Jade

Chapter 23

A young sixteen year old Danielle sat on the cold marble floor of their family's once-grand foyer, her back against the wall, legs pulled to her chest. Her little sister Devonne sat a few feet away, staring blankly at the staircase, her small fingers clutching the teddy bear she refused to let go of. Devonne was always been the softer one, the light in the family. But that night, witnessing their father get gunned down right in front of them changed something inside her.

Their father never hid the truth from them. Unlike other kids who grew up on bedtime stories and fairy tales, Danielle and Devonne grew up on lessons of loyalty and betrayal. Stephen taught them about the weight of a name, the power of respect, and the danger of trusting the wrong people.

And yet, he still managed to trust the wrong people.

"Dee?" She heard Devonne say, snapping her out her thoughts.

Danielle quickly wiped her tears. "Yeah?"

"Why did those men kill daddy?"

Danielle clenched her jaw, staring at the grand chandelier above them. She wanted to lie, to tell Devonne it was all a mistake, that their father would walk through the door any second and fix everything. But Stephen never sugarcoated things for them. And she wouldn't either.

"Because they thought he was a traitor," she said lowly.

"But he wasn't." Devonne said with a frown.

"It don't matter," Danielle said dismissively. "They believed he was. And that was enough."

The weight of everything was slowly starting to settle in. Their father was gone and their mother mentally checked out not too long after. And the people they had called family—the Williams-Brown syndicate, the ones who never missed a birthday and spent holidays together, were the same ones who put the bullet in their father's head.

Their home would be gone soon too. The money dried up fast when your name wasn't worth anything anymore. Accounts frozen, investments seized, people who once smiled in their face now avoiding them. Their father's empire, the life they knew, was slowly crumbling.

Danielle was old enough to know their lives were about to change, and she knew eventually the world would soon hear their side of the story.

"A'mouri, what's going on?" Jade snapped behind him, her voice laced with irritation as they weaved through the guest and stepped in the house.

He ignored her as they made their way through the house, him leading the way upstairs.

The second they reached one of the rooms upstairs, Jade froze. She saw her father and what seemed like all her uncles seated around the large fire place in one of the guest rooms, looking up once she walked in.

"Jade, sit." Nikai said after a brief moment of silence.

A'mouri rubbed his hand over his face, snapping back to the present — the sound of Jadakiss & Styles P "We Gonna Make It" filling the car and briefly making him forget about the tense conversation that took place earlier at his grandmas party.

It was going on three in the morning so the highway to Savannah was damn near empty. He was twenty minutes out from his mom's house, impulsively deciding to take the drive out since he hadn't heard from her all day.

He contemplated taking the jet, but he knew the long drive would help to clear his mind.

His mom was surprisingly close to his grandma, so he was confused as to why she didn't pull up to the party after saying she would be there. She wasn't answering any of his calls either.