Chapter 1 #2
Leaving the courthouse, I spotted Koric hopping out of a black Acura TL as if he’d been waiting on a cue for my exit. I stepped onto the curb, and he made his way toward me with a Chanel shopping bag in his hand.
His expression was unreadable, as he held it out to me. “I’m heading back up top. Bro told me to give you this before I left. Make sure you check the inside. If you or KJ need anything, I’m one call away.”
I didn’t take the bag at first, just cocked my head to the side and stared him down. I never involved Koric in my marriage, but I couldn’t help but to ask the question burning in my head. “How old is the little girl?” My voice was clear and unwavering.
He didn’t flinch or blink, just pushed the bag into my hand and repeated himself. “If you or KJ need anything, hit me.”
I watched him get back in his car and pull off.
Koric didn’t know his silence said everything.
It was bad enough that my life had been flipped upside down over the last few months from our accounts being frozen to being temporarily barred from my home due to the investigation.
It was a lot, but still, I stayed solid, never folding.
And not just for Kaleb but for my son, who’d always known his mother to be strong.
For the last fourteen years, I’d rode with Kaleb, even in times when I questioned his decision making.
Later that night, I opened the bag to find a new Chanel purse.
Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been in awe of the canvas and gold-tone metal shopping bag but not today.
Remembering what Koric said about checking the inside, I did and found stacks of wrapped money.
Even more significant was the letter, what I considered a rushed apology from Kaleb confessing everything – his two-year affair, the baby that came from it, and a bunch of other bullshit along the lines of ‘you don’t deserve this’ and ‘I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.’
Nigga, what heart? I thought, as I ripped the letter into pieces and threw it in the trash. The judge sealed the fate on Kaleb’s future that day, and his lies sealed the fate on our marriage where I left him and his side bitch back in Atlanta.
I blinked twice, placing myself back in the Bronx, standing in front of Koric surrounded by his minions.
“Where’s my son?” I questioned, too irritated to fake a greeting.
“Well, damn, sis. Hey to you too,” he replied, smirking. “He’s upstairs. Fell asleep in aunty crib. I think his phone dead.”
“Your phone dead too?”
“Nah.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an iPhone with a cracked screen. “I’m charged up,” he said, like he was reporting good news.
“You think that’s funny, Koric? You think I came out in the dead of winter to joke witchu?”
“Damn, K,” a young boy snickered from the crowd, “she on yo’ ass.”
Koric looked past me, and his eyes turned to slits. “Aye, Rome, you minding family business?”
I’d known him to be a lunatic, and by the bewildered look on the boy’s face, he knew it too. I wanted to save him the embarrassment and Koric’s wrath.
“Nah. Nah, I ain’t,” the kid let out in a nervous tone.
“Can we talk without the crowd?” I suggested.
“Yeah,” Koric agreed, eyes never leaving the kid. After a few seconds of a menacing stare down, he gestured toward the building.
“Look, Koric, I’m well aware that you have these young boys out here marching to the beat of your drum, but when it comes to KJ, he has rules, and I have standards,” I expressed once we separated from the group.
“I don’t want my son out on the block getting involved in shit he knows nothing about.
I don’t understand why I gotta tell you that as his uncle. ”
“You ain’t gotta tell me that though, Thyri. I don’t involve KJ in shit I got going on. You came out here late cause you wanted to. He wit’ his people. You know we ain’t gon’ let shit happen to him. You be stressin’ over shit that ain’t that deep.”
“Ain’t that deep?” I repeated. “No, everything is that deep when it comes to my child. And the fact that it’s after two in the morning and I’m standing in front of the projects going back-and-forth witchu makes it deep as fuck. Call my son downstairs so I can go please.”
“Aight, Thyri. I’m not ‘bout to be out here arguing with my brother’s wife. Lemme call up there.”
“Yeah. You do that. And I’m not your brother’s wife.”
“Yeah, well, tell that nigga that,” he countered before placing a call to whoever on his phone.
A few minutes later, KJ suddenly appeared with his bookbag on his back, rubbing his tired eyes. His face fell when he saw me. He already knew what time it was.
“Ma…”
“The car,” I said, turning away from him and walking back down the steps. I wanted to say so much more, but I wasn’t a fan of embarrassing my child – no matter how bad I wanted to go across his shit.
I could hear him and Koric exchange goodbyes before he followed me to the curb. As I reached the driver’s side, I caught him trying to hop in the backseat.
“Nah.” I stopped him. “Get yo ass right in the front. You did the crime, now you gon’ hear my mouth thee whole way home.”
With a look full of disdain, he pulled the passenger door open and plopped down in the seat. Seeing the look on his face, I warned him before he closed the door.
“If you slam my door, you gon’ have an even bigger problem than you have now. Close it the fuck soft,” I warned through clenched teeth, mimicking the social media influencer, Supa Cent. Had the situation not been serious, I would’ve cracked up laughing at myself.
Taking heed to my warning, he did just that. Snapping his seatbelt, he turned to the window, as I sped off from the curb.
“Ma,” he called out after the couple minutes of silence I let him stew in.
“KJ,” I replied, not taking my eyes off the road.
“I’m so…”
“No,” I cut him off, “you don’t get to I’m sorry your way out of this one.
Tonight, you played yourself. I give you a chance to prove to me that you can be responsible, and you just showed me the reason I gotta stay on yo’ ass.
It ain’t no way you got me out my bed at this time to come and look for you! ”
“I ain’t even do nuffin’,” he muttered.
“You right. You ain’t do nuffin’,” I repeated the same way he had. “You ain’t do nuffin’ I told yo’ ass to do.”
“Ma, I was chillin’. We played basketball for a few then went upstairs to play the game. I ate and fell asleep. At some point, my phone died, and I didn’t realize it. You can ask Uncle Koric.”
“I’m not asking Koric shit. I’m not responsible for Koric. Koric don’t live under my roof. KJ does. Koric don’t have to follow my rules. KJ does. And what is the number one rule when you’re out, Kaleb Maurice Smith?”
“Don’t let my phone die,” he grumbled.
“And your phone is currently what?”
“Dead.”
“Exactly. Hence the reason we’re here.”
Slouching deeper into his seat, he sucked his teeth. “I told you I fell asleep when the phone died.”
Slamming on the brakes at a red light, I reached over and grabbed a fistful of his coat. “First of all, you ain’t tellin’ me shit. Watch your tone and posture when you talkin’ to me, KJ. Don’t let me being an understanding mother fool you. We can box.”
“Aight, Ma. My bad.”
“Mmmhmm. Yeah.” Loosening my grip, I pushed him in his chest and pulled off at the green light. “And just so there’s no misunderstanding, you’re grounded.”
He sucked his teeth again. “Ma, forreal? Come on, the season just started. I got practice.”
KJ was a star player on his school’s basketball team.
It was the one thing he loved most besides me and his father.
Up until our move back to New York last year, I hadn’t had any issues with him other than normal teenage stuff.
He was a straight A student, polite, and respectful.
But when his father went away, a part of him changed.
While the grades and his love for basketball remained, he’d picked up a new interest – the streets.
And I knew it was the sole reason he wanted to be around Koric more.
“You can still go to practice. Me or your godmother will be there to pick you up every day at six.”
“Pick me up?! That’s embarrassing.”
“Unfortunately for you, son, compromises are on hold at the moment.”
By the time we made it back home to Manhattan, my anger had subsided, and exhaustion had kicked in.
KJ had his hand on the door handle before I could shift the car in park.
The whole afterschool pick up was not ideal for him.
I couldn’t think of a better punishment than to temporarily strip him from his independence.
Entering our apartment, I kicked off my shoes at the door and hung up my coat.
“Goodnight, KJ,” I said to him, as he beelined toward his room. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” he forced out.
Shaking my head, I sent Danae a text to let her know we’d made it home and that I’d call her later.
She responded back that KJ had already texted her.
I chuckled at him calling himself telling on me.
Exiting the text thread, I navigated to my email.
I’d set up a profile on a couple days ago for a nanny position and had yet to hear back.
I needed something to do with myself a few days out of the week when I wasn’t visiting with my father in the rehabilitation center, and being that I loved kids, I figured why not.
Typing into the search, nothing popped up from the site, but one email did catch my eye.
It was from a company by the name of SULLIVAN & CO with the subject: Nanny Inquiry.
Knowing I wasn’t going to send a response at this time of night, I moved the email to my high priority folder to check in a few hours. Right now, I needed sleep.