Page 146 of Heart Of A Goon II

Gerald needed to stop babying her and actually hold her accountable. She could be a mother in mourning, but at what point do you dust yourself off and live a life your son would be proud of?

I refused to believe that she just started doing drugs when her son was killed. Heroine was a hard drug, and you didn’t just go straight to that. It wasn’t my place to speak on that, so I kept my mouth shut.

Tonight, I settled on a coral sheer off the shoulder dress for dinner. I put on my favorite shape wear that matched my skin tone to hide my panties and bra. If this was one of those trips, I would have worn my matching thong and skipped the shapewear. We were around his family, so I wanted to be respectful. I grabbed my trusty YSL gold padlock strappy heels. They hurt like a bitch, but made every outfit come together. Capri sprinted around with these for sport.

I heard a light tap at the door while I was buckling my shoe. This was the part I hated the most about these damn shoes. Then Gerald wanted to be driving up in heels and shit.

“Come in!”

The door slowly opened and Khaos popped his head in. “You decent in here?”

“Got my whole entire ass out, Khaos.”

He chuckled as he came into the room. I continued to struggle with my shoe as he remained in the foyer area of the room.

“I wanted to apologize about the way Inez been acting towards you.”

I paused on messing with my shoe. “Not your place to apologize for her.”

“Acting like my brother, huh?”

I nodded. “Very much.”

He walked further into the room and sat in one of the chairs near the bed. I could tell that his cousins choices messed with him bad. It wasn’t his place to apologize for her. If she felt like ever apologizing, she knew where to find me. Until then, I was going to keep ignoring her like I had been doing.

“You ever held a secret that you knew would fuck your family up and the relationship with one of them?”

I turned slowly in his direction. “I’ve been the person the secret was withheld from.”

“And how did you act?”

“Not good.”

“You seem decent with your family though.” I loved that Khaos was around but wasn’t really around.

He minded his own business, so he wasn’t directly involved in a lot of shit. “Me and my family weren’t always decent. It took a lot for us to get to this place. Especially me and my brother. I’m a firm believer in getting things out there and dealing with the hard truths.”

The world would have been less complicated if we didn’t shy away from the hard truths and the awkward conversations. That few minutes would save years of confusions and secrets.

“I hear you.”

“Whatever it is… I hope you’re able to speak your truth and they receive it well.” I smiled.

“Yeah. How was it staying at my grandparents’ house?” My face told it and he laughed. “It was that bad?”

“It’s beautiful and a humbling experience to see how other people live. Even without the things we have in our regular homes, they’re happy. Your brother is very happy there, too. Would I like to spend the night again, no thank you.”

He chuckled. “That’s always been his safe space. I remember sitting on the phone with him while he was locked up, and he would talk about going there. While there were niggas in there with him that was thinking of their first piece of pussy when they got home, he was concerned with going to the countryside and being off grid.”

“You don’t like visiting there?”

“Nah. I go because I know that is the only way I’ll see my grandparents, but my grandfather could clear a fucking mountain with his snores.”

“Right?! I felt like it was shaking the house.”

We both started laughing hard because at least I wasn’t in this alone. As much as I said I didn’t want to stay there again, I would for that man. He didn’t ask for much, so when he did, I wanted to always come through for him.

“I’m excited to be an uncle, yo.”