“Aye, calm down.” Tyrell tried to shush her by stroking her cheek. He understood that he was the cause of her pain, the reason for her highs and lows. Tyrell loved Maple, probably more than his wife, but she didn’t fit into the new life he created for himself. “Just go home and I’ll come over.”
“You’re lying,” Maple sniffed, swatting his hand from her face, knowing when he was pacifying her. “You’re not going to come tonight and I need you tonight. We need you tonight.”
Maple hated how weak she sounded; how weak he made her feel. People talked about women like her, but they didn’t know her situation. They didn’t know the soul ties she shared with Tyrell. They didn’t understand that even when she tried to leave, he found a way back in.
“I’m serious. Just give me a minute and I’ll be right behind you. Where’s Ty?” He looked around her for their daughter and spotted her peeking out the window. Tyrell winked in her direction, causing Tyler to wink back and duck. “You got my baby girl in the car while you’re drunk?”
Before Maple could respond, Tyrell’s wife Vicky pushed her way between them. She, too, had tears streaming down her face. It was bad enough that Maple bore his first child, but hearing that she aborted five of his babies broke her heart, and hearing the love in his tone had her stomach in knots.
Tyrell’s indiscretions weren’t new to Vicky. In fact, Maple had been around just as long as her, longer actually. There had been plenty of public humiliation, fist fights, and a very unhealthy amount of back and forth. Vicky hated that she fell in love with a hood nigga, but she couldn’t let him go. She wassupposed to be the first lady at a prestigious church, or the wife of a successful doctor or lawyer. Her father had set the bar so high that a man like Tyrell shouldn’t have been able to inhale the same air as her. All of her standards went out the window when she spent the weekend at her cousin's house. Tyrell was a local dealer, trying to find his footing. One look at him and it was a wrap. Tyrell’s rough mannerisms stole her heart, and his thick dick stole her common sense.
“So you’re still fucking with this dusty bitch?” Vicky screamed. “And she’s at my fucking house, where our kids lay their heads,” she bellowed.
“Go back in the house, Vic,” Tyrell told his wife. “She’s drunk.”
“This low-class bitch always drunk! I should call CPS on her nutty ass.”
“Aye, watch your mouth, fish stick,” Maple warned. “Maybe if you soaked that lil spoiled pussy in some baking soda and vinegar, he’d stay out of mine.”
“Chill out.” Tyrell glared at Maple.
“How about you tell lil BV to chill.”
“If I have BV it’s because he keeps fucking your gutter ass,” Vicky barked.
"Oh no, don't blame your pussy problems on me." Maple shook her head.
“Mannnn.” Tyrell dragged his hands down his face.
“Man my ass! You’re giving this bitch the courage to pop up at my house in the middle of the night because you’re still fucking her, Tyrell! After everything we’ve been through?” Vicky paused to gather her composure. She wasn’t supposed to crack in front of the next bitch, a bitch who disrespectfully pulled up ather house to confront her husband. “You’re just willingly filling this bitch up with your seeds like she’s the one carrying your last name. This what you want, Tyrell?” Vicky pointed to Maple, who was standing there swaying to a song only she could hear.
Tyrell glanced at Maple and sighed. She wasn’t always like this. It washimwho tainted her. Before him, she was a bubbly, outgoing, pretty ass girl with a bright future. She had no business hanging around him, but her personality and energy were addictive. Tyrell made Maple fall in love with him, his slick tongue, and two-faced ways. It was him who fucked her like crazy, begged her to have his babies, just to later drag her to the clinic to get them sucked out. It was him who made her promises that he never intended to keep. Maple was young, her pussy was good, and quite honestly, he’d say anything to keep fucking her, even if it caused her to lose her mind.
“You act like you wanna be with her!” Vicky screamed. “I’m the one who helped you get on your feet! I helped you out of the fucking hood and you keep running back to this bitch,” she spewed.
“I’ll tell you something that just ain't cool. Never fall in love with a man who don't love youuuu,” Maple cooed, sending Vicky through the roof.
Tyler lifted her head just in time to see her father tussling with his wife while her mother walked back to the car, singing a little louder. Relief washed over her until she spotted something in Vicky's hand. Tyler's eyes widened and her mouth opened, but no words came out. She was stuck like an actor in one of those dumb ass movies. She knew something bad was about to happen, but she couldn’t move. In horror, she watched Vicky cock back and slam a hammer into her mother’s skull. The singing faded as blood cascaded down Maple’s face.
In slow motion, Tyler pushed the back door open and tried to run to her mother’s side, but it felt like she was falling into quicksand. In shock, Tyrell stood there as his wife begged him to do something. She had two little kids, she couldn’t go to jail because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. His deceitful ways had caught up to him, and Maple paid the price. Vicky couldn’t believe she allowed her anger to get the best of her. The cries that escaped Tyler’s mouth would haunt her for years to come, and the sight of her cradling her mother's bloody head would forever be embedded in her brain.
“Mommy, please sing with me,” Tyler begged, wiping the blood from Maple’s face. “Please just sing with me, Mommy.”
Chapter One
It was three in the morning, and instead of Tyler resting in her California King bed, she was perched in her truck on demon time. The brim of a Detroit fitted cap covered her red eyes, and the clear plastic cup she sipped from altered her mood. Every time her eyes landed on the digital clock, Don Julio encouraged her to act like a foolio. That coupled with her rowdy cousin, Bobbi, in the backseat ranting about making a move, had her irritation at an all-time high.
“So, what are we gone do?” Bobbi asked, leaning forward. She, too, was inebriated and probably should’ve been somewhere sleeping, but Bobbi was an instigator, and she wasn’t letting up. It was she who woke Tyler up from her sleep to watch a video that had been reposted on TikTok from Instagram. “I know he in there with that bitch, and if I were you, I’d go tear that whole fucking studio up.”
Tyler rolled her eyes. She loved when a bitch told her all the things she would do if she was in her position, but when in her position, they didn’t do shit. Bobbi was all talk. A nigga could run circles around her, and she’d still forgive him if theprice was right. Tyler, on the other hand, was about action, and it had been proven time and time again. She wasn’t the 'let’s sit down and talk it out' type of person, nor was she the 'buy me a bag and I'll forgive you' type. Tyler was the ‘burn your car, stab you in the throat, pull up at your parents' house’ type of person. She learned from the best, and although her mother was meek at times, in her younger days, Maple was with the shits. Drama was a part of Tyler’s routine like a dose of daily vitamins, and her silence was deadlier than all the rah-rah shit Bobbi was talking.
“Girl, sit back.” Tyler’s best friend, Aria, fought the urge to mush her in the forehead. “Didn’t she say she needed to see it with her own eyes?”
“I’m just saying,” Bobbi sucked her teeth.
“And it’s not you, so chill and watch me work,” Tyler replied, lifting the cup to her lips. The bitter taste burned her tongue and chest before settling into her bloodstream. Bobbi sucked her teeth and sat back without another word. If she had known they were going to be sitting in the car staking out the studio versus cutting the fuck up, she would’ve kept the information to herself.
“You ok, friend?” Aria asked her best friend. The question was redundant. The duo had been attached at the hip since ninth grade and Aria was pretty good at gauging Tyler’s mood. She knew that underneath all the anger lay embarrassment, and that pissed Tyler off more than anything.
