Page 43 of Phone On DND
Everybody worked hard to keep me from taking my ass down to see Cruz, but the minute I was discharged a couple of days later, I didn’t even leave the hospital before going in search of him. I had to threaten to call security on Avery just to get herto stop trying to block me, and she ended up trailing behind me. The way she was moving at a snail’s pace only made me more frantic to see him, and when I finally got to his room, I damn near collapsed. He was bruised and cut up from head to toe with a cast on his right arm and right leg. His face wasn’t even recognizable, and I timidly moved to his side. I was scared to even touch him out of fear that it would somehow hurt him, even though he was clearly unconscious. My tears landed on his blanket, and when they flooded my face, I didn’t even bother to wipe them.
“You know this is all my fault, right?” I sniffled, finally feeling brave enough to touch the fuzzy braids on top of his head. His cocky ass would’ve hated to know that his braids looked so old and raggedy. The thought made me choke on a laugh as emotion filled my throat.
“Don’t say that, Key. It’s not?—”
I snapped my head in her direction, cutting her off. “But it is though! He sent our other security to get me some fuckin’ Church’s!” I shook my head bitterly and turned back to Cruz’s lifeless body. “If they would’ve been there, this shit probably wouldn’t even have happened.” My heart broke with guilt at how ridiculous it was. He’d told me it was dangerous, and I still insisted on taking my ass up to the school, so technically, I’d risked his life twice.
“Stop talking like that. He sent them away because he cares about you and the baby and just wanted to get you what you wanted. It’s not your fault that bitch out her mind. Shit, it’s not even his fault as much as I hate to admit it.” She grumbled the last part lowly, but I heard her loud and clear. Avery had felt some type of way about the Raya situation since she’d found out about her shooting up my house. To hear that Avery was no longer holding a grudge against him made me feel good, but I hated that it came after he was laid up in the hospital.
“Well, he’d be glad to hear you say that. I think he’s low-key scared of you.” I laughed through my tears, and she joined me, finally crossing the room to where I stood and holding my free hand.
“As he should be,” she said, twisting her lips with a smirk.
We were still there some time later when his father walked in and seemed surprised to see us. He’d been much nicer since I’d been in the hospital, but I was sure that was only because of the baby. Since I’d been in Cruz’s world, I’d learned that men like Juan only cared about money and legacy. Hell, probably his wife too, but they weren’t going to use me to get to their grandchild, not unless they showed me they could treat me with respect. How would I look taking my kid to see them and having to worry that they were badmouthing me the whole time? I definitely wasn’t having any of that.
“Ladies,” he greeted once his initial shock wore off and stepped further into the room.
“Juan.” My tone was less than enthusiastic as I tried to discreetly wipe my face. Avery was just a tad more sweet than me, but she couldn’t stop her face from showing how she really felt.
“How are you feeling?” My eyes lifted, surprised that he was even asking and even more that he sounded sincere. “You weren’t supposed to be discharged until tomorrow, right?”
I cleared my throat before nodding. “Yes, but they said I was good to go, and I’m actually feeling okay, but I’d feel better if I knew when Cruz was going to be waking up.”
“From what they just told me, they don’t know. His body suffered a lot of trauma, so they want to keep him unconscious for a while longer. I have a specialist flying in tomorrow, and we’ll see what he says though.” I wasn’t shocked that he was going to spend extra money on another opinion, and I damnsure didn’t blame him. Whatever got Cruz home to me faster, I agreed with.
“If I’m not here, can you please let me know what they say?” Since I wasn’t a family member, they refused to tell me about his condition when I asked, but if I formed a relationship with his parents, despite their behavior, it would definitely make things easier.
“Of course.” I raised my eyebrows and shared a look with Avery to see if she was witnessing this shit. “Me and Serena actually wanted to ask if you would join us for dinner one of these days. The matter of our grandchild is one that needs to be discussed…no?”
Snickering uncomfortably, I gave a nod, even though seeing them without Cruz was probably not going to happen. “I’ll have to see about that. Between the twins and trying to sit with Cruz, I’ll probably be tired, but I’m sure we can set something up,” I lied through my teeth, but he seemed satisfied or at least understanding. I stayed for as long as I could, considering that Juan was in the room, but when Serena entered, I knew it was time to go. Besides, I really did need to check on the twins since they hadn’t seen me in a couple of days, but I was definitely going to make sure I came back.
When I left the hospital, I hadn’t thought at all about why there was no security. Hell, even when Avery ended up being the one to drive me and the twins home, it hadn’t crossed my mind how weird it was to go from having a big hulking man following me around to having complete freedom. It wasn’t until I returned to Cruz’s house that it all started to make sense. Every person he had standing guard was gone, from the men surrounding the gate to the ones that were posted inside the house, and when I asked the head maid about it, she was extremely hush-hush. I figured that perhaps with Cruz out of commission, they didn’t know they were supposed to stay, butthat was just me trying to make sense of some shit that didn’t seem right.
It wasn’t until the next day when I attempted to see Cruz and was told that I was on the no-entry list that shit started to become crystal clear. For as much as Juan had tried to seem nice and unassuming the day before, his ass had really just been waiting for the moment to bar me from seeing his son! I cursed everybody out from the nurses at the station to random doctors walking by that didn’t even have shit to do with his care, but all that did was make them call security and get me escorted out. I called and vented to Avery on the way home to see if maybe Maasai could talk to them, but Juan had a deep disdain for him too, after having Cruz more involved in McCarter family business than his own.
“What the hell…?” My voice trailed off as I watched a steady flow of people coming in and out of the house with me and the kids’ things and set them in a truck.
“What? What is it now?” Avery was beyond worked up at the underhanded shit Cruz’s parents had done, so I didn’t even want to tell her about this and add to it, but I’d already slipped up. Plus, I was probably going to need their help anyway.
“Ummm, there are people moving our stuff out of the house.” I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that this shit was just a bad dream, but they were still there, and my shit was still on a damn U-Haul.
“What!” she screeched so loudly in my ear that I had to move the phone away. “Oh, they got us fucked up! They can’t do shit like that! Call the police, ’cause I’m sure that’s an illegal eviction or some shit!” I could hear her moving around and sounding all out of breath before Maasai’s voice came through. She’d been loud enough that he probably could’ve heard her from the other side of their big ass house. I watched in horror as they finished up, and Serena came strolling out of the front door. Instead offollowing the truck with my shit in it though, I stormed over to her ready to knock her ass out.
“What the fuck is wrong with you! You have no right to?—”
“No dear, you have no right. Now you need to go with your belongings and leave my son to me. You’ve already caused enough problems in his life, don’t add to his stress when this is already your fault.” It felt like a knife in my heart to hear her say that, especially after how they’d been playing in my face the last week, but they really had me fucked up. I was sure they had no clue about the money Cruz had given me, so my kids and I would be good regardless, but I know when he found out what they’d done, I couldn’t say the same for them.
Chapter 23
Avery
It was really fucked up what Cruz’s people were doing to Keyani. It was getting to the point that I understood exactly why she didn’t trust nobody, but if she didn’t have shit else, she had me! Since her house was still fucked up after the shooting, I’d brought her home with me and Maasai, who was stuck between a rock and a hard place about what was happening with his friend. He knew Cruz wouldn’t have liked what they had going on, but he also knew Cruz wouldn’t want him to kill them. At least he didn’t think so anyway. I’d been going around making so many threats that I had my own little personal hitlist, and they were right under where their son’s name had been scratched off.
I wasn’t sure if their plan was to leave Keyani out in the open or not, but they had her and me fucked up! My girl was good as long as I was good, so she had her security right back and was still living in a fortress. And she was still a rich ass bitch! Their son made sure of that! She’d told me all about the money Cruz had given her in good faith, and that made me like him even more, which was why his name was scratched off, but if he was on bullshit when he came to, it was nothing to add it back.
“Avery! We gone be late, man!”
Maasai’s yelling brought me out of my thoughts, and I hurried to slip my feet into the Chanel sneakers I’d chosen to wear with my outfit. We’d scheduled another appointment, and I was praying that we actually made it without any bullshit this time because I’d be on a worse warpath than my husband had been.
