So Far Gone (Urban) Book 8 | The Sideline Series

Chapter 22

Effrin

I cupped a handful of water in my hands from the running sink and splashed it on my face. I needed to clean Aubrey's blood off of my hands and face. During the time it took me to drive to Charmaine's house, the blood had hardened on my face and hands and even on my new suit. So as soon as I got to Charmaine's house, I hopped in the shower to clean the blood off of my body. I grabbed my warm white button down that Charmaine washed and pulled it up over my body before putting my suit jacket on over it. I buttoned my white shirt and tucked it into my sacks.

"Get it together King," I whispered to myself as I looked in the mirror at a reflection of myself that I couldn't even recognize. "You gotta do this for Sincere, and once it's done you're gonna be with her again."

"Effrin!" Charmaine banged on the door. "You good?"

I took a deep breath. "Y-Yeah. I'm coming out."

"Alright, I'll be in the living room."

I sighed and grabbed my phone off of the sink before walking out of the bathroom, only to find Charmaine sitting in the living room. When I got over here, she was just as sad as I was. It looked like she had been crying ever since the dinner, and when I was in the shower, I could hear her crying the whole time. I plopped down on the couch across from her as soon as I got to the living room, and saw how red and puffy her face was.

"So why'd you come over again?" she asked, bringing her feet up under her butt.

"I need some help with something. I can't trust none of the niggas around here because I know they'll turn their backs on me and stab me in the back. I mean, my own son betrayed me when we've been nothing but nice to him all his life. I don't trust anybody else to help me except for you."

Charmaine shook her head. "After all of these years, you finally realized I'm not out to get you like the rest of these niggas around here. What do you need me to do?"

"I need some information on what went down last night."

"Why? You was there, you saw what happened. Crazy ass E.J. killed my best friend."

"She was my best friend too," I replied. "And my wife and the mother of my children. I know I was there, and you were there too, but you really don't believe E.J. was behind all of that. Do you?"

Charmaine shrugged her shoulders. "Nah but things are so crazy nowadays, it's no telling. He probably was the mastermind behind this whole plan."

I shook my head. "Nah, he's not smart enough to put together a plan like that, and go behind my back while he's manipulating Sincere. He's not smart enough to do that. Somebody else was sending him information and somebody else put the plan together. He's the dummy they sent out to do their dirty work. Look at it this way, look at how big Sin and I were back in our day. The least you'd think is our son would be exactly like us or even better since he learned from the best but he's like a puppet to the big niggas running the show. It's embarrassing."

"Hell yeah it's embarrassing but we can't do shit about it now. Sincere is gone and E.J. is our running around pretending to be innocent."

"Not for long," I said as I sat up a little. "I need you to do me a favor. I know you gotta bunch of bitches up there at your beauty shop that like to come up there and run their mouths. I'm sure there's something going around about what made E.J. do it and who's behind all of this. I know you ain't going back to work any time soon since Sincere's death but I really need you to do some listening and find out what's going on around here."

Charmaine sighed. "Yeah, I do hear a lot at the shop. I didn't plan on going back to work until next week but if it's for Sincere, then I'll go back tomorrow to see what's going on around here. But I do need to tell you something."