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The light in the bedroom cut on. It was Lyric in the room that cut the light on. Now that I could see, I looked at the figure down on the floor and screamed. I let out a scream that topped any scream that I’ve ever screamed in my entire life. It was my sister. My fuckin sister was slumped over on the floor, with her head fallen to one side.

“Nariiii. Nari! Sister, wake up! Wake the fuck up!” I screamed, damn near throwing my body to her, and lifting her, so I could cradle her head in my lap.

By this point, my mom finally made it upstairs. Lyric was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, irate, yelling at them for someone to get out here.

My eyes shot over to my mom, who stood at the door frame, with both hands over her mouth. In just a matter of five seconds, I watched every emotion run across her face. There was fear, confusion, disbelief, and just like me, you could see the panic.

I took my eyes off her, so that I could continue looking down at Nari. My sister was so tiny, but holding her in my lap, she felt heavy. Her body was limp, to the point that it felt as if I was carrying dead weight. The only thing that gave me some sort of ease was that I could tell she was breathing. Her breathing was very slow though. Shallow, even. The kind of breathing that made you feel at ease, but on the other hand, it made me wonder if the breathing was going to eventually just stop.

Her beautiful chocolate skin that I always complimented her on looked almost gray. She was so pale looking. Even her lips looked blue, as if her oxygen was low.

I shook her in my arms, slapped at her cheeks, and called out her name, but she wouldn’t answer me.

“Can they please hurry up? Please?” Lyric was screaming over the phone, as she walked over to me, picked up a prescription bottle, and handed it to me.

I looked at the name on the bottle, along with the medication. It was prescribed to my mom, and the name of the medication read, ‘ALPRAZOLAM’.

“What the fuck type of pills is this?” I screamed at my mom, holding the pill bottle in my hand, so that I could show it to her.

“That’s Xanax,” she replied to me, walking over with tears falling down her face.

She tried to reach for Nari, but I turned my sister in the other direction, as I continued to hold onto her.

“Don’t touch her! Don’t you fuckin touch her!” I screamed at her.

With shaky legs due to all the liquor that was in her system, she lowered herself down, keeling before Nari. She smoothed down her hair, talking to Nari, telling her to wake up. She was talking to my sister in a way she’d never spoken to me a day in my life. I lost count on the number of times that she told Nari she loved her. She was showing a side of herself that I didn’t know existed. She was pleading for Nari to wake up, but just like me, my sister continued to lie in my arms, unresponsive. She didn’t move a peep, and as the seconds went by, my sister’s breaths came slower and farther apart.

“Nari, just hold on for ma okay. Please! You can’t do this shit to me. You’ll fuckin break me, okay!” my mom talked to my sister.

I truly believed that my mom loved Nari. She was a fucked up mother for sure, but I never doubted that she loved Nari. Me, on the other hand? I knew she didn’t love my ass. If it was me that had sent that suicide text to my sister, and Nari called our mom, freaking out, looking for me, I can assure you that she wouldn’t have rushed to my side. Wherever she just came from, I’m sure that she would have continued turning up, and drinking.

It would have been a celebration that she’d finally got rid of me. Of course, that was painful to know and accept. I couldn’t dwell on it though. The only thing that mattered to me right now was my sister. Wanting her to open those pretty eyes again. I was desperate to hear her voice again. I only got to experience seventeen years of life with her so far. That was too sudden for her to leave me. I needed way more than seventeen years with her.

CHAPTER 2

WARREN ‘WOLF’ BENNETT

“Shit! Emaye, you tripping! Let me get the fuckin gun!” my little brother, Demarco demanded. He rushed over to her, damn near having to tussle with her to get the gun out of her hands after she fired that shot.

Her aim was off. She tried to put a hole right in the middle of our pops forehead, but when Demarco rushed over, he threw her shot off, causing her to send a round right into the arm of the chair in the family room area.

“Stop! Demarco, stop!” my mom was screaming, kicking and yelling, out of her mind, trying to get a hold of the gun. She really wanted to kill this nigga, and she was crying because my brother was stopping her from doing so.

I stood here stuck. I didn’t know what the fuck to do. So many things were running through my mind that I was still trying to comprehend. This nigga had a fourteen-year-old son. How the fuck was he able to keep that away from us after all these years? Not only that, but he had a baby on the way. If that wasn’t a lot to accept, I still wasn’t over the fact that my mom sat here and shot this nigga a few times. She was out of her mind right now. He pushed her too far this time.

After tussling with her for the gun, Demarco managed to get ahold of it. He handed it over to Kingston, who wasn’t standing too far away from them. My pops was still down on the floor, moaning and groaning in pain, while my mom leaned over in the chair, her head buried into her lap, crying.

I listened to cries of a broken woman. I’ve heard my mom cry over this nigga plenty of times, but nothing like this. It was the kind of cry as if her body was physically in pain. The screams. The kicking and screaming. All of those were things that proved he had pushed this woman to a point where her body could no longer physically handle that shit.

“I want a divorce. I want a… fuckin divorce!” she said the words that I’ve never in my thirty years heard her say.

The way this man has cheated, did all kinds of dirt, neglected my mom on plenty of occasions, it was never enough for her to tell him that she wanted a divorce. She’d reached that place in her life now. As if saying it wasn’t enough, she took the ring off her finger and threw it at his ass.

“Baby, please!” was all this nigga could say.

“Get him the fuck out of here!” she screamed at me, and my brothers.

“Ay, one of ya’ll get this nigga the fuck out of here,” I said, putting my eyes on my three brothers.