Chapter 31
Chapter thirty-one
Amethyst
Iwalked into Yale’s house, and immediately, a nigga got in his feelings.
I missed the fuck out of her. The past few weeks had been hell, but I knew I was doing what the fuck I needed to do, or at least that’s what I kept telling myself, so I wasn’t up all fucking night tossing and turning.
The house was cold as fuck and quiet, which annoyed me.
I was used to hearing Yale’s music blasting or her laughter when we were hanging out.
Now the only thing that could be heard was my steps as I moved through the living room.
Nothing in this bitch screamed Yale or her style. It was all Grant and his stuffy ass shit, which is probably why I had her decorate my house repeatedly. Everything in my house screamed Yale, and I was proud of it.
I searched the living room, knowing that I was going to come up empty, and then made my way to their bedroom.
The smell of Yale’s perfume filled my lungs as soon as I pushed the door open.
It was so strong that I had to stop and look around to make sure that she wasn’t here.
Yale was sneaky as fuck, and I know that she was working Tulane’s fucking nerves.
He wasn’t used to having to deal with his daughters on the level that he was, and them being there was driving that nigga crazy.
Every fucking day, he was calling me with some crazy ass shit her and her sisters were doing.
I wanted to feel sorry for that nigga, but I didn’t.
He was going to get payback for not being around when they were younger.
His ass thought that dealing with four grown ass daughters would be easy. The joke was definitely on him.
“This nigga is not that fucking smart,” I said as I pulled open his dresser drawer.
There had to be something linking him to whoever the fuck this mystery boss was.
I tossed his shit like I was a fucking cop and came up empty-handed.
Frustrated, I slammed his dresser drawer closed and made my way to his closet.
Clothes hung neatly on his side, shoes lined on the floor.
Everything was perfect. I kissed my teeth as I looked around.
The sight of three boxes sitting on his top shelf pulled me from my thoughts, and I grabbed them.
The first box was filled with old pictures, starting with his childhood and going through there.
The second box had files from his job, nothing I gave a fuck about.
I trusted the weather app to tell me what the fuck was going on.
Grant’s ass didn’t know shit in my eyes. The last box made me pause.
“Aint no fucking way,” I chuckled. The paperwork I was looking at had a name I hadn’t seen in years.
I read it over to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, then dropped my head.
Citrine was going to lose his fucking mind.
I stuffed everything back inside the boxes and took them with me.
I had another fucking stop to make, and it wasn’t going to be a good meeting.
The drive to Citrine’s hotel was quick because traffic was light. I parked next to him in my assigned spot, grabbed the boxes, and made my way inside. His employees were used to seeing me, so they didn’t think twice when I moved through the back and headed to his office.
“Hey,” I called out to his secretary as I approached her desk. “Is he available?”
“Yeah, he just got in, but looks frustrated; he had a meeting with Lavender,” she replied with a small smile.
“Appreciate it.” I knocked twice but didn’t wait for him to respond before I pushed open the door. “I need you to look at something for me and tell me I’m not making shit up to fit a narrative.” I closed the space between his desk and the door and dropped the boxes on it.
“What am I looking for, Am?” Citrine looked at the boxes, then up at me with a confused expression.
I knocked on the boxes twice, then pushed them to him. “Look and tell me what you see,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not telling you to look for something because I want you to tell me what you see.”
“I’m not a fucking detective, Am, tell me what I’m looking for or call Gift and have him look at this shit,” he suggested. When I didn’t move, Citrine sighed, then picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“Yeah?”
“How far are you from the hotel?” Citrine said as he watched me. His dark eyes narrowed when I sat in the empty seat in front of his desk. “Am is here with some fucking boxes and wants me to play your role. I don’t have it in me for this shit today.”
“Give me ten.”
“Bet,” Citrine said, then hung up. He pointed to the boxes and shook his head. “Gift does shit like this, not me.”
“You’re going to want to look at it before he does,” I replied, shaking my head. “That nigga isn’t going to see what I saw and understand it.”
Citrine leaned forward and tapped the side of his head. “I don’t have it in me to figure shit out today, Amethyst. My mental is fucked up.”
“What happened with Lavender?” I questioned him, and he sat back.
Citrine ran his hand over his face, then chuckled. “Nothing, I saw someone from my past that I shouldn’t have,” he answered.
“Who?”
“Ta’lon.”
As soon as he said the name, I understood why Citrine was fucked up.
Ta’lon was the one he swore got away. They were together until he was severely injured in a boxing match, and his life changed.
Watching my brother fight for his life while fighting for his relationship always pissed me off.
Ta’lon’s loyalty was never questioned while he was standing firm.
As soon as he was down, she moved differently and disappeared.
When he was released from the hospital, he came home to an empty house. No one ever saw her again.
“Where did you see her?” I was surprised as fuck, I couldn’t even front.
Citrine typed something into his computer, then turned his monitor around to show me his screen. Ta’lon sat in the restaurant eating with her daddy and little boy with long curly hair.
“My nigga,” I stood and moved closer to the screen to make sure I wasn’t tripping.
This shit was not about to unfold in my lap like this, this fucking easy.
I did a double-take when the little boy turned, and I got a better look at him.
He looked so much like Ta’lon, but there was something familiar about him, too. “That’s your jit?”
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. I looked over at Citrine to see his eyes locked on the screen. “Lil homie looks to be about five. I haven’t seen her in almost double that.”
“You sure?” I asked as I reclaimed my seat. “And what the fuck is she doing here after all this time? You think she doesn’t know this is your spot?”
“Yeah,” Citrine chuckled. “That ain’t me, but I ain’t dumb enough to think that she doesn’t know this shit is mine. My fucking name is on the building.”
“You didn’t ask her why she’s here?” I asked, and he shook his head. “Why not?”
“I was stuck,” he chuckled. “I haven’t seen that girl in ten fucking years, she disappeared on my ass, and then she just pops up at my fucking hotel?” He sat back, licked his lips, then shook his head. “I thought that girl was the love of my fucking life. I had a ring and everything.”
“Damn, it was like that?” Hearing him say he had a ring surprised the fuck out of me. I knew he loved her, but not to that level.
“Like that,” he nodded. “Now her ass is sitting in my fucking hotel, with her bitch ass daddy and a jit.” The vein in the middle of his forehead pulsed so hard I could see it. Citrine was holding on by a fucking thread. “I fucking loved her, Amethyst. Like hard as fuck, and she disappeared on me.”
“It could’ve been for a reason.”
Citrine glared at me, and I knew that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Ta’lon may not have been my favorite person because of how she broke my brother, but I didn’t know her fucking story. The only person who knew why she left was her.
“A reason?” he questioned as if he didn’t understand the words.
“My nigga, wasn’t no reason for her to leave.
I got hurt while providing for us. She was pregnant and told me the morning of the match.
She set up this elaborate surprise, and then we went to the match.
Fucking fighting Uri was supposed to be quick.
But something set him off. I don’t know what it was, but he snapped during the match.
No matter how much I tried to calm him down, he wasn’t hearing shit I was saying.
I remember my fucking body breaking, the feel and sound of my bones snapping.
But you know what I remember the most? The empty look in his eyes, my nigga was gone. ”
“I always wondered why you could be cool with him after all that,” I said, nodding.
I respected the fuck out of Uri and my brother’s friendship, but I didn’t understand it.
Uri damn near killed him, yet Citrine never held an ounce of hate towards him, and he let Pyrite and I know that we weren’t to go after him on no revenge shit.
“Because I know his story,” Citrine shrugged.
“Uri’s life was fucked up. The money, statues, none of that shit mattered because that nigga was in hell.
His uncles? They tortured that nigga and made him a monster.
I knew what the fuck I was dealing with when I stepped into the ring with him.
I can’t fault a beast for reacting the only way it was trained to. ”
I nodded, understanding more. “Alright,” I replied. “But what happened with the baby? You said Ta’lon was pregnant, and that jit is too young to be yours. So what happened to yours?”