Melo laughed, agreeing with Kross. “Yeah, her attitude is fucked up, but that’s only because she’s dealing with a lot.”
“She is.” Kross nodded. “I ain’t trying to add to that. She confided in me ‘bout what she got going on in her life, and I just wanna look out for her. You feel me?”
It was hard for Melo to trust any man Remedy had in her life after he witnessed Tone abuse her so much. His sister just didn’t know how to pick men in his opinion. There wasn’t anything Kross could say that would get him to believe he was different. He was going to have to prove himself.
“We’ll see.” Melo shrugged before shifting his gaze out the window, bringing an end to the conversation.
Kross managed to arrive at the address Melo provided him. It was a house instead of the high-rise apartment building he pulled up to when he picked Remedy up on their first date. There weren’t any cars parked in the driveway, not even Remedy’s Lexus that was towed from the parking lot of The Setai.
Melo ain’t waste no time hopping out of the car to look for his sister. Kross barely got the chance to shift the gear into Park. Once he did and killed the engine, he followed right behind Melo, clutching his strap. He watched as Melo lifted the welcome mat in search of the spare key to the front door but came up empty. He then resorted to banging against the door, hoping Remedy was inside and could hear him.
“Rem! You in there?! It’s me, Melo!” he called out loud enough to be heard from inside the home if she was there.
Kross could tell that panic was beginning to set into Melo once Remedy didn’t come to the door. A heavy sigh dispelled out of Kross as he grabbed Melo’s shoulder.
“Watch out, bruh,” he told him while slightly pushing him to the side so he could have access to the door.
Kross crashed the front door with a series of heavy kicks, causing the threshold to dismantle and fall in. There wasn’t anything that was going to keep him from getting inside to Remedy. From the footage he saw at the shop, it looked like she was on the fence between life and death after what Tone put her through. Remedy was strong as hell and had a lethal mouth to match, but at the end of the day, she was still a woman, and no woman deserved the abuse Tone was inflicting on her.
After the door fell in, Melo and Kross rushed inside. Their eyes beared sight of the home that was left in disarray. Furniture and décor were tossed about carelessly all over the place. Remnants of blood and glass littered the floor, prompting Kross and Melo to think the worst.
“Remedy! You in here?!” Kross called out as he began searching within the home for any sign of her.
The further he and Melo ventured into the home, the more of a disaster they saw. All the photos were knocked off the walls. There were light streaks of blood swiped against the walls in the hall, almost as if Remedy used them as support to navigate through the home. Kross could only imagine what shawty endured these past few hours. After the way his life had been going for the past few months, he had no choice but to have morbid thoughts. From the way the home looked, Kross wouldn’t have been surprised if Tone had taken Remedy’s life, leaving her lifeless body behind for him and Melo to find. He waspraying that wasn’t the case, but he still had to prepare himself just in case it was.
Before Melo got the chance to turn the doorknob to the first door in the hall, Kross stopped him. He didn’t want Melo to see anything he shouldn’t. He pushed Melo behind him and opened the door himself. Luckily, the bathroom was empty. They went to the next door, which happened to be Melo’s old room. Aside from the rest of his belongings left behind in the closet, it was empty as well. Together, the men proceeded to check the room opposite of Melo’s room, which was Ava’s old room, and there was no sign of Remedy in there either.
The final room in the home was the one shared by Remedy and Tone. Kross pushed open the door, and although he wasn’t gaining any type of closure, he was relieved that the room was empty as well. He wasn’t sure how the fuck he would’ve dealt with Melo seeing his sister’s dead body.
Melo navigated to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom while Kross checked the adjoining bathroom.
“What the fuck?!” Melo called out.
Kross felt his heart plunge to the pit of his stomach as he bolted out of the bathroom and made his way to the closet. There, his eyes scoped around, noticing how empty and bare the closet was.
“M-my sister had a lot of shit.” Melo shook his head in disbelief. “All her shit is gone.”
There was absolutely no trace of Remedy left in the closet. It was almost like she never even lived there. This shit was getting more and more twisted as time went on. Now Melo was dragged into it, and Kross knew he would have no understanding when it came to his sister, so settling things without involving the Feds was officially out of the question. Just as Kross expected, Melo pulled out his phone and dialed9-1-1immediately.
Kross felt like his entire world was turned upside down all over again. Remedy was the best thing life had granted him since he’d gotten out of prison, and now, all this shit was transpiring. Life wasn’t giving him a break at all. As he ran his hands down his face in distress, he could hear Melo speak to the operator over the phone.
“My sister, Remedy Harris, she’s missing, and I think her ex-boyfriend Antonio Williams did something to her.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
THREE MONTHS LATER
Kross’s dull and empty eyes drifted to the passenger seat of his car. There sat three bouquets of ruby red roses that were wrapped nicely in brown paper with a ribbon bundling the long stems. He recalled Remedy always getting her roses wrapped that way, so he did the same. It had been three long-ass months since he saw her last, and he didn’t realize how much he cared for her until he no longer got to see her. Remedy departing from his life just proved that he wasn’t destined to ever be happy. No matter how hard he tried, nothing and no one was forever, and that was a hard pill for him to swallow.
A heavy sigh drifted out of him as he reached over and grabbed the three bouquets of roses. Getting out of the car, his feet dragged right over to Cassie’s grave. A light smile etched his face at the sight of the multiple floral arrangements that were left behind for her. Mother’s Day had rolled around, and he finally mustered up enough strength to get up and pay his respects to her. No matter how many secrets she left him to figure out alone, she was a damn good mother. Aniyis was loved and raised so well, and that was thanks to Cassie. She was adamant that her child wouldn’t have the childhood she had with her judgmental, emotionally unavailable, and toxic mother.She was everything Joyce wasn’t, and Aniyis was great because of it.
“Happy Mother’s Day, baby,” he said to her while sitting the roses he bought her on her grave. “You were really one of them ones when it came to motherhood. Aniyis was blessed to have you.
“To be real with you, I got the DNA test done for Aniyis. I still don’t got the heart to open the results. It’s gone fuck me up if he ends up not being mine biologically. No matter the pain, though, he’s forever gonna be my baby boy. I don’t think I would ever tell him.” Kross shook his head. “He’s beginning to feel whole again after losing you. Telling him I’m not his dad would just form another void in him that he would never get to fill. If the results say I’m not his dad, I still want you to know that I’m grateful you chose me to be the man in his life. That little boy means the world to me, and I really can’t imagine life without him. I’m all he’s got, and I’m honored to be his dad.”
A brief silence struck Kross as he felt a calm breeze brush over him. Cassie was present, and, in that moment, he could no longer stand in strength like he had been doing. His head dropped as he felt a heaviness weigh his heart. Since getting out of prison, it had just been blow after blow after blow. He took in a deep breath to compose himself. He wasn’t about to let life defeat him; he was too strong for that. Running a hand down his face, he mustered up all the strength he had left to continue speaking to Cassie.
“I’m moving out of the condo. Aniyis been having trouble sleeping there, and honestly, it reminds me too much of you. I need to move on, Cassie. The longer I hold on, the more I get filled up with anger and resentment, and I’m bound to do some more wild shit. I’ll never forget about you and what we went through together. Despite the secrets you died with andquestions I have that may forever go unanswered, I know what we had was real. I love you deeply, Cassie.”
