Islah nodded.
Bully walked down to us, hugged Islah, and dapped me up while looking her over.
“Are you okay? That nigga wasn’t listening to none of us. We told him to leave you alone.”
“I am okay,” Islah responded. “I’m not 100 percent, but for the most part I am good.”
That was the first time she admitted she wasn’t all the way good.
“Listen, I am just glad you’re away from that nigga. And Love, man, you my nigga, you did your big one for her!”
I nodded. “Always, I’m never letting off her.”
“We are about to go back to Atlanta,” Islah expressed. “But before we left, I wanted to see you and tell you thank you for looking out for me.”
Bully pulled Islah in for another hug. “You will always be sis. RIP to that clown, but the hood was tired of him.”
“That man got what he needed,” I chimed in. “He’s in the best place for him.”
Bully laughed. “You are ruthless, but I fuck with it. I pray y’all have a happy marriage, no more crazy shit like this again. Sis, you deserve to be happy.”
We chopped it up with him for a lil’ bit, then made our way back to the hotel, making sure everybody else was getting ready to leave. Once they were all back in our room, Islah stood off to the side, looking out the window, not talking to any of us.
I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist.
“Are you okay?”
She exhaled softly. “I am just ready to leave.”
I pulled her away from the window. “Let’s go then, our son waiting.”
Chapter 19
Home
Islept for most of the flight back home, and the whole time, I was having dreams of Gio dragging me to the room, locking me in there, and the look in his eyes while oxygen was leaving his body.
It wasn’t like I wanted to think about Gio. He would just enter my thoughts and stay there, no matter how hard I tried to push the thought of him away and move like I normally would, but everybody kept asking if I was okay.
I kept telling everybody yeah, but the truth was…I didn’t even know.
By the time we landed, everybody looked just as exhausted as I felt. The ride from the airport was quiet, like nobody really knew what to say. Every now and then, somebody would ask if I needed anything, and I’d shake my head before looking back out the window.
The city looked the same.
I didn’t feel the same.
When we finally pulled back to the house, my girls hugged me while Keith and Sammy dapped Love up, and we watched as all of them got in their cars and pulled off, going their separate ways.
Then it was just me and Love.
He grabbed our bags while I stood there for a second, staring at the front door.
“You coming?” he asked.
I blinked a couple of times before nodding. “Yeah, baby.”
I followed behind him into the house and stood in the entryway, looking around.
