Chapter 10
Niko Freeman
Months Later
“What you doin’ here?” I asked my mama as I walked into my house.
“I’m not welcome where my son lays his head at?” My mama asked with a condescending tone and a scowl on her face.
“Did I say that?” I asked, unbothered by her attitude. If you knew Pricilla, she always had an attitude or had something smart to say.
My mama had a hard life growing up. She never really liked to talk about it and did whatever she could to distance herself from the way she grew up.
My mama barely talked to her own family because she liked to pretend her past wasn’t real.
The little I knew came from what my daddy knew which wasn’t a lot.
He did tell me my mama’s dad was an alcoholic, and her mama left before she was born.
Growing up, my mama never had shit, that's where her love for money came from. Once she got older, she never wanted to go without. She did what she had to to keep her pockets full. My mama had the reputation that she’d rob, lie, steal, or kill someone to get money.
My daddy found out too late about what type of female she was before he knocked her up with me.
Still to this day, my mama could turn heads, and she loved that shit.
She had a light toasted vanilla complexion, hazel eyes, long hair all the shit typical niggas went for.
It was easy for her to run game on niggas because they would be stuck on her looks not knowing she was plotting her way to run their pockets.
At some point in her life, my mama decided she was too good for the shit she used to do and she switched up.
Not changing her way, but she changed her methods.
Before it was nothing for her to fuck for some bread.
Once she got on her high horse, she started acting like certain shit was beneath her.
I gave my mama a lot of grace because I knew she had a fucked up childhood.
I felt like her attitude was a defense mechanism she used to cope with her trauma.
I had more patience with my mama than my brothers which meant she was around me more than them.
Yaro wasn’t fucking with her right now, and I couldn’t say I didn’t blame him.
My mama stayed tryna insert herself into our business.
I chalked that up to her knowing how bitches could be and not wanting us to end up with a broad like her.
What our mama didn’t get was she did too much when it came to our relationships.
If she didn’t like the bitch he brought around, she made it her mission to be a bitch.
Yaro wasn’t going for that with his wife, Frankee.
Our mama didn’t like Frankee ‘cause she used to fuck with our cousin Meeko back in the day. Meeko was our Auntie Kris’s oldest son.
Auntie Kris was our mama’s sister, but the crazy part was my mama didn’t even fuck with our Auntie Kris or Meeko.
My mama loved money, but my Auntie Kris was obsessed with it.
Auntie Kris didn’t care who she had to fuck over to get what she wanted, and that led to her and my mama falling out.
Auntie Kris did some underhanded shit to our mama, and it had been beef between them ever since.
Meeko wasn’t any better than his mama. He was the type of nigga who wanted to look like money but not actually have money.
He could get money, but because of how he lived, he couldn’t keep it.
I didn’t trust the nigga, family or not, which was why I never gave him the greenlight to be put on with us.
Which started his one sided beef with us.
It only escalated when Yaro really started fucking with Frankee.
When she popped out pregnant with his seed, that sent Meeko over the edge.
Ion even think the nigga really wanted Frankee; his ego was sending him on a power trip that led to him being paralized for the rest of his life.
Of course I was ten toes behind my brother.
Meeko tried to play in Yaro’s face and got dealt with.
My mama, I know she didn’t give a fuck about Meeko, she just wanted a reason to not like Frankee and blamed her for Meeko being paralized.
Yet, our mama hadn’t seen that nigga in years.
Yaro essentially cut our mama off when she wouldn’t stop disrespecting Frankee.
The only time Yaro spoke to our mama was when it came to handling business, and on most days, he still didn’t speak to her.
Pressing her filler-filled lips togethe tightly, “Mmm, act like it then. I brought you into this world. All four of y’all ungrateful asses, and none of you treat me the way y’all should.”
“Okay, my bad, Mama.” I sighed, not in the mood to hear another one of her rants about us not being shit.
She loved to play the “poor me” like we weren’t the ones taking care of her and her husband, On top of what we were paying to help her run our front business.
“How you doin’, Ma?” I asked, then looked down at my watch.
I wasn’t planning on being here that long. I needed to change my clothes then I was heading to go pick up my niece Sunshyne for Yaro.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” she snidely replied standing up from the bar stool in front of my kitchen island. “You got somewhere to be?”
“Yeah, I’m finna go pick up Sunshyne,” I answered, knowing that was going to piss her off.
Sunshyne was my youngest brother Sonni’s second born.
He had three other kids with his side bitch, Gretchen.
Solana, Sunshyne’s mama, was Sonni’s wife.
The nigga used to obesess over Solana but treated her like shit.
Sonni was our mama’s favorite, so it was a given she hated Solana, and she did everything in her power to break her and Sonni up.
She was the reason Gretchen was in the picture.
Gretchen was the daughter of our mama’s friends.
Our mama wouldn’t admit it, but she set the shit up for Gretchen to fuck with Sonni, and he fell for the shit.
The issue was he refused to let Solana be.
I still remember the day she found out about Gretchen.
Forreal, I thought Solana knew about Gretchen being pregnant.
It wasn’t a secret, our mama threw them a baby shower, and somehow, Solana popped up at the house.
She tore that bitch up, and I thought that shit was hilarious.
I tried telling Sonni, but he thought he knew everything.
I saved my breath and kept my mouth shut.
I loved my brother, but he was fried forreal.
He went as far as wanting to kill Gretchen to get Solana back.
I didn’t try to understand his logic when he still kept fucking with Gretchen after he made up with Solana.
He got a little smarter. Sonni moved Gretchen and their three sons out to Codwell Township, a suburb of Beauville City.
When Sonni died, our mama did some slick shit to make it where Sonni’s sons were the beneficiaries of his estate and got all his money.
Since Gretchen had sole custody over them, she had access to everything, even though Solana was his wife, and if my mama had included Sunshyne in that, I wouldn’t have given a fuck.
That fact that she left Sunshyne out intentionally pissed me off.
“Umph, I don’t see why you’re going out of your way for her.”
“Don’t start that dumb shit. Sunshyne is yo’ granddaughter.”
“I’m not talking about Sunshyne. I love my granddaughter. I’m talking about her stanking ass mom,” my mama spat, glaring at me.
“I can’t tell. You’ve seen Sunshyne once since we been back in contact with her, and you still ain’t explained where that bread we was given you for her went to.
” I loved my mama, but a lot of shit was coming out that had me side eyeing her.
Some stuff I chalked up to her emotions, but the big shit wasn’t finna be overlooked.
“I don’t like her mama. She’s the reason my son is dead. Since Yaro has Sunshyne majority of the time, I can’t see her since he’s in one of his bitchy moods.”
“Mama, let that shit go. Solana ain’t the reason Sonni dead,” My mama wanted to blame Solana for Sonni’s death because she left him at the time he was killed. He was out looking for her and Sunshyne when he was killed.
“If her black ass would have sat the fuck down somewhere, Sonni wouldn’t have been preoccupied with bringing her dumb ass home, and he could have focused on his surroundings instead of worrying about that bitch.
” Her tone was full of hate. She had her mind made up, and there was no point in me going back and forth with her.
“Alright. I’m finna go change.” I sighed getting ready to leave the kitchen. Talking to my mama had drained enough of my energy.
“Wait!” My mama grabbed my arm. “Maddison! Come on.” My mama yelled, looking behind me into the hallway. Instantly, I got annoyed.
Maddie was the reason I was tryna be in and out of this bitch. Yeah, Maddie was still around. I hated I let pity make me stay with her dumb ass.
I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned around to see Maddie holding a bunch of balloons that had “Congratulations’ on them, a pink balloon in the shape of a pacifier, a blue bottle shaped balloon, with a butch of smaller balloons.
I frowned reading the message on the front of her pink shirt.
It had a black and white picture of a sonogram, above it written in cursive it said: “Congratulations Niko, Baby Freeman loading.”
“Surprise!” Maddie said, hopping from one foot to the other. “I’m pregnant.” My eyes locked on the ugly scar on her wrist.
Nothing in me was happy about this shit.
I was done with Maddie when she had that abortion.
She was right; she ain’t have to have my seed.
I wasn’t the best nigga, and if she didn’t want to be pregnant, cool.
But when she killed my seed, that was the end of us.
Maddie didn’t see it like that. She refused to listen to a nigga when I told her it was a wrap.
She ain’t take me serious until I started moving my shit outta our house.
I expected her to tear my shit up, but she fucked me up when I came back to grab some more shit, and I found her in the tub filled with blood.
I had taken a life or two, so seeing a lifeless body was nothing to me.
Seeing Maddie damn near dead with blood seeping out of her wrist…
my mental was fucked, and I started feeling guilty.
I wasn’t even thinking when I snatched her outta the tub and drove her to the hospital.
I was on autopilot praying Maddie didn’t die.
Thank God, I got her to the hospital in time.
She had to get a couple blood transfusions and ended up having to stay in the hospital for a psych evaluation.
That ended in her being sent to some mental institution for a month.
From what I understood, the mental anguish from her having an abortion sent her into some kind of psychosis that was triggered when I tried to leave her.
When she was released, I didn’t see myself saying fuck her.
I stayed around making sure she was straight.
I didn’t want her to have another episode on my account.
I even called myself seeing if we could work shit out.
I wasn’t no saint, and Maddie had forgiven me for hella shit.
I tried, but I didn’t look at her the same.
My patience was shorter, she got on my nerves more, and being around her wasn’t the same no matter how I tried to look at the shit.
The only time I did tolerate her was when we fucked.
Even then, that shit fell flat. I felt like I was sticking my dick into a graveyard.
I ain’t even fuck her raw no more because I knew I didn’t want to get her pregnant no more.
I ain’t even trust Maddie. All that shit was gone, and I couldn’t make myself pretend like everything was cool between us.
I would always have love for Maddie, but being with her wasn’t it.
She started complaining about me treating her differently, and I straight up told her how I felt about our situation.
Which sent her into begging and promising to never kill my seed again.
She dead ass begged me to get her pregnant again.
When that didn’t work, she went to talking about killing herself if we weren’t together.
Which stopped me from leaving at that moment.
I didn’t want her hurting herself on my behalf, but that didn’t mean a nigga was staying.
I already had a spot across town I was slowly moving my shit into.
I wasn’t about to let her guilt me into staying with her, but I did care about Maddie.
I was getting certain shit set up so I could leave her fully and know she was gonna be good.
Maddie being pregnant again had to be the worst fucking news I’d heard in a long fucking time.
I barely trusted leaving her alone for too long how the fuck was I supposed to trust her taking care of my seed?
Maddie was unstable in my eyes, and I would never be at peace with her having my seed alone.
“Why don’t you look happy?” Maddie’s smile slowly turned into a frown when I didn’t match her enthusiasm.
“ ‘Cause I’m not,” I told her truthfully as I processed everything. “How the fuck you pregnant when I ain’t fucked you raw in months?” I angrily asked Maddie. Feeling like Maddie was trying to play on my top. I never busted in her. I made sure I was careful; there was no way she was pregnant.
Maddie looked at me, guilt written all over her face. “You were going to leave me, Niko. I can’t lose you,” she solemnly responded. “You left a condom in the trash, and I did what I had to do to save our relationship.”
“Is you cool?” I gritted out angrily. I wanted to lay Maddie the fuck out hearing what the fuck she did.
A baby couldn’t save us. If anything, it made me hate her even more.
Maddie was trying to force a nigga’s hand.
She knew I’d want to be around for my seed, and she was weaponizing that to make me stay with her.
I swear if I didn’t hate her before, I hated Maddie now.
I had to get the fuck out this house before I did or said something I’d regret.
“Please. Niko, don’t be mad at me. I did this for us.” Maddie tried to grab my hand, but I snatched away from her.
“Let me get the fuck away from yo’ ass before I end up in jail.” I walked around her, ignoring her pleas for me to stay and talk to her.
I got in my whip and pulled off. Fuck this shit.