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“He ain’t never ask to come home with you? That nigga fourteen. I’m sure he has questions. You worldwide. Niggas can google you. You don’t think he looked you up, and found out that you have a family already?” I wanted to know.

“He knows exactly who I am. Remember me telling you that he reminds me of Wolf? I say that to say, he didn’t need me to tell him the real before he figured that shit out on his own. For years, he watched the way I popped in and out of the home. He took all that shit in before he was able to put it together. Just two years ago, when he turned twelve, I came over with all kinds of gifts and shit for him. He looked me dead in my eyes, telling me to keep it real with him. All he wanted was the truth. He wanted to know why my presence wasn’t consistent. Why I never took him home with me, and shit like that,” he went on. I studied his face as he continued, taking in every detail.

Funny how my pops taught me at a young age to always look a man in his eyes when you’re speaking to them. He said that it showed confidence, and truthfulness. He wasn’t looking me in my eyes. I didn’t think he was lying though. I knew he was telling the truth. I just thought that he lacked confidence in this moment. He looked like a fucked up individual. A man that had lied, schemed, and mishandled his wife.

“I told him the truth. For that, he don’t really respect me for it. The bond that I have with you and your brothers, I don’t have that with him. Again, another trait he has that reminds me of Wolf. Wolf been letting me know since he was a kid that he didn’t respect me because of the way that I handled ya’ll mom. Wesley is the same way. I’ll show up to some of his games, come to some of the events at school, or just come over to the house to spend time with him, and Lydia. He carries on like he hates me. I can’t blame him though. He’s entitled to feel that way,” he concluded.

“Damn man. How you end up getting her pregnant a second time? You would think she wouldn’t give your ass another baby,” I told him, and he started laughing.

“I told you she don’t need me for shit. Ain’t like she going to struggle with a second baby. Man, she got maids, butlers, nanny’s, all kind of shit. She’s excited about this baby. She gets to have a daughter,” he let me know.

“Nigga, you better off getting with her. I don’t think Emaye going to take you back. Wolf going to get to her. He came to the crib the other day, and I heard that nigga telling her to get it together, so he can take her house shopping. Wolf going to make sure she straight. Shit, we all going to make sure she straight, but Wolf going to be the one to make sure that she doesn’t go back to your ass. You know he’s been wanting that for years anyways,” I told him. He shook his head at that.

“Ay, who was that woman that Wolf brought with him to the gala?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Shit, that’s Poison,” I said.

“Poison? I thought she told me her name was Deja,” he replied.

“Deja is her real name. Poison is her stage name. She’s a stripper,” I expressed, and when I said that, my pops started coughing up a storm.

I don’t know if he swallowed wrong or what, but he began to uncontrollably cough. Seeing that, I reached over for the cup of water that was sitting on the table and handed it to him. He guzzled the water down, got his coughing under control, and then handed the cup back to me.

“You bullshitting me, right?” he asked.

“Nah man. I’m dead ass. That’s how he met her. We went out that night to the club that she dances at for Demarco’s birthday. It’s been rumored that they were fuckin around, but once he popped up at the gala with her, that pretty much confirmed it. Kendrix not fuckin with Wolf because of that. Kendrix has been wanting Poison for years. Wolf knew that shit too,” I said, snitching on my brother.

I loved Wolf. That was my little brother, and I’ll kill for him, but I hated that he was always viewed as the perfect son that never fucked up. I was trying to show my pops that the nigga fucked up too and made bad decisions too.

“Damn. Nothing about that nigga gives that he would be fuckin with a stripper. I expect that from Kendrix, or Demarco. She cleans up nicely though, so I would have never suspected that. I think he really likes her. I was being me, flirting and shit, trying to kiss the back of her hand, and he looked like he wanted to beat my ass. We know that it’s never been like Wolf to bring a woman to meet the family. I just don’t see how that’s supposed to work in his favor though. Your girl stripping, showing niggas her body every night. Nah. She going to have to get out of the club,” he stated.

I left it at that. The way I saw it, his ass had bigger fish to fry. His marriage was about to end. He should be going to God in prayer, thanking Him that he was still alive. On top of that, he had a baby that was due next month. He had way too many challenges in his life right now to worry about who Wolf was fuckin. That should be the least of his worries.

CHAPTER 7

DEJA MCCOY

“Kilo just called about an hour ago. Him, and some of his guys are getting ready to pull up. They requested a VIP section. I’m putting you, Lyric, and a few other girls in their section tonight,” Blue walked up to me, after I just finished my set on stage.

I was quickly trying to snap my bra together, not wanting to walk up on him with my titties out, even though he’s seen them a million times before. Tonight was my first night back at the club. It was a Friday night, so you could only imagine how busy it was in here.

Nari was discharged from the hospital this afternoon. If my sister didn’t thank God for anything else, her ass better thank Him for allowing those people to let her go home. As cool as I tried to play it, there was a piece of me that was afraid that they would try and keep her, admitting her somewhere for a few days. I was glad that she had someone like Ms. James from behavioral health that saw something in my sister, listened to her, and was able to understand that Nari made a terrible decision, but she understood the seriousness of it.

Even though Nari was discharged from the hospital, she had strict conditions that she needed to follow. As of now, she couldn’t be left alone in the house. All the medication had to be put up, hidden in a place where Nari wouldn’t be able to find it. She had to find a therapist by next week, and attending therapy wasn’t an option. She was also going to have follow-up doctors’ appointments that she couldn’t miss, either. I was cool with all the conditions that they’d given her. All the conditions were going to help Nari’s mental state improve.

Right now, she was home with our mom, and Nico. I told her ass to text me if our mom left that house because I knew that we had the kind of mom that could never sit her ass down. Knowing that my sister was home, and being supervised was all the motivation that I needed to bring my ass back to work tonight.

“Oh wow. I didn’t know he was coming tonight,” I told Blue.

I haven’t seen or spoken to Kilo in a little minute. The last exchange we had was a few weeks ago when he reached out to apologize about the shit that he posted of us on social media. You know, where he tried to make it seem like the two of us were together, when he knew we weren’t. I remember when I was in Atlanta in the club with him, and he told me that the next time he was in Miami, he was going to make it his business to come see me. I guess he was telling the truth.

“Yeah he going to pull up. Go ahead and get ready. Good shit tonight on stage,” Blue hyped me. I smiled, thanking him, and made my way to the back.

It didn’t take long to get to the locker room. There were a few girls lingering around, freshening up, waiting to go back out. I walked over to my locker, keyed my code in, so that I could grab my phone. I had a text message from my man. It wasn’t anything crazy, he was just inquiring on how my night was going. Instead of texting him back, I walked over to my station, put in a facetime call, and propped my phone up on the vanity. I was going to touch up my curls.

Wolf answered the phone for me on the 2nd ring. My station was on a whole other side of the locker room, so I didn’t have to worry about none of the other girls seeing who I was talking to or even hearing his voice. They were a good distance away from me, and were all doing their own things, talking amongst each other.

“What’s up beautiful?” he asked me.