Chapter 21
Home
The house still didn’t feel fully real yet.
Every room looked like it belonged in a magazine more than it belonged to me. Like I was supposed to tiptoe through it instead of living in it.
But I was trying to make it mine.
I moved through it slow, barefoot, letting my hands touch everything as I passed them like I needed proof I was really here. The walls were too clean, the floors too perfect, everything too still ,like it was waiting on me to fix it to my liking.
Boxes were sitting by the door from things we have been ordering for the house, along with wedding things I still needed to go through. I kept telling myself I would get to it all, but my mind was already running in ten different directions at once.
The wedding.
The house.
The pregnancy.
Everything was coming together faster than I could slow it down.
And I kept thinking about moving the wedding day up, not because Love mentioned it, but because with everything goin on, it seemed…right.
Like if I could get that moment, everything would be complete.
I walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, scrolling through my phone. The girls were in the group chat, sending ideas still, talking about when we had to go back for another fitting, talking about their hair, like all that shit didn’t make me smile and also bring stress to me.
I felt like I needed to tell my girls something. Hiding shit from them felt odd to me. So I told them I quit my job.
That shit was easy.
They went crazy in the chat, congratulating me, saying I finally had time to breathe, calling me “wife life already,” and laughing like it was all so simple.
I smiled at the phone, but I didn’t tell them about the baby. That was just between Love and me.
Not because I didn’t want them to know, but it still needed to feel real to me.
I sat my phone beside me on the counter and exhaled, trying to steady myself and organize what all I needed to do in my mind when my phone rang.
I looked down at it to see an unknown number.
I stared at it for a second longer than I should have, then I answered.
“Hello?”
Silence was on the other end, then his voice.
“Islah.”
Everything in me went still.
I already knew who it was before he said anything else.
“Gio,” I said, my voice tightening. “Why are you callin me?”
He let out a small laugh.
“I’ve been trying to find you...” he said.
“I am not doing this with you,” I said immediately. My heart was beating in my ear.
His tone shifted. Lower, sharper.
“So, where are you now?”
I didn’t answer.
That made him breathe heavier.
“Come on now, baby girl, you known me for seven years, you know I’m not gonna let this or you go this easy.”
“Gio, you need to leave me alone.”
“Oh, I will leave you alone, alright, once I know where you are.”
“Hell no!” I yelled into the phone.
Those words changed everything. That nigga voice snapped.
“You still talking like that after everything?” he asked.
I walked away from the counter now, pacing without thinking.
“Gio, everything with me and you is DONE,” I barked into the phone. “You need to leave me alone.”
He went quiet for a second, then he said something that made my stomach drop.
“I talked to your man…”
I stopped walking.
“What?”
“I talked to him,” he said it again, slower this time. “He told me to stay away from you.”
My chest tightened as he continued. “But I can’t do that, not just yet.”
“You didn’t talk to him.”
Gio laughed. “I did, baby girl. He tried to tell me what I can do and what I can’t do,” he said. “Like I’m some random nigga.”
“Listen Gio—”
“No, bitch!” he yelled into the phone. “You are going to listen to me! You and your nigga have been doing a lot of talking, and you sit there and watch that nigga put his hands on me and don’t stop him. You can’t erase me, Islah. I am coming for both of—”
I hung up immediately and blocked his number.
For a second, I just stood there, staring at the screen like it might still ring again.
It didn’t.
But my heart didn’t slow down.
I laughed to myself, shook my head, then stormed through the house looking for Love. I found him in the basement with Amir, trying to decorate his man cave.
“Amir, can you go upstairs for me for a second?”
Him and his father both raised their right eyebrows at me.
“Everything okay?” Love asked.
“No, it’s not. Amir, go upstairs. You can come back down when we are done talkin.”
Amir nodded and went up the steps. I stood there trying to breathe until I heard the door shut.
And then I went off.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me Gio called you?!”
Love looked up to the ceiling, letting out a deep breath and shaking his head.
“That nigga is a whole bitch!” he yelled out without answering me.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I didn’t tell you because I was handling it,” he finally responded.
“Why the fuck are you trying to handle shit without me?”
Love looked at me like I had asked a strange question.
“Why the fuck am I handling shit without you?” he said with bass in his voice. “Because I am trying to protect my girl, my fiancée, the woman I bought a house for who's carrying my baby. Why the fuck would I bring you into it?”
“Because it has to do with me! How the fuck am I supposed to be protected when I don’t know shit?”
“You don’t need to know shit, Islah! You just need to know that your man is handling it.”
I sucked my teeth. “How the fuck are you handling it, Love, when the nigga called my phone threatening me.”
“What the fuck do you want me to do, Islah? I thought beating that nigga ass was enough. That nigga is a clown, what do you want me to do? How do you want to handle it, Islah?”
I took a deep breath, feeling all types of ways on the inside.
I was mad I was still dealing with the same shit.
I was mad that Love didn’t talk to me and tell me that nigga was still a problem.
But the rage in me got stronger when I thought about Gio.
I was mad that nigga couldn’t listen—wouldn’t listen, couldn’t understand that we were done for good.
Then I looked into Love’s eyes, and the way I was feeling, I didn’t know if my words would make shit worse or put an end to it all.
“Love…I want the same as you. I want that nigga dead. I don’t want to think about him, I don’t want to see him, I want the calls to stop, I want this shit to end.”
Love nodded his head. “Say less, mamas.”
He ran up the steps with me falling behind him. He grabbed his phone and called somebody.
“Aye,” he said into the phone.
“Meet me at the barbershop. That nigga called this phone, whoever got the lo on him, send it.”
He hung up and looked at me.
“Since he called my phone, I put the hood on it. They haven’t called and told me shit,” he said, walking to the front door.
I followed behind him with my hands folded across my stomach. “Honestly, Love, I don’t care what they did and didn’t call you about. Please end all this shit!”
Love nodded, and I watched him walk out the front door and pull outta the driveway as I prayed to God to bring my man back home to me.