Page 66 of That Fire

“This is a moment I’ve dreamed of having with you for the past year and a half. I love you so much, and there is no other man I want this with. I will definitely take Henderson as my last name. I would have married you last year, baby.”

I slid the rock on her finger, then kissed her passionately, sliding my tongue to hers. We hadn’t kissed like this in a long ass time, and I was loving every minute of it. My emotions were threatening to take over me. Royal Henderson was a dad and was about to be a whole ass husband.Who would have thought?

Epilogue

Royal

ONE MONTH LATER . . .

“Your honor, there is so much evidence to prove corruption. The only way to truly fix it is to dismantle the entire FBI and start over. It’s ridiculous to think that we have gotten them all. It would have to be gutted at the root. Seven Henderson was scammed by the government, the people who are supposed to protect him, especially when he agreed to help them. He didn’t know they were simply using him for a bigger plot.”

Shy slid his hand down his face. “I’ve been here with these people before. That’s proof that they don’t give a damn.”

“Careful, Mister Berotte,” the judge said.

I bit my bottom lip as Shy rolled his eyes. “The point is, as long as the government and justice system keep bailing them out, this is going to keep happening. Make them suffer consequences besides payoffs. Somebody needs to do jailtime. Hard time. Not at the lil cushiony prison either. Had Seven Henderson done something wrong, I can guarantee he wouldn’t get the same courtesy. They are law enforcement. They shouldsuffer greater consequences. For lack of better words . . . they know better.”

Shy had a seat, and we all clapped. Mrs. Taylor smirked at our foolishness. She knew how we got down. The judge banged his gavel and nodded as we quieted down.

“Let me go to my chambers to deliberate. There isn’t much to deliberate on. Take an hour lunch break.”

He banged his gavel, and we all stood as he walked out. When he left, so did we. Shy had presented proof of corruption within the bureau. PJ had uncovered shit that led all the way to Patel himself. They were running that group of hoodlums as their personal rogue agents to harm the Black community in Liberty and surrounding areas, which was why we could never get rid of all their asses. It was like they kept sending in more troops or some shit.

All of it was a ploy to get at Marcus and what had come to him. That was an inheritance. It didn’t signify his involvement in anything, and he was clearly a U.S. citizen. It was a shame when you had to protect yourself from the government. However, we knew as Black people, the government was never meant to protect us anyway.

When we all got outside the courtroom, Uncle Storm stood next to me. I looked up at him, knowing he had something to say. “So when is the big day? I saw that rock on her finger that you didn’t bother clearing with me.”

I chuckled. “My bad, Unc. We haven’t set a date yet. Since Aaliyah and Iesha are getting cool, we may have a double wedding if Seven ever proposes.”

“He wanted to wait for all this shit to be over first.”

“I get it . . . I guess. I mean, she’s here through all the shit. Why wait? Whatever. He does what the fuck he wants to do regardless.”

“Uh-huh. That’s why we here. Although it was a pain in our asses, we gon’ all benefit from this shit. Did you see those muthafuckas faces when PJ walked in?”

I chuckled. “Right. I’m glad y’all revealed that shit to everybody beforehand, because y’all would have killed his sisters. Had Uncle Philly finally told Aunt Kema?”

“Yeah. She was mad as fuck at his ass. She slept at Tiff and Ryder’s place for a whole week. I told his ass he should have told her sooner.”

“Yeah. I messed around and let it slip to Aaliyah about a month ago. Let me go holla at my boy.”

Uncle Storm pushed my head, and I laughed. He’d been low-key, because he was worried about my dad . . . all his siblings were. He and Mama were only home alone when they were sleeping . . . or fucking, because I was pretty sure they were still getting it in, no matter how depressed they were.Ugh.

This trial couldn’t be over fast enough though. I needed to get in Aaliyah’s shit asap! She’d had her six-week checkup yesterday, but she wasn’t feeling all that great. I needed her at her nastiest. My parents agreed to keep the babies overnight so we could enjoy ourselves without having to stop to tend to them. I was beyond ready too.

I went over to PJ and hugged him. He was so happy to see everybody he could barely function. He was walking with a cane and still had that damn colostomy bag. He only had another month to deal with that shit. I swore the other attorney looked like he shit on himself when Shy called PJ to the witness stand. They knew they were done after that. Because he was working for Watchful Eyes, he had surveillance. That shit was the nail in their coffin.

When we got back inside, everyone was excited to get this shit over with. After all the evidence of them trying to fuck withour businesses and PJ’s cousin’s testimony of how they targeted my brother, I was pretty sure we would come out on top.

The judge came in as I stood and grabbed Aaliyah’s hand. My parents already had their babies. Whenever we were somewhere when they were present, they always took them from us. I believed they felt connected to Crew in a way.

When we sat, he said, “This is corruption at its highest level. But we can thank the president for giving them this much confidence in their crimes. They thought they would get away with this. They’ve been terrorizing the Hendersons for nearly two years. For now, I’m going to place fines . . . money that needs to be paid to the Hendersons immediately for their troubles, especially Marcus Henderson and his family, Seven Henderson, the family of Crew Henderson, and Philly Semien Junior. There will be five different settlements.”

He shifted some papers around, then continued. “For the Henderson family as a whole, you will pay twelve million dollars, to be split between the eight siblings. That’s one point five million each in damages to their businesses and disturbances that cost them business. For Marcus Henderson and his family, having to endure detention centers and false imprisonment, the stress of separating his family, and the attacks on his person, I award them fifteen million.”

We were clapping like crazy. We were family, and we already knew the wealth would be shared across the family.

“For Seven Henderson for the false pretenses, incarcerations, drugging for a false confession, and so much terrorizing, I award him fifteen million as well. The family of Crew Henderson. This is terrible. He was targeted because of his intelligence and the weakness in his mental stability. They felt if they could get him off the path to success it would destroy the Hendersons from the inside out. Now he’s no longer here, because they beat him to death.”