Page 68 of Queen of the Pole

“Poison, what happened?” Dan, the security asked me.

I was so shaken up that I really couldn’t say anything. I kept my eyes on him the entire time though. I knew this was him. I knew my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me. My mom used to keep a picture of him in a frame that she kept on her dresser. I used to ask her as a kid who the man was, and she would tell me that he was my father. Every time I asked her to take me to meet him, she would always throw it in my face that he didn’t want anything to do with me.

This was him. He had those same light green eyes as the man in the picture. Same light skin. Same bald head. He just looked older now. More mature.

“Is your name Fred?” I asked him, finally finding my voice.

“Yeah. Why?” he responded. His voice was deep as hell.

“I’m Deja,” I said, breaking a rule of mine, giving a customer my real name. When I said it, he gave me a blank look, as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“I’m Tameka’s daughter,” I let him know, and right after I said it, it’s almost like it hit him because that blank look was no longer there.

In fact, his face turned red from anger. He looked me up and down for a few seconds and then shot up from the couch. He tried to walk past me, but I blocked his path.

“Ay, I don’t know what your mama told you about me, but she’s the same lying ass bitch that she was over twenty years ago. Don’t believe shit that lady tells you. She tried to pin you on me years ago. She knows fuckin well that you don’t belong to me. That was community pussy. You could be any man’s child!” he shot, and took the other way, getting around me, and walking out of the room.

I stood here, feeling numb. Stood here, not knowing what to believe. I heard so many lies over the years from my mom about my dad, that I’ve always been so unsure. During all the hateful shit that she would spit my way, she would often tell me that my father didn’t want anything to do with me. That’s what I’ve believed for years.

I wonder if he really wasn’t my father. I wonder if she didn’t know who my real father was. So many things that I was questioning right now. My mood had completely been shot, so I rushed to get out of the room, and took the stairs up to get to the locker room.

Stepping inside the locker room, it was pretty dead in here. Just a handful of girls that were sitting around.

I went over to my locker, pulled my phone out, and I noticed that I had a couple of text messages. One from Wolf. He was asking me how my night was going. I didn’t really play into his message too much because my eyes went for the message above his. It was a couple of messages from my little sister. I could only see the first half of it, until I pressed on her name and went directly for the message thread.

Baby Sis

Sister, you know I love you so much. So, so much. You know that you have always been my favorite person in the world since I was born. Deja, I’m just not happy. I haven’t been happy in a very long time. I tried to hang in there for the sake of my son, you, and mama. I’m not one of the strong ones. I want to go find happiness.

Baby Sis

Don’t let mama raise Nico for me. I don’t want her to fuck him up like she did with us. I know my son will be in the best care with you. Please don’t be mad at me, sister. I love you forever.

“No! No! No! Nari, noooo!” I screamed, clicking out of her message, and I went to call her phone, but it went straight to voicemail. Those messages were sent to me well over ten minutes ago.

“Nariiii! Don’t do this shit to me!” I was hysterically crying, screaming to the top of my lungs, as it hit me that my sister just sent me a suicide message.

As I was screaming and crying, having my moment, repeatedly calling her phone, the dancers that were in the room rushed over to me to see what was going on. At the same time, Lyric walked in the room, and when she noticed me screaming, she rushed over to me.

“Deja, what? What happened?” Lyric asked, moving the girls that were in the room from standing in front of me.

My body dropped down to the floor, and she got down with me.

“Lyric…. Nariiii,” I cried to her.

Immediately, I saw the way her face changed. She instantly grew sad as she looked back at me. I didn’t have the words to say it, so I handed her my phone, allowing her to read the message on her own. She translated it the same way as I did because I saw the way her eyes watered up.

I knew this wasn’t the time for me to sit here, and cry. I had to get the fuck up, so that I could find where my sister was. I had to. For my sake, I had to.

I would literally die if Nari took the easy way out and harmed herself. My little sister was my world. She’s been my world from the moment my mom brought her home from the hospital. She had to hang in there for me. Wherever she was, I needed her to hear my voice. I needed her to count all the times that I’ve told her I loved her and needed her in this world.

If she thought about anything tonight, that’s the main thing I wanted her to think about. I needed her to know how badly she would break my heart if she checked out on me.

CHAPTER 21

WARREN ‘WOLF’ BENNETT

It was after three in the morning, and I was at the crib, with my iPad in my lap, looking into things for my business. I was so hungry for the business that I ran, so here I was, looking at stones for purchase.