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thatssonanii · 6 months ago

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Chapter Sixteen

A/N: I've written and started this chapter over so many times because it just wasn't flowing right but I finally got. They never have a happy chapter so this is it, minus one part lol. Reblog, Share, Comment and Like! That's the only way my writing gets seen by more and more is if you guys reblog and everything. Help me get my art out! FYI I CHANGED JAYDEN TO BRAYDEN!!

Warning: Cursing, Mentions of Death, implied smut EXCUSE ANY TYPOS, 18+ ONLY MINORS DNI

DO NOT POST MY WORK ANYWHERE ELSE AND/OR CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN!

Masterlist

Chapter Fifteen

As soon as the guys got Toni’s call, they rushed out of the performance center after clearing it with Shawn. Bronco followed Zilla to the apartment, both parking crooked in front of the complex. Toni met them at the door, a sad look on her face. They huddled in the living room, speaking quietly.

“What’s wrong? You said it was a emergency?” Zilla asked itching to get to his girlfriend.

“The little girl, Nia, she came back in. She was rushed into surgery but she didn’t make it. She cried all the way here,” Toni informed them, grabbing her bag, “She fell asleep not too long ago. I doubt she��ll get any sleep tonight.” The men cursed under their breath. “Yeah so I’ll stop by when I get off work to check on her. If you can, do not leave her by herself.”

He nodded, giving her a quick hug. “I got you. Thank you fa bringin’ her home.”

She waved him off, throwing out a goodbye to him. Bronco and him had a quick, short conversation before he followed his girlfriend out the door.

Zilla made sure the door was locked and leaned his back against it, taking a few deep breaths to collect himself. Although he was thankful that she wasn’t hurt physically and nobody in her family was hurt, he hated that this is what was happening. The way she would talk about the little girl, how attached she had gotten since the little girl’s first visit and now she had passed away. Zilla knew and understood how big his girlfriend’s heart is so he knew how much this was affecting her.

Seeing her curled up in a ball on their bed broke his heart. He eased onto the bed carefully, trying not to wake her up and pulled her onto his chest. Moriah started to stir against him and lifted her head. Watery eyes met his.

“Zay,” she sobbed.

“I know, beautiful. I know that shit hurtin’ you bad but I got you. I ain’t goin nowhere.” He assured wrapping her in his arms tighter. “Get it out, baby.”

She cried for a few minutes before pulling herself together enough to talk to him. “She was doing so good and then I guess her body couldn’t take it. All he needed was three more minutes. Just three.” Zilla hummed softly, letting her know that he was listening. “It just happened so … freaking fast, Zay. One minute she was okay, the next she was … she was,” Moriah paused unable to bring herself to say the word.

He kissed her head and her face as she cried softly. “I got you.”

“And when we went to tell her parents, the scream her mama let out … I’ve never heard anything like it, Zay.” She admitted softly. “Her scream is still echoing in my head, I’ll never be able to get that out of my head. And I tried to console her but she just pushed me away. She looked at me like I did it.”

He sighed. “She know you didn’t do it but she was in shock, Fat. Don’t let that bother you, aight? That’s that grief.”

“I just … Nia is … was so full of life. She was energetic, she was happy and now she’s gone.” Moriah spoke sadly. “That was my first and it was a little girl.”

He rocked her gently trying to soothe her. “It sucks, bae and I don’t know what I can do to fix that and make it hurt less. But I got something you can think about that might make you feel better when you get sad.”

“What?”

“Nia not here no more but she up there in them clouds with Pops and Angel. And you know they takin good care fo her.” He smiled seeing her smile a bit. “Angel know all spots for the lil ones and he gon take her to em.”

After another couple hours, Moriah went back to sleep. Zilla waited until he was sure she was in a deep sleep before getting up. Going out to their living room, Zilla flopped on the sofa with his phone to his ear.

“What’s up, nephew?”

“What’s good, Auntie Kami?” He greeted her in a soft tone. “You busy?”

“Nope, I’m on break. What’s up? Why are we whispering?” She asked, laughing.

He chuckled, leaning back against the sofa. “Rye in there sleep, ion wanna wake her up. I need a favor if you don’t mind.”

Kamille took a moment to turn her music down before responding. “You know I don’t mind doing anything for you two, Zay. What’s up?”

“I uh,” he paused to make sure he didn’t hear his girlfriend getting up. “Fat had a ill girl die on her today and she not handlin’ it well. Can you make sure you check on her when you can?”

“My baby,” she cooed. “Of course, Zay. I can take time off and come there if she needs me.”

“Not right now but I’ll let you know. I think ima drive her up to Georgia to see her dad. I think that might help. What you think, Auntie?”

Kamilled laughed a bit. “Of course that would help.”

Anybody who knew Moriah and Hassan knew that their bond was something special to the two of them. Moriah had been a daddy’s girl since the first time she laid eyes on him in the delivery room. Throughout her life whenever she was going through something, needed advice or just wanted to chill Hassan was always there. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her and there was never anything any more important than his babygirl.

“Can I ask you something?” Zilla asked quietly.

“Shoot.”

“How is Nadine? I know Fat cut her off but it’s been too quiet. She never really listens to Fat anyway so it’s a little weird to not have her pop up in some way.” He explained further.

The older woman sighed on the other end of the phone. “Nadine is still Nadine. The reason you haven’t heard anything from her is because Hassan is takin the heat off of you two.”

“What that mean?” He asked quickly.

“When you go see him, you ask him. I know he’ll tell you.” She responded quickly. “I gotta go back to work but you know you can call or text me if you need me.”

“Aight, Auntie. Zilla love you.”

“Auntie loves you too.” She laughed.

Getting off the phone with Kamille, Zilla went back to lay with his girlfriend. When he pulled her closer to him this time she didn’t stir or wake up, she just took her place on his chest. As she slept, he made plans in his head for their drive and what he would need to do.

That night as promised Toni and Bronco came back to the apartment to check on Moriah and brought Javi along. The five of them had dinner together, giving Moriah the support she needed without mentioning the elephant in the room. Afterwards, the boys went out to get dessert for them, leaving the ladies alone for a little while. They were sitting on the floor in front of the sofa drinking wine.

“Bronco told me that girl sent Zilla videos and tried to act like it was an accident.” Toni rolled her eyes taking a sip.

Moriah groaned, pulling her glass away from her lips. “Girl, Ima get pissed just thinking about it again cause what the hell was she thinking. She so lucky I like my job and my family out here cause if I didn’t I would’ve beat her ass already.”

“She need her ass beat, if you ask me. What did Zilla say to you about it?”

She rolled her eyes with a grimace. “He said that he would handle it, that a queen shouldn’t come off her throne to address anybody buuut I really don’t care about that. I wanna beat her ass. She keep inching further and further over the line like I won’t kick her frog eyed ass back over it.”

Glancing at the door, Toni slid a little closer to her and spoke softly as if somebody else could hear her.

“So you know how Dr. Miller had to go out of town for that funeral last week?” She paused, waiting for Moriah to nod. “I was scrolling on instagram and saw he had posted some family pictures and in the midst of looking through them, guess who I saw.”

“Frogger?” She answered immediately.

Toni laughed loudly, covering it with her hand. “Yes, Frogger. I did a little snooping and found out that Frogger is his little cousin. They don’t seem to be that close cause the other pictures he has of her are clearly at family functions.”

Moriah hummed, internalizing the information. “Oh really? You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Pump Dr. Miller for info next time we’re at work?”

“That part,” Moriah grinned. “So tomorrow we get em.”

Toni’s smile slightly faltered. “Don’t you think you should take tomorrow and try again on Thursday?”

“I promise I’m fine,” Moriah protested sitting her glass on the coffee table, “I don’t need to take any days off, T. I’ll be there tomorrow morning bright and early.”

Eyeing her friend, Toni rolled around the words she wanted to say to convince her to take the day. When she got back to the hospital, she went ahead and put Moriah off Wednesday and debated if she should do Thursday as well to give her a longer weekend to recuperate. Ultimately, she decided against it going with the one day.

“Just take the day, Rye. Please.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “I don’t need it.”

“About six months into my first year running Lakeland ED, I had a really good group of nurses working under me. But I had one favorite, Alicia.”

Moriah frowned. “You had a favorite before me? I don’t like it but continue.”

Both laugh,Toni pushed her shoulder playfully.

“Anyway, Alicia was pretty much my little second in command at the time like you are now. That girl was something,” she laughed. “Dr. Harris used to try to take her from me all the time. I think about her every day, I miss her smartass.”

“I never saw her on pediatrics with him so I’m assuming she’s at another hospital,” Moriah speculated.

Toni took a sip of her wine before answering. “Nope. One night there was a six car accident on the highway, there were some pretty bad injuries and some minor ones. She handled one of the minor ones with me and a doctor, it wasn’t major but it wasn’t minor. We thought the patient would be okay, they were talking and just needed a minor surgery to set a few things. Next thing we knew the patient had a heart attack.”

Moriah gasped. “Oh no. That’s awful.”

“Definitely. It happened so quick, we couldn’t get em back. The doctor told her to go home, that was her first but she fought him. I told her to go home, me and her fought for about two hours before I just let her have it but kept watch.”

“Soooo?” She asked.

Toni pinched her arm. “Impatient. A couple weeks passed and she was okay but I could tell something was bothering her so I pulled her to talk, she assured me that she was seeing a therapist so I let it go.” She paused to clear her throat and fight back tears. “She missed two shifts without calling in so I went to check on her since I had her spare key. I found her, I thought she was sleeping but she was so cold. There was a letter, she couldn’t get that night out of her head and she wished she’d taken time to deal with it.”

Moriah poked out her lip as tears fell. “I’m sorry, T. That’s … I’m sorry.”

The friends sat in an embrace, crying on each other's shoulders expelling their grief onto one another. Time would heal their wounds but in this moment Toni knew what an extra day would do for Moriah. It would be a lie for Moriah to say that she wasn’t still reliving the day’s events in her head over and over especially when it got too quiet but she didn’t want to be weak. She wanted to be strong like everybody thought she was.

Pulling away from the hug, Toni used her thumbs to wipe her friend’s tears away. “Rye, please take another day.”

“Okay, okay,” she conceded softly. “I’ll stay out tomorrow.”

“Good because I was gonna have to undo your PTO and that’s too much work.” Toni joked, making them laugh.

Being in Atlanta put a big smile on Moriah’s face the closer they got to Hassan’s house. Zilla let her sleep after her Friday shift to nap before their 3 am drive. He chose that so she would sleep most, if not all of the drive because he wanted to surprise her. She slept until the last thirty minutes, when she got her bearings Zilla saw that sparkle in her eyes again. He laughed seeing her bounce giddily in the passenger seat.

“You ain’t ever been this excited to see me, Fat.” He joked. “What I gotta do to get you that excited for me?”

She laughed, moving her attention from out the window to him. “Be my Daddy.”

“Shid, I’m already that, ain’t it?”

“Shut up,” she laughed harder, “Be Hassan DeBreaux and you knew that.”

He shrugged playfully. “Either way. You like your surprise?”

“I do. Thank you. How’d you know I been missing my Daddy?”

He snorted. “You always miss him, it ain’t a secret. You my Fat but you a Daddy’s girl before that. And I got you always but I figured having both of us would help you more.”

Moriah poked his cheek playfully. “My Zilla being sweet. I love you.”

“Only fa you, Fat. Zilla luh you too.”

When they got to the house, Moriah jumped out of the car and ran to the porch ringing the doorbell repeatedly. Zilla hung back a bit, getting their bags and her purse out of the backseat. As soos as Hassan opened the door, Moriah jumped into his arms excitedly squealing.

“Babygirl,” Hassan laughed as he held onto her, “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Neither did I. Zay surprised me. I missed you!” She squeezed him tight one more time before he put her down. “Did you miss me?”

“I always miss my babygirl and my son in law.”

“I said me, not hard head, Daddy.”

Zilla stepped on the porch, knocking into her playfully with his duffle bag. “I shoulda let you carry ya own stuff.”

“He’s my Daddy not yours, hard head.”

Hassan chuckled, stepping in before they could argue. He took Moriah’s bag from him. “Alright, alright. You know my babygirl is an only child so sometimes she doesn’t like to share, Zilla.”

“Oh I know she don’t know how to share. She don’t share food, drinks or me.” He laughed, stepping into the house behind her. “So I know she ain’t gon share you.”

Hassan and Zilla sat their bags near the stairs then went to the living room to sit, Moriah pushing her boyfriend out of the way when he tried to sit beside Hassan. Laughing, he went to sit in the love seat.

“Be nice, Rye, Zilla, you can come sit on the other side of me if you want.”

“Nah, I’m good. She gon beat me up later if I do,” he joked. “You need to talk to her about keepin her hands to herself and about bein mean to me.”

Moriah stared at him. “I’m no mean to you. Take it back.”

“See,” Zilla laughed. “Look at how she lookin at me. When you not lookin, she gon hit me, mane.”

“I’ll just hit you now then.” She sassed, reaching over.

He swatted her hands away laughing. “You can’t reach me anyway with them short ass arms. Stay over there, stubby.”

“Daddy! He called me stubby, get him.” She complained pointing at her boyfriend.

Hassan laughed, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He sat back, responding to a few messages. “Is this what the two of you put Lee through? I’m not playing referee, I will call Lee on you.”

“Dang you gon do us like that?” Zilla asked.

“Right. Just gon get us in trouble like that.” Moriah pouted. “That’s not nice.”

Looking up from his phone, Hassan looked between them chuckling to himself. “This is why I’m not playin referee with you. I say one thing you yall turn on me. Did yall surprise me to argue or did you just come to see me?”

Zilla glanced at his girlfriend then got up from his seat. “Ima take our stuff upstairs and check on Mama. Let yall talk.” He kissed her head before leaving the room, not giving her a chance to pull him back.

Sitting his phone aside, Hassan gave his daughter his undivided attention, noticing the tears in her eyes. His mind immediately went to the worst but he silently talked himself down. The tick tacking of Moriah’s nails hitting one another filled the momentary silence until Hassan reached out to take one of her hands.

“Hey, whatever is going on you know you can talk to me about it, kid.” He softly reassured her.

“You remember that surgery I helped out with?”

“The little girl, of course I remember. What about it?”

She took a deep breath to try to calm herself down. “She came back in a few days ago with complications. Did another surgery to fix it but,” she paused to wipe her face and take more breaths. “She didn’t make it, Daddy.”

With no hesitation, Hassan pulled his daughter closer and into his arms. He rocked her, letting her cry on his chest. The thought obviously crossed his mind that this would happen eventually and he wished there was some way he could prevent it from happening but he couldn’t. But he would always be there to catch her.

He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back soothingly. “Daddy is sorry that you have to deal with this. You know you did everything that you could to help her and the rest of it was in the Lord’s hands. He needed another angel. Just know she isn’t in any pain anymore.”

She nodded, finding solace in his arms. “She was so little. I just hate that we couldn’t save her.”

“The Lord saved her. He got her, kid. And think about this,” he paused to lean her back so she was looking at him. “She’s up there keeping Angel company. I’m sure he’s a little ladies man.”

Moriah laughed, wiping her face. “He better not be. He better be a good little angel.”

“Mmm, I know my grandson handsome like me so I dunno.” He joked.

She blew playfully sitting up a bit more. “Daddy, you just like Zay. He said the same thing. How’s my stepmom?”

“Stepmom?” He chuckled. “Tamara is alright. She asks about you all the time.”

“Give her my number, I don’t mind. Am I gonna get to see her while I’m here?”

He nodded, taking his phone back out. “I’ll send it to her. Yeah, I’m actually supposed to meet her kids tomorrow. You know she met your grandparents and auntie and everybody.”

“Yeah, you know Grandma called and told me about it. Sooo,” she drug out smiling. “Can me and Zay go too?”

“You don’t have to ask, you’re welcome anywhere I am.” He sat back against the sofa, stroking his beard. “Have you spoken to your mama?”

“Nope,” she answered quickly. “And I’m okay with that.”

“If it’s making you happier and causing less problems between you and Zay then I support it. I know dealin with her ain’t easy.”

“It’s not and with all the problems she’s already caused, I don’t need anymore, Daddy. I don’t want anymore.”

That evening after dinner, Hassan stepped out for a little while to visit Tamara leaving Moriah and Zilla alone. The couple made a pallet on the floor in the den, eating their dessert and watching a movie.

“You got the same ice cream that I got. Stay out my bowl, girl.”

Moriah reached her spoon back in his bowl. “But yours tastes better.”

“How?”

She shrugged, eating the ice cream she took from him. “Cause it’s yours. I like anything you have.”

He leaned over to kiss her, when he pulled away he noticed her spoon in his bowl. “Fat,” he laughed, “Mane, just take it. Here.”

Giggling, she took his bowl and gave him hers. He looked at her bowl then back up at her and shook his head. “You lucky I love yo ass,”

“Very lucky.” She winked. “Sometimes I think about what life would be like if you didn’t go to prison.” He nodded for her to go on. “And sometimes I think that we would have Angel and be happy still but sometimes … I think about it and I don’t know if we would be this happy.”

“I’m right there witchu. Sometimes I wanna think that we’d be happy, me, you and Angel and maybe another one but then … then I don’t think so. I’m like aight it’s two this would go.”

“Which are what?”

“One way is that I kept at that bad shit and you wouldn’t stick around. I know you woulda got tired of the constant trouble especially knowin we was havin a son. You wouldn’t want him to have me in and out his life with that trouble. It would drive us apart.” He shrugged quickly eating another spoon of ice cream. “The other way is that you would stay even though you know you should leave and you would accept all the shit I did and give up on what you wanted in life because you gotta raise Angel and step up while I was in and out. Angel would see that and think it was okay and wanna be just like me. And even though we’d still be together, you wouldn’t be you anymore. Either option, I lose you, you lose me and we lose each other.”

Serious conversations for Moriah and Zilla didn’t happen as often as other couples but when they did, each of them spoke openly and honestly. Moriah liked that he had grown to a point where he could put his thoughts into words without being flustered or embarrassed. Coming from where they came from as children, both of them had made much progress in sharing their feelings and thoughts.

“I … yeah, you’re right. It sounds kinda fucked up but you getting locked and us losing Angel was probably the best thing for us.” She admitted softly, sitting her bowl aside.

He thought it over for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, Fat, I think so too. I know I wouldn’t have changed if I was in and out, all that time gave me time to get myself together. I hate that I had to learn that away from everybody I loved but it needed to happen. You also needed me away so you could go to school and all that. You wouldn’t have went off to school if I was out.”

She chuckled a bit. “I would’ve made you come with me. Daddy would’ve gotten me an apartment or something so you could stay.”

He laughed loudly at that. “Ya spoiled ass. But that’s exactly why I ain’t need to be around. If I woulda went witchu your ass wouldnt’a graduated, Fat. I woulda known that from jump but I still woulda went if you asked me too.” He admitted lookin gin her eyes. “When you wanted to run away when we was like 12, I was packed and ready.”

“I remember that. But why would you do all that? Especially knowing it wouldn’t be a good ending.” She asked, tucking her legs under her.

He ate his last bit of ice cream so he could sit the bowl aside and give the rest of the small part of his attention that she didn’t have to her. “Fat, Ion think you understand how much I loved you back then or how much I love you now,” he admitted caressing her cheek. “I’a do anything you asked me to do if it made you happy or made you feel better. Nobody else, just you.”

Biting her lip, she tilted her head eyeing him with love in her eyes. Obviously she knows that Zilla loves her and she knows how much he loves her but hearing it from him warmed her heart. It gave her butterflies every single time.

“Kinda dangerous. No?” She asked teasingly to which he shrugged. “And what would Dr. Barnes say about that?”

“Don’t know but I’a ask em for you next session.” He laughed, leaning to kiss her cheek, “You talked to your mom?”

Moriah stared at him, “Hell no. You know I have clear boundaries and I’m no contact with her.”

“Just askin, Fat. You miss her?”

“I mean yeah, she’s my mom. It feels like I’m grieving for her but she’s still alive.” She huffed. “Are you mad at me for missing her?”

He shook his head. “Nah, Zilla wouldn’t be mad about that. The only thing that would make me mad is if you let her back in our lives without talking to me. I don’t want her back but everybody deserves a chance if they do the work.”

Moriah smiled wide at him, “Ooooh that therapy is working, Isayah! Listen to you. I’m so proud of you.”

He laughed, pushing her hands away from his face. “Chill. Dr. Barnes gon be happy to hear that though.”

“We gotta get him a gift or something,” she suggested excitedly.

Zilla stared at his girlfriend, happy to see her back to herself. Even if it’s for just this moment. No matter what happened, Moriah always had a giving heart. Zilla both loved and hated it because he didn’t want anyone to try to take advantage of her heart. But if it happened, he would take care of it.

“So uh at my last session, Dr. Barne gave me a list of like 4 fertility specialists we can pick from to go see. Or we can see em all. I mean if you want to, it’s all up to you.” He watched her shoulders slump slightly at the mention and a slight frown take over her smile. “Fat, we don’t gotta talk about it. My bad for bringin it up.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, no, I’m okay. It just caught me off guard. We can do that, Zay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she whispered, “I’m just a little scared that they can’t help us and if they can’t help us, I don’t wanna disappoint you and your family.”

It was his turn to frown. “Baby, hell nah. You ain’t gon disappoint me or our family. Don’t think none of that negative shit. Whatever happens we gon keep tryin till you wanna stop. Aight?” He waited for her to nod before he cracked a smile. “Somethin else I gotta tell you that me and Dr. Barnes talked about.”

“You know you can tell me whatever, babe.”

“I know it’s just … ion want you to take the shit the wrong way, aight? It ain’t nothing you did.” At his words, she frowned but told him to go on. “You know how you mentioned before that since we got rid of the condoms that we don’t have sex as much as we used to?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“I know I told you its cause I’m tired with everything starting to pick up for me but that ain’t it. And it ain’t that ion want to cause I do,” he admitted looking into her eyes, “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

He huffed, trying to get his words together without upsetting her. “Whenever we’re goin to or I think about it my shit just don’t work. It won’t get up.”

“So you’re turned off by me now?” She asked scooting away from him, slapping his hand away from her when he tried to pull her back. “Don’t touch me, Zay and answer me.”

“I ain’t turned off by you, Fat. I still think you beautiful, pretty, fine as fuck all that but when I think about not needing a condom and what your mama did, I get mad and it ruins everything. It’s not you, it’s what she did, Fat.”

On the verge of tears, Moriah thought back to all the moments where they were going to have sex or she planned on them having sex and he was either tired, always sleeping or came home after she was already sleeping. But then she thought of those moments where they would randomly have sex and that gave her pause.

“So what about in your backseat, on the sofa those few times and all the others?”

“I can explain that, Fat. You was catching me off guard getting mad as shit about stuff and my brian overlooked the other shit,” he spit out quickly. “Ima tell you like I told Dr. Barnes, that shit sound toxic as hell but you bein mad did some shit to me. Ion know. It was enough for my mind to blank that other shit out.”

She scoffed, folding her arms across her chest. “So me being mad turned you on but just me being me doesn’t?”

“Nah, nah, nah. That ain’t what I said. I’m tellin you that them times I wasn’t expectin you to get that mad so I didn’t have time to think about shit else but fuckin you. Them other times I knew what to expect so it gave my mind time to think about way too much. It ain’t you, Fat. I swear it ain’t. If it was you, I wouldn’t get up at all no matter what.”

“So you tellin me if I grabbed your dick right now, it won’t get hard?” She asked, squinting at him.

Feeling the anger radiated off of her, Zilla knew what would happen as soon as she touched him. Knowing that she was upset, what Nadine had done was far from his mind at the moment. If he was being honest with himself, she probably ain’t have to touch him for the shit to happen.

“If you grabbed my dick right now, it would get hard cause you pissed and I can see that shit. My brain short circuited like a muhfucker, Fat, knowing you pissed.” He admitted shamelessly. Seeing her eyes move from his face to his lap, told him she noticed it. “See? I told you, bae. I’m attracted you, the blood just don’t leave my head fast enough when you ain’t pissed.”

Blowing loudly, Moriah moved her stare to the ceiling for a moment then back to him. “Are you serious right now? I’ve been pissed all those other times and I’m pissed right now and all you can think about is fucking me? Seriously?”

He stared at her trying to concentrate. He heard every word she said but he couldn’t formulate a response. Feeling her push his shoulder, he shook his head trying once again to focus.

“Yeah, bae?”

“I’m talking to you! Stop thinkin about whatever you’re thinkin about and focus. Cause there is no way I’m fuckin you right now.” She fussed poking him in his chest. “You got some nerve!”

“Baby, shit,” he complained softly as he pulled her into his lap grinding himself into her, “I promise I hear you but I got just enough blood in this head up here to convince you to change your mind.” Staring at her for a moment, Zilla licked his lips noticing the flare in her nostrils and the fire in her eyes. He kissed her lips a few times then moved to her neck, still grinding against her.

“Zay … Zay,” she mumbled out, trying to push at his shoulders, “I’m still pissed at you and I wanna talk about this. I wanna talk about this right now.”

He bit down on her neck then pulled away to look at her. “And you know how to multi-task, Fat. So ride this dick and tell Zilla all your thoughts. Aight, beautiful?”

She moaned softly. “But I dunno when my daddy is gonna be back. I don’t want him to catch us.”

He kissed her lips again before standing with her in his arms. “Ain’t no problem, Fat. Zilla got you.”

A few hours later, Zilla had the overwhelming urge to pee so he carefully slid Moriah off his chest and onto his pillow then out of the bed. After taking care of his business, he pulled on his briefs and shirts to go downstairs for something to drink. Getting downstairs he found Hassan sitting at the island on his laptop with his back to him, bobbing his head to the music coming out of it.

“Rye was right, you do slide your feet when you walk.” Hassan spoke without turning around, making Zilla laugh a bit.

“Can’t help it,” he shrugged, grabbing a water from the fridge. “What you doin up this late?”

Hassan looked at the time on his screen. “It’s only 1am. I’m usually up this late when I’m workin on something. Surprised she let you get up, sleeping next to her is like sleeping with velcro.”

He took a long swig then laughed. “I learned how to maneuver her so now she don’t notice when I get up.”

“Smart man,” Hassan smiled and offered Zilla a seat next to him. “You and her didn’t fight anymore after I left, did you?”

“Nah, no fightin. We just talked. Why you ask?”

“I kept getting notifications about movement from my camera in the den. Since it wasn't a fight,” He slid his phone over, “Go to the blink app and delete whatever videos. I don’t wanna know. My phone password is Rye birthday.”

Zilla laughed doing what he was asked. “It wasn’t nothin bad, not all of it. We really was just talkin, you prolly don’t wanna hear the last part though.”

Hassan glanced at him with a smile on his face. “Didn’t I say I don’t wanna know? Just delete, son.”

“My bad, my bad.” He laughed as he deleted videos. “This is goin way better with you than it did that night Nadine was in the kitchen when I went downstairs.”

“Oh yeah? What happened?” He asked going back to his work on his computer.

Zilla finished deleting the last few videos before answering. “She was cryin, said she had just had a argument with you. She asked if me and Fat argued and if I put my hands on her, tryna like say that you did that to her. I know she was lyin.”

“She was but go on.”

“And then she offered to pay me to break up with Fat. Told me to name my price.”

“I wanna say that I’m surprised but I ain’t. I can assure you that this is not gonna go anything like that.”

“Shit, I know,” he admitted bringing his bottle back to his lips, “I was talkin to Auntie Kami the other day and asked her about Nadine, ya know about her being quiet and shit. She said you had takin the heat off us and to ask you what that meant.”

Hassan asked him to give him a few minutes to finish what he was working on. The younger man sat quietly watching the older man finish whatever design on his computer while he waited. When it was done Hassan saved his project then turned his attention to his guest.

“A little bit after the whole fall out I sent Gabi to see Nadine to check her temperature a little. And let me tell you, son, that shit was high as hell on yall so she did what I asked her to do.” He explained. “She informed Nadine about my relationship with Tam so the temp she had with you two turned to me and Tam. Nadine was hot, you hear me?”

“Damn. That’s all it took?”

“Nah, there was more. She called me like I knew she would to confirm what Gabi said and I did, that set her off even more. And after that it ended up working out that Tamara wanted to meet Didi.” He paused to make sure Zilla was following him. “We went to meet her. She wasn’t happy but it ended with her thinking she has the upper hand and that’s what I want her to think. As long as she’s focused on me and what I’m doing, you and Rye don’t have anything to worry about.”

Zilla whistled lowly. “Damn. That … you sure you gon be able to handle the shit she do?”

Hassan waved him off. “I’ve known Didi for well over 20 years, I know all of her moves before she make them. She think in charge of all of this but I’m just stringing her along.”

“I appreciate you doin that for us. I’m also sorry that you have to deal with her. I know that ain’t easy.”

“Difference between me and Rye is I ain’t Didi kid. I don’t feel obligated to do anything for her or listen to her.” He shrugged. “I talk to her enough to keep her attention over here and that’s it.”

The men moved their talk to the living room. They went back and forth trading work stories for another half an hour.

“When you found out Fat was pregnant were you mad?”

“A little but me and Lee already saw it coming. We noticed the time you and Rye spent together and how it went from being friends to something else.” Hassan replied. “You think we didn’t know about the locked doors and what you two were doing on the sofa?”

Zilla rubbed down his face, laughing. “In our defense, we wasn’t doin nothin most of that time. My mama said the same thing though.I’m sorry about all that though.”

“Sorry about what?”

“Getting Fat pregnant that young. We shouldn’t have been doin none’a that.”

Hassan shrugged. “You don’t need to apologize about that, Zilla. Yall were young but you were still human. Like I said, we knew it was coming and mistakes happen.”

“It’s so crazy to me how you so cool about shit and so easy to talk to yet Nadine in … that.”

He shrugged. “She wasn’t always the way she is now. Or I suppose it was always in her but she made an effort to put her best foot forward all those years.Back to happier things, what’s next for you and Rye?”

“I been lookin for a realtor. Wanna find some houses to look at. Nothin big but like a townhouse, we outgrew that apartment already, mane.”

“Tam is a realtor, if she can’t help you then I’m sure she can find you someone who can.”

“Yeah definitely, I suck at tryna find one. Fat think you gon get married again.” He shared softly. “She mention it a lot.”

“My sister thinks so too. It’s still a little early to go ring shopping but I know I’d like to have her around for a long while.”

“I hear that. I get it.”

“But not too early for you to go ring shopping,” Hassan smiled.

Zilla laughed. “Every time we talk you bring that up. You dyin for us to get married?”

“Just wondering why you putin off the inevitable is all. Everybody know it’s comin. You scared?”

“I mean nah … I wouldn’t call it scared.”

“Nervous then?”

Zilla nodded, rubbing his hand over the top of his head. “Yeah that sound about right.”

“Nervous that gettin married is gonna change things or nervous that you’re gonna mess it up?”

“Both but more of the second one.” He admitted.

“Marriage is gonna change things but for the better, no need to be nervous about that. It is a big commitment but the two of you can handle it. Look at how well you’re doin now?” Hassan gave him an encouraging pat on the back. “And you not gon mess it up. Neither of you is perfect but as long as you try and your honest, you have nothing to worry about. You’re a good guy, don’t let anybody tell you any different. You hear me?” Zilla nodded letting the words digest. “Good. Go on and get you some sleep. We can talk more tomorrow.”

“Aight, Po…Hassan. Good night.”

Hassan ignored the slip, letting him continue on. He knew they would talk about it soon enough. Hassan got up to shut everything down before following Zilla upstairs to turn in for the night as well.

Finally time for the meet up, Hassan drove them to Tamara’s house. He noticed the two extra cars in her driveway, taking note that her kids were already there. He shot her a quick text after parking.

“No need to be anything other than yourselves, kids. She knows all about you two and I’m sure she’s told her kids about you. They’re around your ages so yall should get along.” He told them making sure he had all of his things before he got out. “But … no fighting. Keep your hands to yourself if they’re not nice touches and no arguing. Got it, kiddos?”

“That’s him always starting with me, Daddy. Tell him.” Moriah pouted in the backseat.

Zilla sucked his teeth. “Sound like you the one startin. All you had to do was say aight like I was bout to.”

Hassan held his hand up silencing them. “Cut it or I will personally fly Lee out here to get yall together. We clear?”

“Crystal,” the couple mumbled.

Moriah and Zilla followed Hassan to the porch, quietly pushing each other and arguing thinking he couldn’t hear them but he just ignored them laughing to himself. While he waited for Tamara to answer the door, he turned around to give the two of them one last look. When she opened the door, she had a big smile on her face and pulled Hassan into a tight hug, kissing his cheek until they heard kissing sounds coming from behind Hassan. They pulled away laughing.

“You remember my daughter, Moriah and this is my son in law, Isayah but we all call him Zilla. Zilla, this is my lady, Tamara.”

Moriah pushed Zilla out of the way to hug her. “Me first. Hey, Tamara. You look pretty and this house is nice.”

Tamara laughed and thanked her. “You look pretty too. Nice to meet you, Zilla. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Zilla thumped Moriah’s ear to get her out of the way and hugged Tamara. “Nice to meet you too, ma’am. Ignore fat head over there.”

Hassan stopped Moriah before she could hit him and made them follow Tamara inside the house. She led them to her den where her kids were doing some bickering of their own. Discreetly she tried to stop them until she realized they weren’t listening so she popped both of them making them hiss.

“Ow, aye, what you hit me for? She started it, Ma.”

Tamara stared at her son. “Don’t care, I finished it. Our guests are here.”

“So act right, ugly.”

Tamara snapped her fingers stopping them once more. “Hassan, these are my kids Brayden and Sade. Sade and Brayden, this is my boyfriend, Hassan. And that’s his daughter, Moriah and his son in law, Zilla.”

The kids waved at each other.

Hassan smiled. “Nice to meet you two. Your mom talks about you all the time.”

“This ya man, Mama? I like em cause yo been nicer since you been datin him. What’s up, man?” Brayden shrugged his mom’s glare off. Ain’t she been nicer, Sade?”

Sade had zoned out for a moment staring at Moriah and Moriah stared back. “What? Oh yeah, she has.”

“Anyway, San, come help me get the snacks form the kitchen and leave these four to talk junk about us.” Tamara suggested.

He nodded. “Lead the way. Yall have a seat and get comfortable.”

After sitting down, Zilla noticed Moriah and Sade kept staring at each other and he made eye contact with Brayden who also noticed. Both tried unsuccessfully to get their attention, left feeling confused.

“You look real familiar,” Moriah admitted.

Sade nodded. “Yeah, you do too. I swear I know you from somewhere. Uuuh you went to school in Dekalb county?”

Moriah shook her head. “Nope. You ever lived in Houston?”

“Nah, never lived there.”

“You were on a dance team when you were younger? One that traveled.”

“Nope. Never had the time.”

Not being able to figure out where they knew each other from was frustrating each o fhte young women and confusing the men.

Brayden cut in after thinking for a second. “You was in Houston for a minute until they caught ya lil ass. You probably don’t remember cause Mama whooped ya ass when you got back here.”

Sade jumped at him. “Shut up. I do remember that but I don’t think that’s it.”

“You look like this girl I met, Dreka, I met when I went to juvie in Houston.”

Zilla sucked his teeth. “You sayin that like you did hard time in there. You was in there one day and Hassan picked you up the next morning.”

“Either way I went. Shut up.”

“Wait .. wait,” Sade called out snapping her fingers, “You are who I thought you were, girl! I used to go by middle name back then, it’s Shaundreka. You was the girl I had helped that night!”

“Yes, that was you that helped me! Oh my God! I was waiting on you to call me when you got out,” Moriah laughed. “Zay made fun of me cause I was sad.”

“Oh she ain’t call cause my mama ain’t let her ass do shit when she got back to Georgia. She was lucky my mama let her take her ass to school.” Brayden laughed. “Thought she was bad till my mama put that belt to her ass.”

Sade scrunched her face at him and rolled her eyes. “Oh shut up before I tell her that it was you that smashed her window and not that neighbor boy.”

“Awwe ya lil juvie friend back, Fat. That’s cute.” Zilla taunted laughing.

“Forget them. Let’s go in the other room and talk away from them. They just jealous.” Sade suggested getting up from the sofa. “And don’t try to follow us either, uglies.”

Brayden laughed out loud. “What yall gon be some runaways again? This time don’t tell nobody where you goin so Mama don’t catch you again!”

“Is that the one you got put in juvie for?” Sade asked as they were leaving the room.

“Mmhm, that’s him. Mistakes were made,”’ she said loud enough for him to hear.

“Love you too, Fat!” He yelled out still laughing.

In the kitchen, Hassan and Tamara were laughing softly with one another happy that all four were getting along. They weren’t exactly worried about it but they knew there was a slim chance that they could bump heads.

#aao #zilla fatu #Zilla & Moriah #the bloodline #the Samoan dynasty

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thatssonanii · 4 months ago

Text

Chapter Seventeen

A/N: Finally I've come back *baldy voice* 😌😂 Soooooo...I realized I was putting tooooo much into this chapter so I moved some stuff to the next chapter but 17 is still that girl! Lol! ENJOY!! 🫖LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, REBLOG🫖

Warning: Cursing, Mentions of Death, slight violence/aggression, mentions of abortion EXCUSE ANY TYPOS, 18+ ONLY MINORS DNI

DO NOT POST MY WORK ANYWHERE ELSE AND/OR CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN!

Masterlist

Chapter Sixteen

“Bereaved parent headed your way,” Toni whispered as she breezed by Moriah.

Quickly, Moriah took a deep breath to calm her nerves. When she looked up, she looked directly into Nia’s mother’s eyes and her heart lurched into her throat turning into an uncomfortable lump in her throat. Though only a few seconds it felt like an eternity before the two met on the side of the ED hallway.

“Hey, Mrs. Jones.” Moriah greeted, fidgeting with her badge reel. “Um, if you’re looking for Dr. Harris, I can take you upstairs to his office.”

“No,”she shook her head, “I came to talk to you. If that’s okay, Nurse DeBreaux.”

She badly wanted to say no, in fear that Mrs. Jones was trying to set her up on recording, cuss her out or jump her. All things she would understand but still didn’t want to happen. Mrs. Jones noticed her hesitation and tried to give her a reassuring smile.

“I promise I’m not here to hurt you or anything, I just wanna talk. Please.”

Moriah made eye contact with Toni, who gave her a slight nod. “Sure, follow me, Mrs. Jones.”

Moriah led her to the break room and offered for the two of them to sit at one of the tables. They sat across each other in silence. Moriah didn’t plan on saying anything until the other woman did.

“I um … I wanna start off by saying that I apologize for pushing you and screaming at you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Mrs. Jones,” she stopped seeing the other woman put a hand up.

“Call me Amira, please.”

“Okay, um, Amira, You don’t have to apologize for that. It was a very intense and unexpected situation. That was a very valid reaction.”

“I do need to though,” she sighed, ‘You took such good care of Nia. She was so scared when we got to the emergency room the first time but when we got to the pediatrics floor from the moment you came into the room to introduce yourself, you made her feel so much better.”

“I’m glad I could do that for her. She deserved it.” Moriah took a chance, reaching across the table to gently hold one of Amira’s hands, a small smile on her face. “When I went home I would always tell my boyfriend about my favorite little patient. He was actually the one that found her little gopher game I gave her. I couldn’t find it and I felt so bad cause I promised to find it. Then him and his best friend drove two hours to pick it up. It was all worth it seeing the smile on her face.”

Amira wiped away her tears. “Yeah, she played that game all day and took it everywhere she went. She told everybody that Nurse Rye got it for her cause she was your favorite.”

Moriah laughed a little. “I can imagine it. I know you’re not doing alright so I won’t ask but if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.”

“Actually, there is something.” Moriah nodded for her to go ahead, hoping it wasn’t something she was going to have to say no to. “Her service is in two days, I know she would want you there and me and my husband would like for you to be there. Is there any way you can come?”

Biting her lip, Moriah thought for a moment. She knew Toni would be able to finagle it for her to be off for a few hours to do so but a part of her wasn’t sure if she could handle it. The dreams, or nightmares rather, had finally stopped and she didn’t want them to return. But .. it was the least she could do.

“Just let me check with my supervisor but I should be able to come. Here, take my number,” Moriah paused waiting for her to pull her phone out and rattled off her number, “Send me the information, please.”

Amira smiled, tears glistened in her eyes. “Thank you. I appreciate you and Dr. Harris.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along that message. If you need anything else, you have my number. Use it.”

After they talked for a little while longer, Moriah parted ways with the grieving mother and went back to join Toni at the wraparound desk. She rested a bit of her weight on her friend, waiting for her to finish up her phone call. From the way she was talking, she could tell that it was Bronco and absolutely not a patient or another hospital employee on the line which brought a small smile to her face. The couple had come a long way, she had to admit Bronco had much more patience with Toni’s constant declaration of them being friends and friends only than she would have thought.

“How was it?” Toni asked once she hung up.”You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. She wanted to apologize and asked me to come to the service.” Moriah answered solemnly.

“When is it?”

“In a couple of days. She’s supposed to send me the rest of the information. Do you think I can get a few hours off to go? I’ll come as soon as it’s over.”

Toni laughed a little under her breath. “You don’t have to use those doe eyes on me. You know I’m not gonna say no. You need to go, I think it’ll be good for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, for one,” she started pausing to direct a few of the nurses, “It’ll bring you some closure to the whole situation. And for two, it’ll help you with your grieving over Angel. It won’t be his service obviously but a child nonetheless. I’m sure it’ll bring up some unresolved feelings and regrets and because of that I’m gonna give you the whole day.”

With a frown on her face, Moriah turned her body to stare at her friend. “I don’t need a whole day. Even if that does happen, work will help me feel better. I feel like you just tryna get rid of me.”

“Girl, please.” Toni laughed. “I couldn’t get rid of you if I tried. But work will not make you feel better, it’ll just help you push those feelings back down and we’re not doing that.”

“You think you just know everything,” Moriah sassed playfully.

“Don’t think, I know I know everything.” She laughed. “Zilla should be able to go with you, right?”

“I think so. If not, I’ll be okay to go alone.”

Toni squinted at her. “No, you won’t. So you need to ask him now if he can go. If he can’t then I will go or you call and have your mother in law or auntie come here to go.”

“No, no, all three of you have to work. I’m a big girl, I can handle it.”

“You heard what I said. Call that man and ask him,” Toni fussed passing her the receiver, “Matter of fact, call his number out and I’ll dial.”

Moriah sucked her teeth. “You act like you don’t trust me.”

“Cause I don’t. Number, please.”

After dialing the number, Toni turned the volume up on the phone so she would be able to hear the conversation without disturbing the ED by putting the call on speaker. Moriah hoped her boyfriend was busy with work so he wouldn’t answer the phone and just as she thought luck was on her side, he answered slightly out of breath.

“My bad, baby. What’s up? You good?” He asked all in one breath.

She rolled her eyes at her grinning friend before answering. “Yeah, I’m okay. Were you busy?”

“Not for you. What’s up?” He asked once more. He was trying to gauge the situation with her tone but she was giving him very little to work with. “Toni good?”

“Toni is fine, gettin on my nerves,” she complained with an eye roll, “But um Nia’s service is in a couple days. Do you think you’ll be able to come with me? If you can't, that's okay, I’ll find someone else to go with me.”

He spoke to Booker in the background for a few minutes before answering her. “Uuuuh, I really don’t know, Fat but ima try. I might have to travel for Smackdown.”

“Then no, go to that. That’s important, Zay, I don’t wanna take you from that.”

He sighed a bit. “It ain’t really set in stone yet. We just goin to do a backstage thing but I should know by the end of the day. If I can’t, can Toni go witchu? Ion want you goin by yaself.”

“Toni has to work but if you can’t go then I can go by,” she was cut off by Toni snatching the phone from her. When she tried to get the phone back, Toni popped her hands and told her to back up.

“Don’t listen to her. Her ass is not goin by herself,” Toni fussed, staring directly at her friend.

Zilla’s laughter carried through the phone. “I agree witchu. Ion like the thought of her goin by herself. That’s a lot. She ca’ hear me?”

She turned the phone down a bit. “Not anymore.”

“Heey!” Moriah pouted. “That’s rude! Me and Bronco don’t do that to yall.”

“Girl, go check on your patients. The grown folks is talking. Shoo.” Toni waited until she left from the desk and into one of the bays. “Alright, she’s gone. What’s up?”

“I know I ain’t gon be able to go. I told her I wasn’t sure and would let her know but I can’t.” He huffed. “If you can’t then I’ll get my mama to come go with her.”

“Sounds good to me and I agree. I think it would be better if your mom went with her, not that I mind going but she’ll have someone with her afterwards because I would have to come to work.”

“I trust your opinion, T. You think she should be goin to that?” He worried about the after effects it could have on her, if it would undo all the progress she had made.

Toni looked around making sure she didn’t see Moriah. “Yeah, I think it’ll be good for her. Give her some closure with the whole thing and help her progress a little further with her grief over Angel.”

Zilla hummed, agreeing with her. “Yeah, yeah, you right. Ima go head and get my mama a flight.”

“Alright, I won’t say anything. You get back to work.”

“Aight,” Zilla’s voice faded for a second, “Oh Bronco want me to tell you something.”

She chuckled. “I just talked to him. What does he want?”

Zilla asked his friend to repeat it one more time and laughed. “He said don’t forget that Javi gon be at a sleepover tonight so you know what that mean.”

Laughing loudly, Toni quickly apologized to the people standing near her. “Tell him to leave me alone. I’m going back to work. Goodbye.”

Once Moriah was done checking on her patients, she sulked back to the nurses station continuing to pout at her friend. Toni could feel her constant stare, a small smile formed on her face but she didn’t turn to face her or acknowledge her.

“Was everything okay with them?” She asked without looking away from her work.

“They were fine,” she sassed. “But I’m not.”

“Do you need to be checked out?”

Moriah stomped her feet playfully. “No, I need my friend to pay attention to me. Stop ignoring me.”

“Nobody’s ignoring you, crazy.” She laughed. “I just already know that you’re pouting and I don’t wanna see that.”

Moriah moved closer, poking her lip out even more and pushing her friend. “Toniiiiiiiiii. You can’t ignore me. You better ask Zay, I’m like a hemorrhoid. I always come back.”

“Girl,” she laughed loudly, “I’m about to send your lil ass home. What is it that you want?”

A triumphant smile spread across Moriah’s face as her friend finally turned to look at her. “I wanna know what you and that man was talking about.”

“You already know what we were talking about, Rye.”

“Nah uhn cause you shooed me away.”

“Because you would’ve kept tryna tell us that you can go by yourself and we don’t wanna hear that. I know that your mama made you feel like you couldn’t turn to anybody and that you have to deal with things on your own but you don’t. You’ve got a big ass support system, let us do something sometimes. Okay?”

Moriah nodded solemnly as she rubbed her temples. “I hate it when you make sense.”

“Mmm,” she answered, eyeing the younger girl, “What’s wrong with your head?”

“I’m fine, just a little headache. It’ll go away.”

“Uhuh. Did you eat today?”

“Yes, mother. I ate breakfast and I bought my lunch.”

Toni watched her a little longer, noting the rubbing never stopped. “And you’ve had water? I haven’t seen your cup up here all day.”

“I,” Moriah started then stopped, “Maybe I forgot it in my locker.”

“Girl, go get that water and drink it. Is this the first headache you’ve had all day?”

Moriah started to back away from her, headed for the break room. “No. It’s been on and off since we left Atlanta a few days ago.”

“You need to make sure you tell the doctor about that at your appointment. That could be important to note.” She yelled after her, making Moriah frown.

“What appointment, T?”

“With the specialist next week, Rye. Did you forget that quick?” She chuckled.

Racking her brain for a good fifteen seconds, Moriah tried to remember the appointment until it hit her. She had pushed it to the back of her mind after she and Zilla had made the appointment or at least that’s what she was going to tell anyone else who asked.

“No, I didn’t forget. I just wasn’t thinking about it.” She retorted smartly.

Again, Toni chuckled. “First you forgot the water, now you’re forgetting your appointment. Do you know where your car keys are?” Moriah flipped her friend off before turning to walk the rest of the way to the break room. “Not my fault your memory is bad.”

At the performance center, the talent had gone in and out of meetings with Shawn and both Pauls with the upcoming appearance of Dewayne. They wanted it to be clear how things were to go especially with the talent who would have run-ins with said man. Zilla was the last one they met with per Dewayne. He couldn’t count how many years it had been since he’d seen his older cousin, it might have been a little while after his father died but his memory was hazy on that. Getting into the office, Zilla took notice of Shawn and both Pauls and beside Heyman sat Dewayne and Ava. He greeted all of them before taking a seat.

“Sorry to have you wait so long. I’m sure you’re dying to know what we’ve got for you.” Paul started then gestured to his bigger cousin. “Dewayne thinks very highly of you as does the rest of your family which is why myself, Heyman, and Dewayne thought of this. As you know I asked you to travel to Smackdown but didn’t tell you why. Dewayne would you like to?”

Dewayne smiled that wide smile, extending a hand slap to his younger cousin. “So we're two months away from Wrestlemania and we wanna go big. We already have Bloodline taking over Raw and Smackdown but we need NXT as well right? We have Simone now she’ll be GM,” he explained gesturing to his daughter, “And we have you. We’re going to have you with her, sort of like an enforcer for her but not a mute like Sefa. When the time is right, we’re going to add a few more of the cousins but for right now just you and Simone. You following?”

He nodded quickly looking at all of them individually. “Yeah, I got you.”

“Good, so on Friday you’re gonna do a run in and tear the whole place down. You got me?”

“Yeah, then what?”

Dewayne chuckled. “Tuesday, Aldis is gonna come to NXT and him and her will have a thing then you attack him.”

The meeting went on for another two hours because as Zilla found out, Dewayne loved to talk especially about himself and his involvement with everything. By the end of the talk, he felt good, he felt excited and he couldn’t wait to share the news with his girlfriend. The only issue was the sporadic traveling he would have to do on those weeks they wanted him on Raw and Smackdown. It wouldn’t be too often but enough that he would be away.

Dewayne stopped him in the hallway and beckoned him over to where he stood with his daughter.

“What’s up?” He asked, looking between them.

“Just wanted to reintroduce you to my daughter, Simone. Not sure if you remember her. Yall were really little the last time you saw each other.” He placed a loving kiss on the crown of her head.

Zilla moved in to give her a tight, one armed hug. “I don’t but you still lil cuz no matter what. Preciate you for picking me for this, Dewayne. Ima do yall proud.”

“I remember you a little bit,” she admitted, her hands behind her back, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.

“I know you will. I have no doubt about that. Don’t wanna keep you from whatever you were doing. I’ve got your number now so I’ll let you know if anything comes up.” Dewayne waited until Zilla walked off to turn and face his daughter. “You remember what I told you, Simone?”

“Yeah but why do I have to do that? You’ve been handling it so far. I’m not getting anything out of it.” She complained.

Quickly, he snatched his glasses off and stared into her eyes. “Do you not have this easy job that you’re getting paid way more than you ought to, Simone? Your contract has many perks in it that some of these people would give their souls to have. That’s why you have to do it.”

“I was fine wrestling,” she shot back, arms now folded across her chest.

“Uhuh and they wanted to get rid of your ass cause you and wrestling was like oil and water. I saved your ass and now you’re gonna do what I asked you to do. Are we clear?”

Anger ran rampant through her body, if anybody looked too closely at her they might see steam coming from her ears. She stared back at her father. “Why are you helping this lady ruin their relationship?”

“It’s a long story that I’m not gonna bother telling you because you still wouldn’t understand.” He spat harshly. “Just do what I asked you to do. That girl is moving too slowly, I need you to light a fire under her ass starting now. I want this shit done by Summer Slam or you’ll be back to the unemployment line. I’m sure AEW will take you in.”

Pressing another kiss to her head, Dewayne put his glasses back on and strolled away the cockiness and swagger still very present. Nadine had a way of doing things that got messy because she was too emotionally involved so he did what needed to be done so the both of them could live in peace. There was just one more piece of the puzzle that needed to be taken care of to make sure everything stuck.

Getting to catering, Simone looked around until she spotted her target. She sucked her teeth when she saw her playing kissy face with Trick. Going over to the table, she tapped Gia harshly on the shoulder. She chuckled when she saw the irritation on the woman’s face. Same here, she thought to herself.

“Excuse us, Trick. I need to speak with her.” Simone said then turned on her heels knowing the other woman was behind her. She didn’t stop until she got to the office she would be using.

“You know why you’re here.”

“Listen, like I told you dad I don’t know what more to do. I’ve been trying and he’s not going for it.” She huffed. “He loves her and I’m not enough to change that.”

Simone walked close to her until she had the shorter woman backed into the wall. “Either you’re gonna do whatever it takes to get this done or you’re gonna wish you never brought your ass down here. He’s a man, it doesn’t take much to get him in a compromising position.”

“That’s your cousin. I get why your dad is doing it I guess but you. Why are you trying to come in between his happiness?” Gia’s voice quivered as she spoke. It was hard to speak with the frog in her throat.

Simone frowned at her words. “What do you know about why he’s doing this?”

Gia started to retell the conversation she had overheard between Dewayne and who she now knows as Nadine. It was the first day she had come down to Florida to start at the performance center. Dewayne ubered her from the airport to the penthouse he was staying in. He had her waiting in the living room while the two finished their conversation.

“Listen, listen, don’t worry about them. Calm down, you’re gonna hurt yourself.” Dewayne cooed, his voice muffled through the closed door. “I told you to just let it be.”

“How can I when she’s ruining everything?”

There was silence that led Gia to believe he was either kissing or hugging the mystery woman.

“She’s not ruining anything, she’s just blinded right now. Listen, those Fatu men always show their true colors. I know my family. Why do you think so many of them are divorced or have fathered multiple broken homes?”

There were some sniffles that made Gia extremely uncomfortable. She felt like she was impeding on something personal, the thought to make a hasty exit came to her until she heard his voice move closer to the closed door.

“This thing will take care of itself, Nadine and then you and I can be together like we’ve always wanted. Okay?”

Moments later the door swung open and his big body stepped out of it, making sure to close it up tightly behind him. She stood from her spot on the sofa to shake his hand, taking note of how her hand was swallowed by his. He gestured for her to sit as he did so, a big smile plastered on his face.

“Glad you made it here safely, Gia. I won’t keep you long but I wanted to go over a few things before I let you loose. Is that okay?” He asked, not really caring about her answer either way. Her meek nod made his smile widen even more like an animal finding its prey. “Zilla is who you need to get. He may be a tough cookie to crack but he will crack. You’ll do what you can to make that happen as we’ve discussed before. Right?”

She nodded once more. “Can I … Can I ask a question?”

“Sure. Fire away.”

“Well, I don’t mean for this to sound rude or judgy but,” she sighed softly, “Why are you doing this to your cousin? I mean is she a bad person or?”

Her body shook seeing the flash of anger in his eyes while his smile never faltered. It was creepy to say the least. He rubbed a hand over his bald head, exhaling through his nose harshly.

“Not that it’s your business but she’s not a bad person, this is just a bad relationship that neither of them should be in.” He explained gently, underlying anger in his tone.

She nodded but then her lips started to move faster than her brain could stop her. “It’s a bad relationship because you and that woman can only be together if they’re not?” The smile was gone, replaced with a deadly look in his eyes and a frown to match. The anger rolled off of him in waves, bringing heat and fear to Gia’s body. “I … I–I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I—I just wanted to know.”

“You just make sure you get this done or I’ll have to renege on our deal. Are we clear?” She nodded frightfully. “Words!’ He barked, scaring a shriek out of her.

“Ye–yes, we’re cl–clear.”

“Good. Leave.” He ordered watching her scramble to get onto her feet and walked to the door. He called out to her just as she turned the knob, stopping her in her tracks. “I’ll be checking up on you. The faster you work, the happier I’ll be. And as far as the deal goes … you want me happy, Gia Miller.”

Nadine … Nadine … Nadine

The name sounded so familiar to Simone but she couldn’t place it. It wasn’t anybody she was related to but she couldn’t place the name. The sudden shuffle of feet brought Simone out of her thoughts. She glared down, hot air from her nostrils heating up Gia’s forehead.

“Nadine. Who is Nadine?’ Simone asked with irritation in her voice. “I know you know.”

Gia stuttered until Simone slapped the wall next to her head and she screamed. “Na-nadine is um she’s the girlfriend’s mom. She’s her mom and I guess her and your dad are in some kind of relationship. That’s it, that’s all I know.”

“What? A relationship?” Simone repeated. Disbelief washing over until it hit her, she cursed under her breath. “Get out and go do what you’re here to do. Stay out of Trick’s face and I mean it.”

Without a second thought, Gia scurried out of the office thankful to get away while the latter went to collapse into her office chair. Her memories flooded back to her with all of the random play dates she’d had with this little girl that her dad said to keep a secret, the supposed daddy daughter dates that turned into daddy daughter and this other lady dates. This is why he wanted her to do this, so that he could be with this woman with no problems. He was using her like he always did. Simone always wanted love and attention from her father but as she got older she realized the only time she got it from him was when he wanted to use her.

Still trying to pull back old memories, her phone started to buzz on the desk in front of her. She answered without looking at it.

“What?”

“Damn, lil cuz. What I do to you?”

Simone exhaled harshly realizing it was only Josh. “Sorry, you caught me at a bad time. What’s going on though?”

“Oh my bad, I can call you later or something. I ain’t mean to bother you.” He told her quickly. “Or if you wanna talk about it, we can do that.”

“No, noo,” she answered quickly, “It’s okay. Go on.”

He paused for a few moments to give her space to change her mind, continuing on when she didn’t. “Heard you and Zilla traveling with us to Smackdown, we gon go out to eat and prolly party a lil bit. Yall coming.”

She laughed a little. “It sounds like you’re telling me and not asking me, Josh.”

“Glad you know it,” he exclaimed happily. “He can finally go somewhere without that damn girl on his hip and have a good time.”

“You talkin about his girlfriend?”

“Mmmhh. Her. You met her yet?”

Simone rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Can’t say that I have but it sounds like you don’t like her. Why don’t you?”

“I don’t. At all. Her mama wither but I can’t get into it right now cause my brothers finna be with me but we’ll talk when I see you.”

That brought a smile to her face, she knew that the men in her family liked to confide in each other so maybe he could tell her something about Zilla and Moriah thatGia could use to get the job done.

“Sounds good to me.”

“I think we all gon fly out together but if not, let me know when yall get to the hotel.”

When they hung up, Simone leaned back in her chair with a smile on her face. This could really work out in her favor but she wondered why he brought up Nadine. But knowing that he was one of her older cousins, she knew he was privy to a lot of family information that the younger generations weren’t. The more information she could pump out of her cousin, the better.

The day of the service came much quicker than Moriah anticipated. Since finding out all the details, she had been trying to prepare herself to face it but now that she stood on the mirror doing her makeup, she was stuck. Halfway done and she started to panic wondering what everything would be like, the atmosphere, the feel, how her parents would be. Her thoughts were crippling her but she willed her tears away for the time being.

“Manamea,” Leata called out, knocking on the frame of the bathroom door. “You okay? I usually hear you singing while you get dressed.”

As much as Moriah fought with her boyfriend and best friend about being able to go by herself, she was glad they knew better than she did and planned accordingly. When she was waiting for Zilla to check his bag, Leata approached her with a wide smile and a warm hug. She threw herself into Zilla’s arms once she was able to let go of Leata, thanking him profusely and kissing all over his face. And now seeing her stand in the doorway made her even more thankful.

“I think I’m okay. My mind is just racing,” she admitted softly.

Leata approached her, gently sliding the makeup brush from her hand and put her hands on her shoulders, “Look at me, Rye. Let’s take some slow, deep breaths together. In … out. Slowly.”

Following her instructions, her heart rate, thoughts and anxiety started to slow until it was back to normal. The exertion of her thoughts had tired her out and she hadn’t left the house yet. Feeling the tension still lingering in her body Leata hugged her tight, rubbing soothing circles on her back.

“See? You’re okay. It’s all just your mind trying to scare you with its what ifs,” she encouraged softly, “It's that part of the mind you really wanna tell to shut the hell up sometimes but we don’t because its voice is a little louder than we can be at the time. But then another part of our mind protects us and brings our thoughts back to important things. Like your favorite headache, if he’s getting on his cousins’ nerves yet.”

She laughed softly, pulling away from the hug. “I’m sure him and Jon are getting on Sefa’s nerves since they met up.”

“Yeah, i’m inclined to agree. But I feel sorry for the poor people who have to deal with them all while they're traveling,” she joked. “But better them than us, no?” Moriah agreed softly. “I’m pretty much done getting dressed so how I about I finish your makeup? It’ll be like when you were in high school. You remember I did your makeup for your first date with my big head son?”

“Thank you. I remember that,” she laughed. “You did my makeup and Auntie Kami did my hair. EJ volunteered to drive us.”

“And Arthur and Naio had to help him pick somewhere to take you. That boy thought you were getting pretty for him to take you to McDonalds or whatever.” Leata admitted through her laughter.

Moriah stared at her until she busted out laughing. Leate guided her to have a seat on the closed toilet lid. “I mean not that I would’ve minded but he was really gonna do that?”

“Yup,” she responded, finishing Moriah’s foundation, “There and to the arcade like you two did every other weekend.”

“I can believe all of it. That’s my Zay.”

Leata continued to tell little stories while she did Moriah’s makeup, trying and succeeding in keeping her mind occupied.

“Your first time traveling with us and your ass glued to that damn phone. Shit, maybe Rye was right,” Sefa joked. Zilla immediately looked up from his phone, a playful glare on his face and flipped him off. “Don’t be mad cause she was right. You finna cry, ain’t it?”

“Boy, fuck you. Ain’t nobody finna cry.” Zilla barked out through his laughter.

Jon smacked Zilla’s arm laughing. “That’s right, tell em ain’t nobody gon cry without Rye. She at the house cryin without you with her big head ass.”

The two slapped hands, agreeing with each other while Sefa looked between the two still laughing.

“Aight now, number six, don’t get beside yourself. Not too much on my homie, I’d hate to tell her that you need to move down the list some more.”

The laughter that filled the hotel room came to an abrupt stop when Josh rounded the corner with Simone in tow. They spoke to the younger woman but only her being that Zilla had filled the two of them in on what happened between Josh and Moriah at the performance center and were still very much upset with him.

“Did we interrupt or?” Simone asked, very aware of the tension.

Before anyone else could say anything, Zilla rushed from his seat on the sofa barrelling towards Josh like a bat out of hell. He grabbed him by the collar of the too small polo shirt rushing him backwards until he hit the wall. His older and younger brother rushing behind them attempting to to diffuse the situation, Simone stood back confused.

“I should beat yo ass! Fuck you think you was doin talkin to her like that? Then you lied in my fuckin face, bitch! I shoulda beat ya ass the first time you said some shit about her!” Zilla yelled pointing a finger in his cousin’s face. “Talk that shit you was talkin to me. Tell me that shit!”

Jon tried to pry Zilla’s hands off of the shirt, while Josh held his hands up trying to show his cousin that he didn’t want to fight with him although that decision was no longer and probably had never been in his hands. Zilla kept replaying the conversation he had with Moriah about not fighting his cousin, the purpose being it would keep him from doing so because she had asked him not to and it was up to her. However, replaying the conversation had the opposite effect. Instead of thinking about the promise she made him agree with, all he could think about was the look and the tears in her eyes when she was telling him what happened. That alone was enough to take his own cousin’s head off. He had had enough of people trying to hurt her.

“Aye, aye, I know it was fucked up, uce but this ain’t the way to do that shit,” Sefa tried to reason with him. “Let’s talk.”

“Nah,” he said. His voice was low and steady.

Josh grabbed his younger cousin’s wrist and pushed him away as far as he could but the grip was still on his shirt. “See how angry she gettin you at your own family? Look at this shit, uce!”

Jon groaned, still trying to separate them. “You need to shut the hell up before we let him beat sense into your dumbass. Damn! Zilla, we get it. He shouldn’t have done that shit but think about your job. He can’t show up to work with visible bruises that he didn’t get from Monday night. Let’s just take a minute to cool off.” Jon slowly eased the hands off of Josh’s collar and held his wrists gently as he stepped into Zilla’s line of sight. “Simone gon take Josh to get us some food and me and Sefa gon stay and talk about this shit then talk it out when they get back. Okay?”

Zilla’s nostrils flared as he stared at his cousin, giving a quick nod. “Thank you. Sefa reach in my pocket and get my card out, give it to Josh. Josh and Simone yall get outta here and go get food.”

Zilla’s eyes followed Josh and Simone until he could no longer see them. His anger came out as a roar as he snatched away from Jon. His cousins gave him space to feel all of his emotions hoping he would all of the volatile ones out. While they watched, Zilla paced back and forth, his arms swinging at his side as he mumbled here and there.

“Say sum,” Sefa whispered.

Jon did a double take, his eyes wide in disbelief talking just as softly. “What? I just separated them. It’s your turn. Yall closer anyway.”

Sefa shook his head, “Don’t matter. You got better deescalating skills, you got it, big bruh.”

“Just say sum, he not about to bite my head off and I’m too old to fight him if he get to swingin’. You a spring chicken, go head.”

“Get on my damn nerves,” Sefa mumbled stepping closer. “He not here no more, just take some deep breaths. Don’t work yaself up and get your mind off what you gotta do tonight.”

“Go head with that, I ain’t tryna hear that shit. Fat more important than all this shit. I don’t give a fuck about gettin in trouble.”

Sefa glared at his brother with an ‘I told you so’ look before stepping back allowing them both space. Like Jacob, Sefa knew how their cousin got down about Moriah. He regretted a lot of shit he’s done in his life and the only exceptions are anything he’s done for or about Moriah.

“Nobody is sayin that she ain’t important, we all know how you feel about Rye and anybody disrespecting her but Sefa is right.” Jon held his hands up when Zilla looked up at him with the meanest mug he’s seen in a long while. “Your job got everything to do with Rye. You wanna take care of her and support her but you can’t do that how you wanna do that without your job. And if you’re gonna say fuck it and beat his ass, it’s a pretty good chance you won’t have this job no more.”

Zilla popped his knuckles, he tried to calm himself down but he was still seething with anger. The words Jon said to him were true, he understood it all but the lines always blurred a little when it came to her. After being away from her for years, unable to protect her, he made a promise to her and to himself that he wouldn’t ever let her go without protection and avenging any wrong done to her.

“Listen,” Sefa called out softly, “We not sayin that he don’t deserve to have his ass beat or that you should let him get away with what he said to Rye. All we sayin is he not worth ya livelihood. Just calm down and at some point while we together this weekend let em know verbally what it is goin forward. Aight?”

Zilla rubbed his face out of irritation. “Yeah, yall right. Plus, I can’t beat his ass anyway.”

“I know you ain’t scared.” Jon joked.

“Fuck no,” Zilla responded quickly with laughter, “Fat made me promise to just give him boundaries and shit. Said since he hurt her feelings that she should get to decide what happens to him.”

Jon and Sefa both laughed.

“So you was pump fakin? Had us thinking you was bout to beat uce ass forreal.”

“Oh nah,” he chuckled, “I was gon beat his ass cause I wasn’t thinkin bout that promise until you pulled me off em, uce. Fat was just gon have to be pissed at me so I guess she got you to thank for that.”

Jon grinned cheerfully. “Aye, that mean I can move up from number six. Can’t wait to tell her.”

“You childish as hell.”

“Shit you ain’t taking me and Arthur spot so you better hope for 4 or 5,” Sefa added walking back towards the sofa and tossed his phone towards him. “Your phone ringing, Zay. Catch.”

He caught it and answered quickly, seeing Moriah’s picture on the screen. “What’s up, Fat? You good?”

“Not Fat. It’s your mama,” she laughed softly.

A wide smile stretched across his face. “Oh what’s up, mama? You good? Why you callin from Fat phone?”

“Left mine in the car. I’m alright, Rye just needs some kind words from you.”

“Where she at? Something else happened?” He asked, now concerned. His cousins wondered out loud if everything was okay but he put up a finger and walked away from them to give himself a little privacy. “I can come home.”

“No, no, you don’t need to come home. Just encourage her and give her some reassurance when I give her the phone.”

“Zilla can do that but what happened?”

Leata sighed a little. “When we got to the church, she talked to Nia's parents and they asked her to leave what she got Nia in her casket. I went with her but she still didn’t react very well. She’s been crying and now she’s throwing up. So, please uplift her. She wants to stay for the service and repass so she’s gonna need that from you, Isayah.”

“I got you, Mama. Just give her the phone.” He assured her. While he waited to hear her voice, he filled his cousin’s in quickly. The two of them gave him some quick, last minute things he could say to her and how to make her feel. He stepped back from them when he heard rustling on the other end of the phone. “Fat,” he cooed softly.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” she hiccuped.

His heart ached at the sound of her voice. Having to be on the road instead of with her made him upset with himself. It was for the betterment of them and their future but he still didn’t like not being able to be there for her. The whole situation gave him a glimpse into what their relationship would have to endure during his career the higher he made it.

“You’re not and it’s okay to not be okay, Fat. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with feelin’ some shit. But when is it something wrong?” He asked, trying to coax the saying Dr. Barnes taught him out of her.

She hiccuped a few times trying to slow her breathing down. “It’s something wrong when I don't let myself feel something.”

“That’s right so just breathe and let yourself feel that shit, Fat. You got Mama right there with you, she got you. You know she not gon leave you.”

“Its harder than I thought it would be,” she whispered.

He nodded as if she could see him. “It is but it ain’t nothin’ you can’t do. You made it this far and I know how much it mean to you to go and how much it mean to Nia people. You strong as hell. You know that?”

“Not really.”

“Aye,” he called out a little louder, “What I say? Don’t downplay yaself, you are strong.”

She took in a big deep breath trying to ignore the returning wave of nausea that returned. “Okay.”

“Nah, say it.”

“Zay,” she laughed softly, bringing a smile to his face.

“Nah, that ain’t it. Try again.”

“I’m strong.”

Her voice came out softly, so much so he barely heard her.

“Can’t hear you. Say that shit again.” He demanded with a light chuckle. She repeated it a little louder and with more conviction. “Yeaah, that’s my girl. You just remember that, aight? I’m proud of you.”

Another giggle came through. “Thank you, Zay. I love you.”

“Luh you too, Fat. Call me when you need me. Aight?”

“Aight,” she mimicked playfully.

He spent a few more minutes talking to her before his mama called out to her for them to join the service. After ending the call, Zilla sent a few follow up encouragement texts and a few to make her smile for her to see afterwards. He joined his cousins, letting out a long breath as soon as he sat down.

“She good?” Sefa asked.

He nodded. “As good as she gon be right now. Ion know how she gon be afterwards though.”

“You think you needa go home?”

“Uhn uhn. I want to but if I did, she’d beat my ass for missing this to come home.” He joked. “She in good hands with my mama and I got her when I get home.”

Jon nodded, turning the television on. He searched through the channels. ‘So you know what you wanna say to Josh?”

“Shit, I know what I wanna say but I can’t say that. I got what me and Fat talked about to say to him.”

“How much different is your version from Rye’s?” Sefa asked, looking up briefly from his own phone.

Zilla raised his brows, tilting his head a bit. “A big ass difference. Mine wasn’t nice at all. But she tryna save our relationship so she just want me to give him boundaries and shit where we don’t discuss her at all together. If we’re in a group setting, if she’s brought up or she’s around he just doesn’t need to comment on her and he get ta keep his fuckin teeth.”

Jon sucked his teeth, “Rye ain’t say that last part. You adding shit.”

“And she ain’t gon know I added it either or you gon be toothless like ya twin.” Zilla threatened playfully.

Josh and Simone waited in his rented SUV for the restaurant to bring out their large order listening to music. Simone wrestled back and forth with how to ask about what she witnessed without sounding too excited. Her phone laid face down in her lap so he wouldn’t see that she had been recording the entire conversation so she didn’t miss a detail.

“I know you prolly wondering what that shit was back there and my bad that you had to see it in the first place.” Josh stated sincerely. “I really ain’t expect for him to do that or for her to tell him what I said but I should’ve known better.”

She breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to brainstorm ways to get it out of him any longer. “You don’t gotta apologize, I’m good. I just .. what was that?”

“Basically me and him got into it a lil while back about Moriah. I told em point blank that he ain’t need to be with her and that I ain’t like her. And then me and him got into it a lil bit that day me and her had a conversation.” He scratched his face in thought for a moment, “Then somewhere between me and her having that conversation and today, she must have told him what I said to her.”

“Why don’t you like her? From what I’ve heard everybody likes her.” Simone was truly intrigued.

He huffed, shaking his head a bit. “They like her cause they don’t know about her damn Mama. Like they know how she mistreated Moriah and disrespect Zilla and the family but that’s it.”

“And you know something else?” She finished.

He nodded. “Yup. It’s a few people in our family that know the sheisty shit she did. My pops used to tell me shit that my uncles and him talked about cause he knew I wasn’t gon say shit. I let it go cause I figured with him gettin locked up that she would move on with her damn life but here we are.”

Simone had started to get confused. On the one hand, she was glad to have someone she could potentially be on her side and help her but on the other, she was confused as to what her mother had done had to do with Moriah.

“I can tell you but ion want you to be offended or hurt your feelings cause some of it gotta do with your dad.”

She waved him off. “You can tell me, I won’t. Me and him are not as close as y'all think.”

“Makes sense.” He nodded. “So the reason Nadine stopped fuckin with our family out the blue was cause she was fuckin our family. Literally. Her and your dad had an affair after she became your speech therapist.”

Simone frowned at that. “Wait, she was my speech therapist? I barely even remember taking speech.”

“You was little, like older than 3 or 4 but younger than 10 so that’s prolly why,” he explained. “But yeah so they had an affair goin on for years and then Dewayne brought her up to my pops and my uncles cause he wanted them to meet her. He was in love with her despite still being married to your mama at the time. He told them he was gonna divorce your mama so he could be with her.”

“Is that why they got divorced? What the fuck,” she mumbled under her breath.

Josh glanced at her to make sure that she was okay before he proceeded. “So they end up goin to dinner or whatever and obviously Zilla’s dad is there and immediately recognizes her. He don’t say shit until after the dinner but the two of them knew. He talked it over with my pops and the other uncles that was there, ultimately they told him to just stay out of it, that it would work itself out and it wasn’t their business.”

“I’m sure he didn’t listen,” she chuckled.

“Nah,” he laughed, “Unc and Moriah’s dad was real cool. Like best friend shit. He set up a meeting with Dewayne and Hassan and from what my pops said unc told him, Hassan was calm as shit about the whole thing. They talked and exchanged details on shit and that was that.”

“And then?”

“Unc talked to Nadine about it, he never told her about Hassan and your dad meeting up though. Nadine admitted to some shit before she cussed his ass out. And he still promised to keep her secret as long as she stayed away from your dad. And he kept his promise till the day he died.”

“What did she admit to?” Simone asked quickly.

He rolled his neck around until it popped then checked his phone for the time. “You sure you want me to tell you? Cause it might piss you off.”

“Yes, I want you to tell me. You’ve told me this much, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

He shrugged. “Aight then.”

Looking around the floor, Eddie searched until he found the door with Nadine’s name on it and knocked. Her receptionist had probably gone out for lunch as her desk sat idle with no one to stop him or alert her to his visit as they had done before. Not receiving an answer, he knocked again much harder, finally garnering a response.

The look on her face when he walked in made him chuckle. Despite her shock, he took a seat in the chair on the other side of Nadine’s desk.

“I’m glad I finally caught you. How’s your day going?” He asked politely.

“It was going well. How’s yours?”

“The same. I won’t keep you long but we do need to talk,” he relented, “And we’re not gonna keep putting it off.”

Nadine sat down her pen and braced her arms on her desk. “What do we need to talk about, Eddie? Is it the kids?”

“It’s not the kids and you know that it’s not them. It's about you and my cousin.”

She rolled her eyes to high heavens. “For fucks sake, I didn’t know he was your cousin okay? If I had, I wouldn’t have allowed him to pursue me.”

“Him being my cousin shouldn’t have been the reason you didn’t start a affair with him, DiDi.” He frowned, put off by her attitude. “You’re married to a good guy. Hassan would pull down the moon for you if you asked, yet here you are stepping out on him.”

“What are you? The morality police? It was a mistake, okay?”

“A mistake happens one time, it’s been quite some time, Didi.”

She groaned, now leaning back in her chair. “Okay so what are you gonna do? Tell him?”

Although, he and Hassan talked about it after meeting with Dewayne and Hassan asked him not to say anything about it to anybody else, that he would handle it, Eddie knew his best friend very well so he knew that Hassan wouldn’t do anything about it and just sit on the information. He knew how much Hassan loved Nadine, blindly he felt but love nonetheless. While he would support his best friend’s choices, he was going to make sure he protected him as much as he could.

“I’m not gonna tell him as long as you promise to stay away from my cousin. You don’t wanna ruin your marriage like this, Didi.” Eddie reasoned softly. “Hassan loves you and I know despite your transgressions, you love him just as much. You don’t want to tear your family apart. Hassan doesn’t deserve that and neither does Moriah.”

Nadine sat in thought, twisting her chair a bit from left to right. She never thought it would be possible to love two people at the same time but here she was. Their marriage wasn’t perfect by any means but Hassan had always made her feel loved, taken care of and protected but on the other hand Dewayne made her feel alive, he made her feel sexy, he made her feel needed. Was she really ready to give that up?

Eddie could see the wheels in her head turning and turning. “Do you love my cousin?”

“What?” She spat loudly. “No, I don’t.”

He raised a brow at her reaction. “Then it shouldn’t take you that long to agree to not see him again.”

“I’m just thinking about everything that’s happened and you’re probably right that I shouldn’t see him anymore.” She sighed. “If I continue on I’m gonna have to tell him.”

Eddie leaned forward at that. She seemed to be in a confessing mood, if so, he would listen intently. “Have to tell him what?”

She covered her face attempting to gather herself and her emotions. “I’m pregnant.”

He choked on his spit at that, patting his chest to help calm his reaction. “You’re pregnant. Didi? Are you sure? It could be Hassan’s though, right?”

Slowly, Nadine shook her head. “I mean there’s a possibility but I’m pretty sure it’s DJ’s baby.”

“Didi … you’re gonna have to tell Hassan. He’s gonna be able to tell that’s not his baby.” Again, she covered her face signaling to Eddie she was getting ready to drop another bomb. “What? What is it?”

“I’m not keeping this baby. I can’t keep this baby just like I couldn’t keep the others.” She responded with tears falling from her eyes.

Eddie had no idea how to react to that news. It hurt and angered him for both his cousin and his best friend. Neither of them deserved to have to deal with her, they both deserved so much better than her. He had no problems with women deciding to go down that specific route but what he did have an issue with was Nadine doing that to hide what she had been doing.

“Others? How many times have you,” his voice trailed off. He was unable to finish his sentence.

More tears fell in rapid succession before she could stop them. “Three times.”

“Nadine,” he admonished. “Three times and at no point between the first and the third did you think it was probably a good idea to stop or use a fucking condom?”

“How are we gonna get condoms and not get caught? We’re married!” She yelled jumping up from her seat.

“That’s exactly the point, Nadine! You’re both fucking married!” He yelled not moving from his seat. He took a few deep breaths. “Listen to me, you’re not doing this a fourth time. Just tell Hassan, we both know he’s very forgiving. Nobody else has to know and I know Rye would love to have a sibling. Plus I don’t think your body is gonna react well to a fourth one. What if you want to have another child with Hassan and you can’t? What then?”

At that moment, Nadine’s sadness and embarrassment became anger and all she could see was red. It was enough that she thought he was coming here as her friend to help and comfort her while she stood at this crossroad but here he was preaching to her and trying to tell her what to do.

“Who are you to tell me what the hell I’m gonna do with my body? If I wanna send this baby back along with its siblings, that’s MY business, MY choice! If I want to continue to fuck your cousin, I’m gonna do that too! And if you tell Hassan, I’ll just deny it! You think he’s gonna believe you over his wife?” She spat viciously.

Eddie was taken back by her tone, he finally saw what was really hidden inside her. “No one is telling you what to do. I am trying to help here because clearly you’re not great at making decisions.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Nadine. You choosing to abort this baby and continuing to see my cousin is selfish and you know it. What, what,” he stuttered, his anger overwhelming him, “What if the kids decide they want to be together when they’re older and have kids? You and my cousin still gonna be together then and ruin their happiness?”

She screwed her face up. “And what makes you think I care about that? Your son is not the only boy in the world, she can find somebody else. It won’t be the end of the world.”

“You can seriously not be this selfish, Nadine? Not when it comes to your child.”

She waved him off. “They're nine years old … they don’t even know what it means to like each other yet. By the time they do, they can find other people. Stop tryna use Moriah to guilt trip me.”

Eddie stared at her. “What kind of evil woman did Hassan marry?”

She smirked. “Apparently the same kind you want your son to be with. My baby is gonna be just like me. I secured everything I needed and wanted in this life and I’m still able to do what the hellI want. So good luck to your son if he ends up with my girl.”

“Moriah is nothing like you. She has never been and I thank God for that.”

“Maybe that’s what she wants you to think. Ever thought of that?” She asked with an evil chuckle.

Choosing not to engage in her tactics, Eddie stood from his chair and held her stare with a disgusted look on his face. “Unlike you, I don’t betray the people that trust me so I’m not gonna tell Hassan. I’m also not gonna tell him because I know how much it would hurt him and I don’t wanna do that. But I never told you I wouldn’t tell DJ. You and I both know how he feels about abortions.”

With that, Eddie walked out of her office leaving the door wide open leaving her calling out to him to come back. He gave her one last look before stepping onto the elevator.

Knocking on Josh’s window interrupted his recount, jarring them both with a startle. He let his window down to accept the food and politely posed for a picture with the excited woman. The ride to the hotel was quiet outside of Josh trying to make conversation here and there. It was obvious the information he divulged had her in deep thought and he hoped he hadn’t upset her too bad.

Simone walked back into the suite first, carrying a couple bags while Josh followed slowly behind her carrying the rest of the bags cautiously to the kitchenette. He spoke after she did, taking note that he’d heard three voices speak back. Jon approached Simone, helping her look through bags.

“Listen, I ain’t tryna kick you out but it’s prolly about to get heavy again so if it's too much for you, you prolly needa head to your room.” He whispered.

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Aight but feel free to change your mind later.” He encouraged. “And you might wanna sit closer to me or Sefa just in case.”

With the food dispensed to the rightful people, they sat around the living room eating in silence. Jon and Sefa kept making eye contact and mouthing things back and forth to each other. They were getting a little worried that another altercation would break out.

Sefa cleared his throat. “We gotta work together in a few hours and people are gonna be able to tell if some shit is off. It gotta be seamless so the two of yall needa talk about this shit.”

Josh looked over at Zilla, who was slowly looking up from his food.

“Look, uce, I apologize for makin her cry and sayin that to her.”

Zilla nodded. “But you meant that shit though, right?”

“I did mean it but I shouldn’t have said it to her.” He repeated. “It should have stayed a conversation between you and me. But I … look, I was just tryna help.”

Zilla sat his food down which prompted Josh to sit his down as well. “Ion remember askin you or nobody for help, uce. If I wanted help, I woulda asked.”

“As a big uce, I felt like it was my place to tell you the truth regardless of if you wanted to hear it or not. I’m not tryna make you mad or hurt you or her, I just want the best for you.” Josh further explained. “You don’t know what the rest of us know.”

Jon dropped his fork looking between his brother and his cousin. “Wait, you better be specific with that ‘us’ shit, uce. Zilla, ion know what he know or who that us is. And neither do Sefa. Don’t put us in that shit, uce.”

Josh sucked his teeth. “I wasn’t includin yall in that. Shut up, man.”

Zilla felt himself starting to seethe again. “Since ion know what you and whoever else know, tell me.”

“Nah, you ain’t ready to hear that shit. Just trust me.” Josh warned.

“Nah, fuck that.” Zilla pushed. “Tell me. You tryna be a good big uce and shit, so tell me.”

Josh huffed. “I’m tellin you, you don’t wanna know.”

Simone looked between them and felt compelled to jump in. “Maybe he’s right, Zilla. Maybe you don’t wanna know. It could hurt you."

He looked over at her with the same mug. “Ion mean no disrespect but this don’t really got shit to do witchu and I really don’t know why you here. I like you and I wanna keep likin you but I ain’t if you keep tryna help his ass.”

Simone nodded and went back to eating her food. She wanted to help but she needed to not have any bad blood between them if she was going to go through with the plan.

“You ain’t gotta talk to her like that, she ain’t the one you mad at.” Josh chastised making Zilla suck his teeth.

“Either you gon start talkin or ima start swingin. You pick, uce.”

“Ain’t no need for that,” Jon butted in quickly, “You brought it up so now you gotta tell em, Josh.”

Josh stared at them for a minute, weighing the options in his head. “You remember how you said her mama made her have an abortion and made her get her tubes tied? How you really know, her mama made her do that shit?”

Sefa frowned. “No offense, Simone but why the fuck you say that shit in front of her? We wasn’t even supposed to know that shit.”

“No, hell nah. Don't get mad at me when yall wanted me to say it. Look, I said that to say that it’s real similar to some shit that happened with her mama. The only difference is her mama did the shit cause she wanted to.” He explained. “You don’t think that shit weird, Zay? It’s the exact same.”

Dropping his head into his hands, Zilla took a long, slow deep breath replaying what Josh said. The things Josh accused her of were crazy to him. Unbelievable even. And it all pissed him off. Whether or not he believed anything his cousin was saying was of no one in that room's business.

He brought his head up slowly shooting daggers at his cousin. “Ima say this shit one time and one time only, after this moment right here don’t comment on nothing about Moriah, about our relationship, nothing. I don’t care if the rest of us talkin’ bout her, you don’t say shit. If we at a family function, the most you better do is say what’s up unless she asks you something. That shit clear? Cause ion want no miscommunication.”

“I got you, Uce. I got you.”

Zilla nodded then thought for a second. “Oh I know one other thing than you can say to her.”

“What’s that?” Josh asked.

“Tell her fuckin thank you. She the only reason I ain’t beat yo ass this time.” He chuckled. “It’s fuckin crazy to me that even though you been mean and rude as shit to her that she still care enough about us havin a relationship. She care about our family and shit, yet here yo ass is bein a asshole. But be clear, if there’s a next time yo brothers, her or anybody ain’t gon be able to stop me. Feel me?”

Zilla grabbed his phone and slid his feet back into his shoes then left ignoring Jon calling his name. He needed to go back to his room to calm down before the show and before he talked to Moriah again. He had to put everything with Josh to the back of his mind, there were more important people and things he needed to be worried about.Dr. Barnes always told him that he didn’t have to wait until their appointments if he needed to talk or help, reminding him that was the reason he’s given the young man his number. This was the first time since starting with the doctor that he was taking up the offer.

“Zilla, this is a first.” Dr. Barnes chuckled into the receiver.

“Yeah, I uh …. You ain’t busy, is you?”

“Nope, not busy. Just in my recliner letting the television watch me.” He joked. “What’s going on, young blood? And don’t say nothing because you wouldn’t have called me if it was nothing.”

Zilla recounted his interaction with his cousins, adding his own frustrated gripes and almost empty threats towards his cousin. He also relayed how he was trying to get it off his mind of the whole thing so he could focus on work and being there for Moriah.

“That’s quite the encounter, huh? First and foremost, I’m proud of you for practicing restraint. It wasn’t your cousin Jon that did it, it was you. Because you and I both know they wouldn’t be able to stop if you really wanted to lay hands on him.”

“Yeah, I guess you right. I appreciate that.”

“You’re welcome. So what is it that you need my help with in this moment right now?”

He mumbled his thoughts to himself before responding to the doctor. “Just what Josh said kinda botherin me. It’s kinda stuck in my head.”

“We’re gonna take the kinda out and say that it is bothering you and that it is stuck in your head.” Dr. Barnes corrected. “Is it bothering you because you think it’s true? That she did it because she wanted to.”

Zilla laid back on his bed, throwing his arm across his face. “No, Ion believe she did it cause she wanted to.”

“But?”

“But I think Nadine did that shit to her as like payback or some shit and it’s pissin’ me off.” He answered honestly.

Dr. Barnes let him sit with his feelings for a moment before responding. “Okay so your cousin said that Nadine had something similar to what she did to Moriah happen to her. What is it that he said she did?”

“Ion know, never got to ask him cause I was gettin pissed off again. You think I should go back and ask him?”

The older man chuckled heartily. “Since you’re asking me that, you already know the answer to that question. But before you do, figure out whether you're upset with Josh or Nadine in this situation.”

“It can’t be both?” He laughed, moving his arm from his face.

“It can be both another time but not right now,” he responded through his laugh, “Right now it sounds like your anger with Nadine is making your anger with Josh a little heavier than it ought to be.”

Zilla huffed loudly. He knew Dr. Barnes was right but he still wanted to be just as pissed off with Josh as he had been this entire time. “Aight, aight, aight. But I’m still mad at his ass.”

“I know you are and that’s okay. For now though, it would be good for you to go and talk to your cousin one on one and be as nice as you can.”

“Nice?” He spat. “Nice to who? Ima be as nice as his barber is to his hairline.”

Dr. Barnes laughed loudly, having a small coughing fit. “Now, Mr. Fatu, I don’t think that’s nice. But let’s try a better word … be as tolerant as you can. That better?”

“Yeah that’s better, I guess. But he still better be glad ion want Fat mad at me for hitting him.”

“Given the difficult situation you’re having in certain areas, wouldn’t it serve you for Moriah to be mad at you?” He asked jokingly.

“Mane,” Zilla laughed, “Doc, you gon make me beat his ass now.”

“Just joking, Zilla. Do what you need to do but sit on it until your next session.” He paused to cough. “And we can talk about it and your next steps. Sounds like a plan?”

“For now it do but if I hit em, I guess we’ll talk about that too.”

Moriah was in awe of Amira, the way she carried herself during the service and repass, how strong she had been consoling her husband and their parents when needed. She saw a few tears fall from Amira’s eyes but that was it. Here she was at the end of the repass still trying to keep herself from vomiting and ugly crying. Leata and her stayed to help the family clean up even though they told them they didn’t have to. Leata had Moriah running food out to Amira’s car as well as their parents and her own. On her way back from one of her trips, she heard sniffling coming from the side of the building and followed the sound.

“Hey,” she said softly, approaching Amira. “It’s just me. Only me.”

Amira wiped at her face, trying to be presentable. She plastered a smile on her face. “Hey, I’m sorry I was supposed to be helping. I’m coming.”

Moriah stepped in her way when she tried to pass. “Uhn uhn, we got it. Well they got it now. You obviously need some time to yourself. You’ve been there for everybody else, it’s your turn now.”

“No, I’m okay. I just needed to have a little cry, I’m all better now.”

“A little cry is not enough, Amira. Have you actually cried since the initial news?” She asked rubbing her shoulder. “And not a little cry, I mean an ugly one. Real ugly.”

Amira laughed a bit, tears forming in her eyes. “No. I can’t. I have to make sure Marcus is okay and our parents. And then I had to plan all of this. I have to keep going.”

“No ma’am you don’t. I’m sure your parents would be there for you and Marcus too, he’s your husband, girl. You can’t keep holding that in, trust me.”

“I’m the strong one, I can’t do that.” She argued softly.

“I am too but I had to realize that I can still be the strong one and let people help me, let them see me feel something.” Moriah smiled a little. “Just coming here today, I had my mama in law with me physically and my boyfriend couldn’t be here but he encouraged me over the phone. As much as I tried to fight it, I needed it.”

“I’m sorry if this was too much for you. If I made you feel obligated, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think how being at a child's funeral would make you feel.”

“No, no.” She shook her head. “You do not have to apologize to me. I wanted to be here for you guys and for Nia.Just being here meant I had to confront the rest of my grief over my son.”

“Your son? Your son died?” She asked with sad eyes.

Moriah rubbed at her nose feeling herself about to start crying. “When I was a teenager I got pregnant and after I’d found out the gender, done all the shopping with my mama in law and everything, my mama made me have an abortion.”

Amira gasped, reaching for her hands. “That’s terrible, Moriah. I … I’m sorry that you had to deal with that. At least I got time with Nia but you … you never even got to hear his cry.”

“Yeah but I heard his heartbeat.” She wiped her tears away. “But the loss of a child at any point is sad enough. The amount of time or experiences either of us had with our babies doesn’t lessen the hurt. You had to say goodbye to your baby today, it hurts so please don’t act like it doesn’t.”

“I don’t want my husband to feel like he can’t grieve because I am.”

“From what I’ve seen he would never feel like that. Neither of you have to stop so the can grieve, Amira,” Moriah assured her, pulling her into a hug, “You can grieve together. I promise it’s so much better going through it together. But you have to say something to him. Be honest.”

She could feel Amira nod against her shoulder as well as more tears dropping. She rubbed her back soothingly, allowing her own tears to fall. “I’m gonna tell you what my boyfriend tells me. It’s okay to feel some shit but what’s not okay is to not let yourself feel some shit.”

Amira pulled back a little look at her through misty eyes. “Your boyfriend said that? That’s pretty good.”

“Yeah , he learned it in therapy but we’re gonna keep it between us that I taught you that. He’s gonna get the big head,” she joked, making them both laugh as they pulled away from the hug completely. “It’s gonna be hard but you have what looks like a great support system so lean on them. And you can always reach out to me.”

“Thank you truly for the way you took care of her and the way that you’re taking care of me.” Amira gave her another tight squeeze. “I had been wrestling with this. Whether I would tell you or not but I have to.”

“What’s up?”

“Dr. Harris has been calling me, he wants to know if I want to look more into Nia’s … death. I talked to him before the service and told him that I did.”

Moriah smiled. “Did you think it was gonna upset me? I promise you I am not upset at all, Amira. That is your right to do that for your baby. I know that I did everything I was supposed to and then some for your baby. If this is gonna help you and your family then you do it.”

“Oh thank God,” she breathed, “I thought I was gonna lose you.”

“No, you’re not but,” Moriah paused, “The hospital is probably gonna tell me that I can’t have contact with you.”

“But … I mean I guess I understand.”

Moriah rubbed her arm, giving her a soft smile. “It’s okay, you’ll still have me when it’s over. I promise.”

Leata called out both of their names standing at the door of the center, the women shared one more hug before going back. Leata and Moriah made sure the family had everything they needed before departing.

When Moriah got out of the bathroom from her shower, Leata was sitting up against the headboard on Zilla’s side of the bed, remote in hand and snacks waiting on the bed. She smiled and patted the bed.

“Come on. It’s not often we have alone time away from my big head sons.” Leata joked.

Moriah climbed onto her side of the bed, a bright smile on her face. “Was I in the shower that long for you to go get this?”

“You were but I didn’t leave. My son had it delivered.” She explained turning on a movie. “How’d the talk with Amira go?”

“It went good. She was holding her feelings in to take care of everybody else.”

Leata hummed playfully. “That sound familiar?”

“Nope,” she laughed, “But I hope what I said to her made her feel comfortable enough to talk about it with her husband.”

“I’m sure it did. How are you feeling after that?”

Moriah reached for her gummy bears, fiddling with the package as she attempted to answer. “I’m feeling a lot but I don’t think in a bad way. It was hard seeing her like that because of obvious reasons but also it just reminded me that I never got to see Angel. I never saw his face.” She paused, finally getting the bag open. “And then when I was talking to Amira and I told her the short version of it, she mentioned how bad she felt that she’d gotten time with her baby but I’d never gotten to hear Angel cry.”

“Did having that conversation with her help you feel a little better?”

“Yeah, it did.” She ate a few bears. “Talking her through her own feelings was like talking to myself about it.”

Leata nodded, flipping through the guide. “I was hoping going and talking to her mom would help you and not hurt you. Zilla told me about your appointment, I hope you don't mind.”

“You know the only thing I care about is that his ugly self told you before I could,” Moriah laughed. “I've been writing things down so I remember to tell them.”

She raised a brow. “Your memory has always been good, you're writing things down now. Why?”

“It's still good, I just don't wanna get there and I'm too nervous to remember things.”

“Oh okay,” she nodded, still not convinced, “What's on your list?”

After stuffing a few more bears in her mouth, Moriah scrolled through her apps for her notes then passed her phone over. Leata read them to herself.

“Headaches for hours?”

“Yeah, I think it's just stress but Toni told me that I should include it.”

“How many hours are we talking here, Rye?”

She shrugged. “No more than 3 so far.”

Leata eyed her a moment longer then went back to the list. “Forgetfulness? You told me your memory was fine.”

Moriah sucked her teeth, leaning over to look. “Toni put that on there. She get on my nerves, it was not that serious.”

“What wasn't that serious?”

“I forgot my cup a few times this week, misplaced my keys twice and forgot where I parked but … but in my defense we worked a double.”

“Mmhm. You make sure you tell them everything on here. Even that.”

“Yes ma'am,” she sighed. “I didn't tell Zay but I really hope this works.”

Leata smiled. “I do too but you know we'll all still love you the same. There are other options.”

“I know but I really wanna be able to carry my own baby again. Angel had me down bad at the beginning but I enjoyed carrying him.” Moriah's mind drifted, her hand creeping up to her stomach absent-mindedly.

“When I was pregnant with Zilla he was so easy going. I was barely sick or uncomfortable,” Leata recalled fondly, “Until the end. He would not bring his ass out. He was two weeks late, nothing worked. Waited until I laid down to take a nap.”

Moriah laughed, all of her attention on the woman before her.

“After he was born, Eddie took the other boys to get food and take them home, right? Soon as they were gone, I thumped the bottom of his foot. Not hard but enough and so you know what he did?”

“Screamed?”

“Nope. He just stared at me with that little mean face of his.” Leata laughed along with Moriah. “You and my son are gonna be good parents.”

“You think?”

“I know so. Especially seeing how you two are with Sienna, who by the way wants to come stay for a little while.”

“Whenever EJ wants to send her, I'll fly there to get her.”

Having calmed his nerves, Zilla pulled Josh into an empty area in the arena. Jon tried to get him to do it around other people but he had already let out enough of his and Moriah's business in front of Simone, he didn't want that to happen again in front of more of his family.

“Tell me.”

He didn't have time to beat around the bush with his cousin nor did he want to. Talking to Dr. Barnes had calmed him just enough to not want to tear Josh's head away from his body and he wanted to stay that way for now.

Josh scratched his beard, he thought to ask if he was sure but thought better of it. “I know you low on patience so I'll shorten it for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Nadine was having a affair with DJ. She had a few abortions and either that caused her to not be able to have kids or she made sure she couldn't.” Josh watched Zilla carefully but noticed the younger man didn't even flinch, he just stared at him. “Nadine been doing a buncha shiesty shit, that shit in her, uce.”

Zilla took a few deep breaths, his lips turned up into a small smirk. “You said that right. Nadine got that shit in her, not Fat.”

“Listen, all ima say is watch out for yourself.”

“I think you the one that needa take that advice. Is that all you know?”

He shrugged. “I know that your dad knew about it when yall was nine, but he ain't ever get to tell Moriah dad.”

Zilla nodded knowing why. “Preciate you. We good, aight? Just don't speak on my lady no more.”

“I got you. Ima do my best, uce.”

Eyeing him for a moment, Zilla almost got upset again then realized who he was talking to. Jon definitely got more of the sense than Josh did and it showed. The cousins walked back to the locker room their family was sharing, Jacob was the first to speak up.

“I see his ugly ass still got his teeth!”

“We going out to celebrate him keeping all 32! Simone, you coming, don't shake your head!” Jon yelled out.

Josh laughed, shooting a bird at both men while Zilla settled into one of the chairs focused on his phone.

Fat

5:15pm

Zaaaaaaaaay! Thank you for my snacks and for earlier. You're the best boyfriend…most of the time. 😂 I love you!!

Zilla

7:02pm

Most of the time? Yeah aight. U welcome love ya mean ass 2

Tamara

6:45pm

Hey! Next Wednesday from 10AM to 4PM. I found some really good ones! 4bed/5baths and 5beds/5 1/2baths, right?

Zilla

7:05pm

Yeah that's perfect cause Fat gon be at work. Thank u! I got your hotel

Tamara

7:08pm

No you don't, I got my hotel plus I have plus 3 coming with me 🙄

Zilla

7:09pm

😂😂 I got all yall. Forreal, lemme handle it.

Tamara

7:11pm

Rye was right, you are hard headed

Zilla

7:12pm

Got it from my fat!!!😌

#aao #zilla fatu #zilla & moriah #the bloodline #the samoan dynasty

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