How the Ice Grew #2
Once he got his thoughts together, he jumped up from his seat. “You can’t be fuckin’ serious, Blake. You act like I’m cheating on your ass or something. All I said was that I didn’t want a kid.”
Her hand went to her protruding belly. Her son kicked the fuck out of her side.
“Nigga, when I told you that I was pregnant, that was when you should have said that shit. I even asked you if we should consider termination. Your goofy ass said you wanted your baby. I’m thirty-six weeks! It’s a lot too late.
“At this point I don’t give a fuck if you were cheating.
That would just be an added reason that your ass has to go.
You’ve made your position clear. . . You don’t want our son.
Guess what? If you don’t want him, then you don’t want me.
Get the fuck out of my house, homeboy.” The game was officially over as far as Blakeney was concerned.
Cory’s thoughts were all over the place.
He had an amazing situation with Blakeney.
Yeah, he lived in her house, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford his own spot.
He made money in the streets too. He didn’t work under Travis, but he worked under Lo’ak.
Lo’ak came up under Geo, who passed the kingdom down to Lo’ak.
Tiberius Sr., who Travis worked under and with, and Geo had a mutual understanding.
There was never beef between the two teams, stretching back generations.
Cory made good money on the block, but why get his own spot when he lived with Blakeney basically free?
Yeah, he threw her some money for some bills, but he knew that she didn’t need the shit.
Her parents bought her house for her as a twenty-first birthday gift.
The shit was huge and paid for. He never understood what a twenty-one-year-old needed with a five-bedroom house. Nah, this can’t be happening!
He tittered. “Nah, I’m not going any fuckin’ where.” He sat back down like he belonged. In his mind, he did. “If you want me gone, you better serve me an eviction, bitch. I’ll get my ass out in thirty days.”
Blakeney’s head bucked back and eyelids stretched.
There was no way that he just spoke to her in that manner.
Yeah, he’d bumped his head. “Okay, bet. Let’s see if you talk that shit when my daddy gets here, ho-ass bitch.
You Tony Tiger tough now, but when he gets here, something tells me you’re gonna be Stimpy in this bitch. ”
When she turned to the side to reach for her phone on the side table, the unexpected happened. She was knocked down by a punch to the side of her face. What the fuck!
Cory couldn’t let her call her father. He knew that was a death wish. The fact that she would really call him infuriated him. All he saw was black, because in his mind it wasn’t that fucking serious. He didn’t want a baby with Blakeney, and that was that.
Time elapsed fast from the moment the assault started to when it finished.
It wasn’t until the finishing point that he snapped back into his sanity to realize what he had done.
His hand went to his head, and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
He looked down at the woman that he’d been with for two years.
She was unconscious and bloodied. “What the fuck did I do?”
He knew he had to get the fuck on through. This didn’t have to end here. Yeah, he didn’t want a baby with Blakeney because it would ruin an opportunity that he felt hung in the air. He had to get out.
Without a care to check on her, he rushed to their bedroom to grab a suitcase to pack some of his shit.
He didn’t have time to get everything, but he needed his essentials.
Once he had all of the things he felt he needed, he left the house.
Once he was on the highway, he made the call that he’d wanted to make for a while.
A Short Time Later
Frozen Solid . . .
Blakeney lay on her living room floor for almost two hours before her mother popped up at her home because of no response from her phone calls. Marla had planned to come over anyway to help organize the gifts and make sure her baby girl was alright.
The doctors told Marla and Travis, thank God she came when she did, or it would have been a double fatality.
Marla called her husband first then emergency services on a three-way call.
Travis got there before the police, which gave him time to look at the cameras in his daughter’s home.
When he saw and heard the confrontation and assault, he knew right then that he would have his people pay for a plot at York Memorial Park.
Several days later, Blakeney had yet to wake up from her coma. Travis and Marla’s minds reeled with how they would tell their daughter that her fuck-ass boyfriend killed their child. How did they go from the celebration of their grandson’s soon-to-be birth to his death?
Travis called the troops to look for Cory.
Derrick led the charge, and he reached out to Lo’ak for an assist. When Lo’ak and Sully saw the camera footage, it was automatic.
Cory was excommunicated. It was told to his team that if any of them spoke to him for any other reason than to find his location, the same would happen to them.
Excommunicated was the worst thing to be because it meant death.
They hadn’t had luck yet, but Travis knew that they would find him. Niggas like Cory made stupid moves under pressure. That was clear with his actions toward Blakeney.
“Marla, leave that girl alone.” Travis lightly fussed at his wife. “I don’t think she’s going to care that her lips are ashy when she wakes up. That will be the last thing on her mind.”
Marla waved her love off. They coped in different ways.
She hovered and had to take care of the people she loved.
That was really no different from what she already did, but when she had to cope with something, it became compulsive.
“I know she won’t, but if I can stop my baby’s lips from cracking, then that’s what I’ll do.
I can’t bring her son back, so this is the least I can do. ”
Travis’s heart broke even more at the pain in his wife’s voice. This was something that he couldn’t fix. Neither of them could bring back their little grandson. Yes, he would ensure that consequences for Cory’s actions were felt.
Cory’s mother had already been sent a stylist for the funeral. That was Marla’s doing. She wanted Sandra, Cory’s mother, to grieve in style. Sandra thought that Marla was just being her normal, giving self. That call would come soon when she had to wear those nice black dresses that she picked out.
Travis stood, walked over to her, then pulled her into his arms. She allowed herself to break in his arms. “I want him dead, Blake. I want him in hell,” she mumbled into his chest. Travis kissed her temple.
“I promise you, he will be. He’s going to get a first-class ticket there if it’s the last thing that I do. ”
He glanced down at his daughter. Even with a battered face, she was gorgeous.
She was a carbon copy of her mother with her father’s fairer skin.
Travis was twenty-three-years-old when Blakeney was born.
He nor Marla, who was twenty at the time, knew what to do as parents.
They made a way, though, to be great parents who loved their daughter immensely.
After their daughter, they made the decision not to have any more children. They wanted to selfishly pour all of their love into their one baby girl. It was the best decision that they ever made.
The sound of the room door opening caught both of their attention.
Shana walked in with a small smile and a dreary spirit.
She was tired and wanted all of this to be over.
Every day after work, she’d been at the hospital with her best friend and a heavy heart.
“Hey, Auntie Marla and Unc Travis. How is she doing today?”
Marla gathered her strength quickly. She was one of the strongest women that Travis knew, and that was why he pursued her. As soft as Marla came across, she wasn’t scared to fuck it up and leave. She had the bodies to prove it. “She’s doing good. I just want my baby to wake up.”
Shana sat down in the seat that was at the table in the room. Her heart hurt more than anyone knew, and she needed it to stop. “Um, I know where Cory is,” she blurted.
The air stood still. Travis heard her, but it still seemed like the words came out jumbled. “What did you say?”
Shana’s nervousness sat on her chest. She cleared her throat. “I know where Cory is. He thinks that I’m going to meet him tonight.”
Marla’s mommy senses were tingling. She smelled bullshit. “Shana, why would he think that you were coming to see him tonight? Please tell me that you are not fucking my daughter’s soon-to-be-dead ex-boyfriend.”
Her head shook hard enough to potentially snap off. Her hands matched her head’s motion. “No! No! I’m not.”
Travis took a step forward. He wanted to know where Cory was, but right now, he wanted to know Shana’s connection to all of this bullshit.
It was important for him to know whether he needed to plan for two plots or one.
“So, if y’all not fuckin’, then why is that nigga calling you and expecting to meet you?
Make that shit make sense, Shana darling, and make it make sense quick. ”
Her tears were immediate. She knew she needed to say what she needed to before Travis lost his temper. She’d seen his attitude when his temper was gone. “Cory likes me. He’s been trying to convince me to be with him for a while.”
Marla’s head tilted back slightly to accommodate her risen nose. “Is that so? How long has this been going on? I’ll assume that my daughter doesn’t know about this bullshit.”
Blakeney definitely didn’t know about her man’s infatuation with her best friend. It was the worst kept secret. “Um, it’s been going on for over a year and a half. I never did anything with him, Auntie Marla, I promise.”