She pulled away from me and sat up, hugging her knees to her chest.
"My life is fucked up and you don't know half the shit I've been through," she said. "This just added to that. Now tomorrow, we have to get married while my mind is on everything my father has done and I'm also in fear that this will be snatched from me too. So sorry that I don’t want to get too comfortable. I can’t enjoy no movie or none of that shit right now.”
I sat there for a long moment, just taking in what she'd said. Taking in the weight of it. The fear. The doubt.
I bit my lip, processing everything she'd just laid out. Then I moved. I grabbed her face gently but firmly and made her look directly into my eyes.
"Regardless of what this started off as," I said, my voice steady and real, "I want more. And I'll do anything to protect you. You understand me?"
She didn't say anything. Just stared at me.
"I'm not perfect," I continued. "I've made mistakes in life and I might make more. But I want to try this marriage shit, for real. Not because I have to. Because I want to and whatever this is with you… it just feels right. Man, I’ve knocked a nigga’simportant teeth out his mouth for playing with you. One thing you need to understand is I’m not the nigga to play games. Whatever I tell you, that’s what you can trust and believe. I got you Tatti. Just let me show you.”
Her eyes widen but I guess she was too shocked to speak. I let my thumb run across her cheek.
"And if we gone be real and do this shit, I've been keeping something from you," I said. "Something I should have told you already, but I’m about to go on and lay it out.”
Disappointment flashed across her face so fast I almost missed it. Like she was already preparing herself to be let down.
"From the day we signed those papers," I said, "I'm taking over the empire under a twelve-month probationary period. That means I run it, but it can be snatched away in a year if I don't fulfill all the conditions."
Her face shifted. She was trying to process what that meant.
"What conditions?" she asked quietly.
"Get married and have a baby within twelve months," I said. Straight. No dressing it up.
I watched her face change. Watched her jaw tighten. Watched something in her eyes go cold. Did she not want kids? Why did hearing that news change her energy?
"I don't even know if you want kids or if you can have kids," I said. "That's something we need to talk about. Real talk, but those are the conditions I’ve been given. If we gotta work around it, just tell me something.”
She was quiet for a long moment. Too quiet.
"I need to talk to you about that," she said finally, and there was something in her voice that told me this was about to be a serious conversation. Something I probably wasn't ready for but needed to hear. The last thing I needed was for her to tell me that she couldn’t have kids. But the way that I wanted to be with her ass, I would probably go through hell and back to try and figure out another solution.
But before she could say another word—
The front door slammed closed so hard I heard it all the way up here.
"KASEEM!" Namier's voice echoed through the entire house. "KASEEM!"
I could hear him running through the hallway. Hear the panic in his voice. The desperation. That shit stopped me in my tracks. I felt it, I felt something was wrong.
"Yo, KASEEM, where you at?" he was yelling.
Tatti and I both sat up straight.
I got out of bed and opened the door just as Namier was coming down the hallway toward my room. The second I saw his face, I knew.
His eyes were red. His face was wet with tears. His whole body was shaking like he was about to come apart. My brother ain’t ever shed a tear about shit. This news had to be something fucked up.
"Namier," I said, moving toward him. "What the fuck is—"
He burst into my room, his eyes wild, looking between me and Tatti like he didn't even see her.
"He's gone, man!" Namier screamed, and his voice cracked on the words. "He's gone! They took him from us. Them bitch ass niggas did that bad, now they gotta pay!"
My stomach dropped.
