Chapter 18
—AZANI
I’d been home for two days, spending time with Devyn because I knew she was missing me.
Shit, I missed her, but I still had work to do.
I spent most of my time in my office doing video meetings with Tallie and Slum, tryna get a handle on this Black Crow and Shadow situation.
We had to make our next move our best move.
G called me last night and told me he would pull up on me today. He never stayed in the States this long. Made me wonder why he was still here. But if he was, I knew it was for a reason. It put me on edge, but whatever it was, it had to be handled just like the rest of the shit I had to do.
Devyn had Parker and Savannah over. She was tired of not being able to really chill with her girls, so I arranged for them to be brought to her. Currently, it was too dangerous for her to go to clubs or restaurants. I wouldn’t put her in a vulnerable situation if I could avoid it.
I could hear them walking past my office. Then, I heard a knock. I knew it was Dev. She didn’t even wait for me to answer; she just walked in, smiling. The ponytail she got for my birthday got fucked up, so her bob was back. Her face was bare, but she was glowing, just pretty as fuck and happy.
She walked toward me, then dropped into my lap. “Hey, baby. I made lunch. You hungry?”
“Yeah, I can eat. I thought I smelled food. What is it?”
“I made some steak bites, crab balls, a salad, and some fries. I miss the lunch special from Honey Buns,” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“Yeah, put some aside for me. G is on his way over here. You know he gon’ wanna see you. I told him you had company, though.”
“I’ll still come see him when y’all are done talking. I’ll wrap your food up until you’re ready for it.”
She leaned in, kissed me, and went to stand up. Before she could walk away, I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “This ring looks good as hell on you, Dev. You ready for the real one?”
“Maybe,” she whispered, all shy and shit. “Will the next one be bigger? This one is big enough, Zani.”
I smirked, rubbing my finger across her ring. “Hell yeah, it’s gon’ be bigger. I don’t half ass shit I do. I’m working on it right now. You know how I’m coming about you, baby. That won’t change.”
“I love you,” she said softly.
“I love you more. Go chill with your girls.”
She smiled, walking off. When the door closed, I sat back in my seat, staring at the ceiling.
With everything going on, I hadn’t had time to breathe.
After this shit was over, I was taking Dev on a real vacation.
Maybe back to Dubai… as my wife this time.
Instead of a few weeks, we could be there for a month. She deserved it, and so did I.
I still had work to do, so I sat up and got right back to it. Thirty minutes turned into an hour, then I lost track of time until another knock hit my door, and this time, I knew it was G.
“Come in,” I said, standing up from my desk.
As soon as he stepped inside, he smiled like he always did. “Ibni… I’m proud of you. You have a beautiful home. A beautiful wife. This is what I wanted for you.”
I leaned against my desk, soaking in how proud he was. “Thanks, G. I learned from you.”
He walked right over to me and placed his hand over my chest. “The man I knew you’d be.”
“I’m doing my best.”
He pulled me into a hug, holding me tighter than he usually would, and it ain’t sit right with me.
He held on for a while, then kissed my head like he always did, but this one felt different. When he pulled back, he dropped into the chair in front of my desk.
He stared straight ahead, fingers laced together. “I need to talk to you, Ibni. Something I should have told you a long time ago… and something new about your father.”
What the fuck else could Asad do? This nigga won’t leave me alone until I kill him.
Once I made it back to my chair, I stared at G. To other people, he was hard to read, but I knew him. Something was weighing on him, and it wasn’t just Asad.
“Tell me what’s going on, G. Tell me the old news first. Leave Asad for last… I really don’t want him to be the first thing we talk about.” My jaw clenched tight because I knew whatever it was, it would piss me off.
G looked off for a second, smiled, then shook his head. “Do you remember the conversation we had some months back when I sent you to London?”
“Yeah. We talked about Devyn and how you pissed that man off for messing around with his wife.” I chuckled, remembering.
“Yeah… I also told you that I’d only loved two women in my life. Your grandmother and another woman whom I couldn’t be with because she was promised to someone else.”
“I guess you’re about to tell me who she is. Who is it, G? Both of y’all are old as hell now. Neither of y’all got anything to lose,” I joked, leaning back in my seat.
“Vivian,” he said quietly.
My eyes bugged out of my head. It couldn’t be who I thought it was. “Vivian who? Vivian Heathrow?”
“Yes, Azani.” He smirked, watching me try to put the pieces together in my head. “She’s the one.”
That fucked my head up. No wonder he was fighting so hard for me to be honest with Devyn.
He wanted to make sure I was treating her the way I should.
When he checked in with me, he always asked about her, too.
Vivian was rushing me to move shit along with Devyn.
They were working together the whole time.
“Damn, G,” I muttered. “How long? Fifty years? What happened?” I asked, shaking my head.
He hung his head and sighed, then looked back at me. “For over fifty years, I’ve loved her. And life happened. Duty came first. Vivian was the one who called it quits. Three months after our fathers made her sign adoption papers for our daughter.”
“What?” I asked, snatching my head back. “Y’all have a daughter? G… why you ain’t never tell me?”
“Because I didn’t think you needed to know. That was until I sat alone and really thought about all you lost with Mariah and Zariah. You didn’t carry that loss on your own, Ibni. I carried it with you.”
His eyes glossed over as he stared back at me. Jaw clenched tight like he was right back at the moment she left him. I understood why G never wanted to be with anyone seriously. He lost love twice, two children, and two different lives. He never got the chance to have real happiness.
“I wish I had known. I wish you had told me,” I muttered, slouching in my chair.
“Take this second chance. Protect it with everything inside you. Pray for her and pray that you can be the husband I know you can be. Your suffering wasn’t in vain, and neither was mine.
You are my reward. I get to watch you and guide you into this life, and God willing, into fatherhood.
I know the life you desire, and I want you to have it. ”
I looked at G, and I could see how long he’d held that in. I straightened up. “I will. You have my word.”
“I know.” He chuckled. “Did she like the ring? Does she wear it?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, smiling hard as hell. “She loves it, too. Won’t even take it off.”
“When it’s time, I have her permanent ring. Let me know when she’s ready. But… we have to discuss my son. I don’t trust him, Azani. He’s too emotional right now. He’s just looking for a reason to spill blood.”
I felt it in my whole body when he said it, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions. “Whose blood?”
“Devyn’s. He doesn’t think she’ll marry you before the deadline. He’s angry with me?—”
“What?!” I snapped, standing, pacing the floor. “I know you’re not telling me this. Why does he give a fuck?”
“Ibni, please… have a seat. I don’t need you moving off emotion, too. I need your mind to be strong, so you can navigate this the right way. Asad will hang himself, but I am watching him, and so is Vivian. All I’m saying is that you should keep a closer eye on him.”
I looked back at G, and he was sitting up straight, watching me pace. My head fell into my hands as soon as I sat in my seat. He wanted to take more from me, but why? I was his only child, his son, and he hated me for existing.
“Why does he hate me? I ain’t did shit to that man. I stay the fuck out of his way so he can stay out of mine. What is it, G? It’s bigger than me and you. I know it is.”
G closed his eyes, then looked back at me with guilt written all over him. “History repeats itself sometimes. He did to you what I did to him. I did not kill the girl he loved, but I was the reason she took her own life. There’s blood on my hands. Too much to wash clean, and it seeped onto my son.”
I raked my hands through my locs, tryna ease the tension in my head. Thinking about everything I would do to Asad if he even breathed around Devyn. Now, he had woken up the monster in me that he should have left dormant.
I raised my head, staring through G. “If Asad comes anywhere near Devyn, I will put him in a box, G. I won’t spare him for my mom. I won’t spare him for you or anything else. And I can’t promise you that I won’t pay him a visit, so he understands that he ain’t running shit over here.”
G took a deep breath, glancing back at me. But the look on his face told me that I just might have to lay my own father down.
“That’s another piece of history that I did not want to repeat. But, sometimes, the son must do what he must do to survive a father who knows no peace. It’s what I had to do. As much as I don’t want that to be the case, I don’t know if you will have a choice.”
My family had so many secrets, and I was learning more every day that anything was possible.
G killed his own father, and now I may have to kill mine.
Asad wouldn’t get the chance to take Devyn from me.
I was a grown ass man now, not the nineteen-year-old boy he managed to break.
I was bigger, stronger, faster, and way more skilled than he ever was.
If he didn’t stay in his lane, I wouldn’t hesitate to end his life.