Welina Hou #8
“Oh, you haven’t? I think there’s a few people here who would contradict that.”
The door opened dramatically and Agent Cochran walked in.
I knew that they’d assumed that she was at our wedding for appearances and not because she had a deeper connection to us.
She’d introduced herself as my commander and I was sure that’s when they’d planned the idea to get me caught up in some bullshit.
James and Theo had been looking for a way to take us down for years.
They somehow thought they’d still have access to Nakoa money even if I was gone.
That or they could find some new venture to get into.
Really, these two were simply annoyed that they didn’t have a say in how the family was run.
“So you all haven’t been disloyal?” I lowered the vat about their heads slightly causing their eyes to shoot up again.
“You’d take the word of an outsider over us?” James was near screaming and I could see the sweat beading on his forehead as he watched Cochran trying to discern what she’d revealed to us. He should’ve known it was everything because they were tied to chairs.
“Outsider? It’s a shame that you all don’t understand family or connections.
It would be smarter for you to have truly researched who I was further back than a few generations.
My family might not have been hands on but we’ve always been in the shadows.
Hey cousins.” She wriggled her fingers at the two of them and I could see how they were completely shocked at the familial connection.
I was just as oblivious to it as well until Faith brought it to my attention.
Cochran was never going to reveal it to me because she wasn’t one to break her character.
Faith swore her to ensuring that I would never know I was being watched by family and Cochran kept her promise.
It was another way for Faith to have eyes on me that she trusted even while she was away.
“Cousin? I don’t believe that.” I could see the annoyance in his eyes looking at Cochran.
He didn’t put too much stock in the power of women but the one woman they’d always counted out was going to be the one who orchestrated their downfall.
It was almost poetic the way they used women for gain but two women had provided everything we needed to take them out.
“Of course you don’t. Family doesn’t mean much to you. Look at how you’re behaving with Ori.”
“That nigga isn’t family. He only got this shit on his mama’s back!
” James was back running his mouth so when a bullet pierced James’ shoulder I wasn’t surprised since I was in a room full of killers.
When I turned to see it was Faith holding the gun I was completely shocked.
As James screamed in pain she looked at me and smiled but I could see she was happy to have hit her target.
She’d clearly been practicing but your first shot going into your brother was going to make anyone uneasy.
“Keep talking shit about my mother and you’re going to have an even worse death than you expected. As you can see the Faith you grew up with isn’t here any longer.” That was his only warning because I wouldn’t stop her from putting the next one in his head.
“Your mother? Now you’re sitting here defending her when she left your ass all alone for years? How do you know she didn’t set some shit up with this bitch to frame us?”
“One I don’t care enough about any of you to do that.
You were already big enough fuck ups on your own so I didn’t need to give you a helping hand.
I’ve documented every move that I’ve made over the last twenty years and how it has benefited the Consortium.
From helping to make trade deals for the family business once I got myself together, to working on figuring out who murdered Ikaika despite people thinking it was me.
I wanted to clear my name and not have doubt linger.
I sacrificed a lot to ensure that it was. ”
“What you probably just got your son to cover up whatever you did to your husband. The Consortium is just going to sit by and let a wife kill her husband without prosecuting her? Ikaika was supposed to be one of us when we allowed him in. But here she stands with all of you supporting without batting an eye. And you think we think this shit is fair?” James’ veins bulged in the side of his neck, his ‘fro matted and filled with whatever had been on the floor as he was getting his ass beat.
“So you’re trying to pin everything on my mother even now?
You all shouldn’t even be a part of this family anymore.
But sure, let’s have a family meeting. How much profit have you brought in lately?
” I was being an asshole and I didn’t care.
I stood with my arms folded, waiting on them to answer.
I wanted them to speak out loud just how worthless they’d been.
How they’d been selling off what they could and still living off the final dividend check that Pappy cut.
Their focus had shifted from survival to extravagance once they got the news that I was dead.
“What did you think was going to happen when you stopped us from eating? When you decided to withdraw our family’s protection from our business?
What the hell did you think was going to happen when you tried to starve us?
We are FRANKLINS! Didn’t have to buy our way into this but you got offended one time and you decided you wanted to leave us out there down bad?
” Theo’s entitlement to money we actually worked for was clear.
“Starve? You had plenty you could’ve done even if it was just sitting on your ass because you got money from the family. Dividends, just like everyone else.”
“Fucking welfare! A gotdamn handout when my daddy was the one who was the head of this family. You think I’m going to sit here and kiss your ass for the rest of my life because you’re the one in a seat that my sister only earned for you on her back? Fuck y’all!”
James’ anger must’ve made him forget who he was talking to because I held out my hand, which was promptly filled with a knife from my wife. I didn’t have pockets in my malo and despite not seeing her weapons I knew she always had one.
“You must not have heard what I said when I said don’t speak on my mother like that.” I flipped the knife to test the weight, envisioning where I was going to have it land once I threw it.
“You’re over here defending someone that was too weak to stay and fight for you.” He was grimacing with the strain of the bullet wound Faith had given him.
“You hear that Faith? They’re saying that you’re weak.
You want to fill your brother in on why you left?
” I called my mother over because she had her eyes on my wife but her ear with me.
The conversations that we’d had for those months, her being liaison as she gave me information on Asha and filled in a lot of the past. Things that we needed to hear and what needed to be said from both of us to heal.
Faith stepped forward and the nerves she’d displayed were now gone. Asha stood on the other side of her so she was bracketed by two people that could give her strength.
“I left because I knew had I not you would’ve done everything you could to kill me like you killed my husband.”
Theo looked shocked at the accusation but the same couldn’t be said for his father. Theo, of course wasn’t guilty since he would’ve been too young, but the same couldn’t be said for James. “What?”
I smiled wondering when he was going to give it up. Surviving this wasn’t on the table so he needed to at least die with some fucking dignity. “You really don’t understand how all of this works do you?”
“There was no one that could’ve gotten close to him except one of your whores.
Who I knew you were supplying him with every second of the day.
I had no doubt he was cheating but to know you willingly threw women at him?
Was ensuring I was unhappy that important to you?
” Faith seemed genuinely hurt behind her brother’s actions.
I had to wonder if she’d been holding out hope for some type of reconciliation but his cheating just ensured they’d never have a way forward. At least not a happy one.
“Is that what you think? If they should be looking at anyone for this it should be you. You were the one who could get close enough to him. But you standing right there, Pappy. Beside a murderous bitch that was too happy to kill her husband, then leave her kid to go wherever she’s been the last twenty years or so.
” Theo kept trying to bait me but none of it was going to work on me.
“You think that we didn’t look into what Faith was doing?
You should’ve known us better than that.
We knew Faith didn’t do the shit but we couldn’t find the woman he had.
You were smart sending a woman who looked similar to her, I mean he had a type.
But if you are going to set someone up, ensure they don’t have a reliable alibi.
” Mr. Miller was all too happy to speak for the elders and I was happy they’d taken the extra step to dig into where Faith was.
It made her absences slightly less painful.
“How do you know that she wasn’t lying? Or paid whoever said she was with them wasn’t lying.” James was looking between the elders as though he was pleading for them to believe him.
“Because her alibi was my wife and our sons. They took them to the movies and Faith was with our family when he was killed. You thought he was going to be with Pappy but they had a change of plans because we were all in town and they went out while I handled business with Pappy.” Mr. Miller set that information out there for James to refute but he couldn’t.
If he tried to say that Mr. Miller was lying then that was an entirely different issue of him accusing an elder of malfeasance.