Page 24 of Forced Matrimony With An Unhinged Menace 4

She looked up slow, her eyes moving from me to Kaseem to Namier, one at a time, her whole face soaked with tears now, and I knew right then, looking at her, that whatever she’d done, she regretted it down to her bones.

“All that any of you need to know,” she said, her voice shaking but holding steady enough to get the words out, “is that Demontae is my second born son. And I am demanding, right now, that all of you stop this war immediately. The same way I would never allow anybody to hurt one of you, that’s exactly how I feel about him too. I failed him. I wasn’t there for him a single day of his entire life. So now I’m trying to right that wrong, and I will not let harm come his way. Not from this family and vice versa.”

Before any of us could even process that, my father lunged forward and pressed that gun straight against her head.

“Right your wrongs?” he said, his voice cracking with rage. “What the fuck you talking about, Zuri? That ain’t my son. You cheated on me and made him behind my back. And now he’s been coming after my whole family, doing everything in his power to harm us, and you standing here protecting him? Who’s his father? Tell me right now so I can kill him too after I blow yo fuckin brains out.”

My mother’s eyes went cold instantly. She jumped up out that chair fast, pushing her own head harder into that gun barrel instead of pulling away from it.

“Nigga!” she screamed. “You gone aim a fucking gun at me? Me? After everything I’ve done for you? After everything I’ve been to you for well over thirty years? Yes, I made one fucking mistake. One. But you need to take some accountability too, Kadeem, for leaving me the way you did. For leaving your family, being gone almost a full year straight. I needed you. I needed help. I was left with a newborn baby all alone, and that made me vulnerable in a way I ain’t never been before or since. Was it right, what I did? No. It wasn’t right. But I tried to fix it the best way I knew how at the time. I chose you. I chose this marriage. I chose our family over my own son, and I’ve lived with that decision eating me alive every single day since. But you are the fuckin cause for all of this! You cared more about an inheritance than being with your wife and newborn fucking son.”

My father’s face shifted, something clicking together behind his eyes.

“You needed help,” he said slow, working through it out loud. “I sent you help. I made sure that…” His voice trailed off, and I watched the exact moment it hit him. “I sent Ben and his wife to help you. Zuri, please. Tell me you ain’t fuck Ben. Tell me you ain’t fuck the one nigga I sent to help you while I was gone. The one nigga that I loved and trusted with my entire world.”

My mother didn’t answer him.

She just hung her head, and that silence said everything none of us wanted to hear confirmed out loud.

My father cocked that gun back further, his whole arm shaking now, and out of pure instinct I dove at him, both hands grabbing for that weapon, wrestling it away from him while he fought back hard, stronger than I expected from a man his age. He was about to kill her in front of us, and I knew that I had to stop it. This man was broken beyond repair and I’d never seen him like this. Without a word passing between us, Kaseem grabbed our mother and got her out that room fast, pulling her toward the door while me and my father wrestled over that gun.

I finally got it secured, snatched clean out his grip, and my father’s whole body just collapsed right there on that floor.

I dropped down and wrapped my arms around him tight, holding him the same way he’d held all of us plenty of times growing up.

I’d never once, not one single time in my whole life, witnessed my old man cry.

He was sobbing now, deep and broken, his whole body shaking against mine.

“I did everything right as a man,” he said, his voice muffled against my shoulder. “I provided. I protected. I led by example every single day of my life. How could she do this to me? With my own best friend. My real friend, the one man I trusted with everything I had. I lost him behind this shit years ago and I ain’t never understood why, till right now.” He pulled back some, looking me dead in my eyes, his face wrecked with grief and rage both at once. “She gotta go, Zaire. She can’t stay here. Cause I swear to you right now, I’ma kill her if she do.”

And sitting there on that floor holding my father together, I believed every single word he said.

—

After sitting there with my father, allowing him to compose himself, he made a call to Tattiana. He gave her the first and last name to Ben. Then he told her that he needed all the information on him immediately. Addresses, phone numbers, the college his kids attended. All of it.

She must didn’t have the equipment she needed because he made calls to have her computer delivered to her from their house tonight. This made me realize how cold Tattiana had to be at her job for real. Shit, she did get me out of prison, so I already knew she was onto something.

My brothers stood around my father’s study, quiet. Just being present. Wrong is wrong, and our mother was dead ass wrong for the shit she’d done, but how could we turn our backs on her?

Kaseem motioned for me to step outside the room with him.

“I tried to get momma to leave, and she refused. She said she’ll stay with you til this blows over, so she’s at your house, nigga.” Kaseem blew out a slow breath.

“Man, here she go. Putting me in more bullshit! Bro, I don’t even know what to do with this shit they just dropped on us. Demon? Our brother? Then momma done fucked the homie. This shit is too much. I ain’t gone lie, anything else we handle, that’s gone have to be in the morning. I can’t take no more for the night”

“Shit, I’m wit cha when you right. We need to get some rest and wake up with fresh minds. We can’t do shit else until I get a hit on Demon.”

“We gone pay that bitch Mallory a visit in the morning, and I’m sure we gone find him by going through her. Are you about to send for your wife tonight?” I asked, genuinely wanting to see where his head at.

“Nigga, nah. I’m my daddy son! If Tattiana bring her ass back around me, I’m gone be on the same shit pops was just on, but you know I’ll take it to the extreme. Her ass need to give me a break for now.” Kaseem damn near made me laugh in his face. Cause he was basically saying that he was ready to put a gun to his own wife head.

“On this one, I can’t tell you what to do. I will say though, if the love is real, and you know her intentions weren’t bad, don’t lose your wife behind some shit she didn’t ask to be apart of in the first place. You said her kid is 8 years old. You ain’t know her or Demon 8 years ago, fool.” I told him straight up.

“Good thing I ain’t ask yo ass. Get some rest and we gone get on it early in the morning.” Kaseem said as he hit my back, before letting my brother and pops know he was leaving.

Exhausted couldn’t even begin to explain what today felt like. I was hit with bomb after bomb, and this feeling wasn’t something I was used to carrying. Yeah, I asked for this life, but damn. This much shit ain’t ever popped off when my parents was running things.