Cooly (The Benefactor. The One That Got Away. The Closure.)

Chapter 1

"No more visits or birthday parties for the kids, Cooly." She hadn’t answered the phone since then. She didn't even have the decency to block a nigga's number. Just ignored me.

Her voice was still in my head. Flat. The way you'd tell a dog to stop begging at the table.

"Stop showing up. No more gifts. No more visits. No more godfather. You threatened my husband. That’s fucked up after I let your plotting on me with my father slide."

On the table beside the bottle sat the unopened toys.

A plush elephant and a doll the size of a toddler.

I'd walked into FAO Schwarz like a fucking idiot, stood in the baby section for forty-five minutes.

I'd sent the package to Florida. Wanted to let her know—that I'd be there for her and the kids, even if she didn't want me there.

She didn't even open the fucking thing and sent it back.

It was fucking Malachai's fault. I should have killed him before she reached Florida back then.

I took another drink.

My phone buzzed. I ignored it.

It buzzed again. Then again. Then rang.

I let it ring.

Diamond's name lit up the cracked screen. She was persistent, I'd give her that. Always had been. We'd been friends since we were seven.

The call went to voicemail.

The phone buzzed with a text.

Diamond: Stop sulking. And open the door.

I stared at the glowing letters. Unbelievable.

I dragged myself up, the liquor pulling at my limbs. Before I reached the foyer, the heavy oak door swung open on its own. I should have never given her ass my keys. What was even the point of her calling me?

Diamond breezed right past me, not waiting on a welcome.

She was poured into a black bodycon dress that cost more than a month's rent, her ass sitting right where it was supposed to. Six months ago, I would’ve pinned her against the couch and fucked the frustration right out of both of us.

It was just something we did—never caught feelings, strictly business and pleasure between friends.

But her and Malik had finally closed up their open relationship. That door was shut.

I listened to her heels clicking against the marble floor. She took one look at me—rumpled clothes, empty bottle, and the toys on the table—and shook her head.

"Damn."

"Damn what?"

"Damn, you really got it bad." She kicked off her heels and dropped onto my couch like she lived there. "I ain't never seen you like this."

I closed the door slowly and leaned against it. "What do you want, Diamond?"

"To save you from yourself." She picked up the elephant, turned it over in her hands. "Cute. Too bad she'll never see it."

"Get out. Abeg."

"Make me."

I didn't move. I was too tired to fight her.

Diamond put the elephant down and crossed her legs, studying me like I was a math problem she was trying to solve.

"I called her, you know. After you called me crying about what she said."

"I don't fucking cry."

“You weren’t dropping tears, but you had that little crack in your voice."

"Nah!! My voice don’t crack, ever."

"It wobbled then." Diamond leaned forward, her voice softening. "She told me why she had to let you go. You threatened her husband. She found out."

My jaw tightened. "First, fuck him. She didn't have to let me go. She chose to."

"Same thing."

"It's not the same."

Diamond sighed, the way you do when someone's missing the point on purpose. "You knew the deal going in. She was always gonna go back to him. That was always the ending."

"I was supposed to be the ending."

I pushed off the door, crossing to the window.

"I could've made her happy," I said quietly.

"Could you?" Diamond's voice was soft, almost gentle. "Really? You, who hides his whole life from her. You, who has a body count you'll never tell her about. She don't even know you. You're Cooly around her. She don't know Chinedu."

"I told her the truth about who I was."

“No, you didn’t. You gave her crumbs after she caught you slippin’.

” Diamond stood up, closing the distance between us until her heavy perfume filled my lungs.

“You’re a lot of dark things, Cooly, but you’re not stupid.

You knew what you were doing. You knew if she ever saw the full picture—all the blood and the bullshit—she’d run.

She ran from her crazy-ass husband, and you’re him multiplied by ten. You just hide it better.”

I kept my mouth shut.

Diamond reached up and turned my face toward hers. "I ain't saying this to hurt you. I'm saying it because I'm your friend. The only friend you got who'll tell you the truth." She paused. "You didn't love her. You loved the idea of her. The idea of taking her."

“I liked her before he was ever in the picture,” I gritted out. “When I first saw her. So you’re wrong.”

"Then what is it?"

I was quiet for a long moment. Then, in a voice so low it was barely a whisper: "She… I don't know… It’s the history we share. She knows what it's like growing up like me."

"History? What, History?” You knew her a few years.

I didn’t say anything, There were something’s Diamond didn’t know. She continue…

“History or not, none of that don't mean fucking love, Chine. What's really going on is your big ass fucking ego is broken and mistaking it for heartbreak. It's been month. Two more months and you'll be over it."

I started thinking about it. Maybe.

She pulled out her phone and texted someone.

"I got a surprise for you. Take a ride with me."

"I won't."

"You are."

"Why?"

A slow, wicked grin spread across her lips. "Because I got a little distraction that’s either gonna fix your head... or ruin you completely."

She pulled on her heels, grabbed my leather jacket from the hook by the door, and threw it at me.

"Shower, change. Twenty minutes. I'll be waiting. Black car on the curb."

I caught the jacket. My reflection stared back from the window—tired, broken, pathetic.

I thought about the toys on the table.

I thought about her voice, flat and final.

"No more, Cooly."

And I thought about how empty the penthouse felt.

I turned and went to shower. Thirty minutes later I was downstairs. The car was idling.

Diamond was already in the back seat, scrolling through her phone.

I slid into the leather interior beside her. The driver—a massive dude with a shaved head and a neck like a tree trunk—shifted into drive without saying a word.

“Where are we going?”

“Nigga, just relax.”

“I hate surprises.”

“Lie again. You love surprises. You just hate not being in control.”

I didn’t bother arguing.

The city slid past the windows like a fever dream. I watched the lights blur together—red, white, gold.

I'd been coming and going from New York all my life.

Running from my daddy's legacy. Problem was, no matter how far I flew, that nigga's shadow always got on the plane with me.

So it always felt like borrowed peace, though.

Then Indigo came along again and, like the first time when I was too young to know what she was to me, I didn't really think about the reality of my life.

"You still thinking about her, bighead?"

"No," I lied.

"You know what your fatal flaw is, Cooly?"

I turned my head toward Diamond.

"You think wanting something means you should get it. That's not how the world works. The world doesn't care what you want."

"I know how the world works."

"No, you know how your world works. Your daddy's world. The Black Axe. The money. The power." She shook her head. "But you don't know how love works. That's why you lost."

"Nah. I didn't lose."

"Yes, you did. You lost Indigo the moment you told yourself she was yours, knowing there was a chance she was always gonna choose another man."

My hands curled into tight fists against my knees. “She didn’t run back because she wanted to. She went back because she needed protection and didn’t think I could give it to her. That was my mistake.”

“She went back because she loves him, Cooly.” Her voice dropped, gentle, but every word cut like a razor blade.

“She loves him. She always did. Even when she was hiding out in New York. Even when she was dancing for strangers. Even when she was laughing at your jokes and letting you buy her dinner.” She paused, letting her words settle into my head.

“She wanted to fuck you, wanted to bask in the high you gave her. But she was just passing time, waiting for an excuse to go home.”

I sank deeper into the leather seat, staring straight ahead.

“I like Indigo,” Diamond added quietly. “She’s good people. But she’s messy, Chine. And she used you.”

She wasn't lying. I let out a heavy breath, dragging a palm over my freshly buzzed Caesar—still missing the dreads I’d chopped off weeks ago in a fit of rage. "Change the fucking subject."

Diamond cut her eyes at me, a soft, wicked glint in her gaze. “You always hated hearing the truth.”

I just stared out the window and nodded. Because for once, she wasn't lying.