Zaire raised an eyebrow. “How you know that, and I haven’t complained once?”
“Cause I’m your big brother,” I said. “I know everything about you. That’s my job. I watched you my whole life. I know.”
He let out a short laugh, shook his head, and we dapped up before I headed to my car.
I drove over to my father’s office with my mind still running in six different directions at once, preparing myself for a hard conversation, but knowing I needed his take on all this before I made a move I couldn’t take back.
—
When I made it to my father’s office, I knocked once and let myself in without waiting for him to answer. He looked up from whatever he’d been reading and motioned toward the chair across from his desk.
“Sit down, son.”
I sat while he reached behind him and pulled two glasses off the shelf, set them both down on the desk between us, and poured brandy into each one without asking if I wanted any. He knew I needed this shit.
He slid my glass across the desk toward me.
“I knew sooner or later you’d be coming through here,” he said, leaning back in his chair, studying me the way he had my whole life, like he already knew what was weighing on me before I ever opened my mouth to say it. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown. See, ain’t nobody tell you it’s more to this than just having a title, son. You really gotta work for it. Gotta sacrifice. Gotta make calls that nobody else wants the weight of making.” He took a slow sip from his own glass. “What you’ve done for your brother. What you’ve done with this business since I stepped back. How you’ve stepped into being a real husband. That shit ain’t easy, Kaseem. But you make it look easy. And I know exactly how heavy it really is under all that.”
That got to me more than I wanted it to. This shit was heavy as hell, and this was literally just the beginning.I knew not to complain because this is what I asked for. This is what I workedfor since I was a kid and understood what I was set to gain from all of this.
“I wouldn’t leave this business to nobody else,” he continued. “Not Namier, not Zaire. Yes, I love both of them, but you’re the one I always knew was destined for this. Since you was a little boy following me around this office like my shadow. I knew that I was just holding it for you.”
I sat with that for a second, letting it land, before I got into the reason I’d actually come.
“I need to talk to you about something and get your honest opinion on what my next move needs to be,” I said. “It’s Mallory.”
I laid it all out for him, the same way I’d laid it out for Zaire not even twenty minutes earlier. The way my wife had beat her ass twice, the way she’d just popped up here unannounced like she belonged, the possibility that the baby she was pregnant with could be mine.
My father didn’t flinch, he didn’t act surprised, he just listened the way he always did when either of us spoke, letting me get every word out before he gave me any advice back.
“This ain’t good for the family,” he said finally, his voice flat and certain. “It’s bad for business too, whether you wanna hear that part or not. A man in your position can’t have loose ends walking around trying to breach his property whenever they feel like she has the right to. As a man, you need to make it clear, and I mean crystal clear, that woman don’t ever step foot near your home again. Tattiana’s peace and her safety, that’s what matters most right now. Anybody who threatens that, whether it’s Mallory or anybody else, that’s a threat to this whole family. And everythreat gotta be eliminated. One way or another. Can you imagine what your mom would do if another woman thought to do the bullshit that Mallory is doing right now? With all little respect son, fuck that baby. And if the timeline you gave me is correct, it probably doesn’t even have a heartbeat yet. Just get rid of it.”
I sat there nodding slow, already knowing he was right, already feeling the weight of how soft I’d handled things the night before. I should’ve shut that shit down for good instead of leaving room for a conversation at all. Mallory was gonna be hard to convince, but as I sat on it, she didn’t have a choice. When she dropped all of this on me, I was in shock, and naturally, yes, I thought about not wanting to kill my seed.
“I hear you,” I said.
He nodded once, satisfied, and took another sip of his brandy.
“Now,” he said, setting his glass down, “let’s talk about your mother.”
My whole body straightened up a little at that. We definitely needed to speak on her behavior lately. Even he knew that his wife was on some bullshit.
“What’s up with her?” I asked. “The way she’s been acting about them Brick Boyz, trying to stand in front of everything, telling me to stand down. That ain’t like her. Be real with me, do she think I can’t handle the heat of going toe to toe with them niggas?”
“Honestly, I don’t know what the deal is with her,” my father said, and for the first time in that whole conversation, something crossed his face that looked almost like real concern. “But I’m gonna get to the bottom of it. I think Zuri knows something, or got something she ain’t telling me about them people.Something more than what she’s letting on. And I’m gonna find out what that is, one way or another. She’s the one who told me to shut down business with them, and since then, shit been left.”
He continued talking and without saying it, I knew that he was gonna investigate his own wife. He said it plain, no hesitation, like he was already halfway to deciding to do whatever it took to get answers.
I didn’t feel a single thing about that. Didn’t feel bad, didn’t feel like I should defend her or slow him down. Hell, I wanted somebody to get to the bottom of this shit too. To know my mother, that was to know how ruthless and fearless she was. This was outside of her character. If anything, part of me was relieved somebody else besides me had picked up on the fact that something wasn’t sitting right with her.
“Do what you gotta do,” I said.
He studied me for a second like he was surprised I didn’t push back harder on that, then let it go and moved on.
“As far as Brick Boyz,” he said, “I’m giving you the green light. Handle that situation however you see fit. You the head now, that’s your call to make. But I need you to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
