Majeston
“Don’t show your ass in here, Yuki. I promise if you fuck up this reunion with my daughter, her never speaking to you again will be the least of your worries.” I told her straight out the gate as I parked the truck and cut the engine. Yuki sucked her teeth before pushing open the passenger door.
“Good thing you got me then.” I shot back.
“See? This is exactly why we don’t work.”
“We work just fine. Your problem is you don’t listen.”
“My problem is you talk too damn much.”
I barked out a laugh as she climbed out. Same smart mouth. Same stubborn attitude. Same woman that had been driving me crazy since we were young and dumb enough to think love was supposed to be easy.
Since pulling up on Yuki a month ago, her grown ass had been fighting me tooth and nail.
That wasn’t nothing new for us though, given our history.
Only this time Yuki didn’t have a choice.
While she thought she was finna wage war for some shit she caused, I came in like King Kong and squashed all that shit.
As fast as her men showed up, I’d given her strict orders to send them and Chen’s ass right back wherever the hell she summoned them from.
Truth be told, I was tired of watching her hide behind power. Tired of watching her hide behind the Syndicate. Tired of watching her hide behind titles. Most of all, I was tired of watching her hide from the consequences of her own decisions.
I had walked right back into her life and planted my flag where it belonged.
All over my wife. Yeah, my wife. The same woman who thought she could disappear for years, raise hell, build empires, dodge accountability, and somehow avoid dealing with me forever.
Not happening. I got her disrespectful ass all the way together.
She hadn’t even picked up a cigarette since I stepped back into the picture, and I meant every word I’d spoken to her that night.
When I asked her where my daughter was, of course she tried to lie her way out of it. Tried to dance around the truth. Tried to give me half answers and excuses. Until I cocked that hammer back and let her know I wasn’t playing with her. Her ass found some understanding real fast after that.
Yuki had been away too long, because she'd forgotten who she was dealing with. She forgot that I wasn’t one of her soldiers, advisors or one of these men scared of her title.
I knew the woman underneath all that shit.
The woman who laughed hard, cried when nobody was looking and loved harder than anybody I’d ever met, but had a bad habit of making terrible decisions when she got scared.
Left with no other choice she confessed everything about Ysis, Yayo, how she left them in the system.
Including every mistake she’d spent years trying to outrun.
Now I’d be a lying ass nigga if I sat here and said I didn’t put my foot up her ass off GP.
I never believed in putting my hands on women.
That ain’t never been me and my mama would’ve climbed out her grave and beat my ass herself if she ever thought I was built like that.
But I damn sure wasn’t gentle either. I went ape shit, letting her hear every ugly truth she spent years avoiding.
And for the first time in a long time, Yuki sat there and took it.
After giving her some much needed act right, we began to develop a plan on how we were going to go about this.
Then out of fucking nowhere I found out my daughter was getting married.
Wasn’t no way in hell I was missing that.
We had been there the entire time, watching and waiting.
Seeing Yayo give her away fucked me up. Yuki was crying and carrying on like us standing there pretending to be regular wedding guests wasn’t her fault in the first place.
At the reception, I decided the moment was right. Shit in my mind I felt like at least I waited until the speeches were done and the food was served. Why should I miss my daughter’s special day because her mama was a selfish, fine-ass, cold-hearted muthafucka? I had missed so much already.
When Yayo and Cazmir tried to stop me, I told both of them the same thing. Fuck that, but when Ysis and Kade walked up, the opportunity damn near presented itself. The moment Yuki introduced me, I thought shit was about to hit the fan. Instead, Kade stepped forward.
“I understand what you tryn’a do and I understand how you might feel,” he said straight up. “Respectfully, this our wedding and now ain’t the time or place for it.” His eyes never left mine.
“We can set something up. But we ain’t about to do this here, not on our day.
”I studied him for a long moment, seeing the protector in him.
I saw a man willing to get ignorant behind my daughter if he had to.
Saw the same dangerous devotion I carried myself.
It was then, I understood why Ysis loved him.
“I expect to hear from you soon then.” I held my hand out.
After a brief moment, he shook it. “Indeed.” He nodded toward security. “In the meantime, they’ll see y’all out.”
Usually, I would’ve never let no lil’ nigga big dog me, but given the setting and everything that had transpired between them and Marius, I respected the program and left. Beyond pissed, I hadn’t let Yuki out of my damn sight since.
Matter of fact, I made it clear there would be no more disappearing acts.
No more running or vanishing into the night because life got complicated.
Her ring was to stay on every day, of every hour, of every fucking minute.
And if she even thought about taking that muthafucka off again, she’d find out quick what a missing person’s report actually looked like.
“You are not funny.” Yuki muttered beside me.
“I wasn’t joking.” She rolled her eyes. I smiled knowing after all these years, all the mistakes, all the heartbreak and all the bullshit we’d survived, one thing remained true. Yuki Bautista-Kryx was still my wife and whether she liked it or not.
“Fix your face,” I said as we started up the driveway.
“My face is fixed.” I glanced over at her and called bullshit. The woman looked like she was headed to a funeral instead of a family meeting.
“It looks like you smelling spoiled milk.”
“Majeston.”
“What?” I asked innocently.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
I adjusted my jacket before looking her over again. “You got on enough designer labels to bankrupt a small country but standing over here looking nervous as hell. Pull it together.”
Yuki rolled her eyes so hard I was surprised they didn’t fall out her head.
Looking at her, most people would’ve thought she was calm, collected and always in control.
The same powerful woman she’d spent years convincing the world she was.
What they wouldn’t see was the slight tension in her shoulders or the way her fingers kept adjusting the ring on her left hand every few seconds. I knew her too well to miss it.
Truth was, my wife was scared. Not of me. Not of whatever reaction she thought she might get from Kade. She was scared of Ysis. Scared that after all these years our daughter would look her dead in the face and decide she wasn’t worth forgiving.
The second we got closer, my eyes landed on Ysis standing beside Kade and every other thought disappeared.
I’d seen photographs. Seen videos. Hell, I’d sat through an entire wedding reception watching her from a distance trying not to make a scene.
None of that prepared me for seeing my daughter standing there in front of me.
The shape of her face, her eyes, even the way she carried herself reminded me so much of myself it damn near stole the air from my lungs.
She looked at us and baby girl was pissed.
The moment her eyes met mine, her expression hardened before she turned her face away and started walking toward the house. That shit hurt, I couldn’t even lie.
“Well,” Yuki sighed beside me. “That went about as well as expected.”
“Now would be a real bad time for one of your smart-ass comments.” I shot her a look.
“I’m just saying.”
“And I’m just saying we dropped a bomb in the middle of that girl’s wedding reception and expected what exactly? Tears? Hugs? Matching family portraits?” For once, Yuki didn’t have a comeback. Good, she needed to sit with that.
By the time we reached the front of the house, Ysis had already disappeared inside, leaving Kade standing there waiting for us.
The boy looked calm, but there was nothing relaxed about him.
Every protective instinct he possessed was radiating off him.
Not hostile, but not welcoming either. Just watching and measuring, trying to make sure whatever happened next didn’t hurt his wife.
“I didn’t tell her y’all was coming because I knew she’d try to talk her way out of it.” Kade said. “But it’s time we got all this shit out on the table.” His eyes followed the direction Ysis had gone before returning to us.
“Follow me.”
As we followed him inside, I found myself looking around despite the circumstances.
To say I was impressed would’ve been an understatement.
I’d seen plenty of houses throughout Memphis, but this was different.
The architecture alone looked like something pulled out of the future.
Glass, steel, technology, and luxury blended together in a way I’d never seen before.
Everything was sleek and expensive as hell.
It was a kingdom, and Kade ruled every inch of it.
His house staff moved throughout the home as if we weren’t even there, carrying out their duties with the type of efficiency money couldn’t buy.
My baby had it made. There wasn’t another way to put it.
Looking around, I couldn’t help but feel relieved knowing Ysis had somebody willing to provide this type of life for her.
Not because she needed a man to take care of her, but because after everything she’d survived, she deserved somebody who wanted to.
“What the fuck is she doing here?”