Sasha got so frustrated with her mother that she didn’t even answer. She just banged on her. Five seconds later, she was calling back.
“Ma, leave me alone!”
“Sasha, princess, it’s Daddy.”
The instant she heard her daddy’s voice her mood shifted. She poured out everything she had been feeling, everything that happened, not sure what to do.
“Baby, why don’t you move back home? I don’t like you being up there all by yourself.” Sasha didn’t answer so her dad tried another approach.
“Well why don’t you come home for the weekend so we can talk?”
She agreed to that and went to pack her Fendi duffel for a weekend of some hard-core decision making in the suburbs with her mommy and daddy.
As she packed, she noticed that Mike had left a T-shirt there. Ugh! What the hell, I hope he didn’t do that on purpose. She took her time as she moved around because she was a little nervous about seeing her parents. Although she was an adult, somehow when she got around them she always felt like a child, and she knew that her pregnancy wouldn’t necessarily be a good discussion.
After she was all done she closed up all of the windows and turned off the lights, then headed out the door on her way to Somerset, NJ.
“The key is not moving,” Tatum said while giggling at Ree bouncing up and down waiting for her to open the door so he could relieve himself.
“C’mon, why you playing?” he asked jokingly.
He had to piss like a racehorse. She jiggled the key in the lock and finally the door opened. Ree took off through the dark house straight to her bathroom. She dropped her bags, laughing hysterically, turned on the hallway light, and then took Chanel and Tangee upstairs to get them to bed.
They had fallen asleep on the plane and she was hoping that they stayed asleep. She made her way to the kitchen and noticed two dirty plates and cups in the sink. She stopped, wondering if she’d left them there but realized that she had definitely washed her dishes before she’d gone to Florida. That could only mean one thing: her brother was out of jail, but how?
She stood still wondering where he was now and hoping that he didn’t come back with Ree there. She knew that whole stolen-money situation was not handled and she did not want those two to run into each other. As Ree came out of the downstairs bathroom she tried to play it cool. He took off his tee and laid it across the couch but Tatum picked it back up and handed it to him.
“What are you doing?” he asked, confused.
“Um, I don’t know. Let’s go to your house.”
He looked at her skeptically. “Why? I thought you wanted to stay here.”
She tried to think quickly. “I just don’t feel like it. C’mon, let’s go.”
“Tatum, what’s wrong with you? The girls are sleeping already. You gonna wake them up?”
She sighed, knowing that she sounded silly. “You’re right. Maybe you should just go, and I’ll call you.”
He looked at her for a while and then put his tee back on. He wasn’t going to show his disappointment but he had just taken a girl and her family on vacation, showered them with everything they wanted, and opened up and told her his feelings, and now she was acting brand new.
He was disappointed and he wondered if he should have gone this hard in the first place. He had never behaved the way he did when he was with Tatum and for the first time since he met her, he was having doubts.
“All right. I’ll talk to you later,” he told her, as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked out the door. Tatum stood there not wanting him to go. They had planned on watching Power and ordering pizza but then she flipped it on him. She felt horrible.
“Good-bye. I’ll call you later, okay?”
The minute he walked out she sulked on her couch and turned to Starz wondering where her brother was and if he knew just how much she sacrificed for him.
Chapter 18
Resentment
Ree pulled onto his street and drove slow approaching his house. His heart sank to his stomach as he rode by it and he watched the swarm of police officers move in and out of his home. Automatically thoughts raced through his head.
He started wondering why Tatum was trying to get him to go home. Did she set him up? Was she down with her brother? He couldn’t even fathom the idea. He hopped back on the parkway, not sure where he was heading as his cell phone rang. He didn’t answer the first two times but then picked it up the third time when he saw that E was calling.
“Yo,” Ree answered, cautious and not sure who was listening.
“Respect, yo, shit is crazy right now! Fucking Feds crawling all over the stash houses and everything. Muhfuckas came to my crib too!”
“Where’s the money?” Ree asked.
“It’s at three.” Three meant that it was at the third stash house, which was a place that only Chauncey, Ree, and most recently E knew about. “Safe and sound,” E said, assuring Ree.
Ree passed the exit for Newark and then for Union, he wasn’t sure where he was going.
“What you think?” he asked, being very general, but it was already too late anyway, they were at his crib so that meant they already had some type of incriminating evidence. Wasn’t even any point in talking in code, but he kept it safe anyway.
E answered instantly: “Respect, it’s what I know. Guard down at booking told me, they had the nigga Chris down in interrogation for hours, then he walks. Nigga said they were asking specifically about you.” Ree knew this day might come.
The game was coming to an end and it wasn’t the way it was when niggas first started out. It used to be enough money for everybody to eat, so they respected the code of the streets. It also used to be that if you weren’t a stand-up dude, you couldn’t survive in the game.
But nowadays, the snitch and the bitch niggas came up and the real niggas got knocked down. These dudes got in the game and couldn’t take those numbers like a man when they got caught so they went against the grain and usually knocked the man that put food in his mouth and fed his fucking family. And as far as Ree and Chris were concerned, he literally fed his family.
Ree quickly hung up the phone and headed to Tatum’s house. He needed to know what the fuck she knew and he needed to talk to her. Shit was definitely hitting the fan.
He pulled up quickly to her curb and jumped out the car. He ran up her stairs and began banging on her door. She came to the door sleepy with a slight smile, happy that he had returned.
“Hey,” she said, not knowing anything but she soon recognized the anger and urgency in his face. “Is everything all right, Ree?” He lightly pushed her into the house and closed the door behind him.
“Tatum, why were you trying to get me to my house?”
She thought of her brother and then she thought of Ree. She had been real with him up to this point so she figured she might as well continue. She couldn’t look him in his face and lie anyway.
“Ree, when we got back I saw that my brother had been here. I wanted to get you out just in case he came back, I know you still think that he took—”
He cut her off. He realized that she was telling the truth and it all made sense. She still didn’t know the severity of the situation.
“Tatum, listen to me. I gotta go.” Tatum looked confused.
“Go where?”
“I gotta leave the country.”
She kept her same perplexed look on her face. He had left the country plenty of times but he had never seemed so critical about it.
“Okaaay, when are you coming back?”
He paused and looked at her seriously. His mind was racing; he had so many different emotions running through him at one time. He wanted to kill Chris, he wanted to love Tatum, he wanted to get his money, leave the country, he didn’t want to lose the empire he built, he couldn’t believe this was all happening. And it was happening fast. It was only a matter of time before the Feds would come there and he knew it, he had to go.
“Tatum, I’m not coming back
, and I want you to come with me.”
She opened her mouth and gasped. She looked at him not knowing what to say but her eyes told him that she had a lot of unanswered questions, ones that he didn’t have time to answer.
“Tatum, we have to leave now.”
She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him in disbelief.
“Now! Are you crazy? I don’t get to think about this? You’re asking me to leave the country and I don’t get any say-so? What about my nieces, my brother, my house, school, Sasha? I can’t just walk out now.”
“Tatum!” He raised his voice. “We don’t have time for that, baby. Bring them, you don’t have to pack, I’ll buy all of you new stuff. They have school everywhere. Sasha’s grown, baby, she’ll be fine.”
“Ree, I can’t just take my brother’s kids and move, that’s kidnapping. I would have to tell him—”
“You can’t tell him shit! Tatum, your brother’s a fucking rat. That nigga snitched on me, Tatum, and I gotta go, do you understand? Are you coming with me?” he asked, knowing he was asking her a lot, and something inside told him it was impossible.
Everything she said was correct, especially that whole kidnapping shit and he definitely didn’t need any more heat. Tatum’s heart beat out of her chest. She sat on her steps to catch her balance. Why, Chris? Why do you always have to ruin everything for me?
Before she could answer, the keys dangled in her door and Tatum jumped up and so did her heart, right into her throat. Chris walked in the doorway and stood shocked as he came face-to-face with Ree for the first time since the night of his party.
If his face could talk it would tell them that he had just pissed on himself. He tried to run back out the door but Ree grabbed him and punched him hard, causing blood to spew out of his mouth and fly on the wall. Tatum screamed for Ree to stop, but he ignored her and continued pounding Chris. Then he reached in his waist and pulled out a .38 and put it to Chris’s face as Chris stayed crumpled on the ground with fear in his eyes.
Ree’s face was blank without emotion but his eyes were black as coal, with a look that scared Tatum. He leaned down to Chris’s ear.
“You know you gonna die, right?” he whispered to him.
“No. Ree, please no.” Tatum whimpered.
The tears were streaming down her face as her worst fear was coming true. Ree couldn’t hear her though, the adrenaline ran through his body and he got that feeling that he got every time he had a gun in his hand. He controlled Chris’s destiny.
“You rolled on me, nigga?” Ree asked, already knowing the answer. Tatum shook her head profusely.
“Chris, tell him you didn’t! Please tell him!”
Chris couldn’t talk, his mouth was filled with blood but he managed to mumble out a pitiful apology.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Tatum shook her head in disbelief and put her face in her hands, not believing this was happening. From all the commotion no one noticed that Chanel and Tangee had made their way down the stairs.
“Daddy! Ree!” Chanel screamed at the sight of Ree holding a gun to their father’s face. Tatum looked up at them and felt so helpless. She couldn’t protect them from this life, now they would end up like her, parentless. She looked at Ree with serious eyes. Hurt eyes. He looked at the little girls and then at Tatum. He became overwhelmed with emotion.
“I will never forgive you if you do this,” she whispered. Her face told him she meant it as she continued. “I will never forgive you if you do this to them.”
He looked back at the little girls’ scared faces and then back to Tatum. He slowly drew his gun away from Chris, not exactly sure why, and stuck it back in his waist. He stared at Tatum as a wave of relief came over her. He spoke to her.
“You never answered my question.”
She closed her eyes and fought back tears. These months with him were the happiest of her life. She knew this was true love, she knew she may never find that love again. She also knew that it was over.
“I can’t.”
He gave a half nod and bowed his head in defeat and he slowly walked over to her and softly placed his lips against hers. He used his thumb to brush her hair from her face and kissed her gently, keeping his eyes open, careful not to miss a moment. She trembled as she cried, wishing it didn’t have to be this way. She cried harder as her throat filled with hoarse moans of pain.
“Sssh,” he whispered.
Ree looked at her a moment longer, saying everything he felt without speaking a word, and then walked out the door, unable to look at the girls or her anymore.
The minute her door shut Tatum collapsed and began weeping uncontrollably. She broke down and cried and cried. She looked at her hurt brother and her scared nieces but for once she didn’t think of anyone else’s pain but her own.
One Year Later . . .
“Well, you better come visit me soon,” Tatum ordered jokingly, while sitting on the balcony of her new two-bedroom apartment.
It was a beautiful June afternoon and she was lounging with her legs kicked up, watching Chanel and Tangee play in the grass.
“I miss you, Tay.”
“I miss you, too.”
Sasha had been living in Atlanta for six months now and Tatum missed her so much.
“I gotta come up there in two weeks to bring Aubrey to see Chauncey, so I’ll see you then.”
Tatum had only seen Aubrey once when she was born in March. She was a gorgeous girl. She was a shade lighter than Tatum’s color, not as dark as Chauncey, but not a caramel complexion like her mother. She had a face just like Chauncey’s but she was a little Sasha all day. She was only three months but was already a spoiled brat!
The girls ended their conversation as Chanel ran up the stairs with the mail.
“Look, Auntie, I got the mail for you.” Tatum smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She was so happy that she had them, and when the adoption was final, she was going to take them back to Disney World. Disney World, she thought. It seemed like she couldn’t get through a thought without thinking of him.
Even though Tatum had stayed and let Ree leave, because of her brother and her nieces, Chris still ended up dead a month later and she now had custody of Chanel and Tangee. Sasha had moved to Atlanta, she was left alone, and there wasn’t a day that passed that she didn’t wish she would have gone with him. Sasha had urged Tatum to come with her to Atlanta, but it wasn’t necessary. She didn’t need a relocation, she needed him. She thumbed through her mail—phone bill, light bill, rent, postcard. Postcard?
She studied the beautiful card with a picture of a beach and a hotel on the water. Greetings from Jamaica . . . Paradise Breezes Resort Welcomes You . . .
Although the card wasn’t postmarked out of Jamaica—it was actually postmarked out of San Francisco—she knew exactly who it was from. He was telling her where he was without telling her where he was. It must’ve been the resort his father had given to him.
She wondered how he was doing, what he was doing, as she took a long sigh and fought back the urge to cry. She continued flipping through the mail and saw a letter from Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Parsipanny. Damn.
After Neli had been released from the hospital and recovered from the beating Chauncey had given her, she had gone home with Ray and it wasn’t but a month later that she tried to slit her wrists. She had been at Greystone ever since. Tatum opened the letter and looked out at the girls one more time before she began reading.
Hey Tatum,
I know you probably think I’m crazy, everyone does. But I’m not. I just got so tired, Tay. I mean, have you ever been so tired and so fucked up that you felt like you just wanted to sleep and never wake up? Have you ever felt so alone and then looked in the mirror and realized that you probably hate yourself even more than everyone else does?
“I don’t hate you, Neli,” Tatum said aloud. She continued reading.
Well that’s what I felt like. I’m writing this letter to get everythin
g off of my chest. After you read this you will most likely want to kill me, but that’s fine. You would only be doing me a favor. I don’t know how to put this, I hate that I did these things to all of you. You were always like a sister to me, and you are the one who introduced me to everybody and was there for me when I had no one. I guess I’ll just say it. I’m responsible for everything, Tay. I pursued Chauncey, I threatened him when he wouldn’t keep fucking with me, I set up Sasha when those guys broke in her house, I got with Chris just to use him to get back with Chauncey, I had Ree’s money stolen and then I lied and told him Chris did it, and worse than anything, Tay, I had Bennie kill Kim because she just knew too much. I set up the whole scene for her to strip for his dudes but I told Lizette it was cancelled. I told Bennie that Kim was cool with Chauncey and that she would fuck up everything. I told him to kill her.
Tatum’s stomach turned as she read the letter and a single tear rolled down her cheek. She didn’t even know what to do. She had no one to talk to, no one to vent to, she felt powerless.
Tatum, I’m so sorry and I don’t expect you to forgive me, especially when I can never forgive myself.
Tatum dropped the letter and dropped her head as she concentrated on her breathing. Neli had ruined so many lives and the worst part was that it was too late to change anything. Their lives were all ruined forever.
Sasha sat on the cold steel looking at the thick glass waiting for the big heavy doors to open. Aubrey had begun fussing again and Sasha was having second thoughts about bringing her up here. But Chauncey was right; he should at least have a chance to see his daughter.
The alarm sounded and the doors opened as a row of inmates walked out in single file. Sasha spotted Chauncey and lightly waved. He walked up to the other side of the glass and picked up the phone as he stared at his daughter.
“She looks just like me.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off her, she was so beautiful. They both were.
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