7. Jennifer Cooper
OVER A WEEK EARLIER…
“I don’t know why the fuck I have to go through this every other week, Aaron. It’s like you can’t keep your damn dick in your pants. It’s been twenty-six years, dammit!”
We’d been married for twenty-six years. Aaron had been faithful to me a total of zero of them. It would be one thing if he did what he did with discretion, but no. He didn’t give a damn at all. He cheated with random women, the Kings’ Kitty bitches, and whoever else would allow his dick to visit their mouths, pussies, or ass. Before our sons were eighteen, he had a little more decorum. Once our youngest turned eighteen, he started to show his whole ass, or should I say dick.
When he was married to that Harmony bitch, yes, he cheated, but he was so discreet about it. If a bitch so much as stepped to her, he had bitches on her ass to beat her up. No one could fuck with the Queen. Me, the same didn’t apply. Every other week, I had a bitch in my face. When I told him about it, he was nonchalant about it. He never said anything to those bitches. The only thing that he hadn’t done was bring me an outside baby.
See, I knew when I was messing with him before we got married that he didn’t believe in having children out of wedlock. It was for that reason that I made sure to get pregnant. When we had sex, he made sure that he supplied the condoms. That was fine because I knew where he kept them at his hideaway apartment. A few holes in them was my way in.
We were on our way home from a K.O.K event. One of those Kitty bitches felt comfortable enough to tell me that I was getting old, and I needed to take a dick sucking refresher class. These bitches were disrespectful as hell. What made it worse was that my husband, who was supposed to love me, didn’t give a damn.
“Jennifer, if you have a problem, feel free to call your lawyer, draw up some papers, and get the fuck on. No one, and I do mean no one is keeping you here. I’ll even let you keep the house,” he said with an even tone.
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. “Why do you treat me like this? All I’m asking is that you use some discretion. Stop these bitches from coming at me sideways. When you were with Harmony, you would have never allowed a bitch to step to her like they do to me.”
His jaw tightened before he stretched his neck. We stopped at a stoplight, which gave him time to face me. “Last I checked, you are not Harmony, you never were and never will be. My wife has been dead for twenty-seven fucking years, and you’re still trying to live up to her. Newsflash, you never will, no matter how hard you try, so stop making yourself look stupid.”
He spoke to me callously with no remorse for anything he said. After twenty-seven years, he still referred to her ass as his fucking wife. What kind of shit was that? “I’m your wife! She’s dead, but you still call that bitch your wife!”
The light turned green. Without looking at me, he spoke. “Bitch, watch your fucking mouth. You know exactly what this is, and you knew what it was from the moment you signed the prenup and we stood in front of that judge. I married you because I refused to have bastard children. You knew that, which was why your scandalous ass poked holes in condoms to get AJ. Don’t piss me off.
“As quiet as it’s kept, be lucky that you’re breathing after you almost killed my fucking daughter. I didn’t snap your neck because of my boys and the fact that I found out Dindi was alright.” He glanced at me with disgust.
I was the one who suggested that we get married shortly after I told him that I was pregnant. He had a hard time believing that I was pregnant in the first place, until he went to the doctor with me. He also had them perform a prenatal paternity test. After the test, he agreed to marry me. Imagine my surprise when a carrier delivered a prenuptial agreement to me for signature. I called him, thinking that I still had the trump card because he didn’t want bastard children. The death of his precious wife must have changed him in some way.
He told me no prenup, no marriage. The prenup only gave me a five-hundred-thousand-dollar payout, no matter how many years we were married, if I initiated the divorce. If he initiated the divorce, it would be an eight-hundred-thousand-dollar payout. If we divorced before our children were eighteen, then I would get child support. Oh, and we could not forget that I would get to keep the house. There wasn’t an adultery clause in the document at all.
I foolishly allowed my desire to be with him in a deeper way than just his side chick, drive my decision to sign it. It wasn’t until later that I found out that I could have gotten a lawyer to negotiate the terms. A part of me knew that he blatantly disrespected me the way he did to try to get me to leave him. He’d rather pay out the five hundred thousand dollars than be in our marriage. He found out about the holes in the condoms about three months after we were married. He was pissed, and I thought he would beat my ass.
He didn’t though. He told me that he always knew I was scandalous, and I wasn’t worth fucking. Our other two sons were products of drunken fucks. He loved our sons—that was not debatable. He didn’t love me—that was also not debatable. I knew in the beginning that he didn’t, but I thought after all these years that some form of love would grow.
“There is no reason for her to fucking be here. Why the fuck is she here? I thought her deaf ass was in California,” I ranted.
This time, his head snapped my way. “I’m not going to tell you again to watch your fucking mouth. You been real loose with your mouth, and that shit is going to end bad for you. Get that shit to-fuckin-gether.”
We finally were home. Aaron sold the house that he owned with his wife and built another one. We lived out in Huntersville. I didn’t want to move to Huntersville. When I told him that, he told me to buy my own house. From day one, I’d never really had any say in our marriage. When I got on his nerves, he put money in my account and literally told me to get lost.
There had been times that I knew he was at his little hideaway apartment. There was a time when I had a key to that same apartment. I couldn’t get into the complex because of the security gate with my car, but there was a side walking gate that people left propped open a lot of times. I would get in that way, then to the apartment and bang on the door until he opened it. When he opened the door, I would bust in and rush to the bedroom. It never failed that there was a bitch comfortably in the bed. Instead of him telling the bitch to leave, his ass would kick me out.
“Who the fuck is that on the porch?” Aaron’s voice brought me out of my thoughts.
I followed his eyes to see someone on our porch sitting against the wall next to the door on the ground. We both got out of the car to walk toward the door. Aaron pulled out his gun as a precaution. When you got within a certain distance of our front door, bright lights came on that faced the door. The closest house to ours was a street over. When the lights came on, my entire spirit left my body.
“Co-Cory? Cory! Oh my God!”
I ran to the porch and dropped to my knees at the sight of my son sitting on the ground dead. There was a bullet in his head. I knew that I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear myself. It felt like I couldn’t breathe. “Aaron! Do something!”
He stood there frozen. Why wasn’t he doing anything? Our son was dead on our porch. Someone had the boldness to kill our son and dump him on our doorstep. From the corner of my eye, I saw Aaron move toward the door. He snatched something down off it. It looked like a note.
“What the fuck?” he mumbled. “Why would this nigga kill my fuckin’ son!”
He dropped the piece of paper that was in his hand before he stormed off the porch toward the car. With a tear drenched face, I picked up the paper to see what it was. I read the words, and my entire spirit left my body.
Thought I’d give you back your rapist ass son.
You touch mine, I kill yours!
-Z
My throat locked up. I couldn’t move as I held my baby in my arms. Out of my three boys, Cory was my favorite. Some said it was wrong to have a favorite child, but I said fuck that. Cory was the only son that ever showed me genuine love. AJ and Jason were replicas of their father when it came to giving a damn about me. AJ once told me when he was around twenty-one that he knew I only had them as a way to keep their father.
I wouldn’t deny that what he said wasn’t true. However, that did not mean that I didn’t love them. Aaron was just sitting in his car. What the hell is he doing? Moments later, in the distance, I heard sirens. Aaron finally climbed out.
When he got to the porch, he extended his hand. “Give me the note.” When I paused, he repeated his request with more bass in his voice. After I handed it over, he said, “Don’t say shit to the cops about who you think did this. We came home and found our boy here.”
“What do you mean don’t say anyth?—”
He took another step toward me. “What the fuck did I say? Don’t say shit to those muthafuckas. Jennifer, I promise you that if you do, we’ll be having two funerals.”
My heart broke at his threat. This was the first time that he’d ever threatened to do some kind of bodily harm to me, and I knew that he meant it. Normally, when he threw out his threats, I pushed them to the back of my head. This time, I wouldn’t.
Before I could blink my eyes again, the police and ambulance were all over our yard. They had me move from our porch. I did, but not without a fight. I needed to be with my boy. Twenty minutes after the cops and ambulance arrived, AJ, Jason, and a few other K.O.K riders arrived. By that time, they had Cory’s body covered and on a stretcher.
When my sons rushed over to Aaron, they both were asking questions. “Not here.” That was all that he said. Not here.
PRESENT TIME…
We buried my son a few days ago. I’d been numb since it all happened. You would think that the loss of our son would soften Aaron’s heart toward me. It felt like it hardened it. AJ and Jason were devastated, along with the rest of the club.
The tribute ride was painful for many reasons. I expected to ride on the back of Aaron’s bike with him, but he told me no. AJ had his little girlfriend on the back of his, the same as Jason. In all the years that we’d been married, I never learned how to ride a motorcycle. When I was a Kitty, I never had to ride a bike alone. I was always on the back of a bike. Embarrassed, I resorted to riding on the back of one of the other Kitty’s bikes.
Aaron didn’t even sit next to me at the funeral. People didn’t bother to whisper about how shady it all looked. Since Cory’s death, there had been a lot of meetings behind closed doors that I was not privy to. Anytime I asked my husband about them, his response was don’t you have shopping to do or some shit. My sons were no better.
I loved that man for so long. He would never know all the shit I had to do just to be with him. If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have wasted my damn time. Who wanted to be with a man who they fought for, to be treated worse than a dog.
“Aaron, what do you want to do with Cory’s condo that he owned?” I asked after I walked into his office.
He looked up from a piece of paper that he was focused on that was on top of his desk. His face tightened. “I’m sorry. I could have sworn my door was closed. I didn’t hear a knock, nor did I hear myself telling you to come in.”
“Aaron, are you serious right now? I’ve seen AJ and Jason walk in here without knocking. You never say anything to them.”
He was utterly ridiculous. This was a time that we should be unified to grieve together. Instead, we were at each other’s necks. I’d been trying to give grace. Why should I? He never gave me any.
He stared at me for a beat. “Last I checked, you are not AJ or Jason. They have the right to walk in here without knocking because they’re my sons.”
“I’m your wife,” I said incredulously.
He chuckled. “Jen, sweetie, I would think at this point that you would realize you screaming about being my wife holds no weight with me. As far as your question is concerned, that’s up to you. You know that you don’t have to ask me that as the executor of his estate.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Are you mad that he made me the executor and not you?”
“Why would I be mad when I was the one who told him to do it? I figured you would want to feel what it felt like to get something from someone’s estate. I just never realized that I would bury my son instead of my son burying me.”
My mind replayed his words over. What did he mean by me feeling what it felt like to get something from someone’s estate? I wanted to ask, but I knew he would just say something to piss me off. I chose to go with a safer question. “What’s going on with those fuckas who killed my son?”
Without looking at me, he simply replied, “It’s being handled. Outside of that, it’s none of your concern.”
There was no reason for me to stand here any longer. I spun on my heels, then left his hateful ass in the office. It wasn’t fair that my son was gone, but Aaron’s bitch of a daughter was still here.
It was later in the evening, and I was a bottle of wine down. I hadn’t seen my sons all day. That wasn’t out of the norm, but I thought that they would want to stay close with everything that happened. Aaron had been in and out all day. That also wasn’t out of the norm. Let me go to bed. I knew that, more than likely, I would be here alone for the night.
Just as I threw the wine bottle into the trash and put the glass in the dishwasher, I heard the front door of the house open. The loud voice brought me pause.
“I told you dumb muthafuckas to leave the shit alone for now. Now look at this shit! We got dead fuckin’ bodies all over the fuckin’ place because y’all don’t fuckin’ listen!” Aaron was livid.
I stepped out of the kitchen to see who the hell he was talking to. I was shocked to see it was AJ and Jason. I couldn’t recall a time that I had ever seen him speak to them like that.
“Pops, what the fuck else were we supposed to do? You weren’t making any moves. Those bitches killed our brother!” AJ pounded his fist on his chest.
Aaron walked into his personal space. “You think I don’t know that? That doesn’t mean to act from emotion. I taught your ass better than that. Before your ass went out there and started a fucking war against the biggest fuckin’ club in two fuckin’ regions, I was trying to find out the why.”
“Why does the why matter, Pops?” Jason asked in a calmer voice.
Aaron stepped back before he pinched his nose. “The why matters because they called my son a fucking rapist. Not only did they call him one, since then, his name has been in too many mouths about the shit.”
“My son wasn’t a fucking rapist!” I blurted. Tears escaped me. The guilt consumed me.
SOME TIME EARLIER…
“This bitch thinks she’s slick. I thought that ho would learn the first time. Your father needs to keep his dick in his pants, I swear!” I roared as I paced the floor of my son Cory’s condo.
He sat on his couch, twiddling on his computer. My son was so smart and loved his technological stuff. “Ma, I don’t understand why you’re so mad about this one. I’ve never seen you this pissed about a bitch that Pops fucked with. You know he does what he does. Besides, I haven’t seen him around that girl at all.”
“He doesn’t have to be around her. The ditzy bitch keeps emailing him, wanting to meet up. The ho doesn’t know that I’m the one that checks those emails. What type of bitch sends emails?”
Dindi was making my ass itch. I thought that she would get the hint and move all the way around after Drag the Streets. I hated that fuckin’ bitch. I wished her ass would have been in the damn car with her mother when she had that fatal car accident. Both of them could have gone on to glory at the same damn time.
“Well, Mama, have the Kitties beat her ass or something. That’s what you normally do,” Cory said. I heard the annoyance in his voice.
Yeah, I would have had some of the Kitties beat her ass, but half of them were fucking Aaron too. Those heifers hated me because they thought I’d sold out. Connie and Shelby who founded the King’s Kitties with me still considered themselves Kitties, although they were now married to Kings. The second my and Aaron’s marriage license was signed and filed, I was no longer a Kitty; I was a wife. I never understood why the wives hated the Kitties so much until I became a wife.
I sat on the couch next to my son. I knew that getting that deaf bitch beat up wouldn’t be enough. “Cory, you know like I do that most of those hos are messing with your dad. Why the hell would I have a woman that’s fucking my husband beat up another woman that’s fucking my husband?”
I knew I was laying the whole side chick lie on thick, but I had to. There was no way that I could tell my boys that Dindi was their older sister. They knew nothing about her, and I wanted to keep it that way. Aaron never talked about her. When her aunt would send updates, I would throw those letters right in the trash before he could see them. He didn’t need to have any communication with them, because we were his family now.
“Son, I need you to do something for me.” After he stopped whatever he was on his laptop doing, to give me his undivided attention, I continued. “Baby boy, in all the years that your father has fucked around on me, this is the first time that I feel like I might lose him. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose that man. I’ve loved that man for as long as I could remember.” I let the tears fall down my face. This would have to be an Emmy Award winning performance if I wanted him to do what I needed.
My baby boy wrapped his arm around me. “Nah, Ma. I know Pops does what he does, but he would never leave. If that was the case, he would have been left when Jason turned eighteen. I think you’re overthinking this. Have you told him about the emails?” Jason was two years younger than Cory at twenty-four,
“Why the hell would I tell him about the emails? I’m not going to lead him to the exit of our marriage. Cory, I need that bitch gone! If she’s gone, then I won’t have to stress about my husband leaving me. I can barely eat, thinking about it. I’ve lost more weight than I ever wanted to.”
That wasn’t a complete lie. There was a time when Aaron seemed to go through a phase where he liked much skinnier women. I had gotten my body done four years after I had Jason. I needed to be the baddest on the block. After a gastric sleeve, breast augmentation, and a BBL, I was just that. There was no way that my husband wouldn’t want me.
I went to the Dominican Republic to have the surgery and stayed there for three months. The entire time that I was there, he never called me. I called to make sure that I always checked on the kids, who were between Aaron and my mother. I had a plan for this big reveal at his birthday party. When I showed up at the party, he was with another bitch and paid no attention to me. Shortly after, he started messing with women who were the opposite of my new body. Confusion was not strong enough of a feeling.
For years, he dealt with these skinny bitches while I had a body that was perfectly sculpted. Ten years after I had my initial surgery, I reversed everything that could be. My body was still very nice; it was just more modest like the women he preferred now. I hated my new look, but as long as he loved it, then it was worth it. Like the asshole that he was, the second he saw my new look, he went the opposite way back to thick bitches.
“Ma, what you mean you want her gone? Like, you want her dead or some shit?” When I didn’t answer him, he tilted his head. “Is it really that serious though? She’s a bitch that Pops is fucking like all the other bitches that Pops fucks. This too shall pass, and he’ll be on to a new bitch.” He spoke nonchalantly.
This too shall pass, and he’ll be on to a new bitch. “Cory, do you really think that’s alright? The fact that your father has no respect for our marriage? It’s like you and your brothers have normalized his cheating and expect no accountability from him. That’s crazy to me.”
His eyes softened. “Ma, it’s not that we don’t expect accountability, because he takes it. He has never lied or been quiet, for that matter, about what he’s done or does. You know like I do that he’s told you to leave multiple times if you didn’t like it. Also, let’s not act like you’re an angel. I love you, Ma, but just because you cheat quietly doesn’t make you any different from him.”
My eyes bulged at his words. Cory had never spoken to me like this before. Yes, I’d had my affairs, but I was never disrespectful to Aaron. He wouldn’t be able to tell you one person that I’d cheated on him with. I made sure the men I chose knew how to keep it cute. He needed to teach his bitches the same.
This conversation was not going the way that I thought it would. In the past, all I had to do was say that I wanted something, and Cory was always the first to step up. He was often the only one to step up. AJ and Jason had always had the ‘get someone else to do it’ attitude. I needed this bitch dead.
“Cory, don’t worry about it. I know you’ve never been about that life. You’re a play on your computer and video games type of boy. I’m not sure why I thought you would do anything.” I stood from the couch, walked over to the kitchen island where my purse sat, then walked toward the door. “I’ll talk to AJ. He’s the real protector of this family.”
The scurried movement behind me told me that I was about to get exactly what I wanted. “Ma, Ma, wait! Just tell me what you want, and I’ll do it.”
That night, Cory and I came up with a plan that I thought was foolproof. I heard a while ago that she messed with Zeus, but I didn’t think too much of it. The night of her studio’s grand opening, it was all over social media and the local news. Aaron must have recorded the footage because it felt like that was all that I saw him watching.
It was my fault that my baby was dead. How could I live with that? “My son is not a rapist! Aaron, you’re fussing at our sons for acting when you should have. You rather sit in your office to do only God knows what or sleep with your whores!”
Aaron pinched his nose again before he turned to face me. “What’s wrong, Jennifer? Are you mad because I prefer other hos over your ho ass? If I recall, there was a time when you had no problems being one of my whores.”
“Pops, come on, man,” Jason cut in. “All of that shit isn’t necessary. She’s still our mother.”
Aaron’s eyes pinballed between me and his sons. “You’re right. She still is your mother. As far as what I’ve been doing in my office, let me show you.”
We all stood there while we watched his back. He walked down the hallway toward his office. What the hell is he doing? A few minutes later, he came back. He stood in the center of the foyer where our sons still stood.
“I gave you two instructions because I had something in the works. While your mother, because she’s your mother, right? While she’s over there talking about y’all acting, y’all both put a fuckin’ target on your backs. I lost one son, and now I’m at risk of losing two more because they wanted to move recklessly. Did either of you think about that shit?” His tone was calm, too calm.
AJ shifted on his feet. “Pops, why didn’t you just tell us that you had something?—”
“I didn’t have to tell y’all shit until it was time to damn move. Too much information is the wrong information when it’s at the wrong damn time! I told y’all not to move until I said so! Now I have to make sure y’all stupid asses don’t get killed!” He was furious. His face flushed over.
He tilted his head over toward me. “As far as you and what I do in my office,” he reached behind him and pulled out a manila envelope, “this is for you,” he said before he handed me the envelope. “The eight hundred thousand dollars and the deed to this house is ready to be transferred to you upon signature. I’ll stay at my condo while my other house is being built.”
A heart attack! I was about to have a heart attack. I tore open the envelope and pulled out the contents. Oh God! They’re divorce papers! “Yo-you want a divorce?”
Our sons stood there with stoned faces. They didn’t look surprised. “Did y’all know about this? It seems like y’all knew about this shit!”
When Jason dropped his head, I knew the answer. They knew about this shit and didn’t say anything. This was why Cory was my favorite.
“Ma, come on. You’re not happy, he’s not happy. I don’t think either of you have ever been happy. We’re not kids anymore, so y’all don’t have to do this dumb shit,” AJ said.
I guffawed. There was no way that I was willing to lose my marriage after I’d already lost my son. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Maybe you’ll get the shit right when our daughter is born.”
Yep, I was pregnant with my fourth baby. There was never a right time to tell Aaron since he was barely at home. I didn’t care if he was here unhappily, as long as he was here.
Aaron smiled. “Congratulations, Jennifer. I’m sure you and whoever’s daughter will be beautiful.” He paused for effect. He certainly got a reaction. “See, there’s no way that your daughter is mine because I had a vasectomy while you were pregnant with Jason. I check yearly to make sure my shit is good. Yeah, see, a condom isn’t safe around you. I had to make sure I was covered.”
My body was stiff. Over the years, I’d had my fun here and there, but I’d always had one constant. I’d been fucking with him off and on for maybe ten or eleven years. Our affair worked because he was married too. My life was in shambles.
My sons looked at me like I was an alien. My tears fell. “You give me these not even a week after we bury our son. How insensitive can you be?”
“Says the woman trying to pin another man’s baby on me,” Aaron quipped. “Like I said, I’ll be at my condo.” He pointed at our sons. “You two idiots, meet me there in two hours.”
Like he didn’t just break my heart, he walked out of our front door. What hurt me worse was that my sons gave me looks of pity before they followed him. I’d lost everything.