26 #2
“Where is Amina? She said she was coming over for a little while,” Clover said.
Amina and Fonzo’s baby girl was four weeks old now. She was looking more and more like Fonzo, and he was having fun being a girl dad. He and Amina were all set to move into their house in two more weeks and they were both excited.
“Let me call her. I want to see my baby.” Diva grabbed her phone, but the doorbell rang before she could even finish dialing the number.
“That must be her.” Clover got up to answer the door, but Dash beat her to it.
“Relax, Lucky, I got it.” He walked to the front door with Kardi rushing right behind him.
“Yay, my baby cousin is here. Can I hold her?” Kardi was always happy when she was around the baby. Alexus was her first cousin and she loved her.
“Yeah, baby, you can hold her.” Fonzo smiled when he walked in holding the baby carrier followed by Amina.
“Girl, y’all were so busy focusing on Caprice and her drama that y’all let the real drama pass y’all by.” Amina rushed in holding a newspaper article. She showed it to Clover since it really involved the both of them.
“I know you fucking lying! This is from two weeks ago. It’s so damn short. How did you find this?” Clover asked as she read a small write up in the paper about Trudy. She never read the newspaper so, if it wasn’t online, she probably wouldn’t see it.
“One of my mother’s colleagues showed it to her. Trudy handled her divorce and she remembered when Trent and I were dating.”
“Jess did her big one but she never told me the outcome of what happened. I wonder if she even knows,” Diva said.
Jess showed the video of Trudy to the same judge who gave Clover the protective order. She created a fake email account and sent it to everybody at the firm, and the rest was history. Diva took a picture of the article and sent it to her.
“Girl, this is too much. I know her husband is probably embarrassed as hell,” Clover replied. She couldn’t wait to tell Cash everything that happened.
“He was always cool and the only one that I really feel sorry for.” Amina always did like Melvin, but Trudy was a bitch when it came to anyone saying anything negative about Trent.
“I don’t feel sorry for nobody, especially her nasty mouth and her slow ass son.” Diva frowned as she got up to see the baby. As soon as she walked away, Amina started whispering to Clover.
“How are things with you and Dash?” she asked in a hushed tone.
“There is no me and Dash. But I woke up to him sleeping in the bed with me and my baby twice this week. I wanted to snap, but Kardi saved his ass. I’m just so torn right now. Of course, I’m still in love with the nigga, but we can’t keep doing this. It’s not healthy for us or Kardi.
All this breaking up and getting back together is draining.” Clover sighed.
“I honestly think he’s learned his lesson. He’s been talking to my husband a lot and he seems sincere.” Amina was praying that they got back together and she had a feeling that they would. She loved when they did couples outings.
“Girl, you don’t know Dash. He missed his Hollywood moment because he can definitely act his ass off.”
“Did y’all ever sit down and have a talk about everything?” Iva asked.
“Yeah, we did. We both said how we feel, but I don’t know. If it’s in God’s plans for us, then it’ll happen.” Clover shrugged.
She couldn’t front and she wanted to be back with Dash but she didn’t want him to think that getting her back was that easy.
He had to work overtime and show her why he deserved her.
She also felt safer with him being there.
She wasn’t scared of Trent but, apparently, he wasn’t as mentally stable as she thought he was.
“Well, we’re hoping for a miracle.” Amina clasped her hands together like she was praying.
They all sat around eating and talking for most of the day.
Hank came over to get his wife but he ended up staying over there for hours instead.
They discussed everything from Trudy to Caprice, but Fonzo didn’t care nothing about them.
He wanted Trent, and he and his brothers weren’t gonna rest until they got him.
Aside from where he lived, they didn’t know much about him.
His car was parked at his house but he hadn’t been there once since they’d been going around there.
One thing he did know was that he couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to hide forever.
Trent was furious as he packed his belongings and prepared to leave the extended-stay hotel that he’d been calling home for over a month.
He’d gone to the front desk to extend his stay, only for the debit card to decline.
He tried going to the bank to get some cash and learned that he was no longer able to access the account.
His time was up and he didn’t have any more money to stay.
Even the rental car company had been calling him for payment, and he had no choice but to return his temporary transportation.
He knew that it was nobody but his father who restricted his access to the money because his mother would never.
Trent knew that his father hated him and the feelings were mutual.
The voices in his head never led him wrong and he knew that Melvin was out to get him.
But he was no fool. He wasn’t gonna let his father catch him slippin’ and he planned to get him first.
His mother was being pressured to what she was doing but he could tell that she really didn’t want to.
Once his father was out of the way, he knew that everything would be better.
She would have never taken his car, but it was cool.
He would have it back sooner than later.
“Thanks, Mr. Latimer, we hope you come back to stay with us again,” the receptionist replied nicely when Trent gave her his room card.
He was pissed, so he didn’t bother responding.
He walked out to the parking lot and threw his bags in the truck.
He prepared to head to his parents’ house but decided to make a detour first.
He passed in front of the bar where Clover and her people hung out at, but it was still early.
He saw a few people sitting out front but it appeared to be a bunch of older men.
The voices in his head wouldn’t be silent but he shook his head rapidly, hoping to make them go away. Lately, they had been getting louder and it was getting harder to make them shut up. He was being consumed and, at times, frightened by what they were telling him to do.
Next, he decided to pass by Clover’s house.
He couldn’t get through the gates so he didn’t even know which house belonged to her.
Her street was private and armed guards were present at every entrance and exit.
As much as he wanted his father to go away, he wanted Clover to disappear even sooner.
In his mind, she was the cause of everything bad that had happened to him lately.
It all started with that restraining order and things went downhill from there.
He learned that his ex-girlfriend, Amina, was married to Dash’s other brother.
It was almost as if their entire family had a vendetta against him and there was no escape.
Clover played with his heart and ruined his life with lies.
Once he drove away from Clover’s house, he decided to see if Caprice was home.
He only had about one hundred dollars left, but maybe she would take it and allow him to stay with her for a few days.
She told him all about her snitching ass neighbors, but he would be sure to keep a low profile if she agreed to help him.
When he pulled up to the complex, he parked his car and jogged up the stairs that led to her apartment.
He was surprised to see her mother and one of her brothers there because they never visited.
Caprice talked to her mother sometimes, but he never remembered her ever visiting.
The front door was open, so he just walked straight in.
“Hey. Where is Caprice?” Trent asked when he saw her brother. He hadn’t seen his cousin in a while and he looked surprised to see him.
“Boy, where the hell you been hiding? Caprice is in jail.” Her brother looked at him as if he should have already known.
“Jail!” Trent screeched in shock. “For what?”
“You must not watch the news.” Her brother chuckled.
“Shut up and finish bringing this shit to the car,” his mother fussed.
Caprice’s mother hadn’t seen Trent since he was a little boy and she had no desire to see him now.
Sadly, he had the same mental illness that her husband had and his eyes looked exactly like his uncle’s did when he was off of his meds.
She couldn’t explain it but it looked like they were present physically but, mentally, they were in another world.
That look haunted her dreams for years, and Trent made her feel uneasy.
There was no telling what the voices in his head were telling him, but she didn’t want to find out either.
She was pissed when Caprice told her that he was temporarily living with her and she begged her daughter to put him out.
Just like always, money, mess and men were her daughter’s downfall and her incarceration was proof of that.
Now, she was in the process of clearing out an apartment that Caprice would never return to.
She planned to sell all of her furniture just to put some money on her books.
There was no need to waste time or money on an attorney.
Caprice was guilty as sin and the evidence was too much to ignore.
The nigga that she risked it all for told everything and would probably get a slap on the wrist.
“What’s going on with Caprice?” Trent asked.
“She got herself into a little trouble but she’ll be okay. I’ll tell her that you came by to check on her. Nice to see you again, Trent. Tell your parents that I said hello.”
She was trying to be nice and get rid of him at the same time.
She knew that any little thing could and would set him off, so she had to be careful.
She’d spent years doing the same thing with his uncle.
“Okay, I will. Tell her to call me whenever she can,” Trent replied before he walked away.
He felt even worse than he already did and, now, he really had no other option but to go back home.
Besides his mother, he felt like Caprice was the only other person who really cared about him.
She gave him a place to stay and, unlike Sade, she didn’t look at him like he was crazy.