Chosen By A Certified Crashout

Prologue

Dreka

Tapping the positive pregnancy test against my hand, I cleared my throat as tears formed in my eyes.

There was no way in hell I could have this man’s baby.

My mind was made up but sitting outside of Planned Parenthood had me getting choked up.

There was a very teenie tiny piece of me that wanted to say fuck it and keep the baby.

Then I thought back to all of the nut ass shit the baby’s daddy did, and that was all the motivation I needed.

I hopped out of my black-on-black Lexus RX and rushed into the building to get out of the cold, tossing the test in the trash can outside.

This was my second time inside of the building; the first being when I came in for them to confirm what the at-home pregnancy test told me.

I knew at that appointment that I was going to need another one to get rid of it.

After I signed in, I took a seat and patiently waited, barely looking at any of the other faces in the waiting area. I’m sure we all felt the same guilt for what we were about to do. Or hell, maybe some of them were there for other reasons than the obvious. It wasn’t my business.

“Rahdreka Lombardo?”

Hearing my name ten minutes later kicked my nervous system into overdrive, but I stood up anyway.

The nurse had a sympathetic smile on her face while she held the door open.

Taking deep breaths, I half-way listened as she explained how things were going to go.

All I could think about was how if my baby daddy found out I did this, he was gon’ break my neck.

Under no circumstances would he be supportive of me getting an abortion, but it was my choice, not his.

Once I got this appointment over with, I planned to take a three-month long vacation out of the country.

I needed a damn reset. The nurse had me sign some consent forms before instructing me to change into the gown and get on the bed.

Powering my phone off, I did exactly as she asked, staring at the white ceiling while waiting for her and the doc to return.

“Good morning, Miss Lombardo. You feeling okay?” Dr. Tucker stepped inside the room with the same sympathetic smile his nurse had.

It had to be part of their contract to give every patient that goofy ass smile. The same way Chik-Fil-A workers were required to say, “my pleasure.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“And you understand everything that’s happening today?”

My nostrils twitched in annoyance. “Yeah. I just wanna get this over with.”

He and the nurse shared glances, nodded at each other, and got started. When I was hooked up to an IV and saw Dr. Tucker pushing meds, I immediately became confused.

“Wait, what’s the drugs for?”

“You opted to do a deep sedation procedure,” he announced, pushing his hands in his pockets.

I tried to think back on when the fuck I consented to that, but I started to feel extremely drowsy fairly quickly. Before I could ask any more questions, it was lights out.

What felt like hours later, I groggily woke up, trying to search my surroundings but all I saw was darkness.

Did I go blind during the procedure? When I tried to stretch my body, I realized I was in a confined space, and my hands were bound.

The last thing I remembered was sitting in my car, so I was puzzled as to how I wound up wherever the fuck I was at.

The more alert I became, my ears picked up on a noise that sounded like I was riding over rocks or something.

That’s when it hit me that I had to be inside of a trunk, but how and why?

“Hey!” I started kicking whatever I could. “Hey! Let me out! Hey!”

My body jerked as the car smashed on its brakes.

Hearing the slam of a car door increased my heartbeat so fast, I thought I was going to throw up.

This couldn’t be happening to me. I was the princess of the Lombardo family, not to be touched or harmed, and yet I felt like someone was about to do exactly that.

When the trunk opened, and I came face to face with two masked men, I just knew my lil’ life was over.

“Let me go!” I screamed with force from my gut. “Let me go!”

“Ssshhhh,” one of them put a finger to his lips. “Did you honestly think you were going to be able to kill Mr. Chambers’ child and get away with it?”

My eyes swelled before my mouth and nose were covered with a rag, and everything went dark again.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was staring at a ceiling that was beautifully painted.

There was so much sunlight in the room, and I didn’t even have to look around to know he was there.

I could smell and feel him, and I hated that we were that connected.

“Xyleek,” I mumbled his name, still staring at the ceiling.

“Drek, I oughta wring your neck for thinking shit was ever sweet with me,” his deep, raspy voice sounded in the room first. Then, his tall, muscular frame loomed over the bed. “You thought you were going to kill my baby? Are you out of your fuckin’ mind?”

Closing my eyes back, I started to put everything together, and that’s when I remembered that I was at Planned Parenthood. I was supposed to be having an abortion and somehow ended up in the same room with the man I had been ducking. Crazy how life worked.

“I don’t want to have a baby with you, Xy. I can’t.”

“That’s too gahdamn bad, sweetheart, because you will. I’ll keep you locked up in this bitch for the next seven months if I have to. And don’t worry, you were given microdoses of the drugs that were used, so they won’t harm you or our baby.”

A single tear slipped from my eyes as I opened them and glanced over at him. “Why are you dressed like that?” I quizzed, hating how he good he looked in that damn black suit.

“It’s our wedding day, my love,” his eyes motioned towards my body, causing me to look down.

I screamed when I saw that a beautiful white gown adorned my body. It was the exact same dress I told Xy I wanted to get married in, back when I was actually in love with his ass. Who am I kidding? I’m still in love, which was why I had been running from him so much.

“Xyleek,” I exasperated his name, closing my eyes briefly. “I knew you were a fuckin’ nut job when I met you. I accepted that, which I shouldn’t have, but now I know you’re smoking crack if you think I’m getting married to you. Today or any day.”

“The same way you were smoking crack tryna get rid of my seed,” he grinned before getting directly in my face.

“I don’t know what part you don’t understand about me loving you forever, but Ima make that shit crystal clear today.

There’s an entire ceremony set up for us downstairs.

All of our family is here and so are the families of Casa, so yeah, we are getting married today,” he spat with his nostrils widening.

Looking around again, I tried to sit up, and that’s when I realized I was chained up like a damn runaway slave. “What the....fuck? Where are we?”

“Sicily.”

“ITALY?!” I shouted.

If I was in Italy, and all seven families were present, that meant I was fucked. Getting married wasn’t an option, it was my only choice. Casa Oscura didn’t do wasted time. If they came to a function, there was a purpose, and if that purpose was futile, there was bloodshed. No questions asked.

“Do you know another Sicily, my love?” he calmly asked, freeing my hands from the thick cuffs that were holding me down. “And please don’t cry, Drek, you gon’ ruin your makeup.”

Even though my hands were free, I was frozen in place. This nigga had gone through the trouble of setting up an entire wedding, getting the families there, getting me in a fuckin’ dress, and getting my make-up done, all while I was unconscious. I mean what in the actual fuck?!

My eyes darted over to the door, and I heavily contemplated on how fast I could move. I couldn’t see my feet over the poofy ass dress, so I didn’t even know if they were chained. When I subtly lifted my foot, it was obvious that I wasn’t confined there.

Xy sat on the bed next to me, slowly stroking my cheek. “I’ll give you five minutes to get yourself together, and then we will walk downstairs and prepare to say I do. I love you.”

I tracked his every movement until he was out of the door.

Immediately, I rolled out of the bed, getting a quick glance at myself in a mirror.

My makeup ate down, so whoever did it, shout out to them but too bad they wasted their time.

Pulling on the door, I realized it must’ve been locked from the outside.

Turning around, I searched the lavish room for something, anything to break free before scurrying over to the window next.

If I had to guess, I was only about three floors up, which wasn’t a far enough fall to kill me.

Would I break a bone or two? Possibly, but that seemed better than marrying the psychiatric patient known as Xyleek Chambers.

Lucky for me, the windows opened up to a grass padded courtyard.

“Rahdreka, I swear it’s gon’ take God, the angels, the demons, and Pop Smoke to pull me off yo simple ass if you jump out that muthafuckin’ window!” Xy fumed from behind me, standing at the door.

I hadn’t even heard him come back in, which was kind of ruining my big plans. My head turned from him to the window to him and then back to the window. And then, I said fuck it.