I wasn’t sure if my son knew what he was talking about, so I looked up her father, and sure enough, he was released months ago. I knew that Dionne’s dad had been in prison for murder, so my son going after Dionne, trying to start problems with her wasn’t good for him. I flew out so that I could go and be with my son, just wanting to talk to him, and when I came over, he was in rare form, wanting to kill me for coming to his house. All in all, I just wanted to go over there to look him in his eyes and tell him to leave Dionne alone because she had people in her corner that would kill his ass. He took heed to the message, but Brittany would still call me and let me know that the drinking was getting out of control.
“Hey Garrus. He’s okay. Just sleeping right now. He took my phone the other day, and he went through it. He saw that I’ve been talking to you, and he got angry. Can you please just do me a favor? Our marriage is tough enough as it is, and I’m not trying to bring more problems into it. Just please try not to reach out to me anymore. If something serious happens with him, I’ll call you,” she stated, and she didn’t even give me a moment to respond because she hung the phone up on me.
I tossed the phone down on my office desk, and I released an annoyed breath. I was home, in my office, and the house was depressingly quiet.
My life hasn’t been the same these days. Truth be told, the day that Allison went to the restaurant to shoot Dionne, I felt like my life has been going downhill since. That same night, Allison was arrested and held without bond. I lost out on a relationship with my children that very same day. Selfishly, I thought that after what happened, Dionne and I would finally have our chance to have a relationship, only to find out that she didn’t want shit to do with me.
I chased that woman down for months, trying to get her to rekindle things with me. She moved on, and I’ll admit that thatwas tough on me. I got myself into some mess, going after her dog, dealing with Dionne’s man, who almost kill me, and robbed me out of five million dollars. Life had been kicking my ass, and it seemed like I couldn’t catch a break. I know that I cheated on my wife and did things in our marriage that I wasn’t proud of, but I missed her terribly. I missed my kids terribly as well. I was mourning my kids when they were all still alive, but neither of them wanted anything to do with me, so that relationship would probably never be restored.
Easton has gone back to Chicago. Since he’s left, I haven’t heard from him. His mom will reach out to me every blue moon. From her, I learned that he was heavy in the streets. It’ll only be so long before his ass got locked up, and when he does, I didn’t want any of them reaching out to me, in hopes that I would pay for a lawyer for him.
I just prayed that something worked in my favor, and that I could learn to be happy again. I was a handsome man, and very successful, so with that, of course, women would approach me every chance they get. I wasn’t looking for love right now though. The last woman that I loved, she didn’t love me half as much as I loved her. I didn’t want to be used, and taken advantage of again, so these days, it was best that I stay to myself. From the things that I’ve been through these past couple of years, I think being alone will work in my favor.
Chapter 20
Rico Briggs
Last Call
Two Months Later
“Damn. This round five. What the fuck going on?” my dad snapped, saying out loud what we all pretty much wanted to say.
It was draft night, and so far, this shit wasn’t working in my favor. I had confidence, feeling like I was going to be an easy first round draft pick. After the investigation was over, and I was able to play ball again, I showed my ass off, playing the best that I’ve ever played throughout my college years. I didn’t have a nigga on my back, making threats, having to play the way that he wanted me to, so I was able to ball out.
Even with me ending the season on a high streak, I remember my coaches telling me that when it was draft day, for me to be prepared not to be a first-round pick because the NFL league could be cutthroat, and they always found themselves trying to make an example out of people. Coach Tim believed that many teams were going to want to humble me because of the trouble that I’d gotten in last season. I didn’t think theywould do me like this, but here we are, going into round five, and they still hadn’t called me yet.
All my family was with me right now. Seren even flew in from Cali because she didn’t want to miss this big moment. We were at a luxury hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach, and we’d rented out the hotel conference room. My mama handled all this shit. She’d gotten in touch with a party decorator, so they set up, and decorated this entire room for tonight’s event. Full sized football pictures of me were going around the entire room. All kinds of balloons and shit, photo booths, and a catering company had come out, dropping off food. Everyone was in here with me, and we were all on pins and needles, waiting for my phone to ring.
My eyes kept cutting over at coach Tim, who was in here with his wife, and he kept pacing back and forth, nervous as well because he wanted this NFL shit for me just like anyone else did in my life.
I was holding my daughter, who had fallen asleep in my arms. Promise was sitting on one of the couches, and just by the way her leg was bouncing up and down, I could tell that she was nervous, just like everyone else. My mom was sitting on one side of me, and my grandma was on the other. All the men in my life were standing. This was too much pressure for them, so they couldn’t sit. Tank was standing behind the couch, and I turned to look back at him, and his hands were on top of his head, stressed out too. Dionne didn’t come with him because she was eight months pregnant, looking like she was about to pop any day now. She did send me a long message this morning though, wishing me the best, and just pouring a bunch of positivity into me.
Right when I felt myself about to crash out because I had been sitting here, keeping my cool for hours, my phone started ringing. It was a number that wasn’t saved to my phone, so I perked up, knowing that this had to be the moment. I picked thephone up with a smile on my face, lifting it, so that I could show everyone in the room that someone was calling me.
No one screamed because they knew that I needed the silence, but everyone had smiles on their faces, mixed with this eager look in their eyes, where you could tell that they wanted to jump up and down, and go crazy, but for the sake of the silence that I needed, they held back.
“Hi. This is Rico,” my voice was shaking a little bit because even though I was hopeful that this was them, I was still nervous that it might not be.
There was a little bit of silence. Probably for about ten seconds. For a minute, I felt like someone might have been playing on my phone. I quickly found out that that wasn’t the case.
“Rico, what’s up man? This is the New England Patriots. We’re selecting you for our fifth-round pick,” a deep voice came over on the phone.
Almost immediately tears began to fall from my eyes. Just knowing all the hard work that I’ve put into the game since I was four years old… it led me to this moment. I took some tough falls last year. At one point, I had already accepted the fact that my life was over. I really thought that I would have to sit down and serve time for killing Toby, but I was able to skate my way out of that.
“Thank you, man,” I was finally able to get out, and then I hung the phone up. Everyone was looking at me, ready to hear what I was going to say.
“I’m going to the New England Patriots,” I let everyone know at the same time, and my entire family went crazy.
I was a Patriot’s fan anyways, especially when Tom Brady was playing for them. I had a journal at home, and it was filled with the top five NFL teams that I wanted to play for, and the Patriots just so happened to be on that list. I wanted out ofMiami. As much as I loved my city, I wanted to get the fuck out of here. I wanted a new life for myself. I wanted to go somewhere and start a new chapter.
“Let’s go, son! That’s what the fuck I’m talking about!” my dad’s voice cracked, filled with so many emotions at once.
Promise came over, smiling, and cheering me on, but she really came over, so that she could get Romy. She knew that my family wanted to love on me, so she took Romy, stood off to the side with her, and my pops was the first person I hugged. He was the man that took me out to the park, hustled to get my football gear, and everything else that I needed to be great. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon. My parents bust their asses to provide for Seren and I.
My pops started hustling at one point, and a lot of that money went into investing in football for me. He made sure that I had the best equipment, and he would hire the best trainers for me because he wanted me to be the greatest. All that shit paid off. I might not have been a first-round draft pick like I always thought I would be, but I would take the 5thround. With my fuck ups, and the shit that I’d been through this past year, they could have chosen not to consider me at all.
“Proud of you, son. I’m so fuckin proud of you,” my dad said to me, once he pulled away.
