"Where you at? I'm about to come see you," she said.
He gave her the address to where he was at and Kaiah was on her way. She walked to the kitchen to let Shauntez and Synai know that she was heading out for a minute. "I gotta make a run but save me a plate and try not to burn the house down," she joked.
~ ~ ~
Zacorin sat on the porch with his older cousin waiting for Kaiah to pull up. It had been four years since he had last seen his little sister. He remembered the times when she used to be out there fighting with him and Kaison, and the times when they would use her as a look out when they would be doing stuff they had no business doing.
"Yo Z, I think I'm about to marry Kaiah," Zacorin's cousin Darrell said.
Zacorin laughed and shook his head. "Rell, please. You and Kaiah had plenty of time to get together but y'all was playing around. You let her get with that one Spanish speaking nigga and it was a wrap after that. Besides, from what Orlando said, she's already married."
"Yea, but their marriage is also on the rocks," Darrell said.
Kaiah pulled up to the address that Zacorin had given her. She noticed him and Darrell sitting on the porch and shook her head. She had always thought that Darrell was sexy and wanted him in the worse way back in the day, but he was too much of a hoe. She knew she could have had him, but they both were playing.
She hopped out of the car and they both let out whistles. "Damn, Kay Kay? That's how you rolling?" Zacorin asked, referring to her Lexus.
She looked back at it and smiled. "Yea, that's me. What y'all doing? Staying out of trouble, I hope," she said.
Zacorin stepped off the porch and walked over to Kaiah. He looked her up and down before lightly poking her stomach. "Oh hell! I knew it. I've been around enough pregnant women to know one when I see one."
Kaiah blushed and hit him in the arm. "Shut up, fool."
"How far along are you?" Darrell asked.
"Just three months. I'm still trying to figure out how he even knew I was pregnant and my own damn husband didn't know. I'm not even showing yet," said Kaiah.
Zacorin laughed. "I'm telling you girl, I can spot a pregnant woman a mile away," he said as they walked on the porch together. "But where's the lucky guy?"
"Ummm, up at the county."
"Oh, okay. Well that's a different subject for a different day. Let me see the ring," Zacorin said, peeking at her hand.
"I don't have it on."
"See, ain't no way in hell you'll be my wife and not wearing my ring. I wouldn't allow it," Darrell said as he lightly pulled Kaiah's hair like he used to when they were teenagers.
"Rell, please. If you had it, you wouldn't even know what to do with it. Plus, I haven't had my ring on for months because we're going through some things.
Just saying that made her mind travel back to all the things that Shauntez said about her always running away from their problems. She was so used to wanting to run away from stuff and hoping that the situation would just go away. Now she realized that wasn't going to work anymore. She had to sit down and talk about stuff.
8
It was the day before Deonte's court date and Kaily hadn't been home yet. She hadn't seen or spoken to Carlos since the night of their fight. Late last night, he had called her over to come talk. Kaily was a little worried because he didn't sound like himself and he kept saying 'just for the last time.' She didn't know what that meant, but she didn't like the sound of it.
"How do I look?" Orlando inquired as he walked into the living room.
Today was a big day for him. For the first time, he would be meeting his little sister that he never had a chance to meet. Orlando was taken from his mother at the age of three due to her neglecting him and leaving him in the house at all times of the day and night just so she could chase her high. Her family had written her off and didn't even know she had a son or that she was even eight months pregnant when she got locked up.
He grew up in the foster care system until he was sixteen years old and he ran away from the group home that he was living in. Apparently his sister had been searching for him ever since she was fourteen years old. Just like him, she grew up in the foster care system also.
"You look good. I'm actually kind of jealous. You never looked this good for me," Kaily joked as she fixed the collar on his button up.
"Girl please, I stayed fine as hell when I was courting you and even after I got you." He winked.
"I can't argue with that." She smiled as there was a knock at the door.
Kaily went to answer the door so Orlando could finish getting himself together. She opened the door and came face to face with a beautiful woman carrying a handsome baby boy. "Hi, I'm Daniella. Is Orlando here?"
"Hi, Daniella, I'm Kaily. Come right on in," Kaily said as she stepped out the way so that they could come in.
Orlando smiled brightly when he saw his sister walking into the room. "Hi, Orlando. I'm Daniella and this little one right here is Lashaun Jr." Daniella smiled.
Orlando reached out his arms for a hug and they embraced each other. "Damn, I think I would have went to prison a long time ago if I had been around you when you were growing up," Orlando half-joked.
"Well, at least one of our parents had some good genes because you're very handsome yourself." Daniella smiled.
"Please don't gas his head up, it's already big enough." Kaily laughed.
"It always gotta be a hater in the room." Orlando mushed Kaily playfully.
"Is this your wife?" Daniella asked.
"One day, if she ever stop playing around," Orlando spoke up before Kaily could say anything. "So, I can tell you're married by that big ass rock on your finger." Orlando pointed out.
Daniella blushed just at the thought of her husband. "Yea, I've been married for three years now. His name is Lashaun but we call him Lakey. He wanted to come meet you today but I told him I wanted to meet you by myself first."
"That's what's up. I can tell you're happy and that's all that matters."
Kaily walked over to Orlando and whispered in his ear that she was about to go meet up with Carlos and he nodded his head. She kissed his cheek before saying bye to Daniella and Lashaun Jr.
Carlos wrapped a letter around the surveillance tape from the barbershop and put it on the table. He knew he was making the right decision but thought that he had waited too long to do it. He was having a mental breakdown and there was nothing he could do to save himself. He felt like shit for letting the person who was supposed to be his best friend sit behind bars for something he did. He didn't even have the decency to say thank you, write him or even visit him.
He felt even worse for the way that he had talked to Kaily and for putting his hands on her. He didn't even recognize the man he had become. He had wrote Deonte, Kaily, and even Kaiah a letter saying what he couldn't actually verbalized to them. He was always talking about someone else coming in between Deonte and Kaiah's relationship when he had done it himself.
He wanted Kaily to take the video down to the police station. He hoped that it was enough to get Deonte off scot-free. After all, he was the one on the tape pulling the trigger. Whatever he had to do to make things better was exactly what he was going to do.
He took the gun in his hand and sat on the couch. Kaily walked through the door texting Kaiah on her phone. She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed Carlos sitting on the couch with his head down. "What's wrong?" she asked.
He looked up with red eyes. "You know I love you, right?" he asked.
Kaily looked at him oddly with her head tilted. "Yea, and I love you too. You know that. It's not the first fight we've ever gotten into and I'm pretty sure it won't be our last, so why are you crying?" she asked.
Carlos lifted his hand and that's when she noticed the gun. She stepped back in terror as he cocked it and pointed it at his head. "I'm drowning Kaily. I don't know what to do," he cried.
"Carlos, baby, put the gun down. Whatever is bothering you, we can work this out. You don't ha
ve to do this. We both said some stuff we didn't mean but you don't have to do this," she said as tears blurred her vision.
"I'm sorry and I want you to know I love you no matter what. Make sure you take that tape downtown so they can free my best friend. Give him and Kaiah their letters and I have one for you, too," he said as he closed his eyes.
"CARLOS, NO!" Kaily screamed as she took two big steps in his direction, but it was too late.
POW! The gun went off and brain matter flew everywhere. Kaily was stuck. She had just watched the love of her life kill himself right in front of her. "CARLOS!" she screamed again. When he didn't answer, she let out a gut-wrenching scream that sounded foreign to her.
She didn't know how long she was standing there or how the police got into her house. All she knew was that she was being walked out of the house by a police officer. Kaily was in total shock. She kept replaying the scene over and over in her head. She couldn't even think straight right now.
Kaiah pulled up to Kaily's house in total confusion. She was just texting Kaily not even two minutes ago, telling her that she was stopping by. Now she was seeing ambulances and police cars. She noticed them bringing Kaily out the house but she wasn't in handcuffs, so she was really wondering what was going on.
She parked her car and jumped out. "Ma'am, you can't go in there," a police officer tried to stop her but she just kept running.
"Kaily what's wrong? Talk to me Butterfly. What happened?"
"Are you any relation to her?" A female officer asked.
"Yes, this is my big sister," answered Kaiah.
"Okay, she's in shock right now so I'm not sure she will be able to answer you. I'm going to take her over here to be checked out, then we can talk," the police officer said.
Kaiah just nodded her head as she followed them over to the ambulance. It was like Kaily was in a trance. She was just looking straight ahead without blinking her eyes. Kaiah turned her attention to the door where she noticed them taking someone out in a body bag and she was really praying to God that Kaily didn't kill Carlos for hitting her.
The female officer walked back over to Kaiah to explain what she knew so far. "Okay, so we got a call about a reported gunshot from a neighbor. When we got here, she pointed us over here to this house. We knocked but no one answered. We peeked through the window and could see her just standing there so we busted in the house. When we walked in, we found a male with looked to be a self-inflected gun wound."
"Oh my God," Kaiah whispered.
"NOOOO!" They turned to see Kaily trying to get in the ambulance they had just put Carlos’ body in. Kaiah took off running and grabbed Kaily into her arms and hugged her tightly. "No Kaiah, let me go! He's not gone, he can't be."
Kaiah couldn't even find the right words to say to her sister right now. They fell to the ground and all Kaiah could do was hug her. She knew this wasn't easy, but she couldn't fathom how Kaily was feeling right now. To witness someone you love to take their life right in front of you couldn't be an easy thing to deal with.
~ ~ ~
After what seemed like forever, Kaiah had come home. She wasn't going to leave Kaily by herself at a time like that, so she brought her home with her. When they got to the house, the whole family was already there, including Zacorin and Darrell. As soon as Kaily walked through the door, she broke down again. She went right to her Poppa and he took her into his arms.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Even Orlando was on the verge of tears. He may not have liked Carlos for putting his hands on Kaily, but they never had any real beef. Plus, he hated to see Kaily hurting.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Kaily cried out.
"You live baby, that's all you can do," Senior said as he consoled his daughter. He hated to see his daughters cry, no matter how minor or the major the situation was. He never wanted to have to wipe the tears off their faces.
Kaiah dismissed herself from the group and went to her room. The police gave her an envelope with her name on it that they found sitting on the table next to a video that was taken to the station. She opened it and read what it had to say.
Kaiah,
If you're reading this, then I know I must be gone by now. I know you probably don't want to hear shit I have to say, but at least read what I have to say. I want to apologize for coming at you crazy and saying some things that were not true. D-Boy never wanted Sherae. That was just some bullshit I said in hopes that you would leave him alone because I was tired of seeing you get hurt.
I know that wasn't my place but please forgive me. Most importantly, I want to apologize for even bringing her around, knowing how deep her feelings were and are for D-Boy. That was mad disrespectful and selfish on my behalf. Please watch over my Butterfly and tell her don't shed too many tears over me. I was tired of being a burden and it goes way beyond anything that you or her would understand.
Kaiah's vision blurred as the tears started falling. No matter what Carlos said to her or what he did, she never wanted him to go out like that. She still considered him to be her big brother, that's what siblings do. They fight, get mad at each other, stop talking to each other for a few then kiss and make up. Truth be told, she wasn't even that mad at Carlos.
There was a light tap at her door before Kaison, Zacorin and Darrell walked in. Kaison sat next to his sister on the bed and she laid her head on his shoulder. "This is just too much, Duke. I never would have thought he would do some shit like this."
"None of us did. I'm at a total loss of words right now. I've never seen Kaily so distraught like this before. The only thing we can do is be there for her right now."
"You know since it was a suicide the insurance company won't pay for anything but that's okay because I got it all covered," Kaiah said.
"We," Kaison said. "We have it covered."
"You know whatever you need, we will help out in any way we can," Zacorin said, and Darrell nodded his head in agreement.
"Oh my God!" Kaiah jumped up.
"What?" Everyone said on alert.
"Tae. I gotta tell Tae. He's not going to take this too good," she said.
With everything going on, she didn't even have a chance to think about how Deonte would feel once he found out. Carlos was his best friend since birth, so she knew this was going to kill him.
9
It would seem like the morning after would be a little better, but that wasn't true. Kaily chose to go home with Orlando and nobody had any problems with that because they knew he would take care of her and make sure she was good. Kaison, Zacorin and Darrell stayed with Kaiah to make sure she was okay.
Kaiah didn't get an ounce of sleep last night because she was too worried about Kaily and how she was doing. She called Orlando at least five times last night to check on her and he said she refused to go to sleep out of fear that she would replay the incident in her sleep.
"What you want for breakfast? Lil mama said I had to cook you something healthy because she don't want you getting fat," Darrell asked.
"Who, Synai?" Kaiah asked.
"Yea," he smirked. "She wants her niece or nephew to be healthy and you can't blame her, can you?"
"No, I can't, but I'm actually not even hungry." She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday but she didn't even have an appetite right now.
"Not even an option. You’re pregnant so you're not eating for one anymore, you're eating for two now, so what you want?" Darrell asked.
"Can you even cook?" Kaiah asked.
"Can I cook? Girl, I can burn. You better ask about me."
"Burning and cooking are two different things. I don't need you burning my house down trying to play chef boy-ar-negro," Kaiah laughed for the first time in twenty four hours.
"Aw damn girl, tell me how you really feel," Darrell laughed before leaving the room.
Kaiah looked at her phone to see what time it was and realized that Deonte was supposed to be in court two hours ago. She’d had so much going on that she had totally forgot about it. She dia
led Keith's number wondering what was going on.
"Hello, Kaiah," Keith answered.
"Hi Keith. I know I'm like two hours late but I had a real big family issue last night and I was wondering what happened in court today," she said.
"Actually, I know what issue you're referring to and that led to the judge throwing the case out. The video showed the whole murder on video and Mr. Smith obviously wasn't the shooter, so he was released about an hour ago," he explained.
That was news to Kaiah. She had no idea that Deonte was out. She was starting to wonder where the hell he was at then. "Okay, do you know who came and got him?" she asked.
"No, all I know is he got into a white BMW. I didn't see who was driving it though."
"Okay, thank you Keith, and once again, I don't know what I would do without you."
"Like I said before, I'm just doing my job," Keith said.
After they hung up, Kaiah rushed downstairs. "Synai or Duke, have either one of y'all heard form Tae?"
They both shook their heads no. "Why, what's wrong?" Synai asked.
"Apparently the judge threw the case out because the video they found at Carlos' house yesterday showed who the actual killer was," Kaiah said. As she said that out loud, she put two and two together and it had hit her. She didn't realize it when Keith told her but Carlos was the one who killed Shemar. "Damn, Carlos," she said out loud.
"I'm pretty sure he will be contacting you soon. How long as he been out?" Kaison asked, thinking the same thing that Kaiah was thinking.
"An hour," she mumbled.
"Just chill out then. He'll show up. Z just ran out to grab some milk and juice, Rell in the kitchen cooking, and me and Synai got the dishes afterwards; so all you have to do is chill out and rest. Angel told me to tell you she loves you. Her and Keymani will be by later to see you," said Kaison.
Kaiah just nodded her head and headed back upstairs until the food was done. She was tired and she knew her baby was probably mad at her right now. She laid on the bed and turned her TV on, hoping it would take her mind off of everything that was going on.
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