“So very pretty,” she murmurs.
The scream the wrenches out of him sounds demonic, and when his left eye bulges out of its socket I turn to look away. I’m not finna throw up around these niggas.
Rico and Prince stroll in with the other Mathers brother casually on Rico’s shoulders. He glances at YT and Quincy before smirking at me. When he steps into the light, I see the dried blood on his neck and I must grimace because he chuckles. “You need to grow out of that.” I wave him off as he passes me to dump Quinton by his brother.
YT hands the nigga’s eyes and what looks like his tongue to Prince, who slides them in his pocket. Only then, does she wipe his spit off her face. “Four down, three to go.”
“The girls are secure?”
“Yeah. We can be out.”
YT hugs Mekhi before skipping out ahead of us. Prince taps on his phone, activating the vest on the brother before we make it outside. There’s dead bodies everywhere, the valets and other patrons that were standing outside. All complicit in the Mathers organization. All aiding to the kidnap and selling of women and children.
As we drive off back toward Kenton, I turn and see the mansion going up in flames.
“Stunning, isn’t it?”
I glance at Prince, who’s staring in wonder at the burning building as well. “Fire can be just as cleansing as water. The violence of it all, makes way for something beautiful to rise out of the ashes.”
“And what will come of this?” I can’t help but ask this philosophical nigga.
But he just lifts his shoulder and gets back on his phone. “It’s too early to tell.”
Macy
“WegotShottainthe building! And he brought a special guest with us.”
“So the rumors are true then? You have a daughter?”
“She looks just like him, Dro. What do you think?”
I stop cleaning up to look at my tablet. Shaddy took Sadé to one of his interviews for this popular podcast. Her hair finally started growing back in the back, so it looks like she has a little undercut with two lil pigtails.
They’re in matching pink Nike techs, looking every bit the father-daughter duo they are. And Sadé is soaking up all the attention as she sits on Shaddy’s lap, while he looks stoic in big ass blacked out sunglasses.
“Yeah, she’s my heart. I actually delivered her at home. Crazy ass story actually…”
The days seem to blur into each other. Between finishing my pieces for my show, and watching my daughter learn new things, life has been on fast forward. When Shaddy came home, it seemed like time slowed down a little, but now as Sadé passesfive months, and I see her sitting up on her own on Shaddy’s lap, I realize it’s still going at warped speed.
Soon she’ll be walking. And talking. Probably talking first, since she already loves to holler.
Maybe I should start looking for my own place…
Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up. Living by myself? With a child?
You can always shack up with your baby daddy, my inner voice snickers.
I roll my eyes inwardly and grab my tablet, where Shaddy’s freestyling to an old 50 Cent song. He’s going crazy, the podcast hosts bobbing their heads, while even Sadé is mesmerized, her little chubby hands wrapped around his fingers.
I catch the tail end of it, and swoon as he blushes at their praise. That lil dimple of his pops out as Sadé reaches for the microphone.
“So this new song K.A.N.O. name drops fellow South Kenton rapper Sincere. But when he was independent, almost all of his songs were a Shotta beat. Even after his chain got snatched, you never commented negatively. Why are shots being thrown now?”
Shaddy’s smile drops as he licks his lips. Even Sadé notices his change in demeanor, peering up at him as she guides his hand toward her mouth.
“Any issue I got with a nigga will be handled on wax or in the streets. So really, all I needed to say is on the track. Stream that, and be on the lookout for more new music–”
My phone switches to a picture of me and YT, as my special ringtone for her replaces Shaddy’s voice. Knowing it must be important for her to call and not facetime, I answer.
