“But you did,” Vanessa said to him. “Everything I am, it’s because of you, Daddy. Everything good I have inside of me, it’s because of everything you taught me. I lost myself along the way, and that’s not your fault. I could never blame you for what happened to me,” Vanessa said to her father as she looked up at him.
“I know baby-girl,” her father sighed as they walked on a little longer. “Remember what I taught you before. Be you, be fearless. Don’t let a bad experience cause you to shut down and reject love. Be smarter in who you give your heart to. But most importantly, don’t punish the next man for what the last man did or because I wasn’t around to protect you from what was done to you. Don’t lose yourself. Be you, unapologetically,” her father said to her firmly.
Vanessa rested her head on her father’s shoulder. “No man could ever love me as you do, Daddy. Why can’t I just stay with you?”
“We’ll be together again. But there is so much more for you to do. Just never forget what I taught you. Promise me that,” Vanessa’s father said to her.
Vanessa’s eyes became teary as she nodded her head. “I promise,” she said becoming choked up. Her father wiped her tears away with his thumb and kissed her on the fore-head. “I love you, Vanna…”
Vanessa opened her eyes and he was gone. “I love you too, Daddy…”
…
Vanessa felt a gentle kiss on her forehead and opened her eyes. The bright light in the hospital room caused her to squint. When they adjusted to room’s lighting, she looked at Derek and smiled.
“It’s good to see you with your eyes open,” he said to her with a smile. “Someone wants to meet you.” He pulled a baby basinet over to her side of the bed and Vanessa’s heart almost melted when she laid eyes on the precious baby.
“You have a beautiful son,” Derek said softly as he picked the baby up. The tiny baby boy fidgeted in his arms as Derek sat in a chair next to Vanessa. She felt overwhelmed with love and joy as she laid eyes on her brand new son. The brief dream that she had of her father came to her and she was unable to hold back the tears. Derek kissed the side of her mouth before placing him in her arms. “We’ve been calling him “Baby-Boy L” for the past three days,” he told her.
“Three days?” Vanessa looked at him with a raised eye-brow.
“Yeah, you lost a lot of blood. They had to give you two blood transfusions.” Vanessa couldn’t take her eyes off of her new son. “What are you going to name him?” Derek asked her.
“Darryl Malik Lofton,” Vanessa said with a smile.
Derek smiled. “I had a feeling you would.” He ran his fingertips over the side of baby Darryl’s chubby cheeks and then kissed Vanessa softly.
“Eric…?” she asked hesitantly.
“He’s dead,” Derek told her. He hesitated a moment. “So is Ms. Vera.” Vanessa looked at him with her eyes wide. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to go back to Philly since Eric is gone and he was the only reason you left. But if you decide to stay…” Derek trailed off. “It’s no pressure.”
Vanessa stared at baby Darryl for a moment and then remembered what her father said to her in her dream. She looked at Derrick and smiled. “I want to stay with you.”
Derrick let out a sigh of relief and then laughed nervously. “No lie, if you told me you were going back to Philly, I would’ve came with you.” Vanessa chuckled with him. He kissed her again, this time longer and then leaned his forehead against hers. “I told you I got you, Vanessa.”
Vanessa nodded her head. “Thank you.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. So many people had been hurt and killed through this ordeal, but it was finally over. Eric was dead, and all of the horrible things that had been done to her by him, she let them die with him. She knew she would still need counseling to heal the wounds that were still there mentally and emotionally. But at that moment, she was positive that she would be alright, and that her son would be alright as well.
Epilogue
George walked into the 22nd precinct carrying a small package. He stopped at the help desk and waited patiently for the officer behind it to finish with her meaningless conversation and actually help him.
“How can I help you, sir?” she asked him in a tone that made her appear uninterested in doing her job.
“I’m trying to get in touch with Detective Jamal Williams and his partner Dante Smith,” George replied nervously.
“What’s this about?” the officer asked.
“I have a package for him from Officer Felix Montague.”
“The officer who was killed in Atlanta about a month ago?” the female officer asked with a raised eye brow.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You can give that to me. I’ll make sure it gets into Williams’ hands as soon as he gets in.”
“No, I was given specific instructions that no one was to touch this package except for either him or Dante Smith. I can wait if that’s okay,” George replied.
The female officer looked at him clearly annoyed. She waved for him to have a seat in the waiting room. “I’ll see if I can locate him at his desk.”
George sat in the waiting room with the package in his lap. Almost forty-five minutes had gone by before he felt someone tap him on his shoulder.
“I’m detective Jamal Williams. Are you George?”
George felt like he was standing in front of a celebrity. “I read up on your father, Andre. It’s an honor to meet you,” he said as he gave Jamal a firm handshake.
“Thank you. What can I do for you today?”
“I was told not to say too much. Everything you need to know is in the package. Felix told me that if anything ever happened to him, to get this over to you and only you,” George explained.
Jamal took the thick manila envelope from George. “I’m a little confused. I didn’t know Officer Montague personally. I heard what happened to him and I attended his service. I don’t understand why he specifically wanted you to give this to me and also, he was killed a month ago. Why are you just getting this to me?” Jamal asked.
George fidgeted for a moment. “Just go through what’s in there. And then call the number in the file. I can’t say any more than that. And watch yourself…” George got up and walked out of the precinct. Five minutes after he was standing at the corner, a dark Lincoln town car pulled up. He got in the back and the car pulled off.
“Did you give him everything?” Felix asked.
“Yeah. A female officer offered to give it to him for me but I told her I would wait. She seemed a little pissed about it.”
“Yeah, you can guess why, too.”
“So now what?” George asked.
“Now we wait…”
…
Jamal didn’t have time to look through the envelope because he was swamped with paper work and he wanted to get it finished so he could get home in time to have dinner with his wife, Tiffany. Their one year old son was having a sleep over with Deisha and Maurice’s two children so they could finally have some alone time together. He promised Dante he would drop him off at home first.
“Yo homie, you ready to roll?” Dante asked as he approached Jamal’s desk.
“Yeah man, I was just finishing up,” Jamal replied as he stood up. He threw his jacket on and was about to walk away from his desk when he remembered the envelope that was given to him by George earlier that day. He snatched it up and he and Dante headed out of the precinct together.
“You never checked out what was in the envelope that dude gave to you earlier?” Dante asked as they walked over to the parking lot.
“Nah, I said I would look at it tomorrow since I’m off. Dude was real secretive about it like it was some Mission: Impossible type shit. It was weird.” He and Dante chuckled. Jamal took out his keys and hit the keyless starter. As soon as the car started, an explosion erupted lifting the car from the ground. The explosion caused multiple car alarms to go off and the blast knocked Jamal and Dante back into a wall. Jamal’s ears were ringing and his h
ead and back hurt. Dante slowly moved to his knees and looked at Jamal in disbelief. Jamal looked at him wide-eyed.
“What the fuck was that?!” Dante yelled. Other cops ran from the precinct to see what happened.
Jamal shook his head with a look of shock written over his face. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Nah fuck this. You’re looking at that file tonight! Whatever is in it, they don’t want you to see it.” Dante grimaced. “Here we go again with this bullshit.”
Sirens from firetrucks and ambulances could be heard approaching the scene. A Sergeant from IAB stood in the window of the fifth floor looking down at what was going on. His cell phone rang.
“This is Rutkowski,” he answered as he continued to stare down below.
“What’s the result?” a male asked on the other end.
“Target was missed. We’ll get them though,” Sergeant Rutkowski replied.
“That’s not the answer we were expecting,” the man on the phone said.
“I know, sir. My apologies.”
“Save your apologies. Next time, be more efficient.” The man disconnected the call and Rutkowski put his phone back in his pocket. He continued to stare down at the scenery as the fire fighters put out the flames to Jamal’s 2015 Acura RDX as he plotted on his next move against Jamal Williams and Dante Smith…
About the Author
The Author Yani wrote her first novel when she was fifteen years old while attending University City High-School. What started out as just a short story to help her cope with the accidental and devastating murder of a friend, turned into a full length, 893 handwritten paged novel after being encouraged to continue writing more by her peers. Years later, A Thug’s Redemption along with its two sequels, became Amazon Best Sellers and featured in Yo! Raps Magazine. Yani had previously been known for her writing through her edgy poetry, which granted her an invitation to the Tri-State’s number 1 Hip-Hop and R&B radio station, Power 99FM, to recite her popular poem “Why Tyrone Can’t Read” in 2001. Since then, Yani has attended open mic nights, reciting her poetry throughout Philadelphia. Yani has been featured on numerous blogs and has made guest appearances on various blog-talk radio shows. She was also a featured author at the 2013 National Black Book Festival in Houston, Texas. Yani still resides in Philadelphia with her three children and is working on her sixth novel.
Check out more novels by the author Yani brought to you by Anitbeet Productions.
A Thug’s Redemption Trilogy
Obsessive Intimacies
Love's Deadly Masquerade Page 22