"Tatti—" he called after me, but I was already moving.
I didn't give him time to follow me out or argue. I grabbed my keys and rushed out to my Mercedes. The whole drive to my aunt's house, my hands were shaking on the steering wheel.
She had no right. No right to keep calling me, demanding money, controlling my life. I had a husband now. I had power that I was about ready to use against her. I had options.
But she had Nariyah.
The drive was 2 hours normally. I did it in just over an hour, flying down the highway, not giving a fuck about speed limits or traffic. My mind was racing through scenarios. What did she want now? More money? Some new threat?
When I pulled up to her house in Temple, I didn't even turn the car off properly. I just jumped out and walked straight to the door.
I didn't knock.
I burst right in.
My aunt was sitting at the dining room table like she'd been waiting for me. Her husband Ron was in the living room watching TV. And there, playing with her iPad on the floor, was Nariyah.
Seeing her face was the only thing that stopped me from crashing out, like I had came to do.
“Hey pretty girl, Nariyah," I said softly, my voice breaking slightly.
She jumped up immediately and ran straight to me, throwing her little arms around my waist.
"Hey Cousin Tatti! Did you get my text that I sent you?" she asked, looking up at me with those eyes that broke my heart every single time I saw them. "I was asking when you could come over again. If you could bring me those new dumplings so that we can open them together. My message never sent."
Cousin. She called me Cousin. One thing Nariyah would tell anybody was that Tattiana was her favorite big cousin and that I spoiled her rotten.
I grabbed the iPad from her with shaking hands. I checked her messages. She had attempted to text me two days ago and it never delivered. I went into the settings. Blocked. My number was blocked on her iPad. The same iPad I bought her for Christmas. My aunt had made sure she couldn't reach me. This was some weird ass shit. Why would she want to cut off communication between us?
"Go to the back room for me, baby," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. "Let Cousin Tatti talk to your mommy for a minute, okay?"
Nariyah pouted but did what I said. She knew better than to argue.
The second she was gone, I turned to face my aunt.
"What do you want?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous.
"I saw the wedding pictures. People have been tagging you for days,”she spoke, cold as ice. "I know who your husband is. Kaseem Carter. And you know what? I don't want thousands a month anymore, Tattiana. I want a lump sum. Five million dollars. And I want you to never come back around here again. Since you wanted a way out, this is your way out."
I felt something inside me snap.
"I'm not doing that," I said flatly. "And I'm not giving you another dime. Not a penny. So what we're going to do is, I'm going to take my own daughter, and I'm going to deal with the consequences. You have her believing that I'm her cousin, and all of this is wrong. She's MY child. And she's not staying here with you anymore."
Ron stood up from the couch, his face red with anger.
"You better watch how you talk to her," he said, walking toward me. "We been feeding that little girl, keeping her alive. You think you can just come in here and take her?"
He got in my face, his breath hot and angry. "You ain't taking shit. You been paying us to keep quiet, and now you married to a nigga with money, you think you can just walk away? Hell nah."
He reached out like he was about to grab me.
The front door exploded open.
Kaseem stood there with his gun drawn, his face ice cold.
"Stand the fuck down bitch ass nigga. Touch her and watch how I blow yo shit," he said quietly to Ron. But his eyes were on me. And they were full of disappointment. "What the fuck do you mean by 'daughter,' Tattiana?"
My eyes filled with tears immediately.
