She looked at me for a long moment. Something was moving behind her eyes that she wasn’t letting reach her face.
“Good night, Tattiana.”
I pulled the door closed behind me.
I stood in the hall for a second, running through everything that needed to happen before the wedding. The timeline was tight. Twelve months of running the business clean, and it all started the day we signed the paperwork. On top of my proving that I could run the business, I needed to produce a child within those 12 months with my wife. In my mother’s eyes, a man with no real family responsibilities was incapable of knowing how to run an empire. My father wasn’t going to move the date and I wasn’t going to ask him to. In less than a month, hell sooner if possible, I had to marry this girl, then my clock to my inheritance would officially start ticking.
I just hadn’t counted on her being the way she was. She came from wealth and power, I expected her to be mild mannered and submissive. She was neither.
She had bark. Real bark. Not the kind women pretended to have for an audience, the kind that came from real life experiences. She stood in my hallway and went toe to toe with a woman who had lost her whole mind and didn’t flinch once.
I pushed that to the back of my mind and kept walking.
It didn’t matter who she was outside of what this required her to be. None of that mattered.
I had an empire to inherit and she was just one part of what it cost.
As soon as I made it to my room, my father and brother Namier called on FaceTime. I sat on my bed, let out a long breath beforeI answered, holding the phone up where they could get a good view.
“Son! What the hell is going on over there? I just so happen to look at the cameras for your home and thought I had stumbled across a damn episode of Jerry Springer. What was all of that? And I know damn well you not still bringing bitches where you lay your head. I know you not!” My father voiced before my baby brother jumped in.
“Seem! Nigga, who the hell was the thick shordie in the black? She whooped the skin off Mallory loud mouth self. I just watched the replay and they was going crazy. Ol’ girl even knocked Sam and Jess upside the head. She got that dawg in her. I’m about to come around there. I bet I won’t miss no more action like that!” My brother joked, and my father was visibly angry.
“Pops, I already know what you’ve said, and it wasn’t like that. I always take phones and I blindfold any company I have. I gave clear instructions to have her gone before I returned this afternoon but Sam ass was acting like he was scared to remove the chick or something. I came back with Tattiana so that I could keep her here til the wedding. I ain’t want her to run off or nothing before we got this finalized. I had no idea this crazy bit.. I mean crazy girl was still here. She got disrespectful with Tattiana and all I knew was that she was getting tossed around like a sack of laundry.”
“Hellllll nah!” My brother yelled. “That thick one is the chick you finna marry? I don’t know now, I don’t think you gone be able to play games with that one. She’ll knock you back into the day you came out yo momma. On everything.”
“Namier, shut yo ass up son. This ain’t the time for all that damn playing. And Kaseem, you better be lucky yo momma ain’tsee that before me. If she would have had to come over there, it wouldn’t have been nice at all. I ain’t mad at Tatti, but you need to keep your house clean son. Moving forward, don’t bring drama to where you lay your head. You have too much on the line for even one slip up. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. We’ll have breakfast at 9am sharp. Bring your lady, and don’t be late. Your mom will want to feel her out. And Namier, get some business about yourself and stop keeping up mess and shit. See y’all in the morning.” my pops said as he disconnected the call and left me staring at my ignorant ass brother who held a sinister smirk on his face.
He’d never liked Mallory, so this shit was right up his alley. We talked for a few minutes and then my brother Zaire called. I ended the call with Namier, then we called him back on 3way. I allowed Namier to run the story down to our brother about what had happened tonight. Both those niggas got a good laugh out of that shit. Now, I was worried about what my moms was going to do or say in the morning when she met Tatti. Her ass was nothing that either of us expected.
“Man, I wish I was there tomorrow to see momma face when she meets her, you know she finna ask a million questions.” Zaire laughed.
“Finna interrogate the fuck out that girl. And don’t let her get word about that fight. It’s really gone be some shit.” Namier chimes in.
“Momma gotta chill. This is what they wanted, so she gotta be okay with it, regardless. I ain’t got time to be waiting or wasting. We gotta get the show on the road so my damn clock can start tickin and I can take over. Nobody expected Tattiana to be acrash-out, I know like hell I didn’t. But like I told her ass, she better stay in her place, and everything will be okay.”
“And like I told his ass, I don’t think she’s one of them girls he gone be able to run over. She Floyd Mayweather lil sista with them hands.” Namier joked with Zaire.
“Stop playing with me nigga! You know like I know, a bitch ain’t never played with me or tried me like that, and damn sure can’t beat my ass. That hoe ass shit ain’t funny so stop saying it. I’ll make her beat yo flimsy ass before anything.” I checked Namier because all he wanted to do was play and joke. A nigga ain’t have time for all that.
“What she look like bro? Is she bad at least? If you finna marry a muthafucka you don’t even want, it gotta be worth something. I hope like hell she ain’t too bad on the eyes, for real.” Zaire asked.
“She actually pretty as hell. She thick like a grown ass woman, in all the right places, but I can tell her attitude bad. I made it clear that I was going to be doing my own thing still, married or not. This just an arrangement, so her looks don’t matter.”
“I hope you know what you doing. Yo ass don’t need to be nobody husband, but if that’s what they requiring of you, I guess we’ll see how this shit goes.” Zaire said before we changed the subject.
As they talked, I thought about what he’d just said. I really didn’t need to be nobody husband. All I cared about was my damn self, and my parents expected me to be able to prove that I could provide and protect my own family before I got what was rightfully mine. This shit was crazy.
I wondered what the hell was going through Tattiana mind over there. As much as I hated this situation I was placed in, I knew she hated it even more.
Iwas up at seven.
I handled my hygiene, brushed my teeth, washed my face and got dressed before I even thought about her. I had a full day ahead of me and breakfast with my parents was the least of what I needed to get through before noon. My father wasn’t a man you showed up to late or unprepared and I wasn’t about to give him a reason to start the morning sideways.
I walked down the hall and stopped at her door. Security posted outside nodded at me. I pushed the door open without knocking.
She was knocked out sleep.
