Chapter 30
“Desi, you need to make sure you open up and belt that shit out,” Erys spoke from what was used as the VIP area of Club Genesis. Erys could’ve been away for years but he made sure he invested his money where it mattered. And Waynesville mattered.
“I am,” she huffed.
“You’re not. You need to dig deeper if this is some shit you want. Don’t waste my time, girl,” Erys stated, looking over to Tone. “Didn’t I tell you to leave her alone?”
“Man, I didn’t touch that girl,” Tone said, trying to hide a grin.
“You absolutely did. Again. I watched y’all walk in here all that arguing and shit. I’m fucking serious. You steppin’ all over the product with your bullshit,” Erys grumbled.
“We’re not moving weight right now. This is music,” Tone stated.
“The game is the game and I need her tip-top if she’s going in front of MB,” Erys fired back. “For once in your wayward life, please listen, nigga.”
“Aight, aight, aight. I hear you,” Tone stated with a huff.
“You hear me or are you hearin’ me?” Erys pressed.
“I’m hearing you. If you got the TWGs now, why don’t we just do our own music shit?” Tone posed as Erys swayed his head.
“You don’t give a fuck about your nephew, do you? I’m not funneling gang money through a legitimate business attached to my name. You crazy? This is why we were always in some bullshit, Quientone.”
“Oh, the government name. I thought getting pussy on the regular was going to level you out,” Tone snipped.
Erys pulled in a deep breath and lowly rubbed his chest, something wasn’t right.
He could feel it. “Shut your ass up. The goal is to make sure they got a better hand than we did. Everybody ain’t supposed to be a thug and every thug don’t want to be stuck in Trae Way forever.
We take the street shit and flip it. Community centers, pouring back into the neighborhood.
It’s not going to be the ghetto forever, shit is moving in and we need to be ready for it. ”
“What you saying, Erys?” Tone asked, as he watched Erys turn his back to what was happening on the stage.
“I’m saying we’re the gatekeepers. This city isn’t going to move without a nod from me.”
“You’re turning this shit into mafia-type shit,” Tone commented with a smirk and a hand rub. “I like that shit.”
“So keep your hands off of her. I’m serious,” Erys spoke, pulling his phone out. Twenty missed calls from Remedy and a few texts.
Mouth: cme hume
Mouth: ngga u c me calling u
Without question, those texts were from Ernie.
“I have to go. Make sure this shit runs smoothly. No bullshit,” Erys directed before walking out.
In his truck, he barreled to the house finding two angry women standing toe to toe with the aide. Haphazardly throwing the truck in park, he jumped out and quickened out to the duo. “Hey! Hey! Fuck you on my steps for?” Erys barked.
When the older woman spun around, he knew who she was.
The younger one turned around sharing the same features as her mother.
Remedy looked nothing like them. Their eyes soulless, no matter the labels they wore or the work they had done.
Nothing could replace how worn they looked.
Erys chalked it up to them being bitter women who delighted in misery.
“Mr. Moore, I’ve told them that Ms. Worthy was unavailable. They won’t leave,” the aide spoke in irritation.
Erys nodded. “Go inside, I got it.”
The aide obliged, closing the door they weren’t granted access through.
“So you’re the fish she hooked,” the older woman Erys learned was Sylvia from his research. “You need to tell her to bring her dumbass out here.”
Erys pushed his hands in his pocket and leaned on the hood of his truck. “Or what?”
“I’ll have your thug ass arrested. You don’t belong in Cashmere Lakes and neither does she. I’ve done everything in my power to keep her ass in the ghetto wasting away where she belonged and now here she is, uprooting my world again. Pack your shit up and leave.”
Erys pulled his hand out of his pocket to study the Rolex on his wrist. “You done?”
Gina, Sylvia’s youngest child spoke up. “You have some nerve. No, we’re not done.”
“You know I can’t understand why you’re here demanding her to come out of her house so you can bully her and whatever else when your bitch ass husbands are currently being arrested for trafficking and a few other charges.
You might want to pack up your shit and run along,” Erys stated coolly, walking toward his front door.
“Next time you feel the need to threaten me with police, remember this – I’m the shadow in the night.
The chaos. You come back here to bother my woman with your Karenisque bullshit, I will find great pleasure in sending the rest of your pathetic little world into absolute chaos. Have a good day.”
Leaving them stuck in their positions, he walked into the house. The aide was waiting by the door to give him a rapid fire rundown.
“We were walking in the park to get Ernie out the house from going stir crazy. She bumped into those hellish women and they started the shoving and the berating. The old one told Remedy that she wasn’t her mother and Remedy ran off.
I brought Ernie back to the house. She’s been here an hour crying and throwing up.
I can’t get her to drink water, I can’t get her in the bed.
Ernie won’t leave her side,” the aide called to Erys’ back.
By the time the words shoving and berating hit his ears, he was heading up the stairs.
In the room, Erys found Remedy laying on a pillow in Ernie’s lap and Ernie attempting to text from her phone.
“There you go, nigga. Where the hell you been? Huh?” Ernie asked in a very loud whisper. “Your mama has been in here crying and throwing up. I think you getting a brother or something.”
Erys shook his head at Ernie’s announcement. “All that hollering you doing is going to wake her up.”
Remedy muttered. “I’m not sleep. My head hurts.”
She slowly sat up and pulled herself into a ball. “Ernie, can you get me some water?”
Ernie stood. “Yeah, I’ll be back, Cherie.”
“Thanks,” she weakly responded. Erys sat in the empty spot and pulled her into him.
Kissing the top of her head, he pulled in a deep breath and released it.
“I’m not her daughter. Makes sense now. The reflection of it all makes me sick to my stomach.
But it all makes sense now. Why they put such restrictions on May, why I was never good enough for them, why I didn’t fit in.
“The truth coming to the light was damaging and my silence and compliance was needed. If I broke out that mold or the box and used my voice and really rattled the cages, the truth would ruin everything. I hate them but hating them and wondering about why takes too much energy. I should be focused on what really matters.”
“What’s that?” Erys asked.
Remedy pulled a pregnancy test from the pocket of the athletic jacket she wore. “Before Ernie snatched my phone I JoyCarted this. I don’t get sick like this often. It’s only happened like this one time before and I’m two weeks late.”
Erys took the pregnancy test, his frown melted away. Remedy watched his emotions balance and then grow. Gently pulling her on his lap he kissed her forehead, chin, nose, cheeks then lips picking up on the lingering mint from her toothpaste.
“You’re happy?” she giggle against his lips.
“Over the moon baby. Tagged it and bagged it. I knew your mean ass was going to be the mother of my babies. You slapped too good. You’ll throw a hell out of a flip flop,” he teased, kissing her jawline. “How you feeling? Besides sick.”
“I’m happy. I feel like I closed one book and I’m opening a new one. The possibilities are limitless and I’m very excited for this new adventure with the four of us,” Remedy hummed against his neck. “Thank you.”
“Bumping you full of my seed ‘cause I was trying to trap you or …”
She laughed weakly. “You get on my damn nerves. Ever considered I trapped you? Saw this big house and how much of a trick you are and said mm, let me be like Sylvia and trap this nigga.”
“Nah, because you didn’t like me when you came in here,” Erys laughed. “And that type of bullshit isn’t you.”
“What’s me then? I’ve been labeled all day. Tell me what you see,” she asked, her head back on his shoulder.
Erys picked up her hand and laced her fingers with his.
“I see strength. It was a storm in the beginning but you settled in and it’s quiet now.
But it’s at full capacity because you’ve learned who you are and rooted yourself.
Your heart is big, because no one else is going to love Ernie the way you love him or move with him in mind.
And even with all that capacity, you look at me like I’m a king.
You could never tell me you love me again and I would feel that forever.
Do I need to tell you how beautiful you are too? ”
Remedy smiled. “No, I can see it. Like you look past my outer and you see my soul.”
“Same way you see mine, Strawberry. How about I feed you, get you in the bed and when you’re up on your feet let’s take a quick trip to Eastover?” he posed. “The five of us.”
“That works, we’re on a break between releases. I could use a change of scenery.”
“Whatever my baby momma wants,” Erys joked.
“Uh huh. Why were the two idiots here?” Remedy asked.
“For a reality check. If they listened, they’re packing up to go on the run but they’ll be arrested by the morning. But that’s not your battle. Rest, baby.”
Remedy was sound asleep, the aide was relieved and it was just him and Ernie chasing ghosts.
“I’m tired of roaming around this gotdamn house trying to find her. Just take me the fuck home so she can find me. She doesn’t know I’m here,” Ernie grumbled, pushing past Erys to get to the stairs. “I can’t find her.”
Erys stayed close, following his father up the stairs.
When Ernie shuffled into the middle of the hallway, he stopped, frowned his aging face and grumbled.
“All that fuckin’ running around, Cherie.
You like me chasing you. Only for you to get a boyfriend that thinks his job is raising my son?
What did I do to you? I never hit you. I never… ”
Erys watched his father talk to nothing but whatever he remembered floored him. Ernie took a slow seat and covered his mouth.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Cherie,” Ernie’s voice broke.
“I wasn’t myself. I-I was…on the powder bad.
I didn’t mean to hit you, I-. Fuck. I hit you.
I- Cherie, baby, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry. Just come home. So I can make it right.
Things aren’t the same without you. I can’t fucking form a thought or think straight.
Every day without you, I’m dying. I’m dying, Cherie.
I can’t go until I see my boy. Just let me see him and make sure he turns out to be something. Please. Baby, I’m so sorry.”
Watching Ernie cry cracked the rest of the hardened piece of his heart that he wouldn’t let Ernie in. He didn’t stop him, he didn’t move, he just let Ernie get it all out.
“You loved me so good, even battling your own demons. How you could love a Trae Way pimp with nothing else to offer you is more than I’ll know.
Because you loved me, I couldn’t do anything but love you the only way I knew how.
I wanted to be better for you. I wanted to change for you…
then you left me. Who was I supposed to be better for?
Our boy? I tried and he hates me. And if I were him, I’d hate me too.
I know you’re not coming back. I know. Just know that you nurtured the good in him and starve out the parts of him that are like me.
I’m going to let you go. But if you come back, I’ll know…
I’ll know there’s still a chance to fix what I broke. ”
Ernie wiped his face, stood, and trekked into his room and closed the door.
Erys wiped a set of tears of his own and blew a heavy breath out.
“Aight, ma, if you’re coming to get him, wait until my kid gets here.
He needs that. He needs to see me in whatever way he remembers me.
He needs to know I made something of myself. ”