A Thug's Wife (Full Length Novel) (28 page)

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Marco ran up the stairs to Rakwon’s house two at a time. His whole body was soaked from the rain, and he couldn’t wait to shower and get into some dry clothes. As he hit the last step at the very top, he noticed someone sitting by Rakwon’s door with their head down. He reached for his heat, but brought his hands back to the front when he noticed who it was.

             
“Fuck is you doing here?” Marco asked Cherie as he removed his keys from his pocket.

             
“I need to talk to you, Marco,” Cherie stood to her feet and removed her hoodie from her head.

             
“For what? I’m just a broke ass nigga.”

             
Cherie sighed.

             
“What you didn’t think Sym was gonna let me know what you said about me?”

             
“I said it out of anger, Marco. I don’t think that about you. I was just stressed out, and I took my anger out on everyone that didn’t deserve it.”

             
“Is that an apology?”

             
“I’m sorry, Marco. I really am.”

             
“Man, Sym told me all about you though Cherie and I gotta say that I’m not impressed ma’. I thought you were cute, and I was rocking with you for a minute but you really showed out on me. I just ain’t fuckin’ with it. I usually run from your type; you feel me?”

             
“What’s my type, Marco? Wasn’t you the one getting on me about stereotype shit?”

             
“Yea, I was getting on you about prejudging me when you didn’t even fuckin’ know me, but I know who you are and what you all about.”

             
“What am I all about, Marco?” she asked. She stepped in front of him and made him look her in the face. Tears welled up in her eyes and this time they were real unlike the tears that she forced out when she was with Kareem just this morning.

             
“Hell nah, gone out with them tears ma’. Don’t try to play me with that shit.”

             
“Marco these are real tears. My life is so fucked up, and it’s all because of my mama. She made me like this. I don’t know who else to be, but this woman she turned me into,” Cherie was using the same excuse with Marco that she used with Kareem.

             
Marco sighed, “Well you need to take your ass somewhere and figure out how to be the woman you need to be and get the hell away from me.”

             
“I’m pregnant Marco,” Cherie lied and instantly regretted saying it the minute she let it leave her lips. She had Kareem back; she didn’t need Marco, but she wanted him. She didn’t want him to be with another woman and make them feel the way that she felt should only be meant for her. The selfish part of her wanted her cake and to eat it too. She would be with Kareem and string Marco along on the side until she figured out just what she wanted to do.

             
“When did you find this out?” Marco asked.

             
“This morning. I been thinking about getting an abortion all day, but I figured it was best that I at least talked with you before making that decision. That’s why I went off on Sym, I didn’t mean none of that shit I said. My mood swings have been crazy and I can see why”

             
“It’s my baby?”

             
“Yes it’s your baby, Marco. Who else’s baby would it be?”

             
Marco pulled Cherie toward him and covered her lips with his. He then wrapped his arms around Cherie, squeezing her tightly into a hug. He kissed on her neck and then her ear.

             
“I want the opportunity to take care of my seed. I’m not that type of nigga to run from my responsibility,” Marco sincerely told her.

             
“I want to give you that chance. I remember what you said before about you would be with your baby mama-you would make the mother of your child your wife. That’s what I want. I want us to be together.”

             
Marco nodded feeling all kind of ways right now. This was news that he had least expected to hear, and he didn’t know how to take it. Part of him wanted to push Cherie away and tell her that he would be there for their child, but he wouldn’t be there for her gold digging ass. The other part of him wanted exactly what she wanted. He groped Cherie’s ass into his hands and led her inside of Rakwon’s empty apartment. The two of them kissed until they made it to the spare bedroom that Marco used whenever he felt like it. He closed the door to the room and locked it, and then quickly removed his shirt revealing his tight abs.

             
Cherie placed her hands onto Marco’s chest and then looked up into his eyes. This thug just did it for her. No Ivy League nigga could make her feel the way that Marco made her feel. Never in a million years had she thought she would be feeling this way for any man, but Marco made her realize what true love really was. She thought that she knew when Kareem had broken up, but she had no idea. Marco made her heart skip a beat and speed up all in one setting. There was no way she could let him go-this feeling go. It just felt too good to lose. She had to figure out a way to hang on to Kareem to make her mama happy and then hang on to Marco to make herself happy.

Chapter 27: Family Tree

A few months later…..

“I gotta tell you that you have made me a very proud man,” Andres said to Quasym as he lined his pool stick with the ball in the center of the table.

              “You have made me a very rich man. In a short amount of time at that. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you, Andres for real. You took a chance on me when my own people didn’t want to.”

             
“Well, like I told you, I chose you and I knew that you would be something. You are going to be far greater than you are now. This is only the beginning.”

             
Andres surveyed the balls on the table wondering if he wanted to make his next move or not. Each time he thought about going for the yellow ball that was closest to the corner pocket he changed his mind and thought about going for a green and blue ball, getting two in at once.

             
“Yea, about that. We never really got a chance to talk about that. You told me a while back that you chose me, but you said you would explain. Why did you choose me? What made you pick me out of all the hungry muthafuckas out there?”

             
“Because all the hungry motherfuckers out there don’t share the same blood as I do.”

             
Quasym damn near choked on his drink. He placed his cup down on the edge of the pool table and allowed his stick to fall to the floor. He looked at Andres for some indication that he was joking, but when one never came, he backed himself against the wall and stared at him wearily.

He started to look at Andres a little differently-no-way differently than he h
ad before. He looked for something in his face that he would recognize besides the man that he’d grown to know over time. He didn’t see anything that explained what Andres was talking about.

             
“I knew that being you and I had the same blood running through our veins that you would amount to nothing, but greatness and I wasn’t wrong. My father-our father is a great man and he didn’t produce anything less than what he was.”

             
“I’m confused as hell right now. I need to step outside and get my mind right,” Quasym snatched his glass from the table and rushed out of Andres’ game room. He found his way to the back of the house and exited out of the back door. He pulled the piece of the blunt that he had sitting behind his ear and reached into his pocket for a lighter.

He fired up the Kush and inhaled the strong smoke into his lungs. He wanted to leave, not knowing where the fuck Andres was going with this conversation. Quasym didn’t know his father and was made to believe that his father was killed by the Venezuelan
police like his mama always told him. He always knew it sounded crazy, but it was what it was. He never looked for the man or any info on him, feeling as if his father wanted to know him, then he would make the effort to find him.

             
“His name is Franco Botticelli. He and my mother have been together since they were teens and when they got married that’s when my father got into the drug business. He had a lot of success over in Venezuela and decided to expand his business to the states. He started to see more money than he ever had and quickly his empire triumphed any that ever existed.

He and my mother had me six years into their marriage, about five years later they

got pregnant with my little sister, Giselle. While she was pregnant with Giselle that’s when he started dating your mother, Beverly. They were seeing each other on and off for years before she got pregnant with you. I had to be six or seven at the time and I remember my parents having all these problems, but didn’t really know what the cause of their problems were.

Apparently he cut your mom off because he was too embarrassed that he’d gotten a black woman pregnant. He never told anyone about you or her. From what he told me, he really loved her, but knew that his family would shun him for dating
someone like her,” Andres explained as he stepped beside Quasym.

             
“So he just left my mother and me to struggle?”

             
“Unfortunately yes. He kept you a secret from everyone until just last year.”

             
“So he isn’t dead? He didn’t get shot by the Venezuelan police?”

             
Andres cleared his throat, “There was a time he’d gotten shot by the Venezuelan police. It was a family vacation. He took us to see my grandfather and grandmother and hang out with the rest of our family. He and my uncle got into some mess out there and there was a shootout. He was shot in the arm, but it was a simple flesh wound.”

             
“Wow,” Quasym sighed. He took a pull off of the weed as everything that Andres told him began to set in. To say that he was in shock would be purely an understatement. His mother had told him part of the truth, and he figured that maybe she had lied to him to keep from hurting him. His father had wanted nothing to do with him and was solely because the color of his skin. At least he knew now what his makeup truly was. He always wondered, and now he knew. “Man I gotta go. I wasn’t expecting to come here for this.”

             
“He wants to meet you Quasym. He doesn’t have much time left and wants to see you before he leaves this world.”

             
“I’ll think about it,” Quasym shot over his shoulder as he walked away.

             
“Please Quasym. He wants to explain everything to you himself. Please think about it and do so as soon as possible. There isn’t much time.”

             
Quasym brushed Andres off as he headed to his car. He pulled his keys from his pocket and popped the locks on his brand new Challenger. He hopped inside, started the engine, and raced out of the driveway.

Chapter 28: Positive

Early the next morning,
Yessenia, ran a cold towel over her face and then stared at her pale skin in the mirror. She took another look at the positive pregnancy test that sat on the edge of the counter and shook her head. She was pregnant. It was what she’d always wanted; it was what she had prayed for. It finally happened, but Yessenia wasn’t happy about it.

             
Sadly, she shook her head and grabbed the pregnancy test from the counter. She wrapped it in some tissues and exited the bathroom. She dropped the test down in her purse and then slipped her shoes onto her feet. She stepped out of her bedroom and walked down the stairs of her home, slowly gliding down each step careful not to allow her queasiness to allow her to fall.

             
As she made her way toward her kitchen to prepare breakfast, she thought about her life and how things had changed for Devon and her over the past few months. For starters, they were in her dream home-the home she’d had her eyes on for the longest, the home that Devon promised that he would get for her. She loved every inch of that house and spent countless hours throughout the day decorating and making it as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do. For two and a half months after they first moved in, she had been on house arrest due to the drug charges she picked up when she was busted in Quasym’s trap house. 

             
She no longer had her job at the beauty shop she once worked at it due to her chasing behind Devon’s lying ass. She was now a criminal with a record, and although it seemed bad, it wasn’t all bad. Devon had given her the money to have her own shop built and she’d already started the process up. She would be in her own place, with her own clientele and making her own money that she didn’t have to give most of it up. She was happy about that. She lost her job but gained her own business in the process.