Rah

Chapter 24

FABE

As I pulled onto my block and saw my house, I sighed and fussed, “Finally.”

I had been sitting in traffic for a hour. After that and a long day at the trap, I was ready to get in the crib and chill.

As I pulled into the driveway of my crib, my cellphone rang. Looking at the display on the dash, I saw that it was Moses and answered while killing the engine.

“What up, Moses? How you feelin’?” I didn’t want Moses to hear Aaliyah’s voice when I walked in the house, so I sat there and talked to him.

“Back to normal,” he told me.

“Good shit.”

“I saw you had been calling and trying to get up with me.”

“Yeah, man. I was just trying to check on you and the family.”

“We doin’ okay. You heard about Caine?”

I didn’t want to ask, but I went ahead, “Nah, what happened?”

“He’s missing.”

“Damn.”

Caine was Rah’s cousin on his mother’s side.

I only kicked it with him when I was with Rah, so we weren’t close.

He was a grimy street nigga that I didn’t trust. I knew that if I didn’t trust him, others didn’t.

So, there was no telling what had happened to him.

But knowing the street life, it was safe to assume that he was dead, and his body would turn up soon.

“I’m definitely praying for his family. I know Rah’s mama tired of the bullshit.”

“Right.”

“What up with you, though? You back in the studio?”

I was surprised when he answered, “Nah.”

I assumed that once he was out of the hospital, he would go to the studio before even going to the crib.

“What? I thought Rah would have been on your ass about that when he got out of the hospital.” Just saying that nigga’s name pissed me off, but for the sake of protecting Aaliyah, I had to act like everything was normal.

But to my surprise, Moses said exactly what I had been feeling. “Fuck Rah.”

Shocked, I asked, “Straight up?”

Moses had been stuck to Rah’s side like glue. He was more like Rah’s little brother than I was.

“Straight up,” Moses answered. “I know that’s your brother. He’s my blood too but fuck that nigga. He don’t act like family. He ain’t no fam of mine.”

“What happened?”

Moses filled me in on how Rah had been lying to him and selling him a dream.

There was so much venom in his voice, however, that I felt like the cause of his anger was deeper than what he was saying.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t surprised that Rah’s deception didn’t just involve his women; he was lying to everyone around him.

“So, I’m done with music,” Moses told me. “I’m focusing on the hustle.”

“I feel that.”

Moses and I chopped it up for a few more minutes before he ended the call.

I got out of the car not believing what I had just heard. Rah was a shady motherfucka if Moses was walking away from all his street fame.

Walking into the crib, I could smell the scent of garlic butter and lobster.

I smiled, relieved that Aaliyah was still playing the role as my woman after we had gotten into that argument yesterday.

But I had done a good job of showing her how sorry I was.

I had called off work after we got into it.

I was scared that if I had gone to work, I would come back to no Aaliyah and nephew-son.

Luckily, after hours of eating her pussy and giving her whatever she wanted, she had forgiven me and there was a smile back on her face.

Aaliyah’s sexy ass was sitting on the couch when I walked into the living room.

Nephew-son was lying beside her, looking up at her while blowing bubbles of spit and making a gurgling sound while smiling.

Over the last month, Aaliyah had lost her pregnancy weight and Junior had gained it.

She was slimming down and he was getting fat.

“Hey, babe.” I greeted her with a kiss on the forehead as I sat the bag in my hand next to her.

“Hey,” she spoke looking down at the bag. “What’s that?” Aaliyah looked at the box with a strange look and then looked back up at me.

“It’s the DNA test.”

Her shoulders shrank.

“I know you don’t wanna know yet, but I need to know,” I told her.

“Whyyyy?” she whined and pouted. “Just keep calling him nephew-son! I won’t tell you not to call him that anymore.”

I laughed and grabbed her, standing her up. I put my arms around her, took her chin into my hand, and made her look up at me.

“I want to know if I am raising my son or Rah’s.”

“Raising?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Yeah. We’re going to be together forever, aren’t we?”

“Even after yesterday?”

I shrugged. “We gon’ fight, but we gon’ get right back.”

Her eyes fluttered with admiration and lust as she stared up at me. Bending down, I sucked her bottom lip and lightly bit it.

“Mmmm,” she moaned.

I smacked her ass. “C’mon before you change your mind. Let’s swab, nephew-son.”

She sucked her teeth and said, “Yeah, let’s swab him so you can stop calling him that shit!”

Aaliyah swabbed Junior, and I swabbed myself.

After putting the Q-tips into the specified envelopes and sealing them into the DNA envelope, I put it in my coat pocket so I could mail it off the next day.

Then, I went to wash off the work day while Aaliyah finished making dinner.

She was making a nigga feel like he had a housewife.

She couldn’t work. I honestly didn’t want her to with Rah still insistent on finding her.

Real talk, I didn’t need her to because a nigga had always taken care of his household.

But she had been doing a good job of making me feel like I wanted to cuff her forever.

My house stayed clean, clothes stayed washed, and she always made sure that a meal was on the table.

She catered to her man for real, and I loved that shit.

A few hours later, Aaliyah had fed me real good. I was surprised that she could cook like that. Most twenty-four-year-olds couldn’t find the kitchen. But Aaliyah cooked like she was an old lady from Mississippi.

Now, we were chilling on the sofa watching TV with her feet in my lap as I rubbed them.

“You need these joints done,” I teased her, looking down at them with a frown.

She laughed and lightly kicked my stomach. “Whatever.”

“For real, man. Look at that bunion!”

“I do not have a bunion. Stop playing,” she whined.

“These bad boys hard as hell. When the last time you put ‘em in some damn water?”

“Shut up, Fabe!” she laughed.

As I chuckled, the doorbell rang. Aaliyah’s eyes bucked. She sat straight up. Her high-yellow skin turned red.

“Be cool,” I told her. But I had to admit that my antennas had gone straight up. Suddenly, I was wondering where the fuck my pistol was. Remembering that it was in my closet in the lock box, I grimaced.

Fuck.

Then I realized that I was only wearing a pair of basketball shorts. I was in a fucked-up position without my piece and damn near naked.

“Who could that be?” Aaliyah asked with fear in her eyes.

We were both wondering the same thing—if it was Rah.

No one had told me that they were coming by.

But Rah had probably been to my crib twice in the years that I had been living there.

He didn’t even remember the address or where I lived exactly.

So, I shrugged as I stood and walked towards the window.

I quickly glanced at Junior, who was sleeping in a bassinet near the couch.

I then peered outside. Admittedly, I calmed down when I didn’t see Rah’s Mustang in the driveway.

But when I noticed the BMW truck, I grimaced.

“What?” I heard Aaliyah asking once she heard me sigh. “Is it him?!”

“No,” I replied as my nostrils flared.

I went to the door, avoiding Aaliyah’s curious eyes.

I didn’t even want to open it, but if I didn’t, it would only make this shit look worse.

So, I went ahead and snatched the door open.

A menacing scowl was all over my face as I glared at Jackie’s smug smirk.

She stood on my porch with her arms folded across her chest. I hadn’t heard from her since I broke things off, so I knew she had definitely shown up here to make a scene.

Her eyebrows raised as she watched me just stand in the doorway saying nothing. Her head jerked as she spat, “Can I come in?”

I laughed, “No.”

Her brown eyes bucked with shock. Then they glared at me, nearly turning dark. “No?”

I wasn’t super religious, but I definitely believed in the man upstairs. So, I started to holla at Him, asking Him to please look out for his boy and keep this woman from acting a fool.

To keep her from barging in, I continued holding the doorknob with one hand and leaned against the doorframe, blocking her. “I told you it was over.”

Suddenly, just like any woman would, Aaliyah made her presence known. I could hear her having a conversation on the phone. I inwardly laughed at her picking this moment to start laughing, loud with her auntie.

Hearing the female voice, Jackie tried to look around me.

I was a big dude, so I figured she couldn’t see past me, but when her eyes bucked and rage covered her face, I knew that she had been able to.

By the look in her eyes, I could tell that she had seen Aaliyah’s thick ass on the couch, laid up comfortably in my t-shirt and nothing else.

“So, this is why you left me?!” she squealed as her arms started to thrash around.

“Lower your fucking voice,” I growled.

“And she has a fucking baby? When were you going to tell me? You lying motherfucker! Thought you didn’t have any kids! Have you had a woman the whole time?! You are so fucking phony! You made it seem like it was me–”

“It was you. I didn’t like you. I like her.” I couldn’t help it. I had to do it. I had to bring her down off that high horse.

“Fu–”

“I know, I know. ‘Fuck you, Fabil,’” I mocked her with a chuckle.

Her scowl was turning her face into the ugliest I had ever seen it. I didn’t wait for her to blow up. I just stepped into the crib and closed the door. After locking it, my eyes met Aaliyah’s and she was looking at me with a playful grin on her face.

As I rushed towards her, she quickly told her auntie, “Let me call you back.”

I think she hung up before her aunt could even respond. Within seconds, I was on top of her, biting her neck playfully. “You think that shit was funny?”

Through her uncontrollable giggles, she said, “Stooop, Fabe.”

We both laughed and kept play-fighting with each other.

But little did we both know, this shit was going to backfire straight up in our faces.