Thirty four

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

I'm sorry this took so long. Life is interesting...
_________________________________

Kareem

"Another question. How many people have you killed?"

"None."

"You can't be serious. I won't believe it."

"I am, though. That's another reason why this life ain't for me. Even though my attitude is pretty fucked up, and I can get hella unruly, I've never had enough courage to kill anybody.

"Each time that I've come close, I always thought Is going to hell really worth street credibility? The thought of killing somebody makes me extremely uncomfortable.

"I guess it's my negotiation techniques and demeanor that has gotten me this far. "

Victoria sat in awe. This was something unusual that she'd never ever heard of in her life. It was rather intriguing, however.

"You ever thought about getting out?"

Since the night I killed James, my mind would constantly revert back to me and Victoria's conversation.

That entire day and the one before was a hot ass mess. I had to beat the hell out of one of my best friends because he disrespected my woman, and then I went all Tyler Perry on my cousin for the same reason. However, when the two of us were laying in the bed, cuddling and shit, I knew Victoria was the woman for me and that no woman would ever come close to connecting with me like she had.

At that moment I was already beginning to think up a plan to get my life right for her and Kai. I had dreams about sleeping peacefully at night, not having a price on my head, being able to relax because I wasn't traveling to meet with connects.

I used to think that the money, clothes, houses, and cars as the American Dream, but life proved me wrong. Yeah, it's comforting to know that you can have anything that you want at the snap of a finger.

But what's the price?

It's more than a few hundred dollars here and there and some lost sleep. Any day my life, or the life of one of my family members could've been take away because I wanted to live the fast life. I never even thought that I would be as big in the drug world as I became, but it happened.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been concerned about my daughter's safety and wellbeing. I continued my personal demise because I was already a product of the streets and also because I felt proud of the fact that I could keep Kai and my people looking nice without working a nine to five.

However Victoria changed my whole mindset. Growing up, I was not involved with the church. I only went a few times with my grandmother and another few when one of my homies was shot down.

She invited me to church with her and I immediately knew that she was a good, God fearing woman with good head on her shoulders. Victoria didn't judge me, either, so that just pulled me closer to her.

Then when I found out about what she went through in her past, I couldn't help but wanna be the man that took the time out to put every piece of her heart back where it belonged.

From the beginning we knew that her religion and the fast life that I lived would never be able to exist correspondingly in our relationship. Unfortunately we were selfish.

I promised my younger self that I would never kill anybody. I promised my present self that I was gonna walk away from the streets in order to guarantee my family safety and tranquility.

Unfortunately I killed James to save the love of my life. Unfortunately I'm in too deep. And unfortunately my conscience forced me to walk away from one of the best things that every happened to me because I know that I, a murderer, would just be a blockage between her and God.

It's fucked up, but I love Victoria too much to be the cause of her downfall.




*




I watched intently as Kai's coach guided her through her back-handspring and then she did it on her own, almost landing perfectly but she stumbled. Kai smacked her lips before prepping and then doing it again perfectly. I'm sure she was satisfied because she'd been practicing for about a week and a half.

Shaking my head, I got the Gatorade from the side of her duffle bag as she walked off the mats with a smile on her face. Sometimes I felt that she was too young to be such a perfectionist but she got it honest.

Kai walked over to one of her friends that was also a classmate of hers and they hugged before talking about whatever.

As I was walking down the bleachers, one of the coaches met me at the bottom, grinning like it was going out of style.

"I've noticed that her back-handsprings are getting much better.

"They better be. All that jumping around and huffing and puffing she be doing," I replied, referring to how Kai is always moving around and constantly trying to perfect her movements.

The coach laughed like I said the funniest shit ever and I scratched my head, wondering why she was talking to me. Kai had been at that gym for almost three years and she had never stepped to me, so I was confused about her motives. However, even if she would've approached me earlier, I still wouldn't have been interested.

She built like a light pole and I got big hands. That's not a good combination.

"Are you busy tomorrow night," she questioned, batting her eyes lashes at me. I saw Kai stop smiling with her friend and look over her shoulder with her eyebrow raised, most likely wondering what the hell was going on.

Me too.

"I am, actually," I replied, resisting the urge to say something rude. I was paying the trainers at the gym to train my overactive daughter, not to be my friend.

She pulled a business card out if the pocket of the team jacket and extended her hand to me, "Well if you-"

"Don't be silly, Coach Carr," Kai's slick ass laughed, coming out of nowhere with that infamous smirk on her face. "My mommy already has your number."

Kai grinned before grabbing my hand and leading me out the gym.

"Now why did you do that, Kai," I asked as I made sure she was in the car, while trying to hide my amusement.

Kai buckled her seatbelt across her booster seat before catching my eyes through the rear he's mirror. "You have Miss V. And I heard Coach Sam say she was a hoe."

"Don't say that," I spoke with bass in my voice, causing her to jump.

"Is that a bad word?"

"Yes it is, and you'll never be one. What you wanna eat," I inquired, putting the car in drive and pulling off.

"Subway."

"Subway? What happened to Popeyes?" Popeyes was honestly Kai's favorite fast food restaurant, Chick-fil-A following. Every time the two of us went there she got a kids meal chicken strips with Hawaiian Punch and blackened ranch.

"I gotta stay fit," she replied, flexing the little bit of muscles that she had.

I sucked my teeth at her shenanigans, "Get out."

"Nah, you my driver," she stated. Kai pulled opened the compartment in the front of her booster seat and pulled out my Audemars sunglasses that I had been looking for, for a month. After placing them on her face, Kai leaned back in her seat with her hands behind her head and kicked her feet up.

My child...



*



"Daddy?"

Placing Victoria's sonogram pictures on the coffee table, I looked towards the stairs that's Kai was walking down and rubbing her eyes. The first thing I saw was her Doc McStuffins bonnet, then her disheveled pajamas, and finally the oversized Doc McStuffins slippers.

I'd been on the phone with my lawyer for a while, conversing about Kaseem's case, so I knew it was late. Checking the time on my phone, I saw that it was going on two in the morning. "Why are you up?

"I had a brazy dream," she stated, climbing into my lap as I sat lazily on the couch.

"A nightmare?"

"No a dream."

"Aight Martin Luther King, Jr."

"Ooh, we learned about Martha Lutha King, Jr. in class." Kai perked up and I knew she was about to go off topic if I didn't stop her.

"That's good, baby. What was your dream about?"

She tapped her chin a few times before speaking, "There was a wedding. It was so pretty. I saw a girl with pretty eyes and a big belly talking to to some twins. I saw you and Miss V and then everybody started shooting. The girl with the big belly was bleeding a lot."

My eyebrows furrowed at Kai's vivid description. It honestly scared the hell out of me that she was having dreams like that.

"That won't happen anytime soon, so don't worry."

"I know you'll protect me, dad," she nodded assuringly.

"That's my job," I responded. I turned my cheek in Kai's direction so that she could give me a kiss. After pecking my cheek, she wrapped her arms around me and laid in my chest.

"I miss uncle Seem," Kai announced after a short period of silence. She unwrapped one of her arms from around my neck and started wiping her face.

I bit my lip and pulled Kai further into my embrace, frustrated that all this shit was getting to my child. It would always spark some sort of concern in me to see her with anything other than a smile on her face. "Me too, Kai."

"I know you're sad too. But you don't wanna be weak. It's okay to cry, dad," Kai spoke through sniffling before hugging me impossibly tighter. Within less than a minute I could hear her light snores in my ear.

My eyes started to burn with tears and I swiped my nose in attempts to not let them fall, but it was too late.






Victoria

"Can I talk to you real quick?"

Layla looked shocked, but nodded before giving Kai her phone and following me through the half packed up shop and to my soon-to-be old office.

I sat behind my desk that was pretty much empty, wondering how to start the conversation that was long overdue. All I knew was that I was putting everything on the table and I wasn't kissing ass.

"You know, you came at me disrespectful too many times.

"I apologize for that, honestly. That was me not accepting the fact that I fucked up and taking it out on you." The tone of her voice was sincere but I wasn't letting my guard down and risking being blatantly disrespected again.

"And I apologize for slapping you but I'm not remorseful of the fact that I did it. Actually, I should've did more," I spoke truthfully.

Layla smirked at me, nodding her head as encouragement for me to continue.

"I'm not here to be your friend. But we do need to be on common grounds," I threw out and then took a sip of my third bottle of water of the day.

"For what," she questioned, furrowing her eyebrows and sitting up in her seat. I wasn't surprised that she couldn't already tell that I was pregnant. Kareem was still holding the weight and if there was any weight gain on my end, it was covered up by the fact that majority of my wardrobe throughout my life was black.

"I'm pregnant with twins." I watched as her face dropped and then she tried to conceal her hurt, letting me know that she did have hope for her and Kareem's relationship.

Interesting.

I wasn't trying to be malicious by telling her that I was pregnant. I simply don't want my children and their sibling to only be around each other whenever they were all at Kareem's house. They needed to be close because siblings are all that they have in this world when three of us leave the earth.

"Congrats," she said through a tight lipped smile. I shrugged, inwardly. I wasn't even gonna entertain her bullshit anymore.

"I'm hungry," Kai announced, busting through the closed door. The two of us stood, preparing to exit.

"Guess what, Kai," Layla said cheerfully, grabbing her phone from Kai's hands.

"Chicken butt?!" She laughed loudly but then stopped when she realized nobody was laughing along.

"You're gonna be a big sister."

"You having a baby," she questioned Layla, her eyes wide.

"No, Miss V is. You're gonna have two babies to help with."

Kai ran over and grabbed my hand, leading me through the shop and out the front door to the Parking lot. "Ooh. You can name them Kai 2 and Kai 3..."

I smiled, listening to all the cute and interesting names that Kai was throwing at me. If was a relief to know that she was excited about the babies even though they weren't conceived between her two parents. Although I wasn't in a relationship with Kareem anymore, life has to go on.

I've always been and will always continue to be Victoria.


____________________________________

Y'all gotta stop being so hard on Kareem. He has his reasons.

No, this is not the end. But did y'all catch that foreshadow?👀

Leave feedback.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net