Page 79 of When He's Gone

“Tatiyonna, it's okay if that shit hurt your feelings. That's the only thing that girl got on you is a baby by a nigga that is nowhere to be found. You're carrying life now. Who gives a fuck what she’s talking about?”

“Jah, I had no idea about any insurance money. I don't even want it.”

“Not that you need it, but shit, you deserve it. We’ll look into it together.” He pulled me close and lifted my head. “Hold your head up, baby. You’re mine now. All that old shit is irrelevant,” he kissed me. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

After talking to the police, Jah made us shut the studio down and head home. Siya didn’t want to press charges. What she did mention to the police was how they needed to do a better job of finding Kileen. He wasn’t important enough for them to use the resources to find out where he was. Siya needed to chalk it up and raise her daughter as best as she could, as far as that insurance money went. I didn’t want it and planned on putting it in a trust for his daughter when she got old enough to use it. I didn’t have it in me to be nasty to his daughter. Now, Siya, that hoe wouldn’t see a dime unless her daughter was nice enough to give her some.

“Jah, do you think Kileen is somewhere dead? It is strange for him to leave his daughter,” I asked as he rubbed my feet.

“I don’t give a fuck about that nigga. He could be somewhere rotting, and I wouldn’t bat an eye. He walked away from his daughter the day played in your face,” he told me.

All I did was stare at him, trying to decipher what he was saying.

“That nigga alright, baby. He just ran away from his responsibilities. No need for your pretty ass to worry about it,” he told me.

EPILOGUE

JAHMIR

One Year Later

I could never leta nigga play with me more than once. This love shit was amazing, and if I had to take a nigga out that was trying to get in the middle of that, I had no problem doing it. Now, as I stood up here and waited on my fine ass soon-to-be wife to walk down that aisle, I would do this shit all over again. The only difference would be taking Kileen’s ass out sooner. See, I didn’t like to be little boyed. You know, the whole paying for our dinner and ruining our moment without our pregnancy announcement. I thought me and the nigga had gotten everything off our chest that day at my office.

He just kept doing ignorant things that were triggering my anger. Stressing Tatiyonna out by not being out of the house in time. Making her run back and forth to the courthouse. Stuff like that was chipping away. I did what only I could do; I handled it. It wasn’t hard to learn his routine. Kileen did the same thing every day. I laid on him for a week only because I needed to make sure the burial site was ready. A simple late night coming from the gym and he was tied up in the back of a trunk.

He pleaded for his life before I pulled the trigger on him. I had no words. All the words I had for him were already spoken. Mr. Cole was waiting for me when the job was complete. No DNA. No phone data. No body. The nigga was so deep under concrete that they would have to tear a whole building down to find his ass. My problem was solved and I slept good at night cuddled up next to my woman.

Like always, I granted Tatiyonna’s wish. She wanted a wedding instead of a courthouse wedding. Shit, whatever my baby wanted, she got. It was small with only a few of her clients that she held dear to her heart, and a few of her clients from the dance studio, which was doing amazing by the way. Tatiyonna was so ambitious and I think that’s what turned me on the most. That night I watched her dance, it took a lot to control myself for as long as I did.

She had our beautiful baby boy and jumped right back into her career and the studio. I made it clear to her that she did not have to work. If she wanted to stay home with the baby, she could. Instead, she made sure our son was with her as she did her thing. Not only was she an amazing woman to me, but watching her be a mother for the first time made a nigga heart melt. You look in her eyes and tell this is what she wanted. I was so glad I was the one to give it to her.

“You fix your makeup just so…guess you don’t know that you're beautiful…”

The music started, and my eyes went to the entrance to see Tatiyonna standing there with her father. Her wedding dress was beautiful. I didn’t care what she spent on it. As John LegendNobodyinthe Worldcontinued to play, I let the tears roll down my eyes. If this is what love was like, I needed this type of love every lifetime. Her dad gave me her hand, and she wiped my tears as I wiped hers.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” I told her.

“Thank you, baby.”

I helped her up and we started the ceremony. We had both prepared our own vows. It took me months of going back and forth. Last night, I finally threw the piece of paper away and said I would just go off the top of my head. That was easy when it came to her. Tatiyonna said hers first and then the pressure was on me.

“Tatiyonna, we know what we were. I played like it wasn’t anything serious, when I knew from the day I talked to you outside the pizza parlor, I wanted to be your husband. You had your hair freshly curled, and you were looking beautiful, as you always do. How we got here wasn’t the prettiest and there were days I questioned whether you would ever come back. You did, and once we said this is it, it’s me and you, I made a promise to keep you safe and keep peace in your life. When I put this ring on your finger, the promise still stands. Tatiyonna, I love you and see you. I’ve seen you since day one. All I want for you from this day forward is to be in your soft girl era. All I ask in return is that you love me back.”

Everyone was in tears by the time I was done. We slipped those rings on and kissed each other like no one was in the room with us. I was definitely getting her ass pregnant again tonight. We could have Irish twins, all I cared. As soon as our plane landed in Turks, I was bending her ass over the balcony.

The End