by Nique Luarks
I chuckled.
“Hey, Chance.” Erin smiled, but the sorrowful look in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed.
“Hey, E.”
“We won’t stay long.” She put the items in her hand next to Ava’s on the stand. “Just wanted to congratulate you in person and take a quick peek at Carlee.”
I nodded.
“So, what the fuck happened?” Ava blurted out, and E shot her a look. “I said I was gon’ wait to ask, but I need to know what’s up. Did he hit you? Hurt you? Is that why you went into labor early?” Her face hardened.
“Av, not now.”
Ava kissed her teeth.
“It’s alright.” I shifted. “He didn’t harm me physically.”
“And mentally?” The sadness in Erin’s voice put me in my feelings.
“I’ll get over it.”
“I can’t wait ‘til they catch his bitch ass.” Ava fumed.
I looked down in my lap.
“You know I’m just a call away if you need to talk.” Erin offered lowly.
“Right.” Ava co-signed. “Even if you want us to come back when you’re feeling a little better just to sit around in silence, we’ll come running.”
I blinked, and tears streamed down my cheeks. “Thanks.”
Erin rubbed my shoulder and Morgan patted my leg.
“You need us to get you anything?” Ava asked. “Well, other than food. True’s going to bring something back after he changes.”
I shook my head no.
“Okay, well, call me,” Erin requested.
Suddenly, I didn’t want them to go.
“I don’t leave for New York for a few days, so don’t hesitate, Channy. Reach out for real.” Ava gave me a side hug. Erin started for the door and she followed.
“I won’t stay long either.” Morgan stood up. “But before I go, I’ma put your hair in a top knot and hook your baby hairs up.” She laughed, going to her purse.
I was truly grateful for the women in my life. There was so much I wanted to share with them, but I wasn’t quite ready to relive that horrific situation. The outcome could’ve been a lot worse, tragic actually. But God worked things out not only in my favor, but Carlee’s too.
I wasn’t sure when I’d dozed off, but when I opened my eyes, True was back. He was sitting in a chair eating a piece of chicken from a Popeye’s box, watching Bob’s Burgers.
I shifted into a comfortable position and cleared my throat. “Hey.”
True looked up. “Wassup, Jelly? You hungry?”
Shaking my head no, I looked down at the IV in my arm. “I wanna go see Carlee.”
He nodded. “A’ight, let me wash my hands and shit and I’ll help you walk down there.”
“Okay.” I watched as he put his food up.
“Ya moms just left.” True stood up and headed for the bathroom.
“She came with my daddy?”
“Nah, but a few of your brothers came with her.”
“Mmmm...” I sat up straight.
True came out of the bathroom drying his hands with a paper towel. “That nigga, Gino, on bullshit.” He tossed the paper towel in the trash.
I rolled my eyes. “I told my mom and dad if he can’t keep the peace, he can’t come back up here.”
Gino’s beef with True was pissing me off. I respected and understood my brothers looking out for me, but True was Carlee’s daddy. It was bad enough me and True’s relationship was at a standstill. I was still trying to figure out how I was going to co-parent with a man I was stupidly in love with. All the extra that G came with was unnecessary and uncalled for.
True grabbed the remote and called for the nurse. “I ain’t givin’ blood no more passes,” he stated calmly.
I sighed.
The door opened and my nurse, Monica, stepped in smiling. “You up from your power nap?”
I chuckled lightly. “I must’ve been really tired because I don’t even remember falling asleep.”
She laughed. “Well, Dad held down the fort for you.” Monica glanced in True’s direction.
“She wanna spend some quality time with Carlee.” He stood next to the bed.
“No problem. I was just about to come and ask if Dad wanted to come console her. She’s a bit fussy.”
I attempted to get out of bed, but True stopped me.
“Hold on, baby. Let the nurse make sure you good before we go.”
I snatched my arm away from him. I wasn’t mad at True for wanting to make sure I was okay. And I wasn’t upset at the nurse for coming to get True instead of me. I just wanted to get to my baby. She was an infant stuck in an incubator when she should’ve been lying right next to me.
Tears burned like fire in my eyes.
“You okay, Mommy?”
“Can you just get me situated so I can go see my baby?” I snapped.
Monica looked back and forth between True and me. “Would you like for me to give you guys a moment?” Her gaze stayed on True.
“Did you not just fuckin’ hear me?!” I screamed. “He can’t speak for me!”
Monica hurriedly did what I had asked. She checked my vitals and setup my IV on a portable pole, so I could take it with me. The room remained quiet as she did her job. Once I was good to go, True helped me out of the bed and I fixed my gown. The short walk to the NICU was awkward, but I didn’t care. Once True and I were inside, I went to the sink to wash my hands and waited for the attendant to give us sterilized disposable gowns, bonnets, and masks.
True
Chance snapping on that nurse chick didn’t even surprise me. My Jelly was sick and tired of muthafuckas trying to pull her hoe card. I watched silently as she tended to our daughter. She hummed softly and soothingly, cuddling her gently. I took my phone out my pocket and snapped a few pictures of them.
After putting my phone back, I washed my hands and dried them.
“I can’t wait to take you home, Carlee Brielle.” Chance stared down at her. “Your room is ready. Your granny even got you a little spa set that I can’t wait to use.” She chuckled. “We gon’ pamper you like the princess you are.” She kissed the top of her head gently. “All this pretty hair, mamas.”
“Looking like your brothers and your sister already.” Chance sucked her teeth playfully.
I laughed. “And they look like they Daddy,” I couldn’t help but state proudly.
She shook her head. “This is only temporary. Ain’t that right?”
I approached them. “You gon’ have to take that L, Jelly. She’s marked for life.” Taking her tiny hand into mine, I caressed the back of it slowly. Carlee wasn’t done growing into her looks, but there was no denying she was indeed mine.
“You know you don’t have to sit up here all day.” Chance looked up at me momentarily.
I frowned. “How you figure that?”
“Because I’m okay, and she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
I turned my hat backwards.
“You don’t have to be overprotective.”
“Yeah the fuck I do.” A nigga already felt guilty about her disappearance. The least I could do was be nearby just in case she or my daughter needed me. I wasn’t losing them again. I couldn’t.
“I’m not trying to argue with you.”
“We ain’t arguing.” My phone sounded off. Ignoring Nisha, I crossed my arms.
Chance kissed the top of Carlee’s head again. “You wanna hold her?”
I shook my head. “Nah, go ‘head and do yo thing.” I loved watching my lil’ baby and my big baby interact. Shit was picture perfect.
“I thought I was going to die,” Chance mumbled. “When I woke and saw Rel. I...” Her voice trailed off and she closed her eyes. “Carlee wasn’t moving. I was so scared, True. I thought she was gone.”
Carlee started whining.
“I rushed into that bathroom and saw how far the window was from the ground, I just knew that was it.”
I listened intensely.
“But the moment
she kicked, I knew I had to get us out of there. I threw bleach in Rel’s eyes and ran barefoot to the first house I saw.” She sniffled. “Piper is dead all over a misunderstanding. I didn’t want him, and he knew that.”
“I’ma take care of it. A’ight?”
She nodded. “I know.”
“That house is in some nigga named Earl Bell’s name. He owns a few chiropractic offices here in Missouri, three in Jersey, two in Nevada, two in Cali and one in Virginia. So, they’re no doubt papered up,” Ava said across from me.
I sat quietly.
“All properties with his name on ‘em are vacant. Rel’s spot in Leawood is too. One brother, Rhett, is dead. And the other one, Rodrick, lives in Atlanta.” She looked over at Roman. “Like I told Ro, it’s like they’ve disappeared.”
“What you wanna do, bro?” Roman leaned forward. “Tone already got niggas setting all his pops’ businesses on fire. Houses too.”
Ava nodded. “Kai Money done already had his boys tear shit up on the east coast.”
Running my palm down my face, I stared down at the table. “That Rodrick dude went ghost too?”
“Yeah. But his fiancée works at the same law firm as him and she’s still in Atlanta, and their three kids.”
I contemplated taking their lives. My mind flipped back to Chance telling me she thought Carlee was gone. The pain in her voice was still ringing in my ears. The fear in her eyes when I stepped into the hospital room still haunted me. The fact that Carlee was hooked up to all them machines and shit when she shouldn’t even be here yet was tearing at my soul. Chance’s pops basically blaming me, infuriated me, but only because of the guilt in my heart.
Ava must’ve read my mind because she sighed. “True, I know the G code, but she really is a square, yo. I did a background check on her and she ain’t got no family other than the Bells. And she just had a baby not too long ago. The most she got is friends and close coworkers.”
“She should’ve taken her ass on the run wit’ them niggas then,” Roman shot back.
Ava kissed her teeth. “Ole girl is probably thinking she married into this rich white-collar family. It ain’t like wit’ me and my home girls. With y’all, we know what type of niggas we’re dealing wit’. We know the risk. So, we accept the good and the bad,” she said with an attitude. “If niggas were gunning after you I’d know to be on high alert. This is a mother of three, no parents, no siblings, who married into some bullshit blindly. That’s why she didn’t get ghost.”
I grabbed my double Styrofoam cup. “Snatch her up.”
Ava shook her head. “And do what? Kill her? Hold her hostage? Y’all not thinking, yo. The police know Chance was kidnapped by a man who killed his own brother. Now, that same man, his father, and older brother are on the run. When the fiancée goes missing, they gon’ come straight to you.”
Roman lit a blunt.
“Not to mention all the damage the team is doing. That’s too much heat on us at once. I get that you mad. Shit, I am too. But we not dumb criminals, True. We way too fuckin’ smart to go out like that.”
After taking the blunt from Ro, I took a long toke.
“At least let me do some more digging. I’m too tied up in this shit to let a punk-ass nigga like Rel be my downfall, yo.” Ava pushed away from the table and stood up. “I’m gone. Later, True. Ro, I’ll see you at home.” She grabbed her big-ass purse and left my office.
Ro and I stayed silent for a minute, passing the L back and forth. Then he broke the silence.
“What you wanna do?”
4
Round and round we go…
Chance
Even though I’d been discharged from the hospital three days ago, Carlee was still in the NICU. Dr. Harris had assured me she was getting stronger every day, but I was an impatient mommy and I wanted her at home with me. True and I spent the majority of our days at the hospital with her. Like today, he’d just left to pick up Chasity, but he’d promised to be right back. I loved the time alone with my little one, though.
Carlee had just fallen asleep and I couldn’t help but stare at her. I’d never loved someone so much. I only broke my gaze when my phone pinged. I reached into my purse and retrieved my iPhone and frowned when a text from Haze flashed across the screen.
Haze: Can we talk?
Me: About?
He’d been trying to talk for a few days now. I wasn’t interested in anything he had to say. He’d embarrassed and humiliated me in the worst way. Him trying to get under True’s skin only made me look like a fool. Whatever he had to say wasn’t as important as my dignity.
Haze: I just want to apologize in person.
Me: No need.
After tossing my phone back inside my purse, I gave my attention back to Carlee. She stirred a little and then fell asleep. I couldn’t help but cheese as I admired her. When I heard the door open, I spun around to see True enter, carrying a sleeping Chasity. He spoke quietly on the phone, telling someone he didn’t have time for their bullshit before he ended the call.
“Wassup?” he asked as I stood up.
Rubbing Chasity’s back, I stood on my tippy toes and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Nothing.”
“I’m ‘bout to head to the city. I just dropped by to make sure you didn’t need anything.” He glanced at Carlee. “She good?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. She just went back to sleep.” I played with the beads in Chasity’s hair. “What happened?”
When True rushed out to pick Chasity up, he seemed upset.
“Quindelle trippin’. I’ma take her home, handle that, and then I’ll be back. A’ight?”
“Okay.”
True pulled me close and then placed a tender kiss on my forehead. “Smoke is outside.”
True no longer trusted me to be without some type of security. Smoke didn’t drive me around, but he followed me closely. I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t feel safer, especially since Rel was still out there somewhere. Ava told me he and his family had disappeared. At least with Smoke trailing me, Carlee and I were protected.
Just as I took a seat, there was a tap on the glass. I looked up, expecting my mommy or Erin, but Haze was there instead. He held pink balloons and a little teddy bear wearing a purple tutu. My eyes rolled over to True, who now had a wicked look in his eyes. Jumping up, I started for the exit.
“The fuck is that nigga doin’ here, Chance?” His tone was hard.
Ignoring him, I stepped out of the room and met Haze halfway. He grinned, looking me over before trying to hand me the items in his hands.
Shaking my head, I sighed in an aggravated manner. “Haze, what are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I came to apologize.”
“Who told you I was here?”
“I ran into your home girl, Morgan. She told me you had baby girl early, so I wanted to come and check in on you guys.”
Really Morgan?
What in her right mind would make her think it was okay to tell Haze my business? She knew what he had done. She knew the strain he’d caused in my relationship with True. That little stunt he’d pulled had put us back at square one. His presence here would only cause more of a rift.
“You shouldn’t be here.” My head swayed from side to side again when he tried to hand me the balloons.
Haze glanced down at the Jordan’s on his feet. “What I did was fucked up.”
Ya think?
I stared at him unmoved.
“I guess I just—"
I held my hand up. “Can you go please? True is here and I can’t blame him for how he feels about you.”
Haze sucked his teeth.
“I told you in order for us to have anything special, you had to respect my child’s father. And you did the exact opposite. There is no possible way we could be anything when you constantly taunt him.”
“Ain’t nobody taunting that nigga. Yeah, what I did was childish, but I was only mad. You praise that nigga and the whole time he be shitting on you.
”
I pursed my lips.
“You and Carlee need a real man to take care of y’all.”
I chuckled, crossing my arms. “And that’s what you are? A real man?”
He shrugged.
“No, Haze, what you are is a bitch nigga.”
He mugged me.
“’Cause only a bitch would do what you did. Only bitches throw tantrums. And only a bitch-ass nigga would avoid a woman after he purposely embarrassed her. So, fuck you, your apology, and them damn balloons.” I could feel my face getting hot.
Haze took a step back. “Damn, it’s like that?”
“I know you see my baby’s father in the other room. So, either you can leave on your own or I can go get him and let him remove you.” I shrugged.
I hated that me and Haze’s relationship had come to this. But the damage was done, and there was no way to repair it.
“So, you’re threatening me now?”
“Take it how you want, but you need to leave and never come back.”
“What this nigga doin’ here, Chance?” True’s deep chords startled me.
Facing him, I cleared my throat. “He was just leaving. I didn’t invite him here.”
I wasn’t sure why I’d felt the need to state the last part. It could’ve had something to do with the hatred lingering in his dark orbs. His nostrils flared like he was ready to blow at any second. His jaw muscles flexed, and even though he was still holding a sleeping Chasity, True looked like he was ready to set it off. My eyes shot down to the gun visible on his waist and I silently thanked God we were inside of a hospital.
“Yeah, I’m out.” Haze let the balloons go and dropped the bear on the floor.
I watched him walk down the hallway and a wave of relief washed over me. The last thing I needed was for True to get in any type of trouble.
“Yo, Chance—"
“I didn’t ask him to come here, True. He’s been calling and texting me all day,” I clarified.
“So, he on some creep shit too?” He glared down at me.
“I don’t think so.”