10. Humbled
HUMBLED
For the next hour or so, Toni sat inside Onika’s room before something at the door caught her attention. Sudan. Steady, arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the door frame and studying Onika sleeping. Toni frowned and slowly brought herself to her feet. He seemed to be in another world.
“What are you doing here?”
“Visiting somebody I used to know,” he said, clearing his throat. “How is she?”
“You used to know my mother?” Toni asked, brows bunching together above her bright eyes.
Sudan looked her in the face, taking in every feature before a soft, rare smile graced his lips.
“You look like my mother,” he told her. “Same soft brown skin, brown eyes, plump bottom lip.”
Again, he studied her closely before pushing himself off the frame and stepping into the room for a closer look at Onika.
“I met Onika one day on the corner. She was strutting along with some of her girlfriends. It was a hot ass summer day. She had on these little shorts, a tank top, and a pair of wedge sandals. She walked like she knew she was ‘that girl’. All the confidence in the world. No fear.” Sudan spoke with affection, pausing at Onika’s side and reaching out to stroke her cheek.
“A smile that could jump start the coldest heart. Soon as I saw her, I thought she was going to be nothing but trouble. She talked shit and flirted with everybody… effortlessly. She didn’t have to try too hard, it was just who she was. ”
Toni never saw a man love her mother or treat her right.
She accepted any type of treatment in exchange for them providing for her.
Urso was the worst of the worst, and she married the nigga.
There was something different in the way Sudan touched her and spoke of a version of her she never even knew.
“I didn’t think it was possible.”
“What’s that?” Toni pried, heart practically beating out of her chest.
She didn’t know why, but his presence rattled the hell out of her.
“To love more than one woman.” Sudan looked at her over her shoulder. “With the same capacity, just in different ways, for different reasons.”
“How long ago did you meet her?”
“Almost thirty years ago,” he revealed, sending her stumbling back into the counter and reaching for it to hold herself up.
Knees weak, stomach tanking, Toni tried to catch her breath with tears stained her eyes. She would be turning thirty in a few months. Instantly, her eyes found Sudan’s, and he turned to her.
“I already had a wife. A family. When Onika found out, she left me. Never looked back. I hurt her. So, I guess in turn, she found a way to hurt me too.”
“Y-you’re my… f-father.” Toni doubled over, wanting to throw up as her hands fell to her knees, and she wept. Stepping closer, Sudan reached for her hands, bringing them together in his and helping her stand. Tears streamed down her face, and his face broke into agony.
“I never knew about you.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Then why are you here? How did you figure it out?”
“That day… at the park,” Sudan voiced. “I’ve been following you ever since.
I saw you with Onika, and I couldn’t believe it.
So, I started keeping tabs on her too.” Shaking his head, Sudan lowered his eyes to the ground.
“I hate seeing what she’s become. That’s not the woman I knew or fell in love with. ”
“No.” Toni yanked away from him. “I guess she is the result of a broken heart. Like so many other women.”
She didn’t want to be angry. Sudan had no idea she even existed, but him having a whole other family somehow made her resentful.
It was the sole reason Onika kept her from him, so in hindsight, he was to blame.
Toni might have had an entirely different life if things had turned out how Onika obviously wanted them.
Hearing about this young girl version of her mother also shined a different light on the woman she’d become before having Toni.
“What are the doctors saying?”
“They’ve stopped the medication that was keeping her in a coma. They want wants to check for brain activity. If there is none, then she’s going to be taken off the ventilator… and… that’s it. No more Onika,” Toni whispered, disbelief dripping in her voice.
“Where’s Bull? Why isn’t he here?”
“He had something else to take care of.” Toni pulled away from him.
“I don’t even know why I’m here. She stopped being a mother to me when I was a kid.
I became an inconvenience. Something she hated to look at.
I didn’t fit the mold. She wanted me to chase wallets, marry some rich nigga and take care of her.
When I didn’t live up to it, she wanted to sell my son to the highest bidder when he was born.
Turn me into a breeder for her and Urso’s black market business. ”
Sudan closed his eyes, and his brows crinkled before he sighed. This version of Onika was one he didn’t know, and he was certain he wouldn’t like.
“Meeting Bull saved my life. From his family and mine. I’m only here because ain’t nobody else coming to see her.
My grandparents cut her off a long time ago, then they died.
My auntie stopped talking to her when she accused her of sleeping with her husband.
I’m all she’s got, now that Urso is dead, which he should fucking be.
I just want to cremate her and move the fuck on with my life. ”
“And how do you feel about me?” Sudan prodded. “Knowing what you know now?”
Toni examined him carefully, taking in the resemblances she hadn’t picked up on during their first interaction. She even saw her kids in his expression as he waited for an answer.
“I don’t know how to answer that. I need to talk to my husband, and I need to get out of this fucking hospital.”
“Fair enough.” Sudan nodded.
The sudden steady tone of the machine rocked Toni from her docile state. Eyes darting to the monitor, she watched the rhythm stop altogether before alarms rang, and the closest team of doctors and nurses rushed inside.
Sudan pulled Toni back by both shoulders, so the staff had room to work on Onika. Pretty soon, they were pushed into the hallway, watching them work to try and bring her back. Toni already knew what it was when the doctor stepped out, his entire face downcast.
“I’m very sorry—”
“What do you need from me now?” She flicked a hardened stare in his direction.
Once Onika was processed and sent down to the morgue, Toni was able to sign off on her paperwork and get the hell out of the hospital. Rhema stopped her with Sudan on her way out.
“I heard about your mother. Sorry, Toni.”
“Thank you for everything tonight, Rhema. I appreciate it.” She pulled her into a hug.
“Of course. If you need anything, call me, ’cause you know I’ll call you anyway,” she jested, rubbing her back before parting with her.
Sudan nodded to Rhema and pushed the door open for Toni to exit into the main entrance of the emergency section of the hospital.
By the time they stepped outside, the ground was slick from all the rain, and there was still a slight drizzle.
She reached into her pocket for her cell and immediately checked for a message from Bull before calling him.
“I’m parked over here.”
Toni nodded to her Grand Cherokee nearby and tapped Hubby on her phone screen while Sudan fell in stride with her. Ham lingered a few steps in the background. Toni cleared Sudan with him the minute he started side eyeing him after she filled out Onika’s paperwork.
“What’s up, T?”
“She’s gone,” Toni said, pausing near her driver’s door.
“How you feeling?” Bull questioned.
“I’m not sure.” Toni looked at Sudan. “There’s something else I need to tell you. Where are you?”
“You remember the old factory I brought you to that night we met?”
“You mean that night you kidnapped me?” she teased.
“I saved your fucking life,” Bull corrected. She could tell he was smiling through the phone.
“No arguments there.” Toni simpered. “But, yes. I remember.”
“Meet me there.”
“Okay, let me check on Lotus and the kids.”
“I already did. She just got them to sleep. Come straight here. Don’t make no other stops,” Bull instructed.
“Okay,” she agreed.
“I love you.” Bull’s voice turned tender.
She knew he meant it. He made sure not to let a day pass now without saying it.
“I love you, more.” Toni ended the call and pitched her driver’s door open. “I gotta go. I got a bitch who needs to be taught a lesson.”
Sudan hiked a brow as she hopped into the driver’s seat. After she started the car, she rolled her window down.
“I never really thought a lot about my father because Onika made sure she never talked about him. So, I have questions. I just have a lot going on and a lot to process right now.”
“Take your time.” Sudan slipped his hands into his pockets.
“I think we both have some processing to do. I have to tell my wife and kids the news as well. But I’m not just going to walk away, Toni.
I’m not a threat to you or to Bull. This thing with him and Braxton, it’s business.
On the other side of that, he’s also family because he’s my son-in-law and the father to my grandchildren.
” His eyes narrowed before speaking his last words.
“And that means something to me. I want to get to know you and your kids. I already know Bull is solid. His name has rang bells in the streets of Prospect Pointe for a long time. I respect him, you, and your marriage.”
“Thank you,” Toni whispered, somehow fighting back tears she didn’t ask to come.
Driving through the darkness to her destination, Toni’s thoughts swirled.
She’d never been the type to willingly cause anyone pain, but Chai took it too fucking far.
Every chance she got to fuck with Toni’s life, she took it.
Actively doing so at that. It was time to humble that bitch.
She whipped her car onto the dirt road until she arrived outside the large metal barn structure.
Immediately, a memory from her first night meeting Bull played in her mind.
The doors to the barn slid open, and her headlights shone over her husband’s muscular stature.
He stepped aside so she could pull in, then secured the doors behind her when she parked beside his Ford Bronco.
Toni killed her engine, and Bull approached to open her door for her. As soon as she climbed out, she found herself in his warm embrace. Bull held her like he needed her as much as she needed him, and Toni inhaled his manly scent.
“You sure you okay?” he asked, cupping her cheek and searching her eyes.
“Yeah. Let’s get this over with. Where is she?”
“Come on.” Bull led her through the garage space to a set of concrete steps leading to a bunker below.
She caught a slow shiver from the cold and squinted through the fluorescent lighting.
Blue lights allowed the shadows to bounce off the walls as a light swung back and forth above them.
In the middle of the room, hanging over a sheet of plastic was Chai.
Bound and gagged, arms chained above her head as she fought to free herself.
Even if she didn’t have the gag in her mouth, nobody would be able to hear it.
The barn was soundproof and in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Her eyes landed on Toni and doubled in size.
“It’s yo’ world, T. How you want to do this?” Bull questioned, stroking his beard.
“Let her down, and take the gag out of her mouth.”
Bull stepped past his wife and did as requested.
Chai fell to her knees whimpering, head down, palms on the floor.
She coughed and caught her breath before eventually lifting her head.
Bull backed up, and Toni stepped forward.
She didn’t give Chai a chance to open her mouth before she rocked her in the jaw with a right hook that sent her whole body flying in the direction of the punch.
“You deserve everything that’s about to happen to you, and then some.” Kneeling, Toni snatched her up by her lace front wig.
With a firm grip, she slammed her fist into her face until she lost the feeling in her hand. Chai now resembled someone who’d been stung too many times in the face. Bull found himself turned on watching his wife turn into a goon. He stepped up, a bucket of ice ready for her to dip her hand into.
“Ah.” Toni winced and stared down at Chai on the ground, groaning and barely able to curl up as blood leaked from her face and onto the ground.
“You done?”
“No. I want to finish her.” Toni marched over to the Bronco and picked up his pistol off the hood.
He’d already cocked it. Toni marched over to Chai, standing over her and aiming the barrel right at her head.
Hand trembling, eyes misting, her entire childhood flashed through her eyes along with all the bullshit Chai used to put her through.
Locking her in closets, taking the few clothes she did have, making a mess in the kitchen just for her to clean up, and laughing in her face the whole time.
From the minute her and Uma walked into that apartment, her life was never the same.
“Arghhhh!” Toni screamed, backing up and allowing the gun to fall at her side. “I fucking hate you!” Lifting her foot, she kicked her repeatedly in the stomach and chest until she herself was weak.
Sinking to her knees, Toni fell forward in a childlike pose and cried. Bull slid the gun from her grasp. He took two steps toward Chai, and fired a shot right into her head.
Toni cried harder.