“You’ll find out… in due time,” my father said.
Before he could jump up, I stepped forward and clamped a chloroform-soaked rag over his nose.
Kalvon jerked and tried to fight, but he was soft.
His eyes rolled and his body sagged.
“Yeah,” I whispered in his ear, tightening my grip as he sank. “Go ’head and sleep tight, muthafucka. You gone wish you died in this chair when you see what’s waiting for you when you wake up.”
He went limp, and I let him drop.
Kalvon really thought he could outmaneuver me and take the throne I’d bled for. I refused to bow to that soft-ass imitation of a man, so I built my own trap. I brought in someone sharper—a ghost with a calculator, someone who lived and breathed numbers. The nigga didn’t talk, drink, gamble, do drugs or steal; he just counted and reported. Within weeks, he found holes in the accounts, and every single one of them traced back to Kalvon’s greedy fingerprints.
Thirty minutes later, the room was carved from silence.
We were inThe Cellar, the place no man guilty of a Belvior crime walked out of. The floor beneath us was concrete, darkened from old sins. Every member of the Belvior Order lined the walls, shoulder to shoulder like an army awaiting judgment. Heads were bowed, respect was heavy in the air, and everyone waited for my father to speak.
At the front of the room, Kalvon was on his knees,wrists bound behind him and blood in the corner of his mouth where the guards had introduced him to the floor. My father stood before him in a calm way that made grown men want to beg for forgiveness before he even spoke.
Pops lit his cigar slow, as if he wasn’t about to deliver a death sentence. “Loyalty is the spine of this family,” he began, his voice echoing through the hollow space. “And betrayal?” he whistled, tauntingly. “Betrayal is rot.”
Pops flicked ash from his cigar, eyes still on Kalvon.
“We’re here tonight because a man forgot his oath, forgot what he owed this family, and forgot his place. There is no greater sin in this family than disloyalty… not even murder. This family is built on trust, order, and honor.”
Pops turned his head slightly, eyes sharpening on Kalvon.
“And what are you built on, Kalvon? Greed? Envy? Arrogance?”
Kalvon’s head snapped up, confusion and fear wrestling on his face. “What?”
Pops ignored the stupidity in his tone and addressed the room. “Earlier today, I got confirmation that someone’s been moving product under the table. Guess whose name kept surfacing?Kalvon Marceaux… our accountant… the man I trusted with our numbers, our money, and our name. You were given everything, and in return, you took what wasn’t yours.”
“Whoa! You trying to say—” Kalvon started.
“I’m not trying to say anything,” My father cut in. “Iamsaying. You thought I wouldn’t find out? Thought you could play me and still eat off my plate?”
I stood off to the side, watching the same man who thought he’d outsmarted us tremble under the weight of his own arrogance. He finally saw the truth in the room; every eye was already mourning him.
Kalvon’s breathing stuttered. “I didn’t steal from the family! I swear on my life—”
“You think I’m a fool, boy?” Pops sneered. “I’ve been building empires since before you knew how to count past ten. You didn’tsteal money; you stolerespect.You looked me in my face and lied with a smilewhile robbing me blind.”
Kalvon tried again, desperately.“Everything I got—”
“Is because ofme,” Pops finished. “You were nothing but a loud-mouth with cheap cologne and ambition you didn’t earn… just like yo' raggedy ass daddy.”
“Look, leave my pops out of this,” he said offensively. “Now, I didn’t do whatever you think I did! I’m being set up! Somebody’s framing me to make me look bad!”
Kalvon looked at me for the first time. Our exchange was the look of two wolves that had circled each other for years, and he finally realized I’d sunk my teeth deeper.
“It’s you behind this shit, isn’t it?”
“Guilty, muthafucka,” I admitted with no shame or fear. “From the moment I met you, you were always too greedy to be trusted… and too stupid to see me coming.”
He scoffed. “I should’ve known. You’ve been gunnin’ for me since day one. You always hated I was chosen too. What? You were so scared that you went to this extreme to make up lies?”
I smiled slowly, stepping forward, voice cool. “Scared? Nah. I just don’t like sloppy thieves. And Kalvon, women lie, men lie, but guess what don’t lie? Numbers.”
