“Yea, text me when yo mama leaves,” Logic promised, walking out of the door with all of his siblings’ eyes on his back.
Chapter Nineteen
“You want me to do what?” Bobbi frowned, staring at her mother like she’d grown two heads.
“The song you and Dexter recorded, I want you to release it on your platforms,” Carla repeated, blowing smoke through her slightly swollen lips. “TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere, shit, your OnlyFans too.”
“I don’t have an OnlyFans.” Bobbi’s eyes shifted to the floor.
“Bobbi please. I saw the shit.”
It had been two days since Tyler beat her ass in the nursing home, and Carla was still recovering. Not only was her mouth swollen, but the back of her head had to be shaved and stitched up. Carla tried to press charges, but after the police took statements from everyone who saw the encounter, it was clear that Carla was the problem. Even if she wasn’t, after Mr. Rogers was finished with his dramatic retelling of the story, the officers were asking him if he wanted to press charges for verbal abuse. Tyler walked away without a scratch, and Carla was banned from the nursing home.
“We can’t do that. I thought Darryl was giving the song to Amber.” Bobbi shook her head, recalling the conversation she had with Dexter.
“Fuck Darryl!” Carla snarled.
Staying true to his word, Darryl paid movers to pack all Carla's belongings and drop the boxes off in the lobby of Dexter’s building. He cut off her access to all the company credit cards, only allowing her to keep her car, and that was only because Tyler paid for it in cash. Darryl stripped Carla of access to the company's phonebook and exclusive clientele list. He knew she wasn’t stupid enough to step on his toes, but he also didn’t want her calling around asking for favors using his name. With only a few thousand dollars in her personal account, Carla was swimming up shit’s creek, and it was getting thicker by the second. Trying to keep up appearances had her living day to day with no plans for the future.
“Mama, I don’t even sound that good,” Bobbi reasoned.
“So, neither does the Amber bitch, but they love her. Especially Dex.”
“What are you talking about? Dexter ain’t messing with that hoe. That’s his artist,” she denied, knowing it was the furthest thing from the truth.
Whenever Bobbi brought up Amber, he swore they were just working together, but Amber’s Instagram told a different story. She posted Dexter in her stories, screenshot their messages and added cute captions while subliminally claiming him whenever his name was mentioned. Bobbi had jumped in Amber’s DM plenty of times, but Amber never personally replied. She’d reshare a random post talking about desperate women and left it at that.
“Ha,” Carla laughed in her face. “Even you don’t believe that. “You're over here pregnant with his child, and he’s out there looking for his next source of income. Dexter is an ain’t shit ass nigga, but he’s going to keep a bitch that he can play, and like your dumb ass cousin, Dexter’s over there playing Amber while you sitting in here with heartburn.”
“He’s not playing me.” Bobbi rolled her eyes.
“When’s the last time he’s been home?” Carla’s eyes rolled around the messy apartment.
“We had a fight.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. Look-” She sat up. “We’re going to release the song and Darryl will have to pay us to take it down.”
“Or sue us.”
“He can’t sue shit. That’s not even his song. It belonged to Tyler and now it belongs to us.”
Bobbi gnawed her lip. Her mother had a point. The book of songs belonged to Tyler, and if they chose to release them, they could, and there wasn’t anything Darryl could do about it.
“It’ll be fine,” Carla promised. “We need to start planning for our future because we can’t just go back to living check to check after experiencing this life. We deserve good things.” She reached out and rubbed Bobbi’s stomach. “My grandbaby deserves good things.”
“Ok.” Bobbi gave in, not recognizing that her mother was playing on her vulnerability. “You’re right. I’m not about to go back to living all basic, and since Darrly took the condo, we need the money, and this time we can get our own place.”
“We do, and we can sell some of Tyler’s stuff. She got all the jewelry and shit. We can take it to the pawn shop and get a few thousand,” Carla added.
“That’s cool, but I wanna keep a few pieces of the clothing.”
“Sure.” Carla fought the urge to roll her eyes.
“Here.” She handed Bobbi the USB stick. “Upload the song and allow the universe to work in our favor.”
“And you sure this is the right thing to do?”
“It is. We don’t need Darryl, Dexter, or Tyler. We can make this happen by ourselves. I made her a star, I can make you one too.”
