Chapter 6 Jakari
Ihad just left the hospital from seeing Keith when Diamond called, asking if she could come over to talk and bring my son by to spend time with me.
By then, I knew that in order to see my son, I had to deal with her.
Diamond wasn’t a bad person, and she was a good ass momma.
She just wasn’t Moni, and that’s why I damn near hated her ass.
In my eyes, she would never be good enough to be my child’s mom, but in reality, she was his mom and wasn’t shit I could do to change that.
When I made it home, I tried to clean up the place as much as I could before they arrived, but the little hand knocking on my door told me I was too late.
“Dadddyyy, open this door!” JJ yelled as he knocked on my door with his baby hands.
“Who’s there? Is that JJ coming to see his daddy?” I said as I opened the door and swooped him into my arms.
We shared the biggest hug, then I kissed him on his forehead.
His mom always had him dressed so nicely and looking like a big boy.
He also had a better cologne collection than me.
She sprayed it only on his clothes to avoid irritating his skin.
Diamond really did her thang when it came to him, and I could honestly see where my money was going.
I played with my son for a while before sending him to play in his room. Then I invited Diamond into the kitchen, so we could sit at the table and talk.
Jakari, why are those dishes just sitting in your sink? Is JJ’s room really the only clean room in this house? What’s really going on?” Diamond asked.
“I’m gon’ hire somebody to come clean up. My head is all fucked up right now, so I can’t focus. You know this ain’t like me. My shit is always right.”
“Yeah, I know, and that’s why I’m concerned! Is this about what happened to Keith, or is it about you and that bitch breaking up?” she asked, not knowing her place.
“Watch yo’ mouth! But since you in my business, it’s about both! My head is all fucked up, and I don’t know if I’m coming or going.” I hung my head.
“Look, I’m here ’cause I wanna talk about us. Fuck that bitch! She don’t want you no more, Jakari. You gotta move on, baby daddy. This shit is crazy. You worrying yourself about someone who told you to your face that it’s over.”
“You saying all that to say what? ’Cause that shit ain’t making my situation better. The fuck!”
“I said that to say, give yo’ son a fair shot. He deserves to have both his parents in his life and live in a two-parent household. I want us to try and see where things can go with us. JJ deserves that.”
I knew my ears had to have been tripping. I scrunched my face up and sat up in my seat. This hoe had lost her shits. I don’t know what she thought I was gonna say, but I wasn’t feeling this shit at all.
“Diamond, I don’t even like you like that, baby girl. I’m not attracted to you, and I’m not interested in pretending to be a family. I love my girl, and I plan to get her back. I love the way you take care of my son, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to sell you a dream,” I honestly told her.
“How can you say that if you never gave me a fair shot? Do you think I intended to be a single mother to my first child? You are so stuck on someone who doesn’t want you that you can’t even see that your son is the only one hurt in the situation.
Do you think she will ever love JJ? She’ll never accept him, and all that little boy deserves is unconditional love. ”
“That’s not for you to say, though. We don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I’m not ready to accept my relationship with my girl being over. I hate to be telling you this ’cause I know it hurts, but I need you to know where my heart is.”
“I respect your honesty, but I’m really not asking. I been too easy on you, making you think you had an option, but we finna try this family shit out and see how it goes, or I’m gon’ be yo’ worst fuckin’ nightmare! I know too much of your business for you to ever think about playing with me!”
“Bitch, you ain’t finna force me to be with you!
If you think you got the nuts to rat on me or speak on my business, I’ll be a single father to a motherless son.
Why would you even want a nigga who don’t want you?
Get some fuckin self-respect and become someone my son can admire, you stupid hoe!
” I aggressively said, unable to be nice anymore.
“Come on, JJ. Time to go home!” She stood from the table and yelled out to my son.
“You can leave! I’ll bring him home later.” I side eyed her, daring her to challenge me.
“You are a fucking loser, Jakari. You wanna be a man but can’t move like one.
You right. I shouldn’t want nobody who doesn’t want me, and that’s the difference between us.
I know when I need to move the fuck on, and I wish I could say the same for you.
Bring my son home by seven, or we gon’ have a big ass problem,” Diamond said and stormed out.
I spent time with my son, just bonding and catching up on our cartoons.
No matter what was going on around me, he always brought me so much happiness.
I loved spending time with my seed. I fell asleep in his room and was awakened by my phone ringing and JJ shaking me.
The hospital called, telling me to get up there as soon as I could, but they wouldn’t give me any information over the phone.
I dropped JJ off at home at a little before seven, and I was thankful for that, so I wouldn’t hear Diamond’s mouth.
I rushed to the hospital, praying that I wouldn’t receive any bad news.
Once I arrived, I barely had my car in park before jumping out and rushing inside.
When I found Keith’s doctor, he looked happy to see me, so I felt a little relieved.
“I got here as fast as I could, Doc. Please tell me you don’t have any bad news. I can’t take that today,” I said.
“Actually, your brother has been up for a few hours and is asking for you. He’s been in and out of it because of his medication, but we’ve run tests on him, and so far, everything looks good.”
“You fa real? Man, that’s the best news I’ve heard all day, Doc. Can I see him now?”
The doctor told me I was only allowed thirty minutes today because they still needed to run more tests on Keith. I told him I understood and watched him leave the room before I took a seat beside Keith’s bed.
“Man, I thought you checked out on me! I was about to turn this whole city upside down,” I said to Keith, whose eyes were barely open.
Keith gave me a slight smile before weakly speaking. “I hope you got at them niggas. They did me bad, man. I knew I should have killed that nigga when I knocked his teeth out. That nigga Black said that it’s war. I gotta get the fuck out of here, so we can slide.”
“All you need to do is focus on getting well. All that other shit is for me to worry about. You just danced with death, my nigga! I’m not about to let you back out in the streets just yet.”
“Let me? A nigga ain’t never let me do a bitch ass thang.
I’m getting out of here, and I’m gon’ bring this shit to an end like we should have done from jump.
Since I’ve been down, have you even gotten any more information on this mysterious ass nigga that popped up out of nowhere? His people did this shit to me!”
“I tell you what. Just wait until you’re released, and I’ll make sure we dead all this shit once and for all. The crew is ready to get active, but we need to make sure we are ready. Don’t ever question me like that! You know I’ve been out here working.” I told him.
I talked to Keith for a few more minutes before his medication kicked in, and he started dozing. This nigga was talking about war and could barely stay awake for twenty minutes at a time. I was relieved that he would be alright, but now I had to set shit in motion.
Since Keith was out of commission, I had to rearrange my whole operation.
Business was still good, and the product was selling like hotcakes.
The only thing I hated was that I had to bring Jashawn out of retirement.
Jashawn was my oldest brother who taught me the game.
He made his money and got out long ago. He owned property all over the city and was really heavy into real estate.
Before he changed his life, my brother was one of the most ruthless and feared D-Boys to come out of our city.
When the heat started coming down on him, and he was facing real fed time, he cleaned his money up and sat the fuck down.
I hated to ask him to come back to the game, but he agreed because it was temporary.
Keith and Jashawn were the only people I trusted.
I had niggas who had been in my camp since day one and had proven their loyalty, but I just wasn’t ready to let them that close.
I met up with Jashawn to drop off his package. He was getting off bricks at a time. It wasn’t no petty hustling when it came to him. He had big boy connections. I used my key and let myself into his home with my duffle bag on my shoulder.
“Bro, I’m here,” I yelled out.
I walked into his mini mansion and went around the house to their entertainment room, where he was sitting with his wife. After greeting her with a hug, I waited for my brother to lead me to his man cave. Once we were seated, I passed him the product and sat down on his sofa.
“I hear Keith is awake and doing good,” Jashawn said.
“How did you hear that and he just woke up today?” I asked with a raised brow.
“I got eyes and ears everywhere, baby bro. It ain’t shit that I don’t know. Just like I know y’all left some niggas alive that’s supposed to be dead, and that’s why I’m back saving yo’ ass,” he said as he looked me directly in my eyes.