New Orleans, Louisiana
March 1
Onika

"Lay down Onika, I have to go." Bey tried laying me down but I whined, holding onto her still.

"Please don't leave me. If you leave, I won't be able to go to sleep. I'll just be up."

"Onika, I have to go." She held me by my back. She just wanted me to lay down and go to sleep but tonight, I wasn't going for it. She'd been leaving me every night for awhile now and I just wanted her in bed next to me when I wake up the next morning.

"You don't have to go, you just want to."

"I don't want none of this to happen, I don't want to leave you but I have to. I have to do this now so we don't have to worry about it later."

"But I miss you so much."

"Are you about to cry?"

"Yes I am. I don't want you to leave me."

She wrapped her arms around me and I laid back on the bed, holding her face. Her leaving me was a lot for me, especially since I was so used to sleeping with her.

I hoped she would stay with me and she did. When I woke up the next morning, she wasn't in bed with me. I figured.

I wondered why Luxe wasn't crying so I went to her crib and she looked all happy, laying on her back, chewing on her fist.

The note by her crib said 'I already fed her, changed her, and bathed her. She's happy. Cavalli is downstairs watching cartoons if she hasn't woken you up yet.'

I picked her up out of her crib, patting her back. "Your Momma left me here by myself like I wouldn't notice it? She gon' get a mouthful the moment she gets back."

I walked downstairs and Cavalli had Boujie laying on her back on the couch and they were watching Spongebob. This little girl loves this damn show.

"Cavalli, how long you been up?" I asked her, sitting on the couch by her.

"Since Momma left. She told me not to wake you up."

But she doesn't listen which is why Bey wrote that on the paper. "Where did she tell you she was going?"

"I don't know, she didn't tell me."

I called her phone and was so relieved when she answered right before it went to voicemail.

"Beyoncé what took you so long to answer this phone?" I asked.

"I was doing something, handling business which is what I'm here for in the first place. How are my babies?"

"They're fine, how you left them." I rolled my eyes.

"Mami you sound mad."

"I'm just stressed out."

"When I get home, I'll do whatever you want me to."

"Like stay?"

"When all this shit is over, yes."

"When you coming home or whatever the fuck you wanna call this?"

"Stop cursing in front of my children and I'm coming home at three or maybe later. Me and the guys have some stuff to get together. How's Taylor doing?"

"Won't come out of his room still."

"And where's Makayla?"

"In there with him."

"I'd say I want you to take them out but I don't want you going anywhere."

"Baby I'm safe, I'm in an entirely different state, we'll be okay if I take them out."

"Now you jinxed it. Y'all not going nowhere, not even for food now."

"So what are we supposed to do for food then?"

"The house is stocked and if that starts to run low, which it shouldn't for some time, you write a list and I'll get you everything you need."

I sighed. "I'm tired of being up in this house."

"It would be a different story if you were getting fucked."

"Yeah it really would." I agreed. "Your chunky daughter is chewing my hair."

"Se-" Joseph started talking and she hung up the phone. Seconds later, she texted me 'I need to pay attention rn. Love you.'

Beyoncé

"Stop letting your fiance hang out with people period. All of those bitches are fake and phony." Joseph said.

"What you saying?" I sat on the arm of the couch in our old house. We came here because we didn't need whoever was fucking with us to know that I moved my woman and my kids out of town. We needed to make our moves in silence.

"I'm saying that business bitch Jada was right along with Meagan. We just don't know who the last person was."

"How do you know it was Jada?" I asked him.

"For one, all signs point to her. She was the one having an affair and she would do anything for Meagan. Also when Meagan's father and I were having a conversation, he fucked up and he mentioned her name, not knowing that I was looking for more accomplices."

"You told him about what happened to Ken?"

"No, I told him hat sometimes the police don't show up to certain things and he started spilling the beans about everything that happened to Ken. I didn't even ask him anything about that. He just started running his fucking mouth. Family is definitely the wrong way to go if you wanna commit a crime."

"Okay so what role did she play in this?" I sat up. "I assume since she is the best businesswoman, she's smart as fuck too. She has to be the one that shut out those cameras." I said.

Bishop came into the living room with a cup of apple juice in hand. "Yup, Meagan not that smart and with the way y'all said things were planned out, it was Meagan, Jada, and a killer. Whoever the killer was, he knew each and every last one of us in this room."

"That doesn't make sense." DeQuan said.

"Yeah it does. This has only just started happening to Taylor, Bey, and Joseph. For me, you, and Tiny, little hints have been popping up and we haven't taken the seriously because we're street niggas, that's how we grew up. We knew there was always gonna be somebody that wants our spot even when we don't. We're out but they want us in so they can take us out. Y'all get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah." I nodded my head. "They want all of us. This is bigger than us."

"Like Genie real?" Tiny asked.

I looked over at him. "He's dead."

"But he got kids and he got a lot of 'em. They could be trying to avenge his death the same way Onika's sister and mother did. That nigga Genie gets around."

"Alright so you think Genie's kids did this but Genie's kids weren't in that car." I said.

"So what? It's a planned execution. One that was very well thought out."

"Not enough." I gritted my teeth. At this point, I wanted revenge and I wanted them to die. Whoever they were and if they were Genie's children, I wanted each and every one of them to be executed the way they tried executing the woman my fiance called her best friend.

"Bey you starting to sound like the old you."

"You damn right, I'm gonna kill those bitches. As soon as we figured out who fired the gun, I'm gonna kill them."

"Onika made me promise that I would keep you safe, make you be careful." Joseph said.

"Me too." Everyone else followed suit.

Goddamn, my wife gets around fast.

"I am being careful but the things that need to get done will get done." I said. "We need to figure out who's the shooter."

Everyone looked at me and I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"

"Your fiancé is really good at shit like this."

"No. We're not putting my fiancé in the middle of this shit. I won't risk them getting hurt."

"She doesn't even have to be here. Just put her on the phone."

I stared around the room and they pleaded with me with their eyes. This is the only thing I hated about Onika. She was good at everything and everyone knew it.

I called her and when she answered, she yelled.

"What the hell happened?"

"I almost stepped on this fat ass dog. What you want?"

"We want you to figure something out!" DeQuan yelled.

"Oh my God, I kicked you in the dick."

"That's not what this is about Onika."

"What's it about?"

"The last puzzle piece. We figured that there were three people in the car. Jada, Meagan, and who else?"

"Jada?"

"Told you those hoes were messy." I shook my head.

She seemed out of it. "What are the uhm... the categories?"

"Well Jada's the smart one, she knocked out the cameras as the shots rang off and Meagan called the hospital who was actually her father. In all reality, she told him not to come."

"So that leaves the shooter."

"Yes."

"Okay so the shooting happened right after people started to find out that Taylor was out the game for good. Maybe someone that wanted his spot or him back in it so they can take it from him? Who could that be though?"

"Wait, Taylor said they didn't want him dead. They had a clean shot but didn't touch him, nor did they touch Makayla. They wanna break him down. Kill him on the inside."

"That disqualifies all of Genie's children. They want blood or nothing so it's definitely not them."

"Who knew Kennedy, me, Taylor, and had a sight into y'all world?

"Gabbie."
_______