Chapter 3
Three
What was she to do?
Everyone looked at Irish, awaiting her next move but she was stuck.
Literally sitting on pause and reflecting the last six hours of her life.
Cali had ushered her to Noble’s condo after leaving the hospital.
Noble had one of his men named Zavier outside of the condo.
He was instructed to protect her, which she appreciated.
Irish didn’t have any time to settle in because Ivory came.
Cali, unfortunately, delivered the news to Ivory on Irish’s behalf because she had no words.
She was speechless, thinking about her new reality without Jovanis.
“I know I was mad at him,” Ivory sobbed, breaking Irish’s heart, “but I never wanted him to be dead. Who could’ve done this?”
Her cries were so heart shattering and to make matters worse, Irish couldn’t soothe her.
Selfishly, she was trapped in her own grief, sitting at stage one.
Denial was her sudden emotion. There was no way she’d lived through watching Jovanis get his brains blown out.
Yeah, this wasn’t real for her. She knew she’d get a call soon, hearing his voice.
“It’s okay,” Cali consoled Ivory.
“But why would they do it?”
Irish had been wrecking her brain on who it could’ve been.
Admittedly, she thought Noble had a hand in this but quickly nixed that thought.
He would have never had him killed in front of her.
He’d even been sparing Jovanis on her behalf, so Irish knew Noble wasn’t capable of this.
Her thoughts immediately went to Tuck. Yes, he was behind bars but he still had pull.
Jovanis had outed him for the entire city to see.
He’d embarrassed Tuck and a man with his massive ego wouldn’t have let him slide. It had to be him.
“I need to um.” She cleared the sadness from her throat. “I need to tell y’all something.”
Ivory’s crying session came to a slow halt. Cali and Ivory peered at her in great anticipation. Never would she reveal these words if Jovanis was still alive. She’d sworn to take them to the grave but he had beat her to that destination first, so she felt it was time to be honest.
“Jovanis was a gay man.”
Cali’s almond-shaped eyes bucked as Ivory’s mouth gaped.
“Gay?” Cali yelped. “You playing, right?”
Irish shook her head, wishing this was all a joke. “No, I’m not.”
“When did you find out he was gay?” Cali interrogated.
“When I was fourteen and he was fifteen.”
“Bitch, what?” Cali blurted before covering her mouth with her hands.
With lowered brows, Ivory shook her head. “So why did you marry him? What was the point of y’all getting married?”
“Financial security.”
“Yooo, this is crazy.” Cali blinked rapidly before falling back on the couch. “So, you were cool with him being gay as long as he took care of you?”
Irish nodded. There were more layers to their journey but she didn’t have the mental capacity to share them right now.
“I said that to say… I think Tuck was the person who ordered the hit on him. Jovanis had just revealed that they were lovers before he got locked up. Jovanis wanted to be with him but Tuck refused. To get back at him, he leaked the pictures of Tuck to the blog.”
Ivory hung her head and placed her hands on the side of her face.
“Now why would he do some silly shit like that?” Cali fussed. “Damn, Van had to know that shit wouldn’t end well for him. Outing a person has to be one of the greatest offenses in the LGBTQ community.”
“I’m still stuck on him being gay,” Ivory mumbled. “I can’t get past it.”
“Okay.” Cali scooted to the edge of the sofa. “So Tuck ordered the hit but why would he shoot at you? There has to be some reason why unless he didn’t want to leave any witnesses behind.”
That was the part that had Irish confused. When Tuck was out, they were friendly with each other. She had never done anything to him to warrant being killed. She couldn’t understand why she was chased down.
“I don't know.”
“What if you had died?” Ivory’s tears regenerated. “Then I wouldn’t have no one.”
Irish scooted closer to her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
That thought had crossed her mind more than once.
She thought of not only Ivory but the life she was carrying.
What if the bullet had ended her life? What would Ivory do without her?
She’d been her guardian ever since she was a baby.
“It’s okay. I’m here.”
Cali sighed before rubbing her forehead. “Did you contact Jovanis’ family?”
Irish reached for her phone and checked the time. It was past one o’clock in the morning.
“I think I’m going to go to his mother’s house and give her the news. It seems so impersonal to tell her over the phone.”
“You're going to go now?” Ivory shrieked. “You should wait until the morning.”
Irish shook her head, standing up. “No, they need to know now. I can’t sit on this.”
Cali rose from the couch. “I’m going to go with you.”
“Okay.” Irish turned to Ivory. “Are you going to stay here?”
Clutching a throw pillow, she bobbed her head. “Yeah, I’m good here.”
Irish nodded and inhaled a deep breath. She still found it psychotic to believe that she had witnessed her best friend take his last breath.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Forty-five minutes later…
The night was muggy as amber streetlights illuminated the silent streets.
Zavier had driven them to Jovanis’ mother’s home, leaving her with time to prepare.
Irish swallowed down her nausea as she stood on the porch of Margie’s home.
Never in her thirty-two years had she been summoned to deliver news like this.
It was unfortunate that she was here to break a mother’s heart.
“You got this,” Cali coached her.
She didn’t have this. Irish couldn’t fathom a life without Jovanis.
She struggled to envision her days without him, but each time the image surfaced in her mind, tears congregated in her eyes.
Again, she swallowed a breath and rang the doorbell.
A minute passed before she heard the locks being unlatched.
A second later, the door swung open and a man appeared clutching his robe together.
“Can I help you?” he asked behind the screen door.
This had to be Jovanis’ stepfather, Alain. She didn’t know much about him and neither did Jovanis.
“Um, yeah, I’m Irish, Jovanis’ wife. Is it possible I can come in and talk to you and Ms. Margie?”
Alain eyed her for a moment before he opened the screen door.
Irish and Cali entered the house as he turned on the lamp.
The sound of slippers sliding across the floor brought their attention toward the hallway.
Margie appeared, wearing a fluffy robe and a bonnet over her head.
They’d met a few times during her and Jovanis’ nineteen-year friendship.
They were typically cordial with not much depth.
Jovanis wasn’t close with his mother, so Irish felt no need to establish a relationship.
“Irish, what’s going on? Why are you here at this time of night?” she asked, sporting a look of concern.
Irish loathed how she was about to ruin Margie’s life. She wished there was something much more exciting to share, not Jovanis’ death.
“Um.” Her voice was so shaky. “Ms. Margie, I came here to tell you… Jovanis was killed tonight.”
Silence suddenly flooded the room. Margie’s mouth parted as she took a few steps backwards. Her husband rushed over, catching her before she fell to the ground.
“That’s not true.” She shook her head, eyes filling with liquid pain. “I don't believe it. I just seen him. We just made up and had plans to spend more time together. I know what you're telling me isn’t true.”
Irish would’ve loved to say this was a prank but this was their new reality. She’d watched him be assassinated. His blood was all over her. She held his lifeless body in her hands while experiencing the same denial.
“It’s true.” Irish drew near to her. “I’m so sorry but someone… someone shot him.”
“Oh my Goooooddd!” she screamed.
Irish covered her eyes, hoping to shield her pain. Why did this have to hurt so bad? She could’ve gone her entire life without ever having to let Jovanis go.
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Margie.”
Her husband tried his best to comfort her but she was inconsolable. She clawed at his arms while loud wails thundered from her mouth.
“How did this happen?” he asked over Margie’s blaring screams.
Irish shrugged, still trying to make sense of this. “I don't know. We were at the park and started leaving. When he walked to the car, someone came out and shot him.”
Margie’s wet lenses turned fiery. She cut her eyes at Irish while gritting her teeth.
“You had something to do with this.”
Drawing her head back, Irish gaped at the absurd accusation that had left her mouth.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me!” Margie snatched out of her husband’s hold. “You did something to my boy. How come you didn’t get killed? Why was it only Jovanis who was murdered?”
Irish’s lips were divided but no words had formed. Startled by Margie’s rant, Irish couldn’t fathom her thinking that she’d set Jovanis up to be killed.
“Um, excuse me, my friend was shot at,” Cali snarled, pointing her index finger at Margie. “She barely escaped that shit so watch your fucking mouth accusing my friend of killing her own husband.”
Margie scrambled to her feet. “Irish, you always played a role in the absence of me and Jovanis’ relationship.”
“I did?” she shouted, finally finding her voice.
“Yes, you. As a wife, you should've encouraged him to develop a relationship with me. Instead, you pulled him further away.”
Irish snorted a laugh while shaking her head. “Newsflash, you were a piss poor mother, Margie. I didn’t play a role in the demise of your relationship with your son. You suspected that he was gay and threw his ass away.”
“Gay?” Alain repeated.