“No, Noah, no.” Her hand shot out, grabbing my arm trying to pull me back from the edge. “Please. Don’t do this.”
I yanked the door open, stepping out before her words could sink too deep. But of course, she followed and continued to try and talk me out of this.
“Noah, let’s go,” she demanded, voice trembling now but trying to throw some bass in it like old Jo used to. “Now. Don’t be stupid.”
I turned, slowly. Looked her right in the eye.
“Nah,” I said low. “This nigga about to pay.”
I pulled the gun slow, I had been waiting for this moment .
Jo’s face crumbled. Her hand fumbled for her phone like it was her last chance to stop me.
“Stormi,” she whispered into it, backing up. “Your brother lost his mind. We at Leon’s house and he about to do something stupid.”
I didn’t care. She forgot who stayed. Who was there in the trenches when she had nobody. She forgot about all those nights it was just me and her against the world when Stormi had dreams, and Jo had demons, and I had nothing but rage.
This wasn’t about Stormi this was about me and Jo, about her pain and about mine.
I cut through the backyard, moving fast. The glass door at the back of the house gleamed under the moonlight. Exactly like I left it. I jammed the lock earlier this week. Prepared for this. I slid the door open slow, slipping inside like a shadow. Every breath I took felt like fire. Every step forward felt like justice. And at that moment, I wasn’t afraid. Not of jail, not of death, not of God. I was my mother’s son and tonight that meant someone had to bleed.
“I’ve been waiting on you, young blood” Leon said the moment I walked in his house.
Us both with our guns drawn at one another. He didn’t flitch but neither did I. This is what I came for. I wanted him dead. He was going to pay for everything.
“Noah,” I heard Jo whisper my name before she made herself visible.
“Jolene,” he sang her name as if it was his favorite tone.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her he was memorized.
“I knew you would come with one of them trailing behind you. I prayed it wasn’t Stormi. She already looked at me as if I was a monster instead of her father. But Jolene, you came.”
“Shut the fuck up talking to he!” I spat at Leon rage in my eyes and my gun pointed directly at him.
“Jolene, you have your kids thinking we didn’t have something special. Like you weren’t made for me. Like we weren’t supposed to have this perfect life. Noah you were supposed to be my son. We were supposed to be a family.” Leon continued to vent, reliving a future he planned out in his head with his girlfriend’s underage daughter.
“Didn’t I say shut the fuck up talking to her!” I yelled, moving closer to Leon.
He hadn’t taken his eyes off Jo since she walked inside. She stood there not frozen, not scared but not giving him the attention he craved or wanted so badly.
“Noah lets go,” she said pulling my arm.
“You’re going to kill me, Noah. You blame me just like your sister. Blame your grandmother. She knew the love Jolene and I shared. She was jealous and wanted me to love her like I loved Jolene. You hear me, Jolene, I love you. That’s never changed.”
“I’ll end you right now,” I yelled walking up to him.
“Jolene, you’re supposed to be mine. Things were supposed to be different. I waited on you and you turned into someone I don’t even recognize.”
“You don’t recognize me because I’m not broken. You didn’t win even when I was pregnant and alone, strung out on drugs… you didn’t win. I gave this world back something it took from me.A happy healthy woman that’s going to do great and continue to fill the world with love joy and her happiness. No, Noah was never supposed to be yours because I was never yours. You raped me, Leon. I was a child. That little girl wanted a father and instead you gave her a monster but that’s okay, because you’ll never get to take anything else from me or my children again.” Jo spoke every word clearly, no tears visible in her eyes. She was stronger than any woman I ever knew and knowing her story, her pain only made me look at her more.
“Jolene, you don’t mean that shit!” Leon yelled, showing he was the one with the rage now.
I was over him talking but before I could take a step closer and block his view, he let out one bullet, and I emptied the clip in him, but the moment I turned around, there Jo was down on the ground, bleeding out. I ran to her side applying pressure to her chest.
“No, Jo. I got you. Breathe, mama. Let me call for help.”
Then I heard the screaming and crying. Stormi had been on the phone the whole time.
