OMPH!
He moaned on his way to the floor. She must’ve got him real good because he shifted from side to side yelling obscenities. He wasn’t used to a motha fucka standing up to him, so Lavita’s actions caught him completely off guard.
I rushed to Lavita’s side, leading her out of the condo, and pulling all of the money I had out of my pocket. “Vita, I don’t have time to argue. You gotta go back home and don’t come back down here. He meant what he said. He will do what he can to get rid of our baby.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t stop moving, just hopped on the elevator, and accepted the cash. There was so much left unsaid between us, but all I could do was plant a kiss on her lips and step back so the elevator could close. I stood there, eyes locked on the descending numbers flickering red above the stainless steel. When they finally reached the first floor, I exhaled deeply and leaned my head back, looking up at the ceiling.
Before I could tilt my head back down, my father’s arm looped around my neck from behind. His grip was tight and unrelenting. I thrashed around as my feet were lifted off the floor, snatching away any leverage I could gain. My fingers clawed at his forearm. The soft ding of the elevator was the last thing I heard before everything around me went black.
My eyes slowly fluttered open in the dark, cold room. I was drained and weak. After day seven, I stopped counting how long I was in this room, bound to the cold metal chair. I knew exactly where I was, but I couldn’t believe that I was here. My father used this location to torture enemies, and now I was sitting in the torture seat wondering how far he would go.
The single entry point to this room was a steel-reinforced door, the kind of shit you’d find guarding a bank vault. There was no handle on the interior of the room, and the outside of the door utilized a retinal scanner. My father was the type of man who made this room damn near bombproof just in case he held someone captive who had people so deranged behind him that they would blow up his entire warehouse, the motha fucka inside would still rot in that bitch.
I felt delirious as shit. Lack of food and water left my mouth feeling like I swallowed a bag of cotton balls, and my lips were dry and cracked. My wrists and ankles felt raw from the cuffs that bound me to the chair. My head was pounding. Probably because yesterday I was too weak to fight back, and when I fell to the ground, the assault didn’t stop; in fact, my father egged it on since I didn’t give him what he wanted. Honestly, I wish they would put me out of my misery at this point. However, that would be too much like right. My mother would never forgive my father if he took it that far.
A mechanical hiss interrupted my daunting thoughts, and the steel came open with a loud thud. The lights flickered on causing me to squint as the throbbing headache intensified. I could only see out of my left eye because my right eye was swollen shut. Jack sauntered in with my dad on FaceTime likehe’d done every day since he locked me in here. I could only assume he continued with the plans and took my mom to the Maldives the day after he found out I got Lavita pregnant.
“Alright lil nigga. You ready to give me that bitch information?” My father pressed in a monotone like this was some trivial shit and I wasn’t bloody, malnourished, and above all else, his only child.
I fought through the pain to crack a smile. I’m positive my teeth looked just as horrible as I felt. I could taste the grime and sour breath, so I knew a yellowish film coated my teeth, and plaque had taken up permanent residence.
“You think this shit a game, Quinten?”
His eyes were cold, like he’d already decided I wasn’t his son until I gave him what he wanted. There was no pity. No pause. Just a hunger for an answer to Lavita’s whereabouts. A carnal desire to end whatever piece of him still lived inside her, even if that meant killing his own unborn grandson. The love I had for Vita was stronger than the fear I had of my father or his men. The girl unlocked something in me that only she could. Vita loved me for me and not because of who I was or what I had. Hell, she still didn’t grasp the reality of what I got her into when I included her in my world, even if I kept her separate from my real life.
I was able to live vicariously through Vita. If I wasn’t the son of Troy Bentley, the next in line to sit on the throne of the Bentley empire, I’d be in college on a baseball scholarship studying sports medicine and free to openly prepare for the birth of my first child. Instead, I was cuffed to a chair in a torture room while my father stared down on me from the screen of an iPhone.
“You can’t do shit to me for real. Mom would kill you and smile in her mugshot. I know you already stressed about how you going to hide my fucked up face.” I laughed. I’m sure hethought I was talking because I was breaking, but it was the exact opposite. I’d rather sit here and die before I allow him to stop my child from entering this world and living his life whatever way he sees fit. This situation made me realize that it was better that Vita stayed the fuck away from me and raised our child without me for real.
“Beat his ass and don’t even feed that mother fucker today!” He spat, then hung up the phone.
Jack took a deep breath then slipped the phone into his pocket. I relaxed my body and thought about the life my child would live as a relentless stream of jabs rained down on me. He could only keep me in here for so long before my mom needed to lay eyes on me.
I was correct too. We went through that routine for the rest of my parents’ vacation, and when they came back, my father had to take me to a private doctor and hired a nurse to be at my crib around the clock to nurse me back to health before my mom laid eyes on me. I didn’t even give a fuck, as long as he didn’t press me about Vita’s whereabouts again, his secret would be safe with me.
PROLOGUE
Marissa Marucci
1999
Speeding down 95 with a face full of tears, my chest ached like my heart was shattered into a million minuscule pieces I’d never find again. My Nokia vibrated in the cupholder before a high-pitchedbriiing briiingechoed throughout the car. I graduated from high school with honors on Wednesday. This was shaping up to be one of the best weeks of my life until Kadeem confessed to cheating on me. I let the phone ring until it went silent. There wasn’t shit left for us to discuss. Being raised by a man like Vincent Marucci, I was taught to know my worth. He spoke life into me daily. I knew I was beautiful. I knew I could sit at any table and politic with men, and probably outshoot most of them too. More than anything, my uncle never missed a moment to drill one thing into my head: never let a nigga play in your face! If he fucked off on you once, he’ll do it again.
I silently wiped my tears as I took my exit. My phone rang again, and this time rage pushed me to answer the call.
“Cheating wasn’t enough, you have to harass me too?!” I exploded.
“Marissa, you took off before letting me explain, and you gotta give me some credit. I could’ve taken your virginity tonight and never said shit. You would’ve never found out, but I wanted to keep it real with you,” Kadeem explained. “I love you. I don’t want that bitch. I only want you, but you know your family makes this shit tricky. I got needs, and I’m not trying to have your uncle blow my head off because I took your virginity. He made it clear that’s what would happen. A nigga not trying to play with his life like that. Can you blame me? Before we left for prom your uncle took me into his office and turned on his laptop where I could see security cameras in what looked like a torture chamber where he had a bloody man strapped to a chair. Your uncle made a call, and he made me watch somebody cut the man’s dick off! A lot of men hurl empty threats at their lil girls’ boyfriends, but your uncle’s threats ain’t empty. Everybody knows he ain’t wrapped too tight. You know he could kill me, and his army is bigger than my father’s, so he’ll get killed trying to exact revenge, leaving my mom and sister to fend for themselves.”
“If I go in the house crying because you broke my heart, what do you think will happen?” I hurled an empty threat.
Kadeem took a deep breath, exhaling slow and heavy, I could hear the weight of his angst in the way he let it out. “I can’t go back and change things, and if I could, I would. I wish I would’ve just said fuck it and approached your uncle about marriage. I just didn’t have the nuts, but if you give me another chance, I’ll do it. Tonight if you want,” he offered.
Hearing that bullshit only further pissed me off, and I hung up on his ass. Saying that shit at this moment seemed disingenuous as fuck. I’d have to decipher whether the offer was real or a way to save his ass. If he wasn’t Karina’s brother, Iprobably would’ve taken my heartbroken ass in the house and cried on my uncle’s shoulder, signing his death certificate, but I wouldn’t.
My phone vibrated again and I glanced down. There was a voicemail from Kadeem. I approached the red light before turning into our subdivision, and couldn’t help my curiosity, I had to listen to the message. Quickly performing the steps to access my voicemail, I placed the phone to my ear as the light turned green.
“Marissa, I know that I fucked up in the worst way and I apologize. I want to marry you one day, make you my wife. I know with you by my side we can take this shit to the moon. Please forgive me. I’ll do anything to have a second chance,”Kadeem pleaded on my answering machine. When the automatic message asked if I would like to save or delete the message, I quickly hit delete.
