Chapter 10
My Man?
Iwas up bright and early, waiting for the court doors to open. My stomach was in knots. I had the hotel press Gio’s suit and had it hanging up in the back window. My Gucci tote bag was filled with stacks for my baby’s bond.
People were already standin’ around the courthouse steps when I pulled up. Lawyers in suits, family members pacing. Some people sitting on the concrete, smoking, looking nervous as hell.
Once the doors opened, I stepped out of my car, smoothed out my dress, and grabbed what I needed. I stood in front of my car for a minute, staring up at the big gray building, exhaling loudly.
“Come on,” I muttered to myself. “Everything is going to be okay. Gio is going to come home.”
I pulled myself together and walked across the street and up the steps to stand in line. The security wasn’t playin’. They were getting all the lawyers out of the way, then letting everybody else flow through the metal detectors.
I found a seat on one of the wooden benches where I could watch the room numbers and cases. Nothing had been loaded yet, but I was still staring at the screen. I was nervous to say the least.
After a while, I heard my name being yelled down the hall and saw Bully walking toward me.
I ain’t ever seen that nigga in a button down and some slacks, but I appreciated him looking respectable.
“You good?” he asked, sitting next to me.
I nodded even though my stomach was telling a different story.
“I’ll be better when I see him.”
A few minutes later, Kronic showed up with a couple of dudes from the block. They came over and spoke to me, then took a seat a lil’ ways away.
I was clenching the hanger of his suit in my hand and tapping my heels on the marble floor, my eyes pacing back and forth, looking for Mr. Groom.
“Calm down, girl, you ‘bout to make me nervous,” Bully said.
I smirked and stood up. “I’m sorry—”
I stopped talking and picked up the suit, seeing Mr. Groom walking toward me.
“Morning, Ms. Walker,” he said.
“Good morning,” I replied, handing him the suit
“Let me see if he’s here and get this to him.”
He disappeared, and I was back to waiting, pacing, watching everybody’s case get called around me.
Bully went and found us some coffee that neither one of us wanted, but I needed something in my hand to ground me as I stared at the screen when the doors to the courtroom right across from us swung open, and the TV screen wiped a line away, and it changed to Gio’s name.
I stood up just as the intercom was going off, calling his case number.
I moved to the side, giving room to the people who were walking out and walking right in after the last person, and took a seat right behind Mr. Groom with Bully beside me.
I turned and looked as the courtroom filled, some with faces I knew, others I had never seen before.
I turned back around and focused on my breathing with my hands shaking in my lap.
I could hear a small conversation being had around me about Gio, his charges, and whether they thought he was coming home.
I wanted to stand up and yell for everybody to shut up about my man, but then the door to the right of us opened, and I saw him.
Gio nodded at his niggas around the courtroom and then locked eyes with me and smiled. It felt as if all the noise I was hearing around me went away, and just like that, my nerves calmed down.
Gio was led to his chair, walking with a cane from getting shot. As soon as he sat down, he twisted in his chair enough to look at me.
“Damn,” he whispered with a smirk. “You lookin’ too good, girl.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile.
“You lookin’ good in that suit.”
Gio tapped Mr. Groom’s arm. “Wifey got us looking like a unit.”
Mr. Groom nodded. “That’s smart, we want them to see you got good support.”
Gio then nodded at me. “That’s why you are my wife.”
Before I could respond, the judge walked in, and everybody stood up, and then court started.
Mr. Groom stood and made his argument first.
He went on explaining how Gio is a pillar in the community, how he supports his family while pointing to me, saying how he’s working on a business.
He finished quietly and sat down, and then the state stood up.
They tried to paint Gio like he was some international criminal mastermind.
They said my nigga was a flight risk that had the resources to disappear.
Gio actually laughed under his breath, hearing that.
I leaned forward in my seat, my hands grippin’ my bag.
While they were talking, I turned my head slightly, looking around the courtroom, and my heart raced a lil’ bit.
I saw her.
The same girl from the apartment.
Sitting in the back on the other side.
My jaw tightened.
“What the hell…” I whispered to myself, but Bully heard me.
He turned and saw what I saw and sucked his teeth.
“Who is that?” I asked him under my breath.
He took a second.
“Some crackhead, I told you.”
I nodded, and before I could focus back on the court, I heard the judge say, “Bond denied.”
And like that, court was over.
I instantly felt anger hit my chest. I looked at Gio. He was already leaning forward in his chair, looking at Mr. Groom.
“Nigga, you better do something about that,” he muttered with a tone that said he was far from playin’.
Mr. Groom calmly nodded.
“I’m going to get right to work on it.
Gio turned back toward me.
“I’ma be on his ass until he gets me out,” he said.
I could tell he was pissed.
I nodded even though I felt sick.
Gio opened his mouth, about to say something, and paused, looking past me. His face changed for a split second.
Not fear.
More like… recognition.
Then he fixed his expression.
The guard walked over and grabbed his arm, and he stood up.
“Don’t leave yet,” he said quietly.
I watched until he disappeared through the door. Then I stood up and walked out of the courtroom with Bully, Mr. Groom, and the rest of them niggas behind me.
They waited around with me for a while, then slowly started to leave, Bully being the last one to go.
Ten minutes passed, then twenty, and then, finally, a side door opened.
“Ms. Walker,” Mr. Groom said with a nod.
I stood up and walked into the room where Gio was changing out of his suit. The second he saw me, he stopped unbuttoning his shirt, and I damn near ran into his arms.
Gio held me tight.
Real tight.
For a moment, everything inside me felt warm and safe.
He pulled back and kissed me.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he said.
I nodded into his body.
Mr. Groom cleared his throat.
“I’m going to do everything I can to get him out.”
We both looked at him.
“You better, nigga,” Gio said. “You ain’t no damn public defender, do your job.”
He nodded.
With Mr. Groom sitting in the corner, Gio and I got a few minutes to talk. He told me to keep things moving, to stay smart, and that he loved me for all that I was doing.
And I told him that I had him.
It wasn’t long before the guard was knocking on the door to take him back to jail. Gio quickly changed into his jumpsuit and kissed me one last time before they pulled him away from me again.
I left the courthouse and headed to the apartments to meet the movers in silence, no music, no podcast, just me in my thoughts.
I was still in disbelief. I knew for sure I was leaving the courthouse with Gio, but instead, I was in the car alone, replaying my morning as I drove, and one thing other than Gio stuck with me.
The woman I kept seeing, and why Gio made a face in the direction that she was in.
When I got to the complex, the movers and the cleaners weren’t there yet. I sucked my teeth, annoyed, but went and got some food to pass the time. As I sat in my car and ate, my phone rang. I looked at the dash and saw it was my momma and picked up.
“Hey, Momma.”
“Hey, baby, you okay?” I paused and remembered I didn’t tell her anything about what was going on with Gio.
“Yeah, Mama, just been a lil’ busy with things.”
“Like what, Islah?” she shot back. Even as a grown-ass woman, it was still hard to lie to that woman.
“Gio got us a house and I—we’ve been getting ready to move.”
“And what else?” she fired back again.
“Nothing, Ma, that’s it.”
She paused. “Islah, I know the nigga is locked up; it was all over the news through the neighborhood. The police ran into your home, and you didn’t call me?”
I exhaled.
“I didn’t want to worry y’all; it’s been a lot going on.”
“I bet it has. Do you think he will be coming home?” Ma asked.
I exhaled again. “I hope so, Mama, the lawyer don’t think they have anything on him.”
“That’s good. Now, are you really okay? I know you act like you can’t move without that man.”
“Girl, don’t try me,” I said, laughing. “It’s just one thing that is bothering me, and it’s not him being locked up.”
“What is it, baby?”
I paused, not even knowing if I really wanted to bring my mama into it.
“Some woman, she was knocking at my door saying she didn’t know who she wanted, then I saw her at court. It was just… weird.”
“I see,” Ma said. “I can’t tell you much because I don’t know how you feel, but what I would say is trust your instincts.”
I nodded to myself and drove back to the complex. I talked to Ma while I ate and waited for the movers and cleaners to come. I saw Bully come and go a few times, but I wasn’t interested in talking to him after how he lied to me earlier.
Some time passed, and finally, everybody I needed showed up at the same time. I got off the phone with Ma and led them inside to get started.
The cleaners were the first I gave directions to, having them get the couch out and most of the things out of the living room, then I split the movers and packers between the bedroom and the kitchen.
To stay outta their way, I packed up the bathroom until I saw them carry the mattress and bed frame out, knowing it was shit under that bed I wanted to throw out.
I went into the room and started looking through things, making my keep and throw pile, when I saw Gio’s phone lying on the floor. I was surprised.
“Those dumbasses flipped the bed and never found his phone,” I said to myself with a smile on my face.
I just knew they ain’t have shit on him since I had that.
I was about to turn the phone so I could delete shit later when it rang in my hand.
A text alert.
I looked at the screen and saw it was from T. I tilted my head. If my mama knew about Gio being locked up without me telling her, I knew that T had to know. I clicked on the message, unlocked the phone, and almost fell out.
It was a picture of him and the bitch who knocked on my door, the same one who was at court.
My heart started racing the more I scrolled.
“Gio, I miss you.”
“Gio, can we duck off for a few days?”
“Baby, I miss your dick in me.”
I rushed to the bathroom and continued scrolling, not wanting the movers to be all in my business.
But the more I scrolled, the sicker I felt.
Gio was flirting back with her, telling her she looked good when she sent him a picture, and randomly asking her to send him something.
They had certain days they met, date nights that she planned, and he went along with it all, while leaving me at home waiting for him.
I went through every picture she sent him, every video, even some of them fuckin’, and my heart was shattered, but I couldn’t stop scrolling.
I ended up scrolling all the way to the start of their message thread, and it looked like their relationship started three years ago.
“How could he do this to me?” I whispered to myself. “I love him,” I cried out.
I don’t know how long I sat in the bathroom crying and scrolling, but it was long enough for the movers to pack up the whole apartment and knock on the door to tell me they were done.
I told them not to leave yet and to take a break on the clock. I needed to figure some things out. Once they were gone, I walked around my empty apartment with his phone still tight in my hand.
Each part of my house had a memory of us. I could still hear my heart beating in my ear the more I walked around, thinking about how many times that nigga told me he was going to meet with T, work with T, do a drop for T. It then shifted to Bully and how that nigga clearly lied to my face for Gio.
I was beyond pissed, but I wanted to think straight, move smart. I took a deep breath.
“This nigga had a side bitch for three years,” I reminded myself.
He thought I would never find out; he wanted me to marry him while he had this secret.
Tears started to fall down my face the more I thought about it, more angry tears than sad.
Gio played in my face while I was planning a future with him, standing ten toes down for him, loving him through everything, but that was about to come to an end.
I could never physically hurt him; that wasn’t me, and he was locked up.
But what I was gonna do was make him sick.
I got myself together, then bought a storage unit, and called the movers to come back.
“Before you go to the original address I gave you,” I said, talking to the movers. “I need you to drop the female’s things off somewhere else.”
The movers looked back and forth at each other, then the nigga in charge smiled at me like that was supposed to comfort me. “Send the address to the number on the card.”
I nodded.
“It’s a storage unit, I just bought it.”
He nodded back. “I get it, we have that happen a lot.”
I looked at him after that comment, and he walked off.
I walked back into the bathroom and kept scrolling on his phone through their messages until I found what I needed.
Both of them were gonna see me.