Epilogue
I had always been the type of man that commanded a room, terrified my enemies, and competitors alike.
I ruled with an iron fist in my world of suits, contracts and high dollar deals but in my home, I wasn’t Mr. Sanderson, the head of Phoenix Healthcare Group.
I was Crew, dad and if I was being good, Sir.
Over the years I came to realize that the hardest thing about being a husband and father was that you had to give your family the best version of yourself and that is what I did daily.
I gave them the same type of love and care that Pops had given me as a child.
Never failing to give them what they needed to be the best versions of themselves but at some point, I wasn’t sure if the twins and I hadn’t gone too far.
Because the monsters that were cute and innocent years ago had started to grow up and not only had their skills grown but so had their intelligence.
“When I said you could have a birthday party I meant here.” I told Timberly as she sat at the island making her parfait.
“Why can’t I have it at the Meridian? They have security.” She said, like that made any difference in my answer.
“No.”
“But why dad? Uncle Black and Uncle Blue reviewed the security protocols and said they were sufficient.
I looked over at her two enablers. I knew she would try to use them to push her agenda. It never failed she thought that bringing in co-conspirators would get her what she wanted and usually it did but not this time.
“Aren’t you two the same niggas that staged a kidnapping at Knox and Kairo’s preschool when Nova enrolled them after y’all told her that the security was just sufficient?” I asked, smirking at them.
“That was different. When she asked us to check it out, she had full schematics of the location, security codes and visual access for ten blocks surrounding the venue.” Blue said with a proud smile.
“If she could get it, anybody else could. The answer is still no.” I said, receiving a pout from my daughter.
“Why can’t you have it here like all your other parties?” I asked, hating that she was growing out of wanting to be close to home.
“Daddy, because I’m an adult and I want to have fun with my friends without armed men guarding the perimeter.” She huffed, slamming her sliced strawberries in the bowl like they had wronged her too.
“Baby you are one of my most prized possessions. There will always be guards wherever you go.” I told her, everyone in my family had armed security and as long as I was the man I am they would always have it.
“But dad, I have a marksmanship award, and I can almost take Uncle Black in hand-to-hand combat training.” She smiled proudly.
She was right. We had trained the kids in this family well over the years and at times I wondered if we had been wrong to give them a glimpse of that life.
“You’re gonna be overruled anyway mom and auntie Nesi saw it yesterday with us and they loved it. Uncle August said he was alright with it if you said yes and Uncle Black and Blue already upgraded the security.” She said, this time with a victorious smile.
“No. I out rank everybody else.” I said, smiling like I wasn’t about to give in. Who was I kidding? She had done her research and gotten approval from everybody that mattered now all I had to do was put my stamp of approval on it.
“Moooom.” Timberly yelled up the stairs.
“Snitch.” I said, shaking my head at her. She just smirked back at me and started eating her parfait, because the battle had been won.
“What?” Nova said as she came down the stairs holding our six-year-old twins' hands. She stopped at the table and helped them into their seats before joining us at the island. “Peace, put that tablet down and pass your brothers some fruit please.”
“Mommy, tell him how beautiful the venue is for my party.” Timber started.
“You are gonna love it. It's just what we were talking about, and the planner's design is everything Timberly asked for. Did she show you the plans?” Nova asked, buttering the croissant from my plate, before licking honey butter off her finger while giving me a full minute of intense eye contact.
This is the shit I was talking about. I would never have been able to get played like this outside of this house but inside I was at the mercy of my wife, who my kids had learned was my soft spot and they used her often to get what they wanted.
“Please daddy. I’m an A plus student. I already have four full rise scholarships to the top colleges in the area, and I have never been caught doing anything illegal.”
“The way you said, never been caught doing anything illegal with all your other positive accolades seems a little suspicious. Not getting caught is not the same as never doing anything illegal.” I said.
“Was that all you got from that? All I’m saying is that I’m a good kid. Reward me please,” she said proudly.
“She may not have gotten caught but DJ and Tati sure have.” Peace said from his place at the other table.
“Mine yo’ business little nigga.” DJ’s loud voice said, coming from the back door as he entered without knocking as usual.
“Language DJ.” Tyra said coming in behind him like all our kids hadn’t learned to cuss at her knee.
“Sorry. And stop spreading lies Peace before I start putting yo’ business in the street. Besides it wasn’t illegal. It was frowned upon. We didn’t even get arrested.”
“That’s because the people at our schools are scared of Auntie Tyra.” Peace said with a straight face.
“Damn right. They don’t want no problems.” Tyra said, stealing some bacon off Kairo’s plate.
“That’s mine T.T.” He grumbled.
“Pregnancy tax.” She laughed with a mouth full of his bacon, rubbing her round belly.
“Here, Kai.” DJ said, handing over his two pieces to his cousin.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, because now at 19 years old DJ was a good kid but had definitely had his fair share of close encounters with illegal antics, especially since Black and Blue had started officially mentoring him last year.
They said what they taught the kids as children was just the basics and things didn’t get real until they became adults.
DJ was in his first year at Timberline Tech majoring in computer engineering with a minor in cyber securities.
“So, getting caught your senior year hacking into the lunch accounts and changing the balances to zero wasn’t illegal?” Peace asked.
“No, it was philanthropic. Students should eat for free.” DJ smirked, piling his plate full of waffles, whipped cream and fruit. “Worry about how you made Mr. Jimenez cry in front of your class the other day.”
“Peace, what is he talking about?” Nova asked.
Peace answered his mother with a straight face like whatever he said or did to that grown man wasn’t a cause for concern.
Peace was our quiet calculating child; he read every room he entered before speaking.
He was a beautiful combination of every one of the people he loved.
He had taken something from each of us and turned it into a tool that he honed for success.
And even at ten years old he was able to decipher which tactic to pull out of his bag of acquired tricks to get what he wanted.
Damn my boy had even surpassed me at that age and he was just getting started.
“Mom, it wasn't that serious. Mr. Jimenez is just an emotional man.” He said nonchalantly like he wasn’t the same kid that Pops had been training to negotiate in a boardroom before he could speak in full sentences.
“He was having a hard time understanding how my investment portfolio was doing better than his. He got a little too excited in our debate and yelled at Augusta when she explained how our resources and knowledge of the market made us better suited to earn higher yields than someone of his generation due to his lack of knowledge in tech and marketing algorithms. He hurt her feelings so after class we decided to play Roblox on the school laptops to calm Augusta down when accidentally AJ, Anias, and I erased Mr. Jimenez’s brokerage, 401k and pension from the cloud. Easy mistake.”
“Easy mistake my ass. How did y’all even get into that man's accounts?” She asked.
“He had them up on the laptop we were using. Can you believe that? Irresponsible if you ask me.” He said stuffing his mouth with waffles.
“And y'all worried about me being let loose in the world. What ten-year-old do you know with investment accounts and the ability to hack someone else's?" Timberly asked.
“When you see your birthday present you won’t be worrying about that.” Peace said, winking at her.
“I take that back.” She said, quickly. “Now dad about my party. What do you say?”
“You, DJ and Tati stay together the entire night. You arrive together; you leave together. No exceptions. Five guards inside and your uncles’ men on the perimeter.” I said, folding like a deck of cards.
“Deal, thank you daddy.” She said running around the island to give me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I would never get used to the feeling I got when she called me that. Not that I felt I didn’t think I deserved to be her dad. It was the fact that I was the one she chose.
She went back to her side of the island, opening her phone to show everyone pictures of her party dress that I was about to veto before Nova gave me that look. When the conversation moved to shoes that was it for me.
“Auntie Janelle and Del are bringing Pops today to help me with a project.” Peace said to me.
“Should I be worried about this so-called project?” I asked.
Like his sister, he had never got caught doing something bad, but I knew my children and even though Pops had aged I knew his ass too.
Sometimes I didn’t know if he was grooming them to be business executives or criminal masterminds. With my family you never knew.
“Nope I promise. Tati is bringing my cousins too, so you don’t have to worry. It’s something for school, nothing to see here.” He smiled.
Now I was worried, even though the triplets were three years older than Peace, it hadn’t kept them from growing up thick as thieves.
And at times August and I weren’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
We would have to wait and see. For now, it was just another day in the life of a ruthless savage.
The End