Chapter 6
SIX
ASAD
“Yo, let me holla at’chu for a minute,” I said, trying to take the calm approach with Mila.
She’d seen my angry, reckless side, and that obviously didn’t deter her from fuckery.
If I didn’t do something to make her chill out, this was going to escalate into dangerous territory.
I truly believed Ashanni wouldn’t stop until she killed her.
When she slammed her head into the wall over a year ago, I was stunned.
That action alone could have broken Mila’s neck.
She was acting like she didn’t know she was in danger.
“What’s up?” she asked as I stepped outside.
“Why you tryna fuck with Ashanni’s brother?”
She rolled her eyes. “I guess he told you.”
“No. Our son spoke to him, calling him by name.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Fuck. I didn’t think Jay would be around him so soon, but whatever. I can fuck who I want to fuck. I’m single, remember?”
“This ain’t about you fucking. I don’t give a fuck who you with, except when I know you tryna fuck with Ashanni.
You knew that was her brother. He went to school with y’all.
And why you lying, talking ’bout you didn’t have anything to eat in the house?
That shit reflect not only on you but on me.
Don’t be making it seem like I would let y’all struggle to where you couldn’t feed my son. ”
“Oh, so you didn’t want to look bad in front of her family. That’s what this is really about.”
“This about you fucking with Ashanni. I told her I would talk to you. She is going to seriously hurt you next time, and I won’t be able to stop her.
She wanted to get at you this time. Your life is in danger, and you don’t even know that shit.
My son needs his mother. Think about him the next time you wanna do some reckless shit. ”
“Whatever, Asad. Where is Jay so I can go home. I don’t have time for your bullshit.”
I nodded repeatedly. “Okay. Just remember what I told you. You can act like you don’t know if you want to, but Ashanni will beat the fuck out of you without remorse.
Play with something safe. I’m trying to protect you for the sake of my son, but if you ain’t looking out for you, then why should I? Jayceon, your mama’s here!”
She rolled her eyes at me as he came running to the front with his backpack. “Mommy!”
“Hey, baby! Did you enjoy your time with your dad?”
“Yes! I got to play with Renzo!”
She looked up at me. “Rylan’s son.”
She remembered Rylan, because I used to hang around him sometimes.
“That’s good! Well, let’s go so you can get to bed.”
When he walked out, she cut her eyes at me.
She’d texted while I was with Ashanni saying she changed her mind about him staying the night and would pick him up when she got off work.
Here she was, not letting me spend the time I wanted to spend with my son, and there were women wishing for a baby daddy like me to pick up the slack.
Lots of single mothers would give their left lung to have their child’s father dedicate as much time to their child as they did.
She wanted to be difficult, because she thought that I would give in and give our relationship another shot. That shit would never happen.
I swore, she couldn’t just go on ’bout her life.
We didn’t work out. She needed to find somebody she got along with.
We were arguing all the damn time, and that shit was wearing me thin.
I was tired of talking about it to my dad, but he could tell I was bothered when Jay and I visited before coming home.
I didn’t want Ashanni fighting. Baby girl was way too pretty to be scrapping. However, if Mila wouldn’t mind her fucking business and leave Ashanni alone, what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t take things out on her for how she responded to the fuckery.
Mila wasn’t like this normally. She didn’t start acting stupid until she noticed me watching Ashanni.
Then she started accusing me of sleeping with her.
Ashanni was fine as hell. I would have had to be blind not to notice that shit.
So because I looked at her, I was cheating.
I didn’t know where her insecurities regarding Shani came from.
It probably stemmed from that fight. I never asked what they were fighting about, and Shani never said why the fight happened.
I had no experience with shit like this.
My mama couldn’t relate. She wasn’t the jealous type.
However, she cheated on the man I knew as my father with Red Anderson, because she wasn’t happy.
I found that shit hard to believe, knowing the type of woman she was now.
She said it was a messed-up decision, but what was even more messed up was her telling her husband that I was his son, knowing that I belonged to Red.
It deprived him of five years of my life.
I went to my shower and started it, knowing I needed another one after being outside around the horses. That couldn’t wait until morning. Before I could get in, my phone started ringing. I took a deep breath and released it when I saw Red Squared’s number.
“What’s up, bruh?” I said when I answered the call.
“Maaaaaan, you ain’t gon’ believe this shit.”
I sat on the bed. “What?”
“So, I was dropping Noni to her people house to meet Bali. She wanted to see them before she went home, and Maui and Mister Storm was going at it. She went packed a bag and left with the twins. Man, I ain’t never seen her go against her dad. Her mama was crying.”
“Shit. I’m sure Ashanni knows. He was at Mister Jasper’s house because he was pissed about her seeing Mythic.”
“Mythic? What the fuck she want with him?”
“That was the same thing Mister Storm was wanting to know. Mythic ain’t nothing but trouble. Ashanni was confused about that shit, too, and she knows her well. So if she doesn’t even know, nobody probably knows.”
“Well, my baby ’bout to get to the bottom of that shit. Her and Bali. They were just as heated, and they didn’t even know what the fuck was going on. You at home?”
“Yeah. I just got here not too long ago.”
“What time you gotta go to work tomorrow morning?”
“Not until nine.”
“Oh okay. Well, I’ll let you go, big bruh. Holla at me tomorrow. I got something for Jay. I hate that I missed y’all.”
“Okay. I’ll stop by on my way home.”
“A’ight.”
“Later.”
I ended the call and went to the shower.
This shit was finna be bad. I couldn’t believe she got into it with her dad over that nothing ass nigga.
Uncle Legend barely fucked with him. The unfortunate thing was that Maui was grown as fuck.
There was nothing anyone could do to keep her from fucking with him.
She was almost twenty-five years old. She was asking for trouble.
I was more than sure once her brother caught wind of this shit, it was gon’ be war.
I just hoped Carter Legend didn’t get caught up in the crossfire.
When I finished showering, I called Ashanni. It went straight to voicemail, which was unusual. I got a text from her. I’ll call you back. Shit done got real out here.
I didn’t know what the hell that meant, but I could only hope everything was okay. I went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water, then came back to the bedroom. My phone started ringing, and when I saw Ashanni’s number, I got nervous as fuck. “Hello?”
There was some yelling in the background, then I heard, “You ain’t goin’ no-fucking-where!”
“Maui, please! Just stay here,” Ashanni begged.
She probably didn’t mean to call me. I started getting dressed to head back to Nome. My baby sounded distraught. There was no way I could hear her sounding that way and not be there for her.
“What you want with a nigga that ain’t got shit going for himself? You too smart for that shit! Carter Legend don’t even fuck with him like that and that’s his brother!”
“Y’all don’t see his heart!”
“Fuck a heart. You probably a fiend of that nigga dick. Dick come a dime a fucking dozen, Maui! You the last person I thought I would be arguing with over a nigga!”
I heard a bunch of noise, like the phone had fallen to the floor, then the call disconnected. Yeah, I had to go see about my baby. This was some bullshit.