Rise & Fall Of A Don

Chapter 5

Five Years Later

Tommy Pov

I pulled into my yard in my dodge challenger. I went inside. Ma was cooking.

"Hi ma. What are you cooking?" I kissed her on the cheek and hugged her.

"Baked chicken thighs, rice, gravy, greens and cornbread. And go wash your hands boy, hell."

I chuckled slightly. I went to wash my hands. I never thought to disrespect her. Not once. Her bark was way worse than her bite though. Not saying she hasn't ever slapped fire from my ass. As she puts it. She did that a lot when I was younger. I knew she did it out of love though.

When I came back to the living room she was looking a little solemn. "Sit down baby. Let me talk to you."

I sat down. "Wassup ma." I wanted her to get it out. I didn't like the way she was looking. Anybody who touches my ma will pay the price. Plain and simple. I didn't ever want her to be sad. Briefly, we argued about where all the money was coming from, especially when I got shot earlier in the year. My actions were screaming dope boy. She didn't want me out selling drugs and getting into trouble. She stood on that. I told her Hause gave me a raise and I was saving up, which I had. I paid cash for my car and it's the latest model.

"We're moving." I controlled my reaction. I wanted to jump up and yell, what the fuck. Moving away would make my job harder.

"Why."

"Sweetheart, I'm finally graduating nursing school. I'm going to be a nurse. I want to move into a better neighborhood. Take you away from all of this. I know it still hurts seeing your mother and Petro around."

Actually it didn't. I actually want Petro right here, seeing and looking at all the moves I was making. While he was stuck here still selling his bulshit ass crack that nobody wanted. He was close to confronting me, I could tell. My birth mom had the audacity to come ask me for money. It's rumored that I sold drugs. I didn't, actually. My crew did. But I do oversee them because if something get fucked up, it's on me and Hause wouldn't give a shit about how long he's known me. I learned early in this business not to trust a soul. I've lost one of my crew because I wouldn't tell him where I got my drugs or who the main handler was. Why the fuck he wanted to know. Just sell the shit and don't get fucking caught. I kept my hands clean because I knew I could be traced back to Hause.

"Where will we move? And when."

"I don't know. I was hoping you and I could go look for some houses then if we like it, we could put a down payment on it. I've been saving my paychecks."

"What about the money that I gave you?"

"Baby, that's for you to go to college. I didn't spend it. I was saving it for you."

"What the hell, ma." I stood up and looked down in her face angrily. "I gave that to you for you to spend on yourself. To buy you something nice."

"What the hell was I going to buy with 15,000 dollars?"

"Something nice. Anything you needed."

"I know that, but I didn't need anything. I was looking into your future. You're 16 years old. Next year you will graduate and you could go to college. You can be whatever you want. I'm so proud of you."

I blew out a breath and sat back down. "I wasn't planning on going to college, ma. Couldn't you have talked to me."

She started rubbing my back then running her fingers through my curly hair like she did when I was a kid. "Of course you're going to college."