Ms. Carter

Chapter 9

{9:00AM, Sunday Morning}

“Here lies, Marcus Johnson, loving son and brother, and a great friend…”

I fidgeted in my seat, it was hot as fuck outside and I had all this damn black on, I don’t even know why I’m here really, okay maybe I do, but it’s honestly quite embarrassing and disgusting if you asked me. I’m here because…I might still have a small slither of feelings for him, I did love him, a lot, when he wasn’t drunk or on one of his highs, he was actually very sweet and kind to me. I’m sure if we would’ve got him into rehab everything would have been okay, but then again, he put my baby, and my family in danger, and I wasn’t having that. Glancing around the large amount of friends, family, and co-workers, I spotted one person in particular, bawling her eyes out as if her father was going 6 feet under, and not her boss. It was Jess, she was so fake, just last night she was ranting to the girls in the dressing room about how happy she was that the nigga was dead, I mean sure he was an asshole, but shit he gave her a job didn’t he? And he even let her keep it after he found out she was selling herself for sex, prostitution was a big no-no in the strip club policies, and that would mean automatic suspension from working if you were caught. And here she sat, on a Sunday morning, crying over a man that could give two fucks about her, it was funny actually, because that would’ve been me, if the situation had been different. I sighed and turned just in time to see them lower him into the ground, the choir began to sing and people started to leave flowers, cards and small trinkets on top of his casket before it was covered with dirt, packing it down until it was sealed shut, officially ending the life of Marcus Johnson. With a quick turn on my heels, I walked off to attend the next part of the ceremony, the reading of the will.

Walking into the small white room, I sat down at the head of the table, waiting for everyone else to arrive; with the time I had I was a bit early so I pondered over what he could leave for me. I didn’t expect much, it’s not like we were married or anything, but we had been together for quite a long time, it’s been a year and a couple months at least. Maybe he would leave me some money, not a lot but just enough to support me and Jaiden for a while. The only thing I was really worried about was the club. I mean who would take it up, and if no one did, so many girls would lose their jobs, including me. The club was all we knew, and it brought us all a lot of money, it helped us come from being dirt poor to me being able to actually live in the same neighborhood as my own sister. Not only did the club give us a sense of financial security, it also built a family, the girls and I were close, we had been through everything together, if you messed with one, you also messed with the other. All of us, well most of us had a reason for being there, it’s not like we wanted to be strippers, it wasn’t an aspiration, it was a necessity, something we needed to do, to help support our children, or pay for rent, or even just to get out of poverty. We all needed that club, and in vice versa, the club would need us, but only if it were put in the hands of the right person.

Eventually everyone who needed to be there, finally arrived, his mother, sister, Jessica and I. I glanced at Jess and made a slight face, so that’s why she was at the funeral; she thought she was going to get something out of this, well we’d just have to see about that. The preacher and the banker began reading off the list, his mother and sister would split half of his money, and the other half would go with me, along with the club and his apartment which were both already paid off. As for Jessica, she walked away with nothing, except for broken pride and a busted lip for attempting to swing at Marcus’ sister a few times. Marcus’s mother and I walked out of the church, and we ended up talking for a while, she told me that Marcus absolutely adored me, and that I was all he would talk about during family dinners. She wanted me to know that her family was always going to accept me and Jaiden into their lives, even if what her son did was wrong, it did not affect how she would treat me. We hugged each other tightly, and said our good-byes and drove off, both of us losing someone we deeply cared for, one more than the other, but nothing bothered me more than the fact that I had basically taken someone’s only son away, he was her baby she said, and now he was gone. She said she felt how I would feel if Jaiden had died that night on the balcony, and that killed me more than anything to know that I somewhat caused that. Laying in my bed, I fiddled with the necklace on my neck, the one he got me for our year anniversary, I sighed and felt a tear trickle down my cheek, as I realized what I’d done, I took the life of someone’s son, and to see that she was truly and genuinely hurt, was like a slap in the face. I sniffed and quickly wiped my eyes, shaking the thoughts of his mother from my head. I did what I had to do, I kept my daughter safe, and even though that meant taking another mother’s child, it saved my own.