“Oh, wow,” was all I could think to say as we came to a stop, pulling up at a very familiar place. The house in Boone county. Looking at Faheem, he was just as lost as I was, and that made me nervous. What were we about to walk into?
Faheem Banks
Juniper hadn’t stopped fidgeting since I caught her up on all the shit I’d been dealing with. Walking up to my parents’ door, they’d just moved out to the compound earlier this year. They still had their other house in the city, but they were here more times than not. Before I could even knock on the door, it swung open, and my mama was there ready to take Forrest from me. Juniper had Ryver in her arms, and I had Forrest. Baby girl hadn’t stopped whimpering for me, but I wanted to ease her onto my Toi. My mama was gonna lose her shit when she saw Ryver and that’s why I couldn’t pick up baby girl yet.
When everyone first found out about Mixie being pregnant, Toi swore up and down I had another baby on the way. Of course, I thought her ass was losing it. A nigga ain’t pay her naggin’ no mind, but she was finna cuss me the fuck out. My parents didn’t play when it came to being grandparents.
Which is why Forrest reached out for his nanni as soon as the door opened.
“Nanni’s sweet baby, what are you doing here?” Toi didn’t even acknowledge me once she got Forrest in her arms. She left the door open talking to his little ass like he was the only mutha fucka there.
“You forreal, Toi?” I called out behind her, with Ryver now in my arms. As soon as Forrest was out of my arms, she was pulling on my shirt. Since my mama wanted to be rude, I was finna do her the same way.
“Boy, leave me alone unless yo-” Toi stopped talking the second she laid eyes on me and Ryver as we walked into the kitchen with Juni trailing behind us. “Faheem Rashad fucking Banks,” Toi gritted out through clenched teeth, and her eyessquinted. If you knew my mama, you knew she didn’t cuss, so for her to be cussing, she was pissed. “Who are you holding?” She ice grilled me. Since this wasn’t just my battle I stepped aside.
“Ask her.” I nodded to Juniper whose eyes bulged out of her head. I love the fuck outta Juni, but I wasn’t finna be the only one dealing with Toi’s wrath.
“Hi, Mrs.Banks.” Juni waved at her timidly while sneaking and shooting me a death glare that I snickered at.
My mama placed Forrest on the kitchen counter, holding him in place with one hand and throwing her other hand on her hip, she gave me a hard glare as she said. “Care to explain to me why my knuckle head son is holding a girl version of him and Forrest?”
“Uhh, well…” Juniper looked over to me for help, but I shrugged my shoulders. Toi was gonna be nicer to her ‘cause she wasn’t her blood. It was best she heard it from Juni than me. Toi woulda fucked me up if I was the one telling her. “R-r-ryver, she’s his daughter,” Juni stuttered, all nervous, blushing. I liked seeing her like this.
“How old is she?” Toi said, walking over to me and Ryver.
“She just turned one.” I decided to give Juniper a break. Her scary ass looked like she was finna pass out.
“And why haven’t I met my granddaughter before today?”
“Ion know, Mama. I just found out about her last week. You gonna have to ask her sneaky ass mama about the rest.” I finished my snitching on Juniper, and she looked like she wanted to fuck my ass up.
“Let me go get my husband so he can see this sh-” My mama started to leave out the kitchen, but I stopped her.
“Nah, let me go get him. You talk with yo daughter-in-law and Ryver,” I said, handing Ryver to Juniper. Of course, she tried to protest, but I didn’t give her little spoiled ass enough time to sucker me in.
I was out the kitchen before anybody could stop me. I didn’t need some big family confrontation. I wanted a one on one with Big Frank; it was the only way I’d get straight answers. I headed to the second floor to his man cave where he spent most of his time at. Without knocking, I walked in finding Big Frank sitting on his reclining chair watching basketball with a cigar in his hand. Hearing the door open, Big Frank looked over at me.
“Damn, son, I thought my ass was gonna have to die before you came to see me again,” he said as he put his legs down from the reclining position.
“You know why that is though,” I replied cooly, taking a seat in the reclining chair next to him. “But I found out Juniper had a nigga’s baby. Figured y’all needed to meet y’alls other grandbaby.”
My dad smiled hard as fuck when he heard about Ryver. “Where is she?” he asked excitedly.
“She downstairs with mom and Juniper. I wanted to talk to you alone first. I found some shit out that ain’t sit right with me. I wanna give you a chance to explain your side before I figured out how I wanted to handle this situation.”
Big Frank looked at me, nodded his head, then took a pull off his cigar, letting the smoke flow from his mouth. “I’m listening.”
“Cliv-”
“Don’t come in here tellin’ me shit that nigga said. You know he a lying ass snake nigga,” Big Frank cut me off. To me, his immediate defense showed guilt, something he’d taught me as a young nigga.
“I know he fuckin’ Mixie, has been for years. I know you knew about it, but I can’t make sense of why you wouldn’t tell me that shit. I’m yo son, right? You always gon’ have my back, but let me lay down with a bitch that got flees?” I spat, clenching my fist together, trying to keep my emotions under control.
“I knew, son, but shit ain’t that simple. I helped you get revenge.”
“Nigga, Ion give a fuck about revenge when my son always gon’ be tied to a ho ‘cause you helped a nigga get fuckin’ revenge when you could have stopped me from fuckin’ with the bitch in the first place.”
Just knowing Mixie was the type of bitch that would fucking with Clive made my fuckin’ ass itch. If a bitch would fuck with him they would fuck with anybody. I get he started fucking with her when she was young,, but that was years ago. She could have been paid that old nigga dust if she wanted to. Instead, she kept sneaking behind a nigga’s back fucking that broke ass nigga.
