Chapter 27 Kay’lo Mensah
‘Lo Motion Customs
Days later…
My employees was movin’ through the shop, people was talkin’, tools clinkin’, and I was in the zone. Then one of my guys jogged up to me and tapped my shoulder like he had somethin’ urgent to tell me.
“Aye, ‘Lo… somebody outside askin’ for you.”
I looked up slow. “Who?”
“I’on know, bro. Some dude.”
The switch flipped in me instantly. I dropped the squeegee in my hand and walked out without sayin’ shit else. My pulse was already thumpin’ in my neck ‘cause niggas don’t just walk up on me, especially at my shop.
The sun hit me when I stepped outside, and that’s when I saw him some professionally dressed nigga holdin’ an envelope like he had a damn mission.
“You Kay’Lo Mensah?” he asked.
I looked him dead in his face. “Yeah. Why? What you want?”
He ain’t answer. He just held the envelope out like he ain’t wanna get any closer than he had to, then turned around and walked off fast like he didn’t wanna be caught standin’ in front of me too long.
My stomach dropped before I even opened it. Somethin’ in my spirit felt off.
I tore the envelope open and unfolded the papers.
Petition for Dissolution of Marriage.
Toni Mensah vs. Kay’Lo Mensah.
My whole body went cold, and everything ot quiet as fuck.
I read my name again, and it still didn’t feel real.
Toni was divorcin’ me.
Toni… my wife… really went and did that shit.
I couldn’t stand in this fuckin’ parkin’ lot no more. I couldn’t even hear nothin’ around me. I walked back inside, grabbed my keys, and walked right back out. I ain’t tell nobody shit, and I ain’t lock up shit.
I got in my whip and hauled ass to the mansion.
My heart was slammin’ so hard I could feel that shit in my back. My mind was spinnin’ so fast it felt like the windshield was closin’ in on me. The minute I hit the gates, I damn near broke my wrist hittin’ the code. I sped up the driveway, left the car runnin’, and stormed inside.
“Toni!” I called out, my voice already raw.
I took the stairs two at a time, mad as fuck and sick at the same time. When I hit the bedroom doorway, there she was.
My whole world was sittin’ on the floor with open suitcases. Sha’Nelle was next to her foldin’ shirts. When they heard me, Sha’Nelle looked up first. Her face changed quick, like she saw every demon I had ever fought in my life behind my eyes.
She looked at Toni, then back at me.
“I’mma… go downstairs,” she said soft, leavin’ the room fast.
I ain’t move, ‘cause I couldn’t.
I was starin’ at Toni like my soul was tryna jump out my body and run to her.
She ain’t look at me at first. She kept foldin’ clothes like her heart wasn’t shreddin’ itself in her chest.
“Toni.” My voice was low, almost hoarse. “What the fuck is this?”
I held up the ripped envelope in my hand. “You filin’ for divorce? You really doin’ this shit?”
Toni finally looked at me then. Her whole body was shakin’ when she pushed up from the flood, snatched her phone off the mattress, and unlocked her phone with hands that wouldn’t stay still.
She ain’t say shit at first, she just walked right up on me and chunked that bitch into my chest so hard it stung, and the sound bounced off me like she threw a damn brick at a wall
“Nigga shut the fuck up!” she screamed, her voice breakin. “You been in a whole fuckin’ relationship while I’m over here tryna breathe through some shit YOU caused. Look at the shit! Look at what the fuck you did!”
I caught the phone against my chest and looked down, and my nostrils damn near split open from how hard they flared. My blood felt hot as hell ‘cause the pictures ain’t make no kinda sense, yet they was right here in my hands, darin’ me to deny what wasn’t even the truth.
It was me, knocked the fuck out at the penthouse, laid back with my arm thrown over Echo like I ain’t have a care in the world. Her face was tucked into my shoulder. Her hand was layin’ across my chest and she was smilin’ at the camera like she won somethin’ she could never compete for.
I felt my jaw lock and my vision shake, not ‘cause I gave a fuck about Echo, but ‘cause I ain’t know she took none of that shit. I ain’t know she had her phone out.
I ain’t know she was usin’ her moment with me like a weapon.
And I damn sure ain’t know she had the nerve to post it where Toni could see.
My fist tightened around the phone so hard it creaked.
My stomach twisted so hard I had to clench my jaw to keep from cussin’ the whole world out.
“You just a sorry muthafucka, ‘Lo.”
“Toni, I ain’t know she took no pictures,” I snapped back, my voice crackin’ from how fast my heart was beatin’. “I didn’t—”
“You shouldn’t have even been with her in the first place!” she shouted, her whole face tight and hurt.
That’s when somethin’ in me finally snapped ‘cause she was talkin’ to me like she ain’t leave me for damn near two months, and didn’t shut the fuck down on me.
“You actin’ real fuckin’ surprised right now,” I fired back, takin’ a step toward her ‘cause I wasn’t about to let her rewrite the whole damn story.
“You ain’t even want me, Toni! You ain’t let me come home!
You ain’t answer my calls! You ain’t reply to shit!
You ain’t wanna sit down, you ain’t wanna talk, you ain’t wanna fix shit!
What the fuck you think a nigga supposed to do when his own wife make him feel like he dead to her? ”
Her eyes filled again but I couldn’t stop ‘cause every word I swallowed for weeks was finally rippin’ out my chest.
“I’m blowin’ your phone up tryna come home!
You sendin’ me dry-ass one word replies or not sayin’ shit at all!
I’m knockin’ at the door of my own fuckin’ house!
So why you standin’ here actin’ shocked that another bitch even got close to me when you the one pushed me out yo’ fuckin’ life in the first place? ”
My chest burned and my throat felt tight as hell but my voice only got rougher.
“I ain’t sayin’ I was right, but you not gon’ keep fuckin’ sittin here pretendin’ like you was doin’ right by me either!”
“Fuck that!” she screamed, shovin’ me hard in the chest. “I don’t wanna hear that shit Kay’Lo!
I really don’t muthafuckin’ give a fuck!
You talkin’ about what I didn’t do, how I ain’t answer, how I shut down, but you the one who crossed the line!
You the one who took yo’ dick and put it in another bitch! You the one who stepped out on me!”
She pushed me again, harder this time, her voice crackin’ from how much she was holdin’ in.
“You should’ve told me! You should’ve said, ‘Toni, I’m hurt and I’m about to do some dumb shit.’ You should’ve warned me instead of blindside me like this! You put me in a position for another bitch to laugh at me! So nigga, fuck you!”
My jaw flexed and I started to speak but she cut me right back off.
“You pushed me to my limits, Kay’Lo! You pushed me so fuckin’ far down that I don’t even know how to get back up! You traumatized me and you expect me to just be normal again!“
Her chest heaved and she wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt ‘cause the tears wouldn’t stop.
“You killed people in front of me! You dragged me into shit I wasn’t ready for!
You fucked this house up so bad, sometimes I don’t even recognize it as the same house we first moved in!
You think I’m supposed to jump back into yo’ fuckin’ arms like none of that happened. Kay’Lo, are you fuckin’ crazy?”
I froze ‘cause her words stabbed straight through me. She shoved her finger into my chest again.
“All that shit I went through with you, I swallowed it! I took it! I held it because I loved you so hard that I forgot about myself! And now you lookin’ at me like I’m the one who ruined this marriage!”
My whole body went still as she backed away from me, breathin’ hard like she had been holdin’ that speech in her body for years.
“You broke me,” she said softly, her voice raw and torn. “And instead of helpin’ me put myself back together, you ran into another bitch arms. You really think I’m supposed to forgive that? You really think I’m supposed to stay after that?”
Her eyes glistened and she shook her head slow.
“I shut down because that’s the only thing I know how to do when shit go dark. I shut down so I don’t lose my mind, but you look at that shit like it’s abandonment. You don’t see the person inside me who had to disappear just to survive. That’s who you pushed away, Kay’Lo.”
“Toni…” My voice dropped ‘cause everything she said cracked my heart open.
I tried to get a word in but she ain’t let me speak.
“No. I don’t give a fuck what you say right now, Kay’Lo. You hurt me in ways I can’t even name, and you expect me to just let you fix it soon as you feel like tryin’. I can’t keep livin’ like this. I can’t.”
I tried to grab the words before she could finish but I couldn’t stop her.
“I’m divorcin’ you.”
That sentence lit me on fire and everything inside me twisted so hard I felt my vision blur, I stepped right into her space and looked her dead in her eyes like she had just said the most disrespectful shit she ever said in her life.
“Oh yeah?” I said. “You divorcin’ me now? That’s what you think you about to do? You really think you gon’ walk out my life like I ain’t ya husband? Like I ain’t been dyin’ for you every day you been shut down?”
She swallowed hard but she ain’t move and that made somethin’ in me snap even harder.
“Nah, look at me,” I said, grabbin’ her chin and tiltin’ her face up without takin’ my eyes off her. “Say that shit again. Say you divorcin’ me. I wanna hear it from your soul so I know exactly what part of you I gotta fix.”
Her chest rose like she was tryna hold herself together.
“I’m divorcin’ you,” she whispered.
“Okay, bet,” I said, my voice calm. “Watch what the fuck happen when you think you gon’ leave me.”