Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
MAKARI “HAVOC” SANCHEZ
TWO WEEKS LATER
Ipushed open the hospital room door and stuck my head inside. Sincere’s eyes moved my way, and I smiled widely when he groaned.
“Nigga, ain’t you got better shit to do than bother me today?” he asked. I laughed, knowing I was pissing him off, but oh fucking well.
Ignoring him, I took a seat beside his bed and got comfortable as fuck because I wasn’t leaving, no matter how much he bitched about it.
“Just like I told you yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, I’m coming because I want to.”
He’d been trying for days to get me to stop coming to visit him, but I wish I would. Couldn’t nobody but God keep me out of this man’s room. He’d been here for the past week, and I made sure to come every day.
“You cut your honeymoon short,” he said, peering at me and coughing a little. I stood to my feet to get him some water, but he waved me off. “You just got married, Makari, you should be home with your wife, not here with me,” he said.
“Young man, mind your business,” I said, giving him a smile. No matter what he was saying, I wasn’t leaving him.
His health had deteriorated a lot, and there was nothing more anyone could do for him. There was no way I was leaving him alone at a time like this.
“Trust me, Kairi would kick my ass if I didn’t come,” I added, making him chuckle like I was joking, but I wasn’t.
She gave me some sex last night and then woke my ass up this morning, telling me to come and see him. She wasn’t playing when it came to Sincere. Over the weeks, she’d grown close to him too. I couldn’t keep their asses off the phone. Every time I turned around, he was calling her to talk shit.
“I’m still waiting on you to pay my phone bill!
Calling my wife and shit,” I kidded. He laughed and shook his head at me.
I patted his hand, and he looked at me. The breathing tube rested in his nose.
His eyes looked big because of how much weight he’d lost. I could never leave him at a time like this.
“I’m not going anywhere, so stop trying,” I said.
Finally, he relented and squeezed my hand.
“Okay, so let’s see what’s happening in the news today,” I said before opening the newspaper I picked up on my way in.
I started to read it for him, something I found he enjoyed. This had become our routine for the past week, and I lowkey enjoyed it too!
“Damn!” I exclaimed, reading something which made me laugh. “Sincere, you won’t believe this shit,” I started before looking over at him. His eyes were closed, and his breathing looked shallow.
“Sincere?”
He didn’t answer me.
“Come on, man, stop playing,” I nervously laughed, but he still didn’t answer me.
I reached out and tapped his hand, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“Sincere?” I called him again. My heart racing, stomach dropping, and voice breaking.
Then…
Beeeeeeeepppppppppppp.
My eyes moved to the monitor, and I froze because I knew what that fucking sound meant.
I jumped up to my feet.
“Sincere!” I yelled his name. “Come on, man, don’t leave me just yet.”
The door opened, and the crash team rushed inside.
I stepped aside to allow them to work.
Please.
I started to pace watching as they checked him, and then they stopped. Why were they stopping?
The doctor turned to look at me and shook his head, letting me know that my friend was gone.
“No,” I breathed, pulling at my hair in total disbelief.
Tears rolled down my face, and my shoulders slumped. I just stood there frozen, looking at him. My only consolation was that he looked peaceful—like he was simply sleeping.
I collapsed against the wall and held my head. My breathing spiked as the feeling of being alone again hit me hard. It was the same when Hell died. Everyone I loved just kept on leaving me.
Why???
I looked over at Sincere again just lying there in his bed.
“Do you want to say goodbye?” the doctor asked me just as Lennox walked into the room with Aaron.
I couldn’t hold it together when I watched the way that big man dropped to his knees.
“It has been a pleasure serving you for all these years. Sleep in peace, sir. It’s been an honor,” Lennox tearfully said, holding Sincere’s hand. I slowly approached again and used my forearm to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“Thank you for everything, Sincere. You were the father I always wished I had, and I will never ever forget you,” I finally mustered up the strength to say.
Not being able to take any more, I excused myself and walked out of the room. I leaned my back against the wall to steady myself and took my phone out to call my wife.
“Hey, baby, how’s my favorite father-in-law doing? I bet he asked for me, didn’t he?” Kairi giggled but stopped when she heard me sniffle.
“He’s gone, baby. He’s gone,” I uttered the words I wasn’t ready to say. Kairi gasped, and then I heard her start to cry.
For a few seconds, we cried together on the phone. I cleared my throat and wiped my eyes.
“Do you need me to come there?” she asked.
“No, Lennox is here, but I’m gonna come home soon.”
“Okay. I’m so sorry for your loss, babe. Be safe.”
“Thank you, and I will do. See you soon,” I said before ending the call.
Sincere’s room door opened, and the doctor stepped out before he approached me.
“I’m, uh, sorry for your loss,” he stuttered, stroking the back of his neck. “I know now isn’t the right time, but there’s something I need to tell you.”
My brows knitted, and I pushed off the wall.
“Tell me what?”
Because if this man told me that someone did something to Sincere, they were gonna have to call the cops on me because nobody was gonna leave this bitch alive.
“I hope nobody was stupid enough to do something to Sincere,” I snapped. The man threw his hands up in surrender.
“No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s about your brother.”
Now, I was even more confused.
“What about my brother, and how do you even know him?”
“Sincere asked me to perform an autopsy on him. Didn’t he tell you?”
As he said that, I instantly remembered what Sincere told me at my brother’s funeral.
“Yeah, he did,” I explained, and the doctor nodded.
“I’m sorry it has taken me this long to get back to you, but once Sincere’s health started getting worse, that became a priority, but I just remembered after seeing you in his room.”
I nodded because I understood that. My brother had already passed, so it was a priority to help Sincere.
The doctor looked around the hallway, seemingly to make sure that we were still alone before he continued.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but your brother died from cardiac arrest, not the bullet wound.”
He said something I wasn’t expecting!
“I’m sorry, what?”
His heart was the cause of death.
The doctor nodded.
“He had lost a lot of blood by the time he arrived, but that wasn’t what killed him. Now, Sincere suspected that he was poisoned, but nothing except alcohol was found in his system.”
I was hearing what he was saying, but I was still stuck on the fact that it wasn’t the gunshot that took his life. My brother was healthy as fuck—even more than me, and he damn sure didn’t have any heart problems like that.
It wasn’t making any sense.
“However, I believe that he was poisoned because inside of his mouth was purple with white patches, indicating it was definitely something he consumed, but whatever it was, was untraceable,” he said, giving me a sympathetic look.
I knew he thought that his words were comforting to me, but they actually had the opposite effect. It did nothing but make all types of deadly thoughts flow through my mind because who the fuck poisoned my fucking brother!
I wasn’t sure how the hell I managed to drive home because my mind had been in a daze since I walked out of the hospital. The doctor’s words haunted me and left me feeling more guilty than before, knowing that someone was able to get close enough to my brother to poison him right in my face.
I kept going over that night, wondering if I missed it somehow, but I had to because the doctor had the proof.
“He personally ordered those bottles,” I said to myself. “And if those were poisoned, how come nobody else was?”
It just wasn’t making any sense.
I sat there for a few seconds just puzzled, lost, and confused. Poisoning was a whole different playing field. That meant someone did that shit on purpose just to kill him. My mind couldn’t comprehend it.
I stumbled out of my car and up to my front door. Today’s events weighed heavily on me, and as of now, the two people I would have gone to about it have both left me. I knew without even asking, that Sincere would have had the right words to say to me, but I was never given that chance.
It was paining me to know that not one, but two people had left me alone in a matter of months.
As I turned the key and unlocked the door, the smell of my wife’s perfume hit me, giving me an instant calm feeling. God did His big one with sending this woman into my life. I met her at the time I wasn’t even paying attention, but I needed her more than I ever knew.
When I entered the house, I found her in the kitchen, pacing, looking worried. I knew right then that she was worrying about me.
She suddenly turned to look at me and rushed my way.
“I was just about to come to the hospital to find you. I was so worried!” she said into my neck. I kissed the top of her forehead and wrapped her in my arms. We stood there shedding tears together over Sincere. He would definitely be missed.
“I told Lennox that I’ll sort out his funeral,” I let her know. She lifted her head to look at me and smiled.
“I will help.”
And that was why I wanted this girl more than anything. She kissed my lips and went over to the refrigerator.
I closed my eyes and rubbed at my temples. Today was heavy.
“I found something else out today, too,” I let her know, taking a seat at the kitchen island.
“What?” she asked, her head now inside the fridge, probably trying to find something to snack on as usual.
“There was a doctor friend of Sincere’s who did an autopsy on my brother,” I explained, feeling that heaviness hit me again just from saying the words out loud.
“And he said—”
I then stopped talking because I just couldn’t form the words to say. Kairi looked over at me and slowly closed the refrigerator door. A bottle of Prosecco in her left hand.
“He said what?” she asked, concern displaying on her face.
“He said that my brother might have been poisoned.”
It seemed like all the color drained from Kairi’s face as she stared back at me blankly. Her eyes changed, and I noticed the way she started to shake. That made me stand to my feet.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Her reaction was making me nervous.
“He said that? Are you sure?” she questioned, stuttering.
“Yeah. He said it was cardiac arrest, but he suspects Kelechi might have been given something that caused it because inside of his mouth was purple with white patches.”
The glass bottle slipped from her hand and crashed at her feet, spilling the bubbly contents.
“Oh my god!” she gasped. Eyes wide, focused on me, and full of tears. “This can’t be happening,” she said, now shaking her head vigorously.
“What?” My heart was racing out of my chest because something in my gut was telling me she knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Don’t tell me—” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. Memories of that night spun around my head, and the realization that she was there that night, too. “Did you?” I asked and stopped.
“No, it wasn’t like that!” she pleaded. Kairi rushed my way, and instinctively, I took a step back, which made her stop.
She looked at me, hurt and confusion shining brightly in her dark orbs. Tears soaked her cheeks.
“I-I put something in Sony’s drink. I thought that maybe he just didn’t drink it, but I didn’t know—” She stopped just as the image of Sony handing his drink to my brother flashed before my eyes.
I remembered how he’d ordered a drink from Kairi, and she handed it to him, but just as my father came to evict me from the club, Sony had given that drink to my brother to calm him down.
I looked at my wife—my world, my comfort, and my heart shattered knowing she was also the cause of my pain!