Chapter 25
“Why you sitting over there looking all crazy?” Raven’s cousin Andrea asked her.
The two had met up for seafood. Andrea needed a job so instead of a formal interview, Raven decided to link with her and discuss the opening that she had at the recovery house.
Business was booming, and Raven had no less than four lash appointments a week.
She was doing well, and she could afford to hire one more person.
She was hesitant to hire friends and family, but she wasn’t too worried about Andrea.
She had worked at the post office for six years.
Andrea wasn’t lazy, and she didn’t mind working.
Raven couldn’t pay her as good as the post office did, but Andrea was cool with it.
When she stopped working, her husband took over the bulk of the bills.
She was no longer happy at the post office, and he kept stressing to her that her happiness was more important than her having a ‘good job.’
“My period is four days late. I took a test before I came here, and it’s positive.”
Andrea’s eyes widened. “Is it Xander’s?”
Raven shook her head no. “It’s a guy that I’ve been seeing named Diric.”
Andrea sipped her tea. “Well being that you and Xander haven’t been broken up that long, I’m going to assume this happened fast. Are you happy? How do you think he will take the news?”
Raven wrung her hands together nervously. “I’m too scared to be happy. You know my history with miscarriages. I don’t even know why I keep allowing myself to get pregnant. I swear if I miscarry this time, I’m getting that shit in my arm that lasts for five years.”
“Don’t think like that, Raven. You don’t need to stress about anything.
I’m glad you’re willing to hire me because this is the perfect time.
Whatever you need me to do, I got you. I know you love being hands on with your business, but you need to relax way more and stress way less.
And I’m not that person that will slack and do a half-ass job because we’re related. ”
“I know,” Raven replied in a small voice. She hated that instead of just being happy, she was mentally trying to prepare herself not to go crazy when or if she lost the baby. If she did miscarry this would be miscarriage number three. That would mess her up terribly.
Raven and Andrea talked and finished their food.
Andrea was going to start work the next day, and Raven was going to start her off at $14 an hour.
Business was even going so well, that Raven was thinking of buying another house and making it recovery home number 2.
This next house needed to have five bedrooms, that way she could have up to 10 girls at a time.
No one could have a private room unless they paid double for it, and there were some girls that were willing to do that.
Back at her house, Raven texted Diric and told him that they needed to talk face to face. Things had been going well since they made up. They had been getting along, and they hadn’t had any more issues with his anger. Diric was getting money, so it took him a few hours to come through.
“What a nigga did now?” he joked, but then he noticed the serious expression that Raven wore. “Shit, I did something for real?”
She shook her head and sat on the couch. “Well, you didn’t do it by yourself. I took a test this morning. I’m pregnant.”
Diric wasn’t sure what to say. Like Raven, he was scared to do the baby thing, but his was for a different reason than hers.
He didn’t discredit her feelings and what she’d been through but to him, losing a child after it was already born had to be way harder than miscarrying.
He had actually held his son in his arms. He fed him, bathed him, and loved on him while he was outside of his mother’s womb.
Losing him was the hardest thing that Diric ever did.
He knew women that had lost multiple kids to violence, accidents, health issues, and he really didn’t understand how they were still sane.
He was strong for sure, but Diric didn’t think he was strong enough to go through such a loss more than once.
Raven took Diric’s silence as something negative. “I understand you might not want a child right now. With my luck―”
“Chill,” he cut her off. He didn’t even want to hear it. “You gotta stop speaking like that. It is what it is. God don’t make no mistakes. I’m here. Through whatever.”
“I called my doctor and due to my history, she wants me to come in early in the morning. More than likely, I’ll be considered high risk, and I’ll need to take it easy for the first few months.”
“Bet. I’ll go with you in the morning. Whatever you need, I got you.”
“Thank you.”
“What you thanking me for, shorty? It’s my baby, right? I don’t get a thank you for doing what I’m supposed to do.”
Raven felt blessed to have Diric in her corner, but she was too nervous to fully express it.
Everyone told her to be positive, but it was hard when she was traumatized.
Raven literally felt like she had PTSD. Now, every time she went to the bathroom, she’d be expecting to see blood.
Every little cramp, she would fear the worst. She wished it wasn’t like that, but it was.
The first time, she made it to nine weeks before she miscarried.
The second time, she was only six weeks.
Raven miscarried three days after finding out she was pregnant.
This time, she would be a nervous wreck until she at least made it to ten weeks, and that was a long time to be a nervous wreck.
Diric could sense that Raven was uneasy, so he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and spoke into her ear. “I got you.”
She believed him, but that didn’t mean he could stop something from happening if their baby wasn’t meant to be.
Canyon sat in his den staring out of the huge window.
Something was going on. He had called his plug to arrange the next trip to Colombia, and the call went straight to voicemail.
He still had 100 pounds left, but in two weeks, it would be the week that he sold work.
Between Amar, Diric and his other clientele, 100 pounds wouldn’t hardly be enough.
Amar and Diric got priority over everyone else, and they would clean him out of the 100 pounds easy.
Canyon knew that his plug was human. He was a man with a wife and more than a few kids, so him not answering one call wasn’t the end of the world.
He just couldn’t explain the uneasy feeling that he had.
Canyon tried to shake off the way that he was feeling.
He would give it another day before he called back.
His burner phone rang in his hand, and he knew that it must be Haseef. He didn’t recognize the number, but it was a Columbian number. It wasn’t unusual for Haseef to switch up the numbers he called Canyon on, so Canyon answered with no hesitation.
“Did someone call for Haseef?”
Canyon was thrown off by the female voice. No one had ever answered Haseef’s phone but him. Canyon wasn’t even sure of what to say. He had no idea who was on the other end of the phone, so he wasn’t telling them shit. He was about to get off the phone when she spoke again.
“Haseef was killed this morning,” she said in a low voice. “This is Sienna. He left the house with his driver and one of his security. It was an ambush. They riddled the car with more than one hundred bullets.”
Canyon knew that Sienna was Haseef’s wife. He was stunned, but he managed to find his voice. “I’m sorry to hear that. You have my condolences.”
Canyon sat back in shock. Since he graduated to big time thirteen years ago, he got his shit from Haseef.
A plug that his father put him on to. Canyon knew that Haseef had a twenty-three year old son.
He wasn’t sure if the business would go on or not, but he wasn’t going to Columbia to cop work from anyone other than Haseef.
This late in the game, when he was planning on retiring in the next year, it didn’t make sense to search for a new plug.
Canyon mentally ran over his financial situation.
He had two investment properties that made him around $2,000 a month collectively.
Last time he checked his investment portfolio, the stocks that he had invested in years ago had him at $435,000.
He had 4.5 million in an emergency fund and damn near triple that in his savings.
Fuck yeah he could afford to leave the game.
Canyon texted Diric, and Amar to let them know he needed to speak with them about something.
He had never been one to watch the next man’s pockets, but he wasn’t sure if they would be able to or even wanted to leave the game.
He’d been in it longer than they had. They weren’t slouches, and they weren’t dumb, but not everyone was smart when it came to money.
Canyon had seen niggas spend thousands upon thousands of dollars a month with him buying heroin to sell.
They only wore designer clothes, drove foreign cars, ate the finest foods, and fucked the baddest bitches.
Every weekend, they were popping bottles in VIP or hopping on planes.
He’d seen more than one of those kinds of niggas die and the family barely have money to put them away.
He saw an elderly woman have to have a yard sale to bury her son after he died because he only had material things but no money.
She had to sell all that shit to bury him.
His three baby mamas were fighting over his Beamer. It was a hot ghetto mess.
Haseef’s abrupt death and him being forced basically to leave the game sooner than expected further assured Canyon that we can make all the plans we want.
That doesn’t mean life will happen like we want it to.
He rolled a celebratory blunt while he waited on Diric and Amar.
Once he let them cop the work he had left, he was getting rid of his burner phone.
He went over to his bar and grabbed a bottle of liquor and three shot glasses.
His doorbell rang, and he let Amar in and gave him dap.
“Everything good?” Amar was trying to feel out Canyon’s mood.
“Yeah. Well, I’m not tripping. Gotta see how you and Diric gonna feel though.”
The men sat down, and Canyon poured Amar a drink. They talked about small shit for the next fifteen minutes until Diric arrived. When they all had a drink in front of them, Canyon lit the blunt and took a deep toke.
“I called Haseef earlier, and he didn’t answer.
His wife called me back and said that he had been murdered.
Since my pops introduced me to the game, I’ve only copped work from Haseef.
I liked his quality, his prices, I trusted him.
It would take me a lot of time and energy to find another connect that I fucked with half as heavy as I fucked with Haseef.
I’m not even fucking with his son or any of his associates so by default, I’m done.
I have 100 bricks left for the two of you to split. After that, I’m no longer in the game.”
That’s damn sure not what they were expecting to hear. Since they were silent, Canyon spoke again. “If you want, I can reach out to Haseef’s people on your behalf. I’m just not fucking with it.”
Diric shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. I have a few M’s.
My brother has been talking about going to truck driving school.
I can cop a truck and let him drive that muhfucka for me.
Haseef was a legend in this game. He’s been at it longer than I’ve been alive.
No matter how powerful you are or how carefully you move, all this shit comes to a head one day.
Not many make it out of the game unscathed.
This is my cue to head out too. Shit, I got baby on the way. ”
Canyon passed him the blunt. “Congratulations. Had I known that, I would have lit the Cuban’s up.
” Canyon saw how lost and hurt Diric was after his son died.
That shit hurt him. He ran so much and stayed so busy that in two months he only saw Kash twice.
Canyon would live with that regret forever, and that’s what made him vow to always stop and make time for things that were important. We don’t always have tomorrow.
“Congratulations,” Amar gave Diric dap. “I’m out too. I have enough money to be good for a minute. I can take some time and decide what I want to do. I might open a car dealership or some shit.”
Canyon was glad the situation wasn’t putting his friends in a tight spot.
They weren’t quite young enough to be his sons, but he looked at them like little brothers that he was responsible for.
The men talked a while longer, they paid him for their fifty bricks each, and they left.
Canyon poured himself another drink and took a sip. He was officially out of the game.