With dipped brows, I walked back into the room and stood next to her bed. “Wassup?”
She took a deep breath. “I know something is going on between you and my mama. You don’t have to tell me but…” She paused and took another deep breath. “Whatever it is… can you fix it? Please?”
I raised my brows, a little speechless. Of course, she knew something was going on between us. She was outside of the bedroom the day we fought. Hiding what we were going through now from the kids was hard as hell. Mahogany didn’t give a fuck about hiding it. She participated in movie night, but she didn’treallyparticipate. She set up, popped the popcorn, laid out the snacks, and shit but spent the majority of time on her phone rather than watching Jumanji with us.
Running my tongue over my bottom lip, I shrugged. “I’m trying to, Bry.”
She shook her head and looked up at me with sad eyes. “Try harder.”
What was I supposed to say to that? How was I supposed to handle this? My oldest daughter was telling me to fix something I didn’t think I could fix. Telling me to make things right between her mom and I and I didn’t have the capacity to really do that. I was trying. Probably wasn’t trying hard enough. Nah. I wasn’t. All I’d been doing was begging, trying to get her to talk to me. Shit like that. It wasn’t working. It was hell trying to get her to let me do that. How in the hell was I going to do anything else? I didn’t know but I planned on trying harder. Not just for her and I—but for all of us.
I left Aubry’s room feeling heavier than I already did. The stress of everything was weighing me down like crazy. I stood in the hallway, against the wall for a good five minutes before I went and woke Gabe up. He was the same way he was last night—dry and short with me. I’d love to say I didn’t give a fuck. But Idid. I cared a lot. Gabe and I were the closest out of the kids but these days, he felt lightyears away.
After I got the kids up, I made a quick breakfast and got Mahogany’s morning tea ready. She was receptive. Took it and thanked me but didn’t make eye contact with me. Didn’t say a word to me for the rest of the morning either. Soon after, the house was empty and I was left to devise a plan to get my family back on track.
16
CRESCENT
I pulledup in front of the building and got out.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Carter,” Greeted the valet driver, Mason.
“Good afternoon, Mason,” I told him before handing him my keys.
There was valet service at Skylight Industries, for every client and potential client to use at their disposal. I was keen on guests' services. Serious about making sure Skylight Industries stayed a top tier company. And for several years, we had been.
I walked into the building, greeted Alanda at the front desk, and headed up to my office to get ready for a meeting with a new client whose sole purpose for linking up with us was to clean his money. I did that. In fact, that was what Skylight Industries was built on—cleaning money. Started with a few investments from Pops and them. I didn’t discriminate when it came to bread. If a nigga came at me with a bogus business plan, I gave insight on making it better if I felt like it would be profitable to invest in. About twenty percent of our clients were looking to clean up dirty money. Working with them was what helped Skylight Industries climb to the top of the ladder.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Carter,” greeted Nina, handing me a smoothie I should’ve had this morning.
“Hey Mr. Carter, how you doin this afternoon?” Spoke Gale.
“I’m alright. Y’all got any updates for me?”
“Two,” Nina said with a deep breath. “Mr. Charleston was indicted by the FEDs, so that meeting is canceled.”
With raised brows, I looked over at her. “Straight up? When?”
Gale looked at her phone. “The call came in an hour ago. It’s all over the news too, you didn’t see it?”
I shook my head with my mouth turned down. “Hell naw. You know I don’t watch that sad ass shit.” I paused and stood at the elevator, hitting the up button. “Look at God though. I was just about to secure the deal with him.”
“Mmhmm. God’s favor is amazing, ain’t it? I told you about him but you didn’t want to listen.”
I smirked. “I thought you were just being you, Gale, my bad.”
Gale and Nina had been working for me for a long time. Years. They were like second and third mothers for real. So when Gale told me Mr. Charleston made her uncomfortable, I just took it as her being on her motherly shit, trying to protect me and my brand. If it weren’t for the amount of money Mr. Charleston was talking, I probably would have paid more attention to what she was saying. I wasn’t afraid to admit that I was often money motivated. I didn’t really give a fuck about what a muthafucka had going on. As long as they had money and a solid plan, I was with it. It might be a good idea to reconsider that though, huh? Ain’t no telling what would have come out of working with him, with the FEDs on him.
“Hit me with the other update,” I said.
“Well,” Nina paused. “You’re not going to like this.”
“At all,” Gale mumbled.
I frowned. “What?”
“The meeting with Couture Interiors was canceled, too,” Nina said, shaking her head. “I’m surprised you’re still putting up with them, as much as you complained not too long ago.”
