Skye stared watching the news as they talked about Sandino’s death. She listened as they said, “Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.”
“Until I find Kareem, I’m not even thinking about burying Sandino,” she said to herself.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the press was constantly staked out outside, Skye felt like she couldn’t even turn on the T.V. without hearing Sandino’s name. If it were up to me, he would’ve been dead a long time ago.
Her mind drifted back to Sandino’s first night home. She remembered sneaking into his room and standing over him with a pillow ready to smother him as he slept. All her years of domestic, sexual and verbal abuse, danced in her head. When she heard Quinn moving around in his room across the hall, Skye finally snapped out of her trance. It was at that moment when she realized it would be too hard to explain Sandino’s sudden death and going to jail was definitely out of the question. So, she quickly left the room.
Skye shook her head focusing her mind back on Kareem. Why hasn’t Cruze called me back about Kareem? I told him being back in the streets would interfere with him being there for his family and this is a prime example. Even If I did consider taking his ass back he can forget it now. He made his choice…the streets. Why did I think he was any different from all the other no good men I’ve had in my life?
“Maybe I’m cursed!”she yelled.
Skye threw the remote across the room and quickly hopped up and caught a glimpse of her image in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot red and the puffy bags under lids now seemed to be permanent. She hadn’t bathed or combed her hair in days and looked a complete mess. But for now appearances didn’t matter. All she wanted to do was talk to Kareem. Four days had passed, and she still hadn’t heard one word from him. She’d even called the Georgia Police Department and filed a missing person’s report, but since Skye didn’t even know Felicia’s address, the police told her it was going to be even more difficult to find him. Now, she didn’t know what else to do.
“I can’t believe I was so consumed with getting back to Miami that I didn’t even take the time to find out where Le Le lived or got her number.”
Suddenly Skye heard a knock at her bedroom door.
“Who is it?” she yelled.
“Jordan!”
Skye was surprised. Jordan hadn’t said a complete sentence to her since Sandino’s fatal seizure.
It’s not my fault he had the damn seizure. If he had left us alone and not come to my apartment that night we all would be just fine right now, she thought to herself. As a father he was suppose to give his sons good life lessons, and good memories. Yet Sandino has left his sons with nothing but taunted memories. Sorry muthafucka.
Not only that, Quinn was so upset that he wasn’t around to possibly save Sandino, he packed up and left right after the Coroner’s took away the body without even saying goodbye.
“I didn’t like his punk ass any damn way,” Skye mumbled before telling Jordan to come in.
Jordan walked in the room carrying Payton and sat on the side of her bed. He looked really upset like he’d been crying.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Skye asked, grabbing Payton.
Jordan didn’t say anything. Instead he stared Skye down with uncertainty. Seconds later, he broke down crying again. Skye put Payton down on the bed and reached over and grabbed her son.
“I know you’re upset son and I’m sorry. I know you loved your father and were finally developing a relationship with him again. I told you it wasn’t going to be easy coming back here. I’ve been thinking lately and I know now that I made the wrong choice. I was so worried about us struggling and being broke thinking if we came back for the money we would be happier. But in all honesty it seemed like we were happier without the money,” Skye admitted.
Jordan lifted his head. “You’re right. We were happier without all the money. We would still be together as a family. Me, you, Payton, Kareem and Cruze. You used to tell us that it wasn’t healthy to carry around a grudge but you are. If leaving this house will make you turn back into my mom again then can we please leave tonight?”
At that moment Skye felt even worse. Realizing her son was right, she knew it was time to make some drastic changes.
Later that night, Skye heard the door bell ring. Thinking it was a reporter trying to get her statement about Sandino, she first decided to ignore it. But after looking out the window and realizing that all the paparazzi were camped out at the end of the driveway, Skye became excited hoping it might be Kareem. Running down the stairs, Skye kept visualizing how big her hug was going to be as soon as she saw his face. Skye knew at that point she never wanted to be without her kids, and would cherish them every day after this scare. Opening the door, her heart was filled with anticipation, until she looked at the person standing on the opposite side. She was surprised to see who it was.
“What are you doing here? How did you find out where I lived?” Skye asked.
Suddenly all the paparazzi ran up to the door, taking pictures.
“We need to talk,” Felicia said. “Can I come in?”
Realizing the pictures of her would be all over the news, Skye quickly stepped to the side, allowing Felicia to enter. However, as soon as she closed the door, Skye immediately became alarmed because it looked as if Felicia had been crying for hours.
Skye’s heart rate began to enhance. “Has something happened to my son, Le Le?”
Felicia looked up, then swallowed the huge lump in her throat. “My name isn’t Le Le, Skye. It’s Felicia…Felicia Mitchell. Justice was my husband.”
Skye backed away. “What? Is this some type of joke? I need to talk to Kareem. Where is he? Where’s my son?”
Tears formed in Felicia’s eyes. She even opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Where is he? What happened to Kareem? Why are you here?” By this time tears were in Skye’s eyes as well. “Answer me!”
“He’s…he’s dead,” Felicia was barely able to say.
Skye immediately fell to her knees and wailed. “I knew it. I felt it.”
Felicia ran over to Skye to comfort her.
“Get the fuck off me. It’s all your fault! If it wasn’t for you my son would be here in Miami with his family. I knew you were bad news the first day I laid eyes on you!” Anger and sadness consumed her body at the same time. If her son was dead, Felicia was gonna pay.
“I’m so sorry. I know you already hate me,” Felicia said, sobbing uncontrollably.
Suddenly, Skye reached up and hit Felicia in the face then grabbed her hair, pulling her onto the floor. Within seconds, she’d gripped Felicia by her neck trying to cut off her air supply. Felicia fought back desperately trying to push Skye away. When she was finally able to loosen Skye’s grip, the two rolled around on the floor fighting for what seemed like an eternity.
“You’re right, it’s all my fault. I should’ve helped him…I should’ve helped him,” Felicia belted.
With no strength left to fight, Skye climbed off Felicia. They both laid side by side on the floor weeping.
“I’m so sorry,” Felicia repeated.
“Who did this? Who kill him?”
“My husband’s brother, Dre. He killed Kareem and Cruze.”
Skye’s heart dropped. “Oh my God Cruze is dead, too? No wonder he never called me back. Noooooo. What happened? Tell me what happened?”
“Cruze died trying to protect your son,” Felicia informed. “Right before Kareem died he wanted me to tell you something. He wanted you to know how much he loved you and that he was sorry for everything.”
Skye wailed again. “No…no…no. Please God, no.”
“I just wanted to know what happened to Justice since the police didn’t seem concerned. I told Dre I would give him half of Justice’s life insurance money if he helped me so I could have closure. I’m so sorry Skye, I never meant for any of this to happen. I should’ve helped Kareem get away. But instead I watched Dre murder them both,” she cried. “It took me days to finally get the courage to come over here and tell you. Dre would kill me if he knew I was here, but I don’t care. I wanted you to know what happened. I didn’t want you to go through the same thing I did.”
Skye held a blank expression for what seemed forever. She was so happy that Jordan slept in such a comatose state because the last thing Skye wanted right now was for him to find out that his brother was gone. It felt like Skye’s heart had been ripped out and shredded into tiny little pieces.
“So, you watched my son die?” Skye finally asked.
“Yeah, just like you watched my husband die,” Felicia replied.
It was at the moment when Skye realized that they were both in the same position. She also realized that Felicia could’ve easily gone back to Georgia and never said a word. To Skye, the pain of not knowing what happened to her son would’ve been far too much to bear, so at the very moment she felt grateful.
“Seems like we both got something on each other, huh?” she said to Felicia. “Well, if you don’t go to the police then neither will I.”