Chapter 8
Diamond woke up to Kayla and Mia sitting at the foot of her bed looking sad as hell.
“What’s wrong with y’all? Our dog died?”
“We don’t have a dog, stupid,” Mia shot back, but Kayla didn’t budge, so Diamond sat up.
“Momma high,” Kayla said in a low tone.
Diamond showed no emotion because she wasn’t surprised, she was used to Sherry’s brief self-rehabilitation acts.
What she didn’t like was the hurt she had to look at in her sisters’ eyes every time their mother ran back to that pipe.
She was breaking them and didn’t even know it, or maybe she did know it, but the drugs were more important.
Either way, she had her sisters, and she would protect them from anyone, even their mother if she had to.
“That’s nothing new sister, why you sad about it?”
“Because I want her to quit and never go back. I’m tired of getting talked about because of her.” Kayla said before sighing.
“People would talk about you if Momma wasn’t on drugs. Tune that shit out.”
“I try to but at what point does she think about us? I’m starting to hate her ass for real.”
Diamond knew her sister’s feelings were valid, but she wanted her to understand that their mother had an addiction that she couldn’t control.
“Kayla, I understand how you feel, but Momma loves us. She don’t need us to hate her, she already hates herself.”
“She should!” Kayla got up and stormed out of the room.
“Let me guess, you hate her, too?” Diamond looked over at Mia, who slowly shook her head no.
“I don’t. I don’t understand why she wants to be on drugs, but I love her. We used to be so happy, what happened? How did she get like this?”
Diamond shook her head, “Product of the environment, peer pressure, a mask for pain, I don’t know, but one day she’s going to be who we remember.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever have her back.”
“We will, I promise.”
Mia stood up, the sadness in her face broke Diamond’s heart.
Right there in that moment she knew she had to get them out the hood, it was the only way she was going to be able to save her mother.
Sixteen with the weight of the world on her shoulder, she could only imagine what seventeen was about to bring in.
As soon as she walked out the room, Diamond joined her father in the living room. She knew that look on his face, he was tired.
“What’s up, old man?” She flopped down next to him as he forced a smile. No matter what, he always smiled.
“Hey, Daughter.”
“Hey, you ok?”
He let out a sigh, “Yeah, just have to move some things around to pay this light bill.”
“How much is it?”
“Why? You gone pay it?” he chuckled and tapped her knee.
“How much?” she asked again, causing him to look at her with relief mixed with confusion.
“A hundred dollars.”
Diamond nodded, walked to her room, and came back with five dirty twenties. For the first time, Richard “Rich” Hayes didn’t know what to say to his baby.
“Um. Where did this come from?” he finally spoke.
Diamond looked down for a second because she couldn’t lie to her father, she never could.
It was something about his eyes that made you want to tell the truth but her words were stuck in her throat.
Rich was a hustler by heart and knew what drug money looked and smelled like and he was holding drug money.
His eyes weren’t angry, they were hurt and disappointed. For the first time, Diamond felt something, fear. She wasn’t afraid of her father, but she was afraid to sadden him, he thought so highly of his girls.
“You touched the streets, didn’t you? Who gave it to you? Stone?” he asked through clenched teeth.
Rich knew that a hustler didn’t care who sold their product as long as the count was right at the end of the night.
“No one gave me anything.”
“Is that a lie?”
“No.”
“I’m listening.”
“I saw a chance to steal a jab and I took it. A few times. We needed the money.”
Rich didn’t know whether he was mad or proud of his daughter for knowing how to hustle.
“Baby, you don’t have to do that. That life took a lot from me, my sanity, almost my freedom, but most importantly, your mother. I was selling that shit to anyone who would buy it and I didn’t give a fuck until someone sold it to her. That shit killed me inside.”
“Is that why you haven’t left her yet, you feel guilty?”
“I do, but I love that woman, flaws and all. I know my baby is trapped right now, but I know she’s coming back. I got you, you don’t have to hustle, that’s why I work so much.”
That was the kind of love Diamond wanted in the future; her father was a real solid guy, and she was glad she carried his traits.
Diamond dropped her head, “What if it’s what I want to do?”
Rich knew right then and there, the streets had already smelled her scent. He could tell her a million times not to do it, but he was once her and his parents couldn’t stop him.
“Then you be damn good at it.”
Her eyes lit up because she wasn’t expecting that response. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“Would you teach me?”
“Don’t I teach you everything?”
She hugged him and told him everything her and Kayla did, he wasn’t even shocked to find out that she was in on it, they had always been partners in crime.
Rich thought he would never have to sit in that seat because he had daughters.
He was expecting boy problems and girl fights, but his girls were a different breed.
Rich helped build Stone’s empire and he sat back and watched him reap the benefits long enough.
He built it once, he could do it again with his daughter, and that time around, he wasn’t getting knocked off the thorn.
“Listen, school is still number one, no matter how much money starts coming in. Remain humble and grounded, no drugs allowed in this house.”
“Ok, but where do I get it?”
“I got connects that owes me favors. My name still good in the streets.”
“Damn. My daddy is the man.”
“Nah, yo daddy been the man, I just let niggas pretend.”
Diamond had questions, real questions.
“So, Stone is an enemy. I know it was something from the past, but what actually happened because you gave the watered-down version?” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
“We were once you and Kayla, thick as thieves. He was my brother from another mother. I knew his roaches and rats at his house and he knew mine, we were that close. We were young, cold, smart, and hungry. What’s even crazier is we came in the game just like you, we robbed a trap house, and no one suspected us because we were nobody, just some dirty ass kids. ”
“Sounds like real friendship.”
Rich nodded, “Indeed it was, I could never take that away from him. We touched real money together; we had a system that worked. It was all good until he brought Ace on the team, he got in Stone’s ear about me, and Stone believed him over me.
The money was still flowing, then mine started getting cut short.
Stone started moving funny, doing deals without telling me. Making plays behind my back.”
Rich chuckled, but it wasn’t funny.
“Stone looked like he wanted to say something to you the other day.”
“He tried talking to me plenty of times, but I don’t want to hear shit he has to say. I’ll see him at the top.”
Diamond thought a conversation was needed, but she wouldn’t tell him that, not at that moment anyway.
“What we gon’ do about Momma?”
“We gon’ get this money and get her the help she needs.”
A week later, Rich put Diamond in the car and took a drive.
“Where we going?” she asked from the passenger seat.
“The spot. This is where we talk business, store product and money, nothing goes where we lay our heads. Understand?”
“Yup.”
“Another thing, you can’t tell Kayla everything, her mind isn’t strong enough. I don’t even want her in this business.”
“We gon’ need her.”
“No. We got it, but once I build us a solid team and smooth operation, I want you out. This shit is temporary.”
Rich’s words went in one ear and out the other, especially when she followed her father into a storage unit. Her mouth dropped, there was three bricks and a pound of weed.
“Daddy, this is a lot!”
“I told you; my name is good with some important people.”
“So if you had access to all of this, why are you working that job?”
He looked at the drugs, “Because I was done with this shit. I wanted to be a role model for y’all and show y’all what work ethics looked like.”
“Well…you still kinda are showing us. We love you and appreciate you for never leaving no matter how hard it got.”
“I’ll lay down my life behind you girls. Promise me that you will let nothing, and no one, come between you and your sisters, especially not this shit,” he pointed as Diamond shook her head.
“Never.”
“Never say never, I lost my brother behind this shit.”
“He’s not lost, you just stubborn,” she shot back before he threw his hands up and playfully threw jabs. He was her best friend and role model, she meant that.