A Thug's Wife (Full Length Novel) (24 page)

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“Hey pretty,” Zaria said to Quita as she walked into the house with her hand tightly tucked into her father’s.

             
“Sorry it took so long. I stopped by Rudy’s and grabbed some chicken. I hope it ain’t got too cold,” Quasym told her. He handed her a bag of the greasy chicken and took a seat right beside her.

             
“Thank you! I was wondering what took you so long to get back. Hey Quita”

             
“Hey,” Quita waved her hand and quickly looked away from Zaria.

             
“Come sit down mama,” Quasym told his daughter and patted the sofa in between him and Zaria. Quita slowly walked over and sat down between them. She looked up at Zaria and then up at Quasym. “Quita, this is Zaria. Z-Baby, this is my little Quita.”

             
Even though it wasn’t the first time Zaria had seen Quita, it was the first time they were actually meeting. The last time had been under tragic circumstances, and Zaria hoped that Quita didn’t remember it.

             
“How old are you, Quita?”

             
“Three.”

             
“Wow, you’re a big girl. Do you go to school?”

             
“Yes.”

             
Quasym laughed, “You don’t go to school.”

             
“I do go to school, daddy,” Quita laughed and threw herself back into the couch.

             
“You go to daycare, that’s not the same as school.”

             
“Uhh Huh,” she laughed.

             
Zaria smiled as she watched Quasym interact with his daughter. She thought that when she first got a chance to spend time with Quita that she would feel some type of way about the little girl, but she didn’t.

She actually admired the bond that she could see that Quita and Quasym had and knew that once they child arrived that
he would make a good father. She looked up at the side of Quasym’s face, and that’s when she noticed it. It was small, but it was in the shape of a strawberry. She knew that it wasn’t there before he left and immediately knew that something wasn’t right.

             
“So you just went to pick Quita up, and you stopped to get this chicken and that’s it?” Zaria asked now suspicious due to the hickey on his neck. She didn’t even know that people still placed hickeys on one another. Her pulse raced as she anticipated Quasym’s answer, but he ignored her. He continued talking and playing with Quita as if she hadn’t said anything to him. “Did you hear me?”

             
“I heard you, but I’m not finna talk to you about this shit right now. You see my daughter sitting right here,” Quasym grimaced.

He briefly glanced into Zaria’s direction and wondered how long he was going to have to go through this with her. Earlier when he was at Tianna’s house, he almost made a huge mistake, but he didn’t. He was so close to climbing in bed with Tianna
and fucking the shit out of her, but he didn’t want to cause Zaria anymore pain.

             
For a few minutes, he stared at Tianna as she played in her pussy and for a moment wanted to help her, but instead, he left the room, grabbed Quita, and left. He just wanted Zaria to trust him again and stop with all this insecure bullshit.

He realized he fucked up when he slept with Tianna, but it wasn’t like he cheated on her then. They had broken up even it had been for a few hours. Zaria needed to stop acting like he had
been out there sleeping around her when he hadn’t. Yea he kept the baby hidden, but that was only because he didn’t know how to tell her. He wasn’t guilty of shit else and he was sick of this shit.

             
“You have a hickey on your neck, Sym. What the fuck you mean you not gonna talk about it?”

             
Quasym shot a dagger at Zaria that was strong enough to blind her ass. One thing he didn’t do with Tianna was fight in front of Quita, so there was no way he was going to do so with Zaria. He stood up from the couch and stretched his arms out.

             
“I gotta go meet with the boss man. I was gonna chill and watch a movie or something, but I don’t have time for this stupid shit. Maybe by time I get back you’ll have changed your fucking attitude and stop coming at me with this insecure bullshit.

We ain’t been happy since days before we got married, and I’m getting tired of this shit! Instead of you tryna move and on and fix it you want to sit
in the past and dwell on what’s already over with and done. I’m a put it to you like this. I got plenty of bitches coming at me Zaria-plenty, and I ain’t gave any of them a second thought, but if you keep this shit up, I might snatch one up.”

             
“Really?” Zaria asked with a look of hurt on her face.

             
“Really. Believe that,” Quasym told her as he left the house. He rubbed his neck right where Tianna had kissed him earlier. Angry that she marked him up. He wanted to go back over there and beat her ass for that shit, but fuck her, he had boss moves to make.

Chapter 22: Confrontation

The following day, Yessenia stepped out of her car with her purse in hand. She looked around the neighborhood and frowned at the many people that were out and about during the middle of the day. She clutched her purse tightly in her hands and pressed down on the lock button on her keypad.

She strutted across the street with her small heels crunching into the pavement. Her mind was on ten as she walked the sidewalk that led up to the small house. She cleared her throat and then knocked on the door.

              “Who the fuck is it?” someone yelled from the other side and pulled the door open without waiting for an answer. It was Ju Ju. He stared at Yessenia feeling as if he recognized her, but wasn’t quite sure from where. “Go to the back door.”

             
“Back door?” Yessenia rose a brow.

             
“Yea, go to the muthafuckin’ back door!”

             
“Okay…I’m looking for the petite dark skinned girl that lives here, Latifah. I met her at the gas station the other day, and she gave me her address. She told me to meet her here.”

             
“You lookin’ for Latifah?” Ju Ju asked as he looked her over. He examined her from top to bottom. She was wearing a red belted tunic top with a pair of black skinny jeans. Her feet were tucked into a pair of black Julienne boots. She didn’t look like a cop or someone that he had to be worried about.

             
“Yea, Latifah. Is she here?” Yessenia shrugged and tried to look over his shoulder.

             
“She just left to go pick something up with D-Money. They’ll be back in a minute. Shit, I guess you can come in.”

             
Yessenia walked into the house once Ju Ju stepped to the side. She winced her nose at the aroma in the air and then walked over to the couch to have a seat. Slyly she looked around wanting to know how the girl that Devon was fucking lived. Although, the outside didn’t look like much, the inside of Latifah’s home was actually nice. The furniture was decent, and she had a pretty big sized flat screen mounted on the wall. Not only that, the place was clean.

             
Yessenia crossed her arms over her chest and allowed herself to melt into the leather cushion that was underneath her. She thought about her night with Rashad the other evening and a sleek smile appeared on her face. She felt like a new woman after sex with him.

The sex was so great that she even snuck over to his house again before going to work this morning. In the beginning, she felt guilty for cheating on her husband, but she thought about Latifah and all his lies and the feeling immediately left her.
It wasn’t like he wasn’t doing the same thing.

She was only here to get the facts from Latifah so she could confront Devon with the truth, and hopefully they could move on. Each of them had done wrong, and she hoped that it would stop here. As much as she
enjoyed the sex with Rashad, she loved her husband. She wasn’t ready to end their relationship and hoped that they could repair what had been broken.

             
“How much longer do you think it will be before she gets back from with this D-Money?” Yessenia yelled out as she looked over her shoulder.

             
“I don’t know mama. They said they’ll be right back. Maybe you should call her-”

             
Before Ju Ju could get out the remainder of his sentence out, the door came flying off the hinges and a force of officers came pouring in with their guns drawn. Ju Ju took off running towards the back while Yessenia was surprised and snatched up from the couch. Her eyes were as big as saucers as her arms were tugged on, and she was thrown to the ground. She was so confused and was fighting because she hadn’t done anything wrong.

             
“What are you doing? What have I done?”

             
“Shut the fuck up! Shut up and put your hands behind your back!” one of the officers yelled giving Yessenia no explanation as he cuffed her. 

             
“All I’m asking you is what I’ve done. I haven’t done anything sir.”

             
Yessenia looked up to see them bringing a couple of guys from the back of the house that she had no idea was there. She began to sweat as she glanced around at all of the uniformed policemen.
What the hell is going on?
She thought to herself. Her eyes became swollen as she held back the tears that were threatening to fall. This couldn’t have been about what she and Devon had done years ago-this had to be some sort of mistake.

             
“Stand up!” the officer yelled at Yessenia. He pulled her up from the ground and pushed her toward a crew of officers that were standing behind him. He grabbed her purse from the floor and emptied everything out onto the sofa.

             
“What are you doing? Why are you going-”

             
“Shut up!”

             
“Caught this one going out the back door and this one trying to flush,” a black officer said as he pulled Ju Ju and a younger guy through the living room.

Yessenia was in shock. She had no idea that her visit to see Latifah
would end up like this. It made her wonder just what kind of girl was Devon messing with.
Who the hell is all these nigga she got up in here? This shit is crazy. I got to let them know that I was just coming to talk to Latifah. I don’t know anything about what the hell is going on up in here.

             
“Sir, I just came here to talk to Latifah. I just got here five minutes ago!” Yessenia screamed, but when she saw everyone’s attention turn to the female officer coming toward them she knew that nothing she said would have matter.

She watched as
the officer held up a huge white looking loaf and almost shitted herself. Yessenia had lived in the hood all her life, but she always turned her back on things that she didn’t want any parts of and drugs had always been one of those things. That’s why she dealt with Devon’s lifestyle from a distance when he was in the game and made sure he promised to keep that shit away from them. Even then, she knew what a brick looked like. She watched enough movies to know that shit.

             
“Get ‘em out of here!” the lead officer yelled.

             
“Wait! Wait a minute, sir! Excuse me, but I don’t know anything about that! Sir!” Yessenia tried to plead with the police to hear her, but they didn’t care. She was there sitting in a house that was filled with drugs. She was going to jail, and there was no way around it.

Chapter 23: Together Again

Cherie sat inside of Starbucks coffee sipping on her White Mocha like it was water. She bobbed her leg back and forth and constantly sighed as she looked around the establishment. Her nerves
were all over the place. She placed her drink down and pulled her hand sized mirror from her purse. She glanced in it and checked to see if her hair was in place and ensured that she didn’t have anything on her face. She was waiting for Kareem.

             
She’d finally gotten in contact with him through email, and he agreed to sit down and talk with her. Funny thing was as she sat there waiting for him to show, she couldn’t get her mind off of Marco. He’d been trying to get in contact her ever since she left Rakwon’s and sent him that text message, but she ignored him. She wanted to be with him, but Tammy would try to kill her if she found out she was fooling with someone such as Marco. Her only and best option seemed to be Kareem, and here she was.

             
“Okay, Kareem you said at three, and it’s already going on three-thirty,” Cherie said as she took another sip of her White Mocha. She flipped her hair to the back and ran her fingers through her Chinese bangs. She grabbed her phone ready to leave when finally he walked through the door. “Thank God.”