking for Rozalyn. Said he’s been trying to get in contact with her but the number he got isn’t working and I ain’t wanna disturb ya’ll with it.”
“J.B.? Fuck is he looking for Rozalyn for?” I asked in confusion.
“He never sad why, he said that he really needed to get in contact with her.”
J.B. is one of my very loyal clients that I’ve been dealing with since my Atlanta days. He’s always copped big weight from me, giving me plenty of money but I didn’t understand why he wanted to speak with Rozalyn and not me. He’s maybe only met her one time which was at the damn meet and greet party I did when I first moved to Miami a long damn time ago.
“Let me call this nigga and find out. He ain’t got no business looking for my wife. I don’t understand that shit,” I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled through my contacts until I came across J.B.’s phone number.
“Aye, what’s up bro?” J.B. said the moment he picked up the phone.
“Headed back to the crib mane, what’s going on? My bruh telling me you came through looking for my wife. What’s good?” I asked getting right to the point.
“Shit she contacted me a few weeks ago but a nigga was doing time on that lil’ ol assault case I was telling you about. I just came home---“
“J.B., I don’t give a fuck about none of that. Why the fuck are you looking for my wife?”
“Nigga, she text me and asked me to come give blood for her shorty. That’s why the fuck I’m looking for her.”
“What the fuck nigga? You must be ready to lose your muthafuckin’ life, I know like hell you ain’t fuck my bitch J.B.?”
“Y
o, this shit happened over two damn years ago bro. You threatening my life behind that trifling ass bitch nigga? Word, I just really wanna find out what she talking about with lil’ man. Tell the hoe to hit me up!”
The line clicked in my ear signaling that J.B. had hung up the phone. I shook my head back and forth not believing that this bitch stepped out on me with one of my fuckin’ clients. It was bad enough she fucked my boy, but now I find out she slept with a client too. These past few months I’ve been catering to her every need, doing everything in power to ensure that she had the best treatment possible. If it wasn’t for that, her ass would be sitting in a fucking rehabilitation center probably still struggling to get out of bed. I put my all into trying to build and repair what we had and now I find this shit out. Every fuckin’ time I think that we can work it out and be a fuckin’ family something always pops up and gets in the damn way.
“What should I do bruh? It seems like every time I try to make it work, drama always gets in the middle and pulls us apart.”
“What the fuck was that all about?” Taron asked.
“Rozalyn apparently text this nigga asking him to give blood to Zavier. The only reason why she would be texting him that is if she suspects that he may be the father which means they fucked.”
“Damn man I don’t know what to tell you. Is she sleeping with anybody else now?” Taron asked.
“Hell if I know. I thought I knew Rozalyn but it’s obvious, I don’t know shit.”
“I’m saying though, it was the past. Even if she did fuck around on you and slept with J.B. and whoever else the shit was in the past. How many bitches did you sleep with while ya’ll were together and still sleeping with now? And don’t forget you still got Kari hiding in the back waiting to pop that baby out.”