Page 33 of That Fire

“It ain’t her, Royal. Her trauma is speaking loudly. The only person she trusts completely is Mythic. I find that to be crazy because it was his actions that got her in that situation. Even he doesn’t understand it. He fully expected her to damn near hate him.”

“Yeah. I think you’re doing the right thing by falling back. Maybe that will prompt her to reach out.”

“I’m not going to wait forever though. I can’t put my life on hold like that. I’m twenty-five years old. There are no guarantees in this world. I refuse to waste time pining after someone that may never come around.”

He stood, so I stood too. “I’m sorry, King.”

“Yeah, me too. I see you setting up for a romantic evening, so I’m gon’ get out your way. I’ll talk to you later, man.”

“Talk to your dad about it.”

“They got enough on their plates right now.”

“He will definitely push some shit off that plate for you. Talk to him.”

“We’ll see.”

He slapped my hand and headed out the door. I watched him walk to his house next door. I hated he was going through that bullshit. After closing the door, I texted my dad to see what was going on with everybody. This shit was ridiculous.

Aye, Dad. What the hell happened at the diner?

I sat on the couch with my phone in my hand, waiting to hear back from him. I supposed all the drama served at least one purpose. My mind was no longer on fucking. I wanted to make sure my people were cool, even my brother. That muthafucka was still on my last nerve. That was why I hated getting that angry. It took me a while to come back from it. I loved my brother, but he was wrong as fuck and had yet to admit to that shit.

When my phone chimed, I thought it was a text from my dad, but it wasn’t a text at all. It was an email. It felt like I immediately started sweating. When I opened my email, I realized it was from the first clinic we’d gone to. I frowned slightly, because they had no reason to be emailing me. I skimmed through it until I saw:

. . . DNA sample was contaminated. We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please call the office to reschedule another test, so we can provide accurate results at no cost to you.

“No shit,” I said aloud. I rolled my eyes as I thought about all the bullshit that caused. Thankfully, I didn’t allow that shit to cause me to let Aaliyah go permanently.

When my dad’s text came through, I got nervous.

They are keeping Seven for whatever reason. They won’t say. Sidney and Shy are back there setting it off. I heard Shyyell once. Crew, Ryder J, Jacob, Ace, Brix, Kane, Christian, and Crew were all arrested for interfering. They’ll probably be getting released in a lil bit. Your uncle mayor may get arrested next. That nigga acting a fool up here.

I slowly shook my head. They refused to just leave Seven alone. I didn’t know what they thought they had on him, but it was plain to see they just wanted to fuck with him.

Me:Did Uncle Marcus go up there with y’all?

Dad:Naw. That nigga know he gotta stay out them people way for right now.

Me:Okay. Keep me updated.

I stood and went to the kitchen and poured a glass of Crown. Whenever I looked at the shit, I rolled my eyes and chuckled. Once I took a swig, I started working on the recipe post I found on TikTok. It looked simple enough. I wanted to cater to Aaliyah. She deserved that.

After seasoning my chicken breasts and browning them, I was about to work on the sauce, but my phone chimed again. I went to it to see if my dad had something else to say. It was an email. I needed to change the alert sound, so I would know which was which. When I saw the email from a clinic, my hands started trembling. I was nervous as fuck.

I was planning this romantic evening with my baby not only to just cater to her, but to celebrate me being the babies’ biological father. I felt like God would reward my faith if I did. It didn’t erase my nervousness, but I was doing it anyway, praying for the best. Whatever the outcome, I had to believe that it would be what was best.

My thumb trembled as I hovered it over the email, causing me to accidentally hit it before I was ready. I quickly closed my eyes and took deep breaths, trying to get my nerves under control. Just that quickly, I’d stressed myself into a headache. Iset my phone down and took another swig of Crown and decided to get my sauce started for the pasta.

I sauteed the vegetables, spinach, and broccoli in butter, then added seasoning and flour to make it nice and thick. After adding the heavy whipping cream and mozzarella, pepper jack, and parmesan cheeses, I stirred it, then went back to the email.

I awakened my screen and scanned it to seeRoyal Henderson is a 99.9% match to the DNA of the unborn babies of Aaliyah Anderson.I dropped my phone to the countertop and literally cried. This was what we’d been hoping and praying for. I couldn’t wait until Aaliyah got home. She was busy relaxing so I knew she wouldn’t see the email. Plus, she had her notifications off for email.

I wiped my face as a smile emerged on my lips. I couldn’t wait to celebrate all over her body. Nikki would be sure to make sure Aaliyah was more than satisfied with her performance as well. I honestly believed Nikki preferred women over men anyway. With the way these niggas were cutting up these days, I couldn’t say that I blamed her.

My phone chimed, so I looked at it to see a text from Bali.

Congratulations, nigga. We already knew that shit though.