Page 67 of Lau Ahi
“This isn’t the family business. This is the last gasp of a desperate man fighting to hold on to something that he couldn’t. And he sold his only daughter out to get it. The shit that we were doing all these years? The chickens are just now coming home to roost.” Hakeem’s face had frowned up morphing into something akin to disgust when he spoke about the former patriarch’s actions but relaxing when he spoke about us getting what we’d deserved.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I rested my arm on the bar waiting for him to elaborate, because I didn’t doubt he would. He stayed for a reason and now I wanted to know what it was.The bar was in the corner of the meeting room, one that had large windows that were limo-tinted so no one could see in but we could see out. The glass was bullet and ballistics proof with weapons strategically placed and multiple extraction points.
His brows dipped slightly and his head tilted like he were now the one studying me. “You don’t know?”
“Know what? Don’t start something and not finish it.” I hated when people moved that way. As though they wanted you to beg them for information. I wasn’t about to get on my knees and beg for a fucking thing, especially from the side of the family that had turned their back on me. I’d rather kill his ass and then figure it out on my own.
His brows rose as though he were remembering something that eased his irritation at my words. “Seeing as you’ve been kept in the dark about so much—”
“If I’m in the dark then enlighten me.”
He held his hands up in surrender, which only aggravated me more. “Bruh, I don’t have a problem with you—”
“You’re about to if you keep speaking in riddles when that shit ain’t necessary.” I didn’t move at all but I wasn’t joking. He was about to have a problem if he kept on because none of this was on my list of things to do today. My time was too valuable for somebody to be fucking with it for their own agenda. Especially if I wasn’t going to benefit from it.
Hakeem had the nerve to grin like something was funny and only nodded his head, knowing he was tap dancing on my last fucking nerve.
“Family history lesson in short. The Franklins hadn’t been doing what they needed to with theConsortiumfor years.”
My head was spinning because I hadn’t heard anything about this. I knew about the beef between the Cannons and the Suttons because Cardinal’s ass got caught up and wanted to have someone to throw under the bus. Instead of coming tous, he tried to gain more power for himself by putting the Feds onto Xerxes’ family dealings. Thankfully, all that shit was cut off before it took hold but that didn’t mean that the damage to the relationship wasn’t still done. Although Xerx and Priest were good, Auntie Babette took extra pleasure in watching Priest kill his daddy. Well, his uncle. And I knew she took flights to gloat over his mama in the asylum where we had her ass locked up.
“Years?” Nobody had given me any insight to the Franklin family being on probation or on thin ice. I wasn’t sure if my grandfather had done something that smoothed all that over but clearly it was a question I needed to ask him.
“Why do you think theConsortiumwas eager to let your daddy’s people move in when they did? It had nothing to do with it only being a good business opportunity, which it was; don’t get me wrong. They needed a powerful family that was going to handle this shit.”
My arms went across my chest as my mind raced, trying to figure out where this was going. “I’m not following.”
Hakeem shook his head like he was annoyed with me before he sat his glass down on the bar top. “This is the reason you need to talk to your mama.”
I sat up dropping my arms and standing to my full height. “What the fuck does she have to do with anything?”
“Bruh, cousin Faith ain’t as bad as you make her seem.” Hakeem was unfazed by my actions not bothering to take a defensive posture as he kept leaning against the bar. He either underestimated me or didn’t value his life.
“Oh, you're using monikers and shit for her. It seems she’s been more involved in your life than she was in mine.”
It wasn’t a big deal for me to speak my disdain for the woman who birthed me. She was a sore spot they all ensured didn’t heal. It would’ve been one thing for my mother to leave and for her parents or siblings to step in. But they didn’t. I got tossed asideby them the same way she’d done me and I wasn’t going to let them feel better about the shit they’d done. While my cousin wasn’t a part of their bullshit he was guilty by association and I couldn’t help how I felt.
He looked offended as hell for how I was speaking and I knew it was because he actually had feelings for Faith and respect for his own mother. “That’s your mama—”
I scoffed as I shook my head. “She hasn’t been that in a long fucking time.”
Hakeem sighed probably from the realization that this was a battle he wasn’t about to win.
“Look, nigga. I know you're bitter and shit because of what went down with your family. Trust, I don’t blame you cause that shit was all fucked up. But you need to understand that the vast majority of the fuck shit that happened had nothing to do with her. You try to be a woman who is soft as shit because that’s the nicest way to put it, being surrounded by sharks. Faith was raised to be gullible and easy to manipulate because that’s how her daddy wanted her. She was always a useful tool that he couldn’t ignore simply because she was to be his heir. He had every desire to pass her over but he couldn’t without good reason. The one who was supposed to be the heir died fucking another man’s wife so she was automatically next in line. He couldn’t skip her without cause and he didn’t have that shit so he was stuck.”
I shrugged not bothering to say anything, because this was information I’d been able to gather on my own. “You know far more about her than I do.”
He nodded, his face filled with irritation and something akin to disgust. “Shit, I probably do. But only because I give a fuck enough to listen. Can you say the same?”
His accusation hit me squarely so I wasn’t going to deny it. I also wasn’t going to acknowledge it so I moved on. “So tell me what I’m missing out on.”
He watched me again probably to test if I truly cared about his explanation. I was glad he wasn’t one to waste his time either and I appreciated that he could tell I wasn’t on any bullshit.
“What you’re missing out on is that your mother was set up to fail from the very beginning. Not just by your daddy but by our grandfather too. You think he was going to let Faith step in on some shit that he put into motion and actually have control? Never that. Big James was gully and little James wanted to be the same way. He’s been trying to live in his older brother's and his father’s shadow, which is why he turned to the skin trade. That was something that Big James liked to dabble in and Little James is too weak to find his own identity. Always had been and apparently always will be. Because even in death, he’s still getting his wish.”
“And what was his wish?”
He took another sip of his drink before he gave me the answer I needed. “Descension. You think he ain’t gone be bitter about the fact that his family couldn’t grow with the times when others did? They tried to help him for years and he didn’t listen. Just knew that he wouldn’t have to change how he moved and he failed at every turn. Which only made him more bitter.”
