“Bitch, fuck you,” Toi hatefully said to Big Frank before tossing her wedding ring at him. “I’m ready to go, Faheem,” my mom sternly said, walking out the room.
Looking over at my dad, his shoulders slumped with defeat. I wanted to feel bad for the nigga, but he brought this shit on himself, running around playing childish ass games with a nigga who barely had two pennies to rub together.
“Ion know how I feel about all that other shit, but I wanna meet my brother.” I meant that. Big Frank might have not held onto the values he instilled in us, but I believed in family above all else. If I had a younger brother out there, I wanted to meet him.
Chapter 36
Juniper Banks
June 2022
Ihad a bunch of stuff to do in a short amount of time. Life had been going nonstop since everyone’s secrets came into the light. Toi had been staying at Faheem’s. She was holding up tough against Big Frank. She was adamant about getting a divorce. After talking to Mrs.Toi and hearing all the things she’d dealt with dealing with Big Frank, I could fully understand why she was ready to throw in the towel. This wasn’t his first time being caught cheating, nor was this the first baby incident. Mrs.Toi told me all about the first affair and the alleged baby that came about from the situation. She almost went to jail because she went crazy on Big Frank and his mistress. Granted, that baby turned out not to be his, and he claimed to have learned his lesson. Clearly, he hadn’t because Jaquwell came after the first baby. With all the begging and pleading Big Frank was doing, you would think he would have tried harder to be faithful to his wife.
Frankee was heartbroken over her parents’ divorce. She took the news a lot harder than Faheem. He wasn’t fooling with Big Frank. Him lying and cheating on they mama was a no go in Faheem’s eyes. Frankee wanted them to work it out, and she was against Faheem meeting Jaquwell. I think she just wanted stuff to be like it was before. Even Mrs.Toi wasn’t upset when Faheem told her he’d been talking to Jaquwell. She actually encouraged it, said he needed a positive male role model in his life. I had only met him a few times, and he was Faheem’s twin. A little manish ass nigga, Faheem had to check Jaquwell for talking to me crazy. After the first time, he watched his words when it came to me.That’s where Faheem was now, with Jaquwell, and they had Forrest with them. Boy’s day out was what Faheem called it. Ryver was loving her nanni, you already know she was off with Mrs.Toi living her best life, leaving me to my own devices.
With time on my hand and a million thoughts running through my mind, I found myself back at my old job. I wasn’t here this time to beg for my job back. Nope, I was going back to school. Faheem had talked me into going back to further my medical knowledge. He said he would take care of me financially as long as I took care of his seeds. I started to resist him; having anybody take care of me seemed so foreign. I finally said fuck it after a long talk with Mrs.Toi. As she said, “Let that nigga take care of you if he wants to. Be smart, spend his money and stack yours.”Figuring she knew better than me, I listened and sat my ass down.
I wanted answers. My mom was still MIA, so she couldn’t give me the answers I needed. The next best person was Angelo. Just knowing how close he’d been to me for years and not saying anything about me being his daughter was weird to me. Like nigga, what? I couldn’t imagine sitting across from my child and not saying anything. With my head held high, I walked into Angelo’s office without knocking. That was a mistake on mypart because this nigga had one of the new nurses on her knees sucking the life out of his dick.
“Oh, shit!” Angelo exclaimed, pushing the girl off of him while he scrambled to fix himself, and she did the same.
It was sad to see a man who had everything willing to risk it all for sex. This shit was a lawsuit waiting to happen.
“I’m going to go on break,” the girl nervously said to Angelo, looking at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Go ‘head.” He shooed her out the door. I watched her leave and shut the door before turning to look back at Angelo.
He’d gotten comfortable in his black leather chair behind his dark cherry wood desk. I stared at the man that was my father. It was comedy to see the truth was right in my face. My head came from Angelo’s big headed ass. We had the same forehead, eye shape and color and skin complexion, and I wondered how I went this long without noticing our similarities.
“You're my dad,” I flat out said. There was no sense in beating around the bush. He’d done that long enough.
Without missing a beat, Angelo asked, “How much to keep you silent?”
Chuckling in disbelief, I didn’t think it got any worse when it came to being a dad than Clive. Angelo was proving me wrong.
“I don’t want your money,” I said bitterly. I don’t know what I expected from him, but it wasn’t this.
”Then what do you want? I pay you good. Your job is always here when you want it. What more can you ask for?”
”I don’t know, maybe for the man whose nutsack I came out of to acknowledge me? I mean, is that too much to ask for?” I sarcastically asked, cocking my head to the side.
He scratched the side of his face like he was really thinking about the shit. “If I’m being honest, You are not missing much. My kids know I’m good for money, other than that, they don’t get much else outta me.”
“Wooow… Is that why you never tried to come get me out of that hell hole I grew up in?”
”I didn’t see a point. I work a lot. My wife is a bitch, she wasn’t gonna raise you. She didn’t even raise our kids. You probably would have been more miserable here. I know Nancy isn’t the same from when we was together, but I know she was happy about you.”
“I must have missed the memo with how she raised me.” I grunted, folding my arms across my chest. “Crazy how none of my parents really give a flying fuck about me.”
What were the fucking odds I’d have two dad who weren’t worth shit?
“It's life. I mean, at least you got somebody who’ll go to war over you.” Angelo caught me off guard with his words.
”What do you mean?” I cautiously asked him, curious to see what he had to say.
“Faheem, he loves you for sure. The first time he called me, you know that nigga had the nerve to threaten me if I didn’t give you back your job? Not that you ever lost it, but he knows who my family is connected to. I may not be a street nigga, but I’m connected. He knows a threat can mean war, but since it was for you, I let it slide. He came by again recently. I’m assuming when y’all found out the truth. Told me to stay outta ya life if I wasn’t going to do right by you. He said he’d hate to kill me for breaking his wife’s heart. He must love the hell out of you or he’s a fool. Either way,, he’s ready to go to war behind you.”
”A hunnid shots to any nigga that play with my wife.” Faheem’s voice echoed smoothly as he calmly opened the door and walked into Angelo’s office. Smirking at me, I smiled back at him.
