“If I can’t have you, nobody will. You can mark my words on that,” J said as he turned and rushed out of the restaurant.
I tried to keep most of the shit that Jakari had been doing away from Rowdy because I knew he would put a definite end to this all. I didn’t want Jakari dead; I just wanted him to accept that we were done and move on. My prayers of him finding a good woman and moving on seemed so farfetched. It was no longer about Diamond or what he had done to me. Now it was about me being with the person who I was meant to be with. I had a man who loved me harder than anyone ever had. He listened to me, invested in me, comforted and supported me. He was never missing or being sneaky, he never put me in harm’s way, and he always kept my wants and needs before his. Rowdy was the world’s greatest father and my real life best friend besides Ciara. Nothing in the world would make me mess that up. I was big on loyalty; history didn’t mean shit to me.
After putting the twins in the car and helping Ci strap them in, I promised a rain check on our lunch date. I rushed straight home to tell my fiancé what J had just said to me. I could no longer take his threats lightly. From the way he looked today, I knew he was no longer in his right frame of mind and would do anything he said. When I ran into the house, Rowdy and Cadence were watching cartoons and feeding each other fruit snacks.
“Hey, bae. I asked pops to bring Cadence home since I took the rest of the day off. I let Drew run the shop ’til closing. I’m tired as shit and can’t shake it,” he said.
Rowdy was sitting on the floor with his little twin right beside him. I ran and sat on Rowdy’s lap, then I leaned over and kissed my baby boy’s cheeks. He blushed and stood up, then wrapped his little arms around my neck. After I gave him some love, I turned around and gave his daddy some too. Just as I was about to tell Rowdy what J had said about no one having me, I chose against it. The mood was too good with my little family for me to mess it up right now. I knew my fiancé, and if I told him thatnow, he would be out the door and on his way to find that nigga. I just hoped that J was only talking shit to scare me.
That night, Rowdy’s phone had rung repeatedly, but we were too comfortable to move out of our sleeping positions to answer it. My phone started ringing next, so I immediately started to think that something was wrong. I got out of bed and grabbed my phone off the charger. When I looked at my screen, it was Carmen calling. Thinking that something had happened to my shop, I answered in a panic.
“What’s up, Carmen? Is everything okay?” I answered.
“Nooo, Harmoni! They killed him! Somebody shot Drew down. He was closing up and about to come to the shop to help me, but as he was locking the doors, somebody shot him in the back of his head. A witness said they heard the shooter mention the name or color Black before jumping in the car and driving off. They thought Drew was Rowdy, Harmoni! Whyyyy, man! This shit not right!” Carmen cried into the phone.
The phone fell from my hands, and Rowdy jumped out of bed to pick it up from the floor. He talked to Carmen before breaking down. We threw on some quick clothes, grabbed our baby boy, then headed straight to the hospital. Carmen was outside pacing when we pulled up to the hospital. I jumped out of the car and rushed to embrace her.
She had been going strong with Drew for a while, and I never imagined anything like this happening. I blamed myself for not telling Rowdy what happened earlier that day with Jakari, but now I had no choice. He had really killed an innocent person by trying to kill Rowdy. I helped Carmen make the phone calls to Drew’s family, and I made sure to let Drew’s mother know thatmy family was going to cover the funeral expenses, so that would be one less thing they had to worry about.
Out of respect, Rowdy and I closed the Salon and barbershop down for a week. When we watched the footage, it was indeed Jakari who had killed Drew. Rowdy told police that the cameras were for show and that they didn’t work. I knew that the only justice he wanted was street justice. Rowdy was angry that I didn’t tell him what had happened with Jakari at Applebees sooner, but I never thought he would actually harm someone. Me thinking that Jakari was harmless had cost Drew his life.
While the salon was closed, I spent every day by Carmen’s side. I couldn’t shake the guilty feeling that was eating me up although Jakari was to blame. If I had never been with him at all, none of this shit would be happening in our lives. Although the relationship was still kind of fresh, Drew and Carmen really cared about each other, so I knew she was going through it.
“Harmoni, I know it was J that killed Drew. What I don’t know is why. Please stop protecting him. I need to know what’s going to be done about this. If yo’ nigga not gon’ handle it, then I’m going to the police,” Ciara said while balled up in her bed under the covers.
“Rowdy has been searching for him everywhere. They are going to find him and handle it. I can promise you that I no longer care what happens to him. He has really snapped, and I’m scared it could be me next. You have to know that I’m not gon’ sit back and let him get away with this. I’m so sorry!” I expressed.
I knew there was nothing I could say that would bring her man back.
Weeks had passed, and I was officially one week away from my wedding day. I was beyond nervous but excited at the same time. Carmen still hadn’t come back to work, and I was running my own shop full time again. Rowdy had to do the same thing, so he made sure to help me close up every night, then we wouldhead home together. I couldn’t blame Carmen for being on her own timing. Grief was something you couldn’t put a time frame on.
After seeing Moni and Ciara at Applebee’s, I was no longer thinking clearly. I couldn’t understand what she saw in Black that she never saw in me. I decided to stop crying about it and to do something. Maybe my judgment was clouded since I had recently lost Keith, but I was just tired of being played with. Anybody who had ever given a damn about me was gone. Either they had changed on me or was in the cemetery.
In my mind, Black was the only thing in the way of my relationship with Moni, and once I got him out the picture, I would get my woman back. Later that night, I pulled up to the shop as Black was closing up, and I put a bullet in his head. I had been playing things cool for too long, they should have known that eventually I would snap. I went home in a good mood, knowing that my plan was in motion. When I woke up the nextmorning and turned on the news, I learned that it wasn’t even Black that I had shot, but one of his employees.
I stalked that nigga for so long that I thought I had his routine down to a T, but on that particular day, he had switched shit up. It fucked my head up that I had killed the wrong guy, but there was nothing I could do to change it. That was the perfect example of being at the wrong place, at the wrong time. That nigga got smoked for someone else’s actions. Now that I was on a mission to get my life back, I asked Eva to keep JJ for me. I knew that I wasn’t in the right state of mind to care for him full time, so I did what I thought was best for the moment.
Eva was just happy to have him around. She was lonely as ever without her kids, and I just hoped they came home soon. JJ needed his momma. With her being gone, I really realized how hard it was to raise him alone.
After the news of Rowdy’s employee, I decided to get a hotel and paid it up for the month. I didn’t know if anyone knew who was behind his murder. But I was still going to lay low. Realizing that I had nobody I could call on was a depressing feeling. I was starting to feel like I didn’t have shit else to lose.
Weeks had passed, and I had only left the hotel twice, and only washed my ass once. I was living off DoorDash and was thankful they delivered alcohol too. I scrolled on Moni’s social media and saw that she was getting married in two days. That gave me very little time to get my shit together. I found a mobile barber on IG and paid him to come to the room and cut my hair. When he arrived, his face was frowned from the condition of the room, but I dared his ass to say something. Once my shit was cut, I tipped the barber and sent him on his way.
I went to a few stores and put some shit together for the wedding, I couldn’t be half stepping when I went to shut it down. There was no way I could allow this shit to happen. I was still on a mission to get my girl back. I had one more shot left in me, andI damn sure wasn’t about to miss it. The next time, I had my aim set on Black, and I promise I wasn’t going to fuck it up. He was a dead man walking and ain’t even know it.
It was the day of the wedding, and I was getting cold feet. In my heart, I knew that Moni was more than likely gonna reject me again. I knew her better than anybody, and the only reason she would do that was because I had hurt her by having a baby on her, and now she felt obligated to this other nigga. She didn’t want to do that shit. She just didn’t think she had another choice. I was gonna show her in front of the world that I would always choose her.
I got dressed and looked myself over in the mirror. There was no denying it; I looked good. I had on a white suit with gold jewelry, and I sprayed on my One Million cologne. My haircut was crispy, and I was ready to stop my woman from making the worst mistake of her life.
When I arrived at the venue, it was so packed that a lot of people had to watch from outside the main room. I walked past the line and to the door of the ceremony. This had to have been the nicest shit I had ever seen. Knowing how much this nigga had spent on this day was making me sick to my stomach. Just as the pastor asked if there was anyone who objected to the marriage, I walked through the doors and said that I did. There was a lot of gasping, then the room fell so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
As I walked toward the altar, I gathered what I would say once I made it face to face with Harmoni. Before I could get to the front, I was lifted up and carried back out by security.
The two buff ass niggas roughed me up and threw me outside on my ass. There were three more security niggas on the outside, making sure I didn’t go back in. I had parked a block away, so I took off walking toward my car to come up with another plan. I wasn’t going to leave without my girl. Just as I turned the corner near where my car was parked, I heard a female voice call my name.
I turned around and stared into Carmen’s eyes as she held a Glock pointed in my direction. I turned around and started running, praying to make it to my car. My prayer fell on deaf ears because as soon as I started running, the gun went off. She had really pulled the trigger.
I collapsed to the ground, and everything went black.
