Chapter 14 #2
Sylvia wasn’t much of a mother, so it was Taylor who helped me with most of the things I needed to know as a female.
She taught me how to use a tampon for the first time, and she taught me how to make do with what I had, even if I didn’t have a lot.
I always credited her for my fashion sense because when Priest barely had money to buy me school clothes, she came over to my house, and we mixed and matched clothes I already had and turned them into new looks.
My girl made some bad decisions while coming up, but no one could ever convince me to turn my back on her. She was my sister!
Our first stop was my tailor since I had to check on the alterations to my dress for the all-white party. While I stood on the platform with the seamstress making final adjustments, I gave Taylor the rundown of what happened with Brooke.
“I’m so proud of you ‘cause old Jazzy would’ve popped her as soon as she said the comment about Blue not being your kid.
You love that little boy and never did anything weird to him.
She honestly should be grateful because there are so many weird-ass stepmoms out there.
” Taylor rolled her eyes since she had a weird-ass stepmom.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Exactly, but a little part of me knows she’s right. I’m not his mom, so I can’t be as vocal as I would want to. I try my best to not overstep, but both she and Ahk were acting childish as fuck.”
“If I could just get up with her one good time, she wouldn’t give y’all no more problems.” She threw her fist up.
I laughed while shaking my head. “As much as I would love you to, I can’t.”
My alterations were perfect, so we left the tailor and headed straight to the club. By the time we arrived, Cyro was already there waiting on me.
The white party was the biggest event of the year, so I made sure to always hire the best party planners. It was a big opportunity for the promoters in the city to make some money, so I had flyers all over the city, radio shows making big shout outs, and it was all over social media.
This year, I elevated it to new heights and freed up some space at the back of the building outside so the party could be even bigger.
There were so many moving parts when it came to keeping the nightlife industry under my thumb, but I loved it so much. The club was something I had to do when I was in a bind, but now it was my passion.
I had my dancers come in today so they could be fitted for the outfits I wanted them to wear.
Although I wasn’t touching my sewing machine as much as I used to, I still liked making custom pieces for my girls when it came to the white party.
It ensured that everybody was in uniform and that they all had an even playing field to make a bag.
“Where the hell is Icey?” I looked around the dressing room, but didn’t find her.
Most of the girls shrugged. They had a call time of twelve, and everyone was on time except her.
“She told me she’s on her way.” Passion held her phone up, indicating that she had gotten a text from her.
“Tell her ass next time she bothers to be late, she might as well not come.”
“You know how Icey is. She always got something going on.”
It was true. She had only been dancing at Reign for a year, and I’d seen so much crazy shit happen to her.
From her car getting put on four flats by hating-ass bitches to her coming in with black eyes from her baby daddy.
I never pried, but I let her know if she needed anything, all she had to do was ask.
She was only 21, and I remembered being her age, not knowing if I was coming or going.
She was gonna figure it out eventually, and when she did, I was gonna back her 100 percent.
In the meantime, I was gonna get on her ass about playing with my time.
I got all the girls fitted in the white two pieces, and they all loved them. “Jaz, you need to go back to making our outfits. These pleaser stores sell everyone the same ole shit,” Lolly said as she gawked at herself in the mirror.
I laughed. “Baby, I don’t have the time. It took me weeks to do these outfits.” My turn around time used to be a couple of days when I was hustling, but now, life had gotten in the way. I needed to carve out time in my day to be a wife, a stepmom, and run my businesses.
The door to the locker room swung open, and Taylor popped her head inside. She looked flustered like she was in a panic, but once she saw the outfits, she got distracted. “Ouu! These look sexy!”
“Right!” the ladies all agreed.
“Tay, what’s wrong?” I peeped the initial look on her face when she popped in.
She snapped her fingers while trying to remember the reason she came in. I smacked my lips, letting her know she was getting on my nerves.
“Oh!” She finally remembered. “Ole girl out there getting knocked around by some nigga. I went to go tell Cyro, but he said he’s taking a piss, and if it ain’t you, he’s not rushing.”
I shot up from my seat and grabbed my gun from my purse. I stormed out of the dressing room, and all my nosy-ass dancers filed out behind me. Taylor led the way to the front. By the time we got there, Cyro was coming out the bathroom drying his hands.
“The hell you think you’re doing?” Cyro throated out before getting in front of me.
“I’m just gonna talk to him, that’s all.” I cocked my gun back.
He smacked his lips and shook his head. He took that as a sign to pull his strap too, and he led the way out the door of the club. Soon as we hit the block, we could see Icey being pushed against her car while her baby’s father stood over her, slapping her across the face.
“You bum-ass bitch!” he jeered down at her as tears tumbled down her face. “You fucked that nigga, didn’t you?!”
“No! I swear! I don’t even know him!” Icey cried out.
Cyro had seen enough, so he grabbed dude up by the roots of his dreads, pulling him off Icey. “Tell me why I shouldn’t blow your fucking brains out in front of all these women?!”
“I might do it before you can.” I made my way around him and stood in front of Icey so he wouldn’t be able to get to her anymore.
He winced from the pain of his dreads being yanked from the root. Cyro had such a strong grip that I swore I saw that nigga get lifted a few inches from the ground.
“Get the fuck off of me, pussy!” he snapped.
Cyro chuckled, finding his little tough act amusing. “You beating on a female and calling me pussy? Out of your fucking mind. I’ll beat your ass with one hand tied behind my back.”
He tossed him onto the ground, causing him to land right on his face. Taylor and the ladies all winced at how hard Cyro made homie hit the fucking ground.
I turned to Icey, who was still in hysterics from getting smacked. “You good?”
Through her tears, she shakily nodded her head. Poor girl looked a mess. Her makeup was running, and her hair was wild. Through the streaks her tears left behind on her makeup, I could see the fresh black eyes she covered up. This nigga was using her as a damn punching bag.
Ole boy pushed up from the ground, got up, and squared up with Cyro. This nigga was signing his fucking death certificate like a goofy.
“Have the first hit, pussy, since you can’t keep your fucking hands to yourself,” Cyro encouraged while tucking his gun in the waistband of his jeans.
“Knox, please, just stop!” Icey hiccupped out. Even she could see that Cyro was gonna pummel his ass into the cement.
Upon hearing his name, I snapped my head in her direction. “His name Knox? This your baby father?”
She nodded. “Yes! Please tell your security to let up! I’ll get him to leave!” Despite him slapping her around, she still wanted to protect him. The shit was sad.
I instantly made the connection and figured out that Knox was the nigga who pulled the trigger on Nymir.
Ahk and his crew were searching high and low for him, but word got back that he was ducked off and waiting for shit from Nymir’s death to die down.
Knowing he was the reason behind my husband losing his homie, my eyes slit as hatred filled them.
“Cyro, beat his ass!” I demanded.
Like a beast who was anticipating being called off his leash, Cyro’s massive hand latched around Knox’s neck before he could even attempt to throw his first punch. Cyro caved his face in with two punches, instantly drawing blood from his lip and nose.
“Bitch-ass nigga! This what you get when you throw hands with a real nigga!”
Icey was behind me, desperately trying to get to Knox and help him. The poor girl was so brainwashed, she didn’t even realize we were saving her.
I whipped around and held my gun up to her. “You help him, and you might as well join his ass in his casket,” I threatened her. The look in my eyes was deadly, so she quickly backed up.
Cyro had Knox on his back on the cement as he knocked his teeth out with blow after blow. “Taylor, take her inside.”
“And miss this?” Taylor pointed to Cyro and Knox.
“Taylor, take her inside!”
“Damn, alright. Girl, come on.” She snatched Icey’s hand, pulling her inside. Some of the dancers followed them while some remained outside so they could go back and tell the story of what happened to Knox.
“Alright, Cy. That’s enough.” I set my hand on his shoulder.
He sent another blow to Knox’s face, shutting his left eye instantly. Blood leaked out of his face as he laid on the cement defeated. I looked down at him and spit right on his face.
“Now I’m gonna let my husband handle you for what you did to Ny.”
I whipped out my phone and dialed Ahk.
“What’s up, Lovey? That party planning got you stressed and you need some dick or something?” He chuckled.
I had him on speaker, so I shook my head at the fact that everyone heard him. I didn’t have no shame, so it didn’t bother me much, but from the way Cyro turned his lip up, I could tell he could’ve gone without hearing that.
“No, baby, even better. I got a surprise for you. It landed right in my lap too.”
“Yeah? What kind of surprise?”
I looked down at Knox on the ground, my face screwed up in disgust. “Knox.”
There was a brief silence on the phone before I heard Ahk’s gun cock back. “I’m on my fucking way. Tell Cy to keep his ass there until I get there.”
“Trust, he ain’t going nowhere after what Cy did to him.”
“Bet. See you in a lil. Love you, Lovey.”
“Love you too, Pa.”
“Take his ass to the back and don’t get none of his blood on all my white decorations.”
Cyro snatched Knox up by the dreads and dragged him to the back of the club. “Y’all go check on Icey. If I do it and she get to trying to convince me to spare his bitch ass, I might do her in bad,” I told the rest of the girls.
“We got you, Jaz,” Passion assured before leading the rest of the ladies back into the club.
It was a small fucking world. Had I known Knox was the nigga beating Icey black and blue, I would have had him handled a long time ago.
The nigga had an ego because he was bullying his baby’s mother.
I was ready for Ahk to give his ass a rude fucking awakening.
Hopefully next time, it was his fucking funeral getting shot up and Ahk would get the chance to put Silas down too.
As I was heading back into the club, someone behind me was calling to get my attention. “Excuse me! Ma’am, excuse me!”
I looked over my shoulder and saw it was a short and stout white woman with a crooked-ass bob.
I was praying she hadn’t witnessed Cyro beat Knox into a pulp and was concerned about him.
I was bilingual and was ready to tell her to mind her fucking white-ass business in English and Spanish if it came down to it.
“What can I do for you?” I raised my brow at her while keeping my gun tucked to the side of me.
“Are you Jazzlyn Barette?”
“Hendrix.” I corrected her. “Who’s asking?”
“You’ve been served.” She shoved the envelope into my hand.
“Bitch, I should beat your fucking ass!” I called out after her as she speed-walked off the block.
Looking down at the envelope, I shook my head. “Brooke ain’t waste no time, I see.”
I assumed now that I was Ahk’s wife, Brooke was covering her bases and making sure to include me in her petition to counter the current custody agreement. I tore the envelope open and pulled the letter out.
“The fuck?” I screwed my face up. “Who the fuck is Giselle?”
My eyes continued to scan the page.
Estate of Sylvia Barette, Deceased, Notice of Claim and Petition to Contest Will. This firm represents Giselle Howard, a biological daughter of Sylvia Barette, deceased.
My heart sank to my ass. Even from the grave, Sylvia managed to turn my and Priest’s lives upside down. Sylvia and Terrance had another child they never told us about. All they fucking did was connive and scheme, leaving us to suffer the consequences.
I whipped out my phone and dialed Priest’s number. “What’s up, Jazzy?”
“I just got our fucking answer,” I gritted while clenching the letter in hand.
“Answer to what?”
“Sylvia and Terrance had another fucking daughter, Priest, and she’s suing us!”
I could hear some shuffling in the background, and he excused himself from whoever he was around. Once he got somewhere private, I could hear him smack his lips. “Suing us for fucking what?”
“Sylvia’s estate, final will, life insurance, and that fucking trust you gave her. She’s coming after it all.”
“Let her fucking have it. We don’t want that shit anyway.”
It was true. We went into our lawyer Abraham’s office and let the reading of Sylvia’s final will go through one ear and out the other.
Nothing she left behind was of value to us, and the money she had in her trust wasn’t doing shit for us since we were both very well off.
The last of her was just sitting, and even though Priest and I never took grabs at it, now that this Giselle chick wanted a piece of the pie, I wasn’t about to let her have it so fucking easily.
It was Priest and I who suffered the most at the hands of Sylvia. She was a shitty individual and even shittier mother. If anyone deserved anything she left behind, it was us.
“Priest, you got me fucked up. I’m not coming off nothing for this chick. We got the worst of it with Sylvia’s ass. If she wants it, she better be ready to put up a hell of a fight.”
A deep sigh escaped Priest. He’d been so at peace lately that he lost his will to fight for anything.
He was all for just letting shit be. Me, on the other hand?
I was willing to fight for everything, including Sylvia’s will and trust. She gained everything she had from my and Priest’s suffering, and I’d be damned if anyone else got their hands on it.
“Whatever you wanna do, Jazzy. We’ll get with Abraham sometime this week.”
“Bet.” We said our goodbyes and ended the phone call.
Sylvia and Terrance were like two ongoing nightmares, even from the grave.