Chapter 10 #2
She was laughing and looked extremely content and happy. Across from her was a man that looked clean-cut and confident. He looked like a blue-collar worker, and the kind of man who looked comfortable anywhere he went.
I didn't know his name, not yet but I knew exactly who he was.
From the way he looked at her and the way she was looking back at him made it very obvious.
They were in love and the realization of that should've made me feel relieved and happy for her. But instead, something very uncomfortable settled in my chest. It wasn’t jealousy because being and falling in love was never something that I was open it.
It was actually something way worse, it was perspective.
For the first time since Noa arrived I wasn’t just looking at Celeste and Isaiah Sinclair's daughter.
I wasn't looking at a mystery, and I was looking at a woman with an actual life.
A woman that had a future and someone in her life that was waiting for her outside of Magnolia Graves once she was finished here.
She had someone worth leaving and going back to.
I wanted to be okay with that, but this feeling that was pulling in my spirit pulled me away from feeling content.
Noa smiled as she gazed into his eyes and it reminded me so much of Celeste that I had to look away.
Before she saw me, I turned away and instead of staying and eating there, I ordered my food to go.
While I waited for them to prepare it, I stared at them both from a distance and once my food was ready, I immediately took it and left.
I tried to enjoy my dinner, but I couldn’t get Noa out of my head.
Never the one to desire a relationship I shouldn’t have been bothered by seeing her interact with her guy friend but in a small way I was.
I had this yearning to want to protect her in ways that I knew he never could, and I didn’t need to know shit about him to know that.
I felt she should’ve known about her parents if nothing else, yet she had someone in her life already that she thought could play that position.
I debated whether I wanted to head out to the marsh or not. Part of me needed to, but a part of me just wanted to be alone. Since my main house was located on the Dubois Hill Estates, I headed there to eat and to clear my mind. I felt like I now needed to pivot from my original plan.
Just as I stepped out of the shower my doorbell rang.
This was what annoyed me most about staying on the hill and why I preferred to be out at the marsh.
No one knew about the marsh, and I didn’t have to ever worry about unexpected guests while I was there.
I just didn’t frequent there routinely because I didn’t want anyone to ever find out about the marsh nor follow me there.
It was my safe haven, my private sanctuary and home away from home.
Magnolia Graves was a small town and even though many people didn’t try me, I didn’t put shit past anyone, especially my nosey ass family.
They were more of my concern than the folks within the town cause the regular folk knew never to try me.
“Ezekiel, open this damn door up nah! I know yo ass is home.”
I took my time drying off and sliding into a pair of dark grey Luxome lounge pants.
As I headed down the stairs to the main floor, I could hear my uncle’s voice booming from the other side of the front door.
He was knocking and ringing the doorbell like the police were after him and it had me seeing red.
I tried to respect my elders, but I didn’t give it when it wasn’t being shown first no matter who it was.
Not anymore and especially now that I was an adult.
My elders couldn’t control me as they once had…
yet that was something they were still having a hard time understanding.
Making it to the door, I snatched it open just as Bishop was about to knock again. My irritation was so high I had to keep reminding myself of his age to keep from putting hands on him.
“Damn it, nigga! Fuck took you so long!” Bishop Dubois ranted as he stepped inside of my home uninvited.
When I saw that Solomon was with him, I knew shit was about to go left. The look Solomon was toting confirmed they were here unwelcomed just to rattle my nerves. Neither one of them not open to understanding today wasn’t the day.
“Watch your tone in my home, unc.”
“Excuse me?!” When Bishop turned and looked at me, I could not only smell the alcohol, but I could tell he was drunk. “You wouldn’t have none of this shit if it wasn’t for me and your father boy! Remember that shit.”
He started to walk further into my house, but I stood in front of him blocking him from doing so.
I didn’t want them leaving the foyer because their visit wasn’t about to be a long one.
Solomon busted out laughing and being already mentally distracted, I started to let them both get the best of me.
But I’d become a master of self-control unless pushed too far.
“You and father did do a hellva lot of shit to get what we ALL have but don’t ever forget who helped yall along the way. If it weren’t for me, you and father both would be fucked.”
“Don’t act like you acted alone lil bro. I’ve always been and still is the mastermind behind the lives WE took. Don’t ever forget that. You might have the heart to play with the dead, but you ain’t no natural born killer. You soft bro-”
Solomon calling me soft instantly caused something to click inside of me.
My father used to call us soft when he’d beat on us and we’d cry as children.
Grabbing Solomon by his throat I picked him up off his feet, glaring into his eyes.
I rushed him up against the wall making sure to knock the back of his head against it as hard as I could.
“Loose him! Put him down gotdamn it!” Bishop hollered but his request was denied.
Solomon may have been the mastermind behind a lot of the ‘killings’ in this town, being that he was oldest that should’ve been expected but to call me soft was diabolical.
I held him up off the ground for a couple of minutes then let him go on my own accord.
When his feet touched the ground, he stumbled a bit and as soon as he stood up straight, I rocked his ass in the chest.
“Awww fuck! That wasn’t even necessary bro!” Soloman spat as he straightened his collar, trying to catch his breath.
Had he snatched me up like that my parents would’ve been preparing to bury his ass, but he knew better than to jump.
He enjoyed doing crooked shit and taking from others, me not so much.
I may have my messed up ways but I was forced as a child to partake in a lot of shit I didn’t want anything to do with.
“Who soft now, big bro?” I snarled as I mugged him ready to rock his ass again.
“That wasn’t even called for,” Bishop smirked.
“Coming into my house uninvited and insulting me wasn’t either. Fuck do yall want?”
“I was just trying to say you letting lil Ms. Sinclair get away with too much.” Solomon spat as I turned back toward him. “We been following her moves on the town’s eye and she’s been getting way too comfy.”
“She needs to know her place… and I’m here to give you the opportunity to tell her such.” Bishop slurred.
Bishop and Solomon both had a fascination with following people on the town’s eye. I had access to it also, monitoring people through the emblems placed throughout the town, all the Dubois did, but Bishop, my father and Solomon took it to another level.
“Both of yall done had enough to drink…It’s best yall leave…I’d hate to have to put you out.”
“The fuck you just say!? Just who the fuck you think you talking too boy! I may not be yo daddy, but I damn sho’ got more heart than your brother. I might be up in age, but you not bout to snatch me the hell up! I’ll whoop yo muthafuckin’ ass like yo daddy used too.”