by Ambria Davis
“Yes, that’s her,” she replied, confirming what I thought.
“But, I thought she was the quiet one. The one who kept to her business and not worrying about nobody else’s,” I said, wanting to know what happened that made her think she could play the game like that.
“Baby, she ain’t quiet anymore, honey,” she replied.
“Well, you know what? Since little mama want to have a big heart, fire her ass.”
“But if I do that, then we’re going to be short-staffed,” she replied as if I gave a fuck. I didn’t want anybody around if they thought that they could talk some slick shit about me.
“Well, put a want ad in the paper, pass out fliers, and place a NOW HIRING sign in the window or something. Just get the bitch out of there,” I said, just as Mimi walked up on me.
“What’s going on, Troy?” she asked. I raised a finger up, indicating for her to hold on.
“Okay, I got you. Now when will you be back?”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, make sure you take care of the salon. Make sure people are paying their dues, make sure that we stay fully stocked, and make sure that the books are right,” I replied. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, see you soon,” she said before I hung up the phone.
“What’s wrong, Troy?” Mimi asked again.
“Nothing,” I replied.
“Well, who was that you was on the phone with?” she asked, putting her hands on her hip.
“That was Candy,” I said.
“Well, what did she say? What’s going on at the salon? Is she having problems out of anyone?” she asked, looking concerned.
“She only said that some chick was saying some slick shit out of her mouth and she gave her a few days off,” I replied, hunching my shoulders.
“Well, who was it?”
“The little chick Summer.”
“You talking about the little quiet chick, who never says anything to anybody?” she asked, looking surprised.
“Yeah, that’s her, and it seems that she’s not quiet anymore.”
“Well, what did she say and what are you going to do about it?” she asked. I opened my mouth to answer her when my phone started to ring again. I looked at the caller ID, only to see that this time it Weedy calling. Not really wanting Mimi to know who it was, I let the call roll to voicemail.
“What’s up? Why didn’t you answer the phone? Who was it?” she began to ask, but the doctor interrupted her.
“I’m looking for the family of Ms. Kailay Williams,” he asked, looking at his chart, then around the room.
“Umm, over here,” Mimi replied, just as Mark and Jayden got up from where they were seated and came over to us. “What’s going on? Is everything all right with Kailay?” Mimi asked, blurting out question after question.
“Well, Kailay’s just now getting out of surgery, and I’m pleased to say that everything went well,” he said, which made me release the breath that I had been holding.
“Will she survive this? Will she be able to have a normal life?”
“We were able to stop the bleeding, which means that Kailay’s expected to make a full recovery. She’s going to be hospitalized for a week or two maybe. All depending on how fast her wounds heal,” he replied with a smile on his face.
‘Oh, thank you so, so, so much,” Mimi said, wiping the tears from her eyes. I guessed those were tears of joy. She then reached in and gave him a big hug.
“It’s my pleasure. She’ll be in her recovery room in a minute. You’ll be able to see her. I’ll send someone out here as soon as they’re done,” he said.
“Thanks, man,” Jayden said, reaching his hand out for the doctor to shake it.
“You’re welcome,” the doctor replied, shaking his hand. “See you all later.” And with that said, he left.
I turned to Mimi, giving her an extra tight hug. I was both relieved and happy that Kailay was going to be just fine.
“Are you fine? You feeling better?” I asked as we went to take a seat.
“Now that I know my daughter will be okay I’m doing better, but I will never be fine until I end the lives of the people who caused me all this pain,” she said, raising her head up. The look in her eyes was one that I’d never seen before. I hope that Kaylin and Stacy were ready, because they were about to feel the revenge of a kept bitch.
Chapter 17
Kaylin
I never in all my life thought that I’d be in a predicament such as the one that I was in now. I once had my life planned out to a T. I was going to marry the love of my life, make an assload of money, and start my own family. Well, I had two out of the three things, but because of my poor lack of judgment, and thinking with my little head instead of my big head, I didn’t have anything but money. I didn’t care what anybody said, money couldn’t buy you happiness. I wished I could say that this was somebody else’s fault, but I knew that I had no one to blame but myself. Had I not been a typical male instead of the man that Mimi needed me to be, I wouldn’t have been in this situation right now.
I woke up from a horrible dream that I was having. I was rolling through the streets of New Orleans with my kids and Stacy, when out of nowhere a car collided with the van that we were in. Next thing I knew, I was hearing a bunch of loud screaming and crying. Then a man opened the door and tried to pull me out. I tried reaching for my gun, but he somehow saw me and punched the hell out of me so hard that I was seeing stars. I turned to try to check on my kids when I noticed that there was blood on the window. That’s when I saw Kailay on the floor, unresponsive.
“Kailay,” I said, trying to reach for her, but dude reached in and stopped me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, turning me back around to face him. I swore dude’s face was so familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen him.
“Look, I don’t know who the fuck you are and I damn sure don’t know what you want, but I’m trying to get to my daughter. She’s in the back seat, and she’s unresponsive,” I said to him. What he said next had me wanting to take his fucking head off.
“I don’t give a fuck if her little ass dies. She’s not my problem, nigga,” he said. He then opened his mouth to spit some more shit, but before he could do that I had punched him dead in his muthafucking mouth. I didn’t know where all that energy had come from, but I was on top of his ass like white on rice. I wasn’t a fool, and I knew damn well that Stacy’s no-loyalty-having ass had something to do with this.
“Bitch-ass nigga. How could you say some shit like that?” I asked, giving him a three-piece combo to his face that drew blood instantly. He tried to push me off him, but that left hook that I sent to his jaw had him in a daze. I knew the shit had to hurt, because I heard when it cracked. Standing up, I proceeded to stomp and kick all over his body. “I bet you’re going to think twice when you come at me again.”
I was about to get up and go see about Kailay when something hard connected with the back of my head. I moved my hand to grab the back of my head when I was struck again. The thing I remembered seeing before everything went black was Stacy standing over me with a gun in her hand.
That’s when I woke up. I opened my eyes but closed them again immediately. The sun was so bright that when I opened them, it was starting to give me a headache. It took a few minutes, but when I was finally able to open my eyes, I had no idea where I was. I moved my arms to try to sit up, but my hands were tied down. “What the fuck is going on?” I asked myself. I tried to recall how I got there, but somehow I couldn’t remember anything.
“Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to join the party,” I heard a male voice say, but I didn’t see anyone.
“What the fuck is this shit and who the fuck are you?” I asked, getting angry. I was tied to a bed somewhere, and now someone was playing with me.
I heard him laugh, and then he said, “You’re one tough cookie to crack, man.” Again, I tried to turn to see if I could
see him, but I didn’t see anything. I had an idea of who it was, but I silently prayed to God that I was wrong.
“I must admit, you almost had me back there, but as always my little girl had come to my rescue,” he said with a light chuckle. My heartbeat quickly sped up as I heard footsteps approaching me. “I owe you one, little nigga,” he said, and then his fist connected with the side of my face. My head snapped back so hard, I thought I had whiplash. When I turned to get a good look at him, I almost bugged out. It was the same man from my dream.
“Man, what the fuck are you doing here and why the fuck am I all tied up and shit?” I spoke through gritted teeth.
“You and I both know the answer to that question,” he said, walking around to the foot of the bed. “But what I need to know is where the money is.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about and there’s no money. So you might as well just let me and my kids go,” I spoke to him calmly. He erupted into a heap of laughter, as if I had just said something that was funny. He was starting to annoy the fuck out of me, because I for one didn’t see shit that was supposed to be funny.
“You’re a real funny guy, Kaylin,” he said, taking a seat in the chair that was sitting by the bed. “But if I were you and I were in your position, I wouldn’t try to be funny right now. Your kids’ lives are at stake.”
“Man, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Where are my kids? If you touch one hair on either one of my boys’ heads, you’ll regret the day your mother had you!” I said, my voice laced with venom.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. We don’t want your sons to end up like your daughter. Now do we?” he asked, with a smirk on his face.
I was about to answer him when the sound of a female’s voice interrupted me.
“Did he wake up yet, Daddy?” Stacy asked, entering the room. Her mouth flew open when she noticed that I was sitting there awake and alert.
I didn’t say anything. To be honest, I couldn’t. All I could really do was laugh and shake my head. The bitch who I cheated on my girl with was now betraying me. Go fucking figure.
“So I’m getting fucked over by my side piece I see,” I said, looking straight at her. The bitch couldn’t even look me in my eyes. “So what? Is this supposed to make you feel better? What you trying to get back at me for? You was always my bitch, my bottom bitch at that. I never had any plans on making you my woman, because you wasn’t worthy enough of becoming her and this is the number one reason why. You’re a disloyal, untrustworthy person, a snake, and a bitch who would turn on her mama if you had to. You actually think that I want a bitch like you as my woman? A bitch, my bitch is always what you’ll ever be. I hope that whatever it is you’re getting out of this will make you happy.”
She didn’t say anything. She just kept her eyes down to the floor, so I continued, “Not only did you take away a mother, who left four kids behind, but you also took away that little girl’s father. Now you want to take away a father and leave those same three, plus your own son, fatherless,” I said, trying to build as much guilt on her conscience as I could.
“Don’t put that shit on me. I wasn’t the one who shot them; you were. It was your gun that killed Mimi and Tyreek, not mines. So save that bullshit. Speak for yourself, nigga,” she said, taking a step toward me.
“Bitch, please. It was only because of your bitter ass that I even found the shit out in the first place. You couldn’t just stay in your lane. You had to do what side bitches do: cause problems.”
“Nigga, fuck you,” she said and walked out of the room. I lay there wishing that I could rip both her and her fucking father apart. When I looked up, I caught the nigga standing there staring at me.
“What the fuck are you staring at?” I asked, mugging the nigga.
“You. I could never understand how y’all niggas let pussy be y’all downfall. Y’all claim to be that nigga, but the minute a bitch with a powerful pussy comes into y’all niggas’ lives, y’all get as soft as a fucking teddy bear.” He chuckled and then shook his head. “Your generation of men is weak-minded. Had you been born back in my time, you’d have known better. We didn’t get pussy whipped; we did the whipping. Had bitches eating out of the palms of our hands, and then sucking our dicks after. We had bitch after bitch, and we never had a problems, because they knew about each other. Our bitches got along and never caused any problems, and you know why? Because we had it like that. Keep letting your little head get you fucked up and you’ll find yourself in many more situations like this,” he said, laughing. He looked at me, and then walked out of the room, leaving me with my thoughts.
I wasn’t trying to hear none of that shit that wannabe pimp thug was spitting. I was only concerned with finding my kids and getting the fuck up out of here before it was too late. I was sitting there thinking when an idea popped in my head. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but right now, I didn’t have a choice. I was willing to do anything to get my kids and me up out of here, even if I had to die trying.
Chapter 18
Stacy
Something in my gut was telling me not to go through with this plan. I just had a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong and it did. As I was sitting there on the passenger side of the van, my mind kept on telling me to call my father and call the whole thing off, but I didn’t, and now I was really regretting it. How the shit went down, it was never supposed to happen like that, and the way my father just blew Kailay off and left her there had really pissed me off.
I only agreed to help him with it because he guaranteed that no one was going to get hurt. He lied to me, and the bad thing about it was he acted as if he didn’t give a fuck whether the child lived or died. I knew my father well, and gave him a serious side eye, because I knew for a fact he didn’t care one way or the other. That child was actually his grandchild, and he didn’t care, which led me to believe that if he and I ever got into it one day, he wouldn’t give a fuck about my son either.
I was really starting to hate everything about this. I couldn’t see it before, but I was a pawn in this game. My father really didn’t care about me. He just wanted to get back at Mimi any way that he could, and it didn’t matter what he had to do. I couldn’t see it before, but I actually think this man used me this whole time. When my mother left him after finding out about Mimi and her mother, Marie, he didn’t even try to fight for us. It was as if he was ready to leave. I really don’t know why he’s basically blaming Mimi for losing his family when he didn’t want them in the first place. He knew from the beginning that he and my mother had a lot of problems, since before his infidelity. I got this funny feeling that he wasn’t the only one wanting to see Mimi fall. I believed he was working with somebody else besides me and I was going to find out whom.
“Stacy,” he said, calling my name.
“Yeah, Daddy,” I replied.
“What’s up with you? You haven’t been yourself lately,” he said, looking me straight in the eye.
“Ain’t nothing wrong. I’m fine,” I said. “What’s up though?”
“I’ma need you to keep an eye on him. I have to go handle a few things. I’ll see you all in the morning,” he said, grabbing his keys and cell from the table.
“Where are you going?” I asked, popping up out of my seat.
“You don’t need to know all of that. I told you that I’ll be back in the morning. Just keep an eye on him,” he replied, pushing past me. I wanted to say something else, but I knew better. I was about to let him know that I kind of knew what was going on, but I decided to leave him clueless, like he thought he was doing to me.
I waited until he was gone before I went to check on Kaylin. I knew what I said to him earlier, but the truth of the matter was I still loved this man. I just wasn’t trying to take the blame for all of this, because he was as much to blame for this as I was, which was why I said what I had said to him. I knew he probably thought that I didn’t have a conscience at all, but I did, and it was starting to get the best of
me.
When I walked into the room, he was sitting there staring at the wall. I wanted to walk over to him and give him a hug and kiss, but I knew I couldn’t. Instead, I stood there staring at him. I wanted to say something, anything, but the words were stuck in my throat. Reluctantly, I turned around and started walking out the door, but I stopped when I heard the sound of his voice.
“Where are my kids, Stacy?” he asked, which froze my steps. I just stood there, with my heart feeling as if it were going to hop out of my chest at any minute. The pain in his voice was unbearable, and it was evident that he was hurting inside as well.
“Is it really worth it?” he asked as his voice boomed through the room. I turned around to find him now staring at me. For a minute, I could’ve sworn that I saw tears well up in his eyes, but he didn’t let them fall. “All of this that you’re putting me and my kids through. Is it worth it? I mean, you’re basically leaving all of these kids without a parent, and you can’t tell me the shit sitting right with you!” I opened my mouth to say something but immediately closed it when no words would come out.
“I hope you know that nothing good will come out of this. Yes, that man may be your father, but he has something else up his sleeve. I just hope and pray that you see it before it’s too late,” he said.
He looked over to me, waiting on a reply, but I couldn’t say a word. How was I going to tell him, “Yeah, I fucked you over, and now I think my father has something else up his sleeve. He may even have someone else working with him, too.” I just couldn’t bring myself to say that. Not only would that make me look like a fool, but it would also make me mad that I fell for another nigga’s lies.
“What happened to you? When I first met you, you wasn’t this evil and vindictive. You was a little feisty, but to be lowdown and dirty wasn’t you,” he said, which pushed my buttons.
“You know what happened to me? My sister did. I got tired of seeing her with the things that I wanted, but I knew I couldn’t have. She was always happy, while I wasn’t. She could have anything that she wanted, when I couldn’t even get the things that I needed. But, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when she took my father from me. That sent me over the edge, and I never got over it,” I yelled, looking over to him.