KING

1 - Meet the Kings

"Welcome home Ma!" My 20 year old son Romeo greeted cheesing hard with his arms open. "Romie Rome!" I yelled happily pulling him into a tight hug. "Let me look at you." I grabbed his face and frowned when I noticed his low, red eyes "You on some shit?" He quickly pushed my hands off him and shook his head. "Nah I was at the club last night. That's it. Come get in the car let's get you home." I wasn't trying to ruin my first few moments of freedom so I decided to just drop it and got in the car without saying another word.

"Wait until you see what Ricky got set up for you back at the house." Romeo said as we drove to my oldest son Ricky's house.

After almost a 2 hour drive we finally arrived. "Wow." I whispered to myself as we pulled up outside the mansion sized house. "Ricky lives here?" I asked. "Uh yeah dad bought it for him and Chlo as their wedding gift last year."

I followed Romeo through the house as we followed the sounds of laughter and music further into the house.

"Rome here!" A lady announced when she saw us. She was holding a tray of snacks in her left hand and was balancing a little girl on her right hip. "Aye Chlo-" She cut him off with a dramatic gasp when she realised who I was "Wait! Hold on- this her? This Peaches? I'm so sorry. Uh my hands are full or I would've gave you a hug or something, but I'm Chloe, everybody calls me Chlo I'm Ricky's wife." She smiled at me. "Hi pretty, its nice to finally meet my daughter in law."

"You too. You guys can follow me everybody's in the back." She spun on her heels and like she said we followed her to where everybody was. Everybody seemed fully occupied with whatever they were doing to even notice us, I noticed Chloe take a deep breath before the echoing sound of her voice boomed through the room "RICKY!!" Almost immediately the room fell silent and all eyes were on us. "Your mama here." She said as she placed the tray on the table and walked off.

I made my rounds around the room saying hello to the familiar faces and some new ones who seemed to be so intrigued about my life. After I settled in, showered and put on a fresh set of clothes I sat down with my boys. "Where's everybody else?" I asked Ricky. I had been here over an hour and I still hadn't seen Rico, Rage and Reign.

"Rage on his way, he said he's stuck in traffic and Reign's at college. Rome didn't tell you?" Ricky answered as the same little girl Chloe was holding earlier came over holding out some candy for him to open. "She's so sweet. I didn't know you had kids. Why didn't anybody tell me?" I noticed Romeo and Ricky look at each other silently. "What?"

"Ma this is Sky. She's Rage's " I frowned, "She's whose?" This wasn't making any sense this little girl looked about 4 already which would've meant Rage would've had her at like 14. "So you're telling me that my son, my baby boy, had a baby and nobody told me?!" I semi yelled. "Dad didn't want you to worry."

"This is messed up. Ya'll wrong for that and you know it."  They stayed silent and I knew there was something else. "What is it?" I asked. "He got three of them ma..." Romeo mumbled quietly trying his best so hoping I didn't hear.

"WHAT?!"

•

The next morning I got dressed in these new clothes Chloe had picked out for me and headed downstairs to the kitchen. "I know he said we shouldn't-" Chloe stopped mid sentence once she saw me "Morning Peaches. You sleep okay?" I shrugged, it sounded crazy but after 15 years of sleeping in a cold damp cell I got use to it and sleeping anywhere else felt strange to me.

"Good morning." Sky cheesed happily through her toast stuffed mouth. "Good morning baby" I looked over at Chloe as she continued flipping the pancakes on the stove. "They live here with you and Rick?" I asked gesturing to Sky and the baby boy who was sound asleep in his rocker.