4
“Hey, brother.” Amina smiled while standing up to give him a hug. He always greeted her with a hug and Caprice with a fist bump. He sat on the sofa, prompting Hank and his brothers to do the same.
“Aye, y’all know Grandma Leo is turning seventy soon. We gotta figure out what we’re gonna do,” Fonzo said while speaking more to his two younger brothers. He was good at keeping up with important dates and events. He kept his brothers up to date on everything that was happening in the family.
Hank’s mother always made a big deal out of her birthday.
His oldest sister always gave her a party, but she wanted to do it big for her seventieth.
She didn’t have a lot of money but she knew that the entire family always chipped in to help.
He and his brothers always put together and gave their grandmother a large cash gift as a present, and she looked forward to it.
“Yeah, that’s cool. Did they figure out the date of the party yet? I need to get with Lucky to make sure she clears her schedule,” Dash replied.
“Nah, Auntie Danae will be here for Kardi’s party this weekend, so we can get with her then. She said to let her know if the weekend before or after Granny’s birthday works best for everybody.”
“Alright, I gotta ask Lucky what works best for her.”
“Damn, Dash, can you at least try to make a decision for once in your life?”
Caprice hated that he always had to ask Clover’s permission for everything.
Monty and Fonzo didn’t seem to make a move without their little brother, so they were basically doing whatever Clover said too.
She wasn’t feeling another bitch saying when she could move, but nobody else seemed to see it that way.
“Can you learn to mind your business for once in yours? Why are you even here? You’re safe, Iva is probably at work,” Dash clapped back, making his brothers laugh.
He was cool with Caprice, but she had to be put in her place occasionally.
Since Monty didn’t care one way or the other, his girl ended up getting told off more often than not.
Caprice wasn’t usually an early riser but she never let Monty go anywhere that she thought Ivanece would be.
It was sad that he sometimes snuck out of the house just so she wouldn’t tag along.
That never worked because she always seemed to pop up on him whenever he went.
“As if I give a fuck. Iva ain’t no threat to me.”
“Yeah, okay, say it a few more times until you start to believe it.”
Caprice was about to reply until Kardi came bouncing down the stairs and stole everyone’s attention.
She hated when Monty’s family threw Iva in her face.
She hated it even more because he never defended her or denied it.
She was no fool. She knew that Monty still had love for Iva but she gave no fucks.
What they had was over and she made sure of that.
At only eighteen years old, Caprice was hired by the state of Louisiana as a corrections officer.
Her job paid very well, but that wasn’t the only reason why she loved it so much.
Caprice always loved bad boys and she was surrounded by them in the prison.
She spent more time there than she did at home, so it was only a matter of time before she broke the prison’s number one rule and started sleeping with the inmates.
To her, the only downside to it all was falling hard for the ones who eventually went home or got transferred.
Caprice always fell for their lies about them still being with her when they got released.
She’d had her heart broken by a few of them but it never lasted too long when she got with another.
By the time Monty got there, she’d been there for ten years and had been promoted to supervisor.
It was nothing for her to sneak one of her men some food or alcohol whenever she came to work.
It wasn’t until Monty came along that he had her really risking it all.
He didn’t give a damn about food and all that other dumb shit that she did for the niggas before him.
His family made sure that he was straight and so did Iva.
Monty wanted to be the prison plug but he needed her to sneak it in for him to make it happen.
Caprice flat out refused and she was terrified to even try.
It only took a month for Monty to hit her with some dope dick, and she was smuggling his packages in the following day.
The dude that she dealt with before him was on his way out, so the timing was perfect.
Things went on like that for a few months but there was only one problem, and that happened to be Monty’s girlfriend, Ivanece.
He was in love with the bitch, so he wouldn’t dare have her risk her freedom by bringing the shit in for him, even though she spent all the money he made.
Caprice hated when she came to visit him because his entire mood changed.
He smiled more and the way he looked at her drove her crazy.
Caprice made sure that she was always around when Iva visited but it got to be too much for her to see.
She quickly put a plan in motion, and her girls were on it.
They waited until Iva came to see him one day to openly discuss her and Monty’s relationship loud enough for her to hear.
Iva did a great job of remaining unfazed and Caprice thought that her plan was a waste.
That was until Iva saw Monty and ran on him as soon as their visit started.
Caprice called for her staff to break it up and had Iva arrested.
Monty was pissed when he got back to the dorms, but it wasn’t with Iva for giving him a swollen eye and lip to match.
He was angry that she’d found out about him and Caprice.
The same phone that she’d purchased in her name was used to beg his ex to forgive him and not leave him.
He swore that what she heard was a lie but, thankfully, Iva wasn’t trying to hear it.
Caprice cried herself to sleep the night that the call and text message logs that she’d requested from the phone company came in.
Still, that didn’t stop her from continuing what they had and she now had him all to herself.
Things went good for a while until one of the same hoes that she used to get Iva out of the picture stabbed her in the back.
Caprice noticed the change in her and the space that she started to put in between them.
It only took a few weeks for her to learn why.
Monty started fucking her too and had her doing the same thing that Caprice was doing.
After a while, she started acting like she was a big dog and didn’t have to listen to anyone, including Caprice, who was her supervisor.
After being written up too many times to count, she lost her job but she didn’t go down without a fight.
She told the higher ups what Caprice had been doing and they started investigating her.
Two months later, Caprice was being led out in cuffs, the same way she’d instructed her staff to do Iva.
She lost her job and was ineligible to be hired by the state ever again.
Thankfully, she had saved some money but it wasn’t enough to sustain her forever.
She didn’t want to spend it all before she found another job.
Monty felt bad about what happened and he made sure that she was straight until he got out.
Unlike the other men who she’d dealt with in prison, Monty made good on his word and actually stayed with her. Caprice loved him even more for that.
Since her man was paid out the ass, she didn’t feel the need to get another job so she laid around the house and enjoyed the fruits of his labor.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long either before Monty started pressuring her to get her shit back on track.
Although he paid the bills, he didn’t give her money or buy her anything.
She wanted him to spoil her like Dash did Clover, but they barely even had sex.
Monty had been home for close to a year, and she could literally count how many times they were intimate.
If she didn’t invite herself to tag along with him, she probably would have never seen him until he came home late at night or early the next morning.
“Thank you, Grampy,” Kardi said after opening one of Hank’s gifts.
Caprice sat around and watched as the men gushed over their only niece and granddaughter until Clover came down the stairs, followed by Diva.
As usual, Dash kept his eyes on her the entire time until she got close enough for him to pull her down on his lap.
Fonzo was always affectionate with Amina too, but Monty didn’t have a romantic bone in his body.
He followed Dash’s lead on everything else except giving her the unconditional love that she so desperately craved and envied Clover for.
“Aye, I don’t want no bullshit out of y’all two next weekend. It’s y’all daughter’s party and y’all need to act like it,” Hank said while looking at Clover and Dash. He whispered the curse words, but Kardi was too busy talking to Fonzo and Amina to hear him or care.
It was no secret that Clover didn’t get along with all of her cousins.
It was crazy because he didn’t even know how the beef started.
Clover didn’t and never did live in Georgia and they only visited each other for special occasions.
That still didn’t stop Clover from beating the brakes off of one of them.
Dash laid her nigga out too and he was only trying to break them up.
“Me and Lucky are on whatever they’re on. We matching energy.”
“Don’t piss me off, Junior. You heard what the fuck I said.” Hank frowned at his youngest son.
“Don’t be fussing at my babies when them hoes be the ones starting it,” Diva argued.
“I’m not fussing at nobody, but Clover know what we talked about.” Hank gave Clover a knowing nod.
“I’m good.” Clover shrugged, not caring one way or the other.
Hank kept telling her about how much it hurt her grandmother when she didn’t get along with her cousins.
Tilly always told him how much it broke her heart that Clover and some of her cousins acted like they hated each other.
He knew that it wasn’t Clover’s fault but he always tried to get her to be the bigger person.
She was too much like his wife though and they didn’t always play nice.
“Man, fuck them hating ass hoes. They’re jealous of my daughter and always have been.” Diva rolled her eyes, not seeing that Caprice had discreetly done the same thing.
She sat there and listened, as Diva talked about Clover like she was really that bitch.