32. Ari
It’d been almost two months since the whole Belize bullshit. Ciera had been taking this Juelz shit hard, and I felt bad for my sister. Meanwhile, Juelz had been spending time with his so-called family without a care in the world. He was really starting to piss me off.
“Babe, you almost ready?” Zel asked, coming into the bedroom.
“Yes, I was just grabbing my clutch,” I spoke as I was walking out of my walk-in closet.
That closet was soooo fucking big, and when I tell you, it was filled to the brim with all the name-brand clothes, shoes, and purses. My man played no games. When he said he would buy me what I needed, he did just that.
“Damn, you fucking beautiful.” He smiled at me, licking those luscious ass lips.
“Thank you, baby! You looking fine as hell right now.” I smiled up at him.
Kissing me on the lips, he grabbed my hand, and we headed out the door.
Juelz called and requested us to come to dinner; we didn’t want to go until he told Zelan that it was important that he came.
So, regretfully, we obliged. Finally making it to his estate, we gained entrance through the gates, and I was in awe of the fucking place.
“Dammmn, this house is crazy, babe. How many damn bedrooms are in this mansion?” I asked Z.
“Six bedrooms, and eight bathrooms. Ju was over the fucking top when he had this house built,” he responded.
The driveway was circular, and there was a big ass waterfall in the center of the manicured lawn.
Ohh, this nigga was insanely wealthy, because rich just wasn’t in his vocabulary.
There were a couple of cars here that I noticed as we headed on in the house.
We heard talking, so we followed the voices and arrived at a big ass family room which had floor-to-ceiling windows.
The room had a big diamond chandelier, and the décor looked like it belonged in one of those magazines for the rich and famous.
“What’s up you two? I’m glad you made it,” Juelz stated.
“What’s up, bro?” Zel responded.
“Ari, welcome. Make yourself at home,” Juelz said.
“Thank you. You have a beautiful home. I may have to take a tour, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. I have a special tour guide for you too. Kari loves to take our guest on tours,” he said, laughing.
“Since you mentioned Kari, I was wondering if I could take her out for a little shopping tomorrow?” I asked Juelz.
“That would be fine. At least you ask, her uncle doesn’t even run it by me. Just let me know what time and I will have her ready,” he responded.
“Zel and Ari, get over here!” His mom said excitedly.
“Hey, Ms. Kassom,” I spoke.
“Girl, if you don’t hush with that shit, call me mom!” She swatted at me, laughing.
“Okay, mom.” I smiled at her.
“Hello,” Kenya spoke.
“Kenya, I still can’t believe you are alive and well. Whoever took care of you, I don’t know how we’ll ever repay them,” Ms. Kassom stated.
“We can start with a couple of bullets,” Zelan whispered, and I nudged his ignorant ass. I wanted to laugh so bad because he really wanted Kenya to go back to where she came from.
“I know, Ma. It is truly a blessing and I’m so grateful,” Kenya smiled.
“Zel, what’s up, man?” The guy, Xavier, walked over to us, all smiles.
“Yo, X. What you doing here?” Zel asked him.
“I got here this morning, I needed to handle some business, and I wanted to check on Juelz,” he stated.
“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” Juelz spoke. “Kenya and I would like to announce that we got married yesterday in a private ceremony,” he stated, happily kissing Kenya on the lips.
“What the fuck?” Zel yelled, but Ms. Kassom looked like she was happy with it.
“Son, you could have allowed us to share in the joyous occasion. However, I’m happy for both of you,” his mom said.
“Why the fuck did you do this so soon? She just came back home? It has been almost five years. Shit changes; hell, people change. You a fucking idiot, my nigga!” Zel yelled and I was just as pissed.
Like he really just said fuck my sister! I thought to myself.
“Look Zel; this is something we wanted to do. You may not like it, but you will respect it!” Juelz yelled.
“I don’t have to respect shit, nigga. Your choices are just that, your choices!” Zelan spoke.
Kenya just looked back and forth with a smirk on her face. If she knew what I knew, she better not say a fucking word and wipe that smirk off her fucking face. I didn’t play about mine and that went for my man, and my sister.
“Son, just calm down,” his mom said, but even Xavier had his face frowned up; this shit was a shock to all of us.
“Aunnntiiiee Ari and Uncle Zel!” Kari came down the stairs.
“Hey, munchkin,” Zel said, picking Kari up. The love those two had for each other was priceless.
“Uncle Zel, can you take me to find CiCi? She came over yesterday, she was crying, and I need to find her,” she whispered to her uncle.
Zel looked at me, and I was like a volcano ready to erupt. I needed to talk to my other half, so I stepped away for some privacy. Walking outside the house, I dialed Ciera’s number.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Ci, what’s up? Where are you?” I asked her.
“I was going to call you in the morning, Ari, but since you beat me to it, I need to get away from here for a while. I fell for him, Ari. He was doing all the right things, and I fell in love with him. I never knew what it was like to be with a man, and if they treated me the way he did, then I was all for it. I gave this man my innocence, trusting that he would cherish the gift. Granted, we were not in a relationship, and I should have been smarter. But shit happens, and here we are, he married someone else,” Ciera sniffled.
“Ci, I know what happened. I’m here right now, and Zel and I are so fucking pissed. We are leaving; I’m not gonna sit and break bread with a nigga that hurt my sister,” I yelled.
“Ari calm down. At the end of the day, that is Zelan’s brother, and you are in a relationship with Zel.
Don’t start any drama between you and Zel; these are the cards I’m dealt, and I will be okay.
I promise you I will. However, I’m leaving New York, and I’m asking you to give me this time away to just regroup.
There are some things going on with me, and I will talk to you about them later.
However, I need you to promise me that you will give me peace in my decision to leave.
I will call you every day, but when I do, please don’t tell me anything about Juelz,” she stated.
“Okay, where are you going? I promise I won’t say anything not even to Zel,” I asked her.
“I’m going to California. I have packed all my clothes and hired someone to ship them for me. I’m no longer in the penthouse; I’m actually at the airport,” she revealed.
“Ci, you can’t leave without seeing me,” I cried. I then had an alert on my phone showing that Ci was trying to FaceTime me. When I answered, she was crying too.
“Ari, seeing you and Grams is only going to make this harder, and I won’t end up doing it. I need this for me. Please allow me to do this. I love you, and I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said, ending the call. I needed to make one more phone call. Dialing the number, I waited for her to answer.
“Hey, baby,” Grams answered.
“Grams, you not going to believe all the bull shit that is going on right now,” I cried into the phone.
“What up? You need me to roll up?” she asked.
“No, Grams, I don’t but let me run this down for you. Did Juelz ever tell you about his daughter’s mother, Kenya?” I asked her.
“Yeah, he told me. I felt so bad for my baby. He is so hurt behind that and he still loves her. But I’m glad he is moving on and building something with Ciera,” she stated.
“Well, we went to Belize, and she was there in a restaurant. It seems that she was shot, but they didn’t kill her.
She has been in Belize all this time, suffering from some memory loss; she doesn’t remember being pregnant and having a baby.
So, Juelz bought her back, and she has been here for almost two months, and they got married yesterday,” I spoke quickly.
“What you say? They got married? What about Ciera? He hurt my baby? I told this nigga don’t play with my baby, now he gone have to see Lai.
Where is Ciera? Lawwwd let me call her. This nigga done lost all his damn mind.
It’s a shame me and Zel gone have to whoop his fine ass, but yeah, he gone have to see us! ” she was screaming in the phone.
My Grams was that grandmother that was on another level. Lai was older, but she was beautiful and crazy. She still had a nice shape; hair was laid all the time. To be honest, I think me, and Ciera looked a lot like her; the only thing was we didn’t have the same eye color.
“Where Zel at? I need to talk to him,” she asked.
“He is inside of Juelz’s house going off on him. Grams, Ciera left, she said she needed some time to regroup. She said she would be alright but needs us to give her some time.”
“What the fuck she means, she needs time? And she left? You don’t ever let a man run you off!
You stay where the fuck you are, hold your head up and GLO up on that nigga!
What the fuck is wrong with her? That’s y’all other side blood running in her right now with that shit!
Lai blood is G’d the fuck up; we ain’t running from shit!
” she screamed. I was now laughing because this lady was crazy and funny as hell.
“Babe, let’s go!” Zel yelled.
“Okay, Grams. I will call you tomorrow,” I said, ending the call.
The next evening, I kept my promise and picked up Kari for a little shopping spree.
Kari and I were shopping our hearts away to relieve our pain and stress of our best friend being gone.
This little girl was so smart; you would have thought she was a grown person.
My day started a little late because my man needed to fuck some of his aggression away last night and we did that until the wee hours of the morning.
Therefore, your girl had to get some rest before I started my day.
“Kari let’s take these bags to the car and then we will have dinner,” I told her.
“Okay, Aunt Ari. I’m starving, can we go to the place where they have allll the cakes?” she asked, smiling.
“Are you talking about the cheesecakes?” I asked, looking at her.
“Yesssss!” She screamed in excitement.
We made it to the car, and as soon as I got the door open, a van pulled up with tires screeching.
Masked men jumped out with guns aimed at us.
I grabbed Kari as she screamed and cried.
They pushed us in the van at gunpoint and took off!
I was crying, and so was Kari, and the men were yelling for us to shut up.
I began to pray for me and my niece’s lives.
Who the fuck were they, and what the fuck did they want with us?