“When I was fourteen and he was fifteen.”
“Bitch, what?” Cali blurted before covering her mouth with her hands.
With lowered brows, Ivory shook her head. “So why did you marry him? What was the point of y’all getting married?”
“Financial security.”
“Yooo, this is crazy.” Cali blinked rapidly before falling back on the couch. “So, you were cool with him being gay as long as he took care of you?”
Irish nodded. There were more layers to their journey but she didn’t have the mental capacity to share them right now.
“I said that to say… I think Tuck was the person who ordered the hit on him. Jovanis had just revealed that they were lovers before he got locked up. Jovanis wanted to be with him but Tuck refused. To get back at him, he leaked the pictures of Tuck to the blog.”
Ivory hung her head and placed her hands on the side of her face.
“Now why would he do some silly shit like that?” Cali fussed. “Damn, Van had to know that shit wouldn’t end well for him. Outing a person has to be one of the greatest offenses in the LGBTQ community.”
“I’m still stuck on him being gay,” Ivory mumbled. “I can’t get past it.”
“Okay.” Cali scooted to the edge of the sofa. “So Tuck ordered the hit but why would he shoot at you? There has to be some reason why unless he didn’t want to leave any witnesses behind.”
That was the part that had Irish confused. When Tuck was out, they were friendly with each other. She had never done anything to him to warrant being killed. She couldn’t understand why she was chased down.
“I don't know.”
“What if you had died?” Ivory’s tears regenerated. “Then I wouldn’t have no one.”
Irish scooted closer to her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. That thought had crossed her mind more than once. She thought of not only Ivory but the life she was carrying. What if the bullet had ended her life? What would Ivory do without her? She’d been her guardian ever since she was a baby.
“It’s okay. I’m here.”
Cali sighed before rubbing her forehead. “Did you contact Jovanis’ family?”
Irish reached for her phone and checked the time. It was past one o’clock in the morning.
“I think I’m going to go to his mother’s house and give her the news. It seems so impersonal to tell her over the phone.”
“You're going to go now?” Ivory shrieked. “You should wait until the morning.”
Irish shook her head, standing up. “No, they need to know now. I can’t sit on this.”
Cali rose from the couch. “I’m going to go with you.”
“Okay.” Irish turned to Ivory. “Are you going to stay here?”
Clutching a throw pillow, she bobbed her head. “Yeah, I’m good here.”
Irish nodded and inhaled a deep breath. She still found it psychotic to believe that she had witnessed her best friend take his last breath.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Forty-five minutes later…
The night was muggy as amber streetlights illuminated the silent streets. Zavier had driven them to Jovanis’ mother’s home, leaving her with time to prepare. Irish swallowed down her nausea as she stood on the porch of Margie’s home. Never in her thirty-two years had she been summoned to deliver news like this. It was unfortunate that she was here to break a mother’s heart.
“You got this,” Cali coached her.
She didn’t have this. Irish couldn’t fathom a life without Jovanis. She struggled to envision her days without him, but each time the image surfaced in her mind, tears congregated in her eyes. Again, she swallowed a breath and rang the doorbell. A minute passed before she heard the locks being unlatched. A second later, the door swung open and a man appeared clutching his robe together.
