Chapter 2

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D' Mario is pronounced as Duh-Mario BTW.









Chapter 2 • The Lost & Found








"D," She cried into his chest as rain started to fall. She clutched to his shirt, "Don't leave me. Please."



He knew she'd come back. It wasn't so shocking to him. When they were together, after a bad day she would pop up and make it better. She was doing that, but this time she was there to make his whole life better. That was what he needed right now.


Mario's hands ran down her body before they stopped right above her ass. He picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she buried her face in his neck. He walked up the steps before pulling his keys out of his pocket and unlocking the door. He closed the door shut with his foot before walking upstairs.



Her cries had muted and the soft sound of her snores filled his ears. He opened the door to his room before laying her down on the bed. Then he noticed her changes..


Her eyes had two large bags under them, her face didn't have that happy and joyful look anymore. It held a petrified, hurt, and pained look. He unzipped her jacket before pulling it off her carefully. A small scorpion tattoo was on her hand, she must of gotten it recently because the tattoo was still fresh and the skin around it was a bright pink. He grabbed the hem of her sweatpants before pulling them down before he pulled her shirt over her head.


He pulled the covers over her body before pulling off his clothes too while watched her every shift she made while sleep. He was some what scared that when he turned away she'd be gone.



He got under the covers with her before bringing her body to him. He smoothed down her curly baby hairs with his thumb before his hand traveled to her back. He rubbed her back, still amazed at how soft her skin was.



He tried to stay awake but he couldn't stop himself from drifting away..




_______________________________




D' Mario looked to his right to see the bed empty. He stood before pulling on a pair of shorts. He opened the door to his bedroom before a soft melody filled his ears. He could hear Chanel's humming and light singing along with the song of water hitting the tub.



"There are times when I find you want to keep yourself from me. When I don't have the strength; I'm just a mirror of what I see. But at your best you are love. You're a positive motivating force within my life. Should you ever feel the need to wonder why, Let me know, let me know..."



He still remembered that song, it was the same song she sung to him when he went to her house after a beating from his father.



He went into Angel's room and opened her closet. On the top shelf was a bright pink and yellow bucket filled with beads, head bands, and etc. Everything Mrs. Robinson used to do her hair was in there. He pulled out a rubber band before tying his braids back and putting the bucket back on the shelf.



"This is her room?" A voice asked. He turned to see Chanel, trailing her fingers across Angel's white dresser. Her hair was curled up from her shower, only a towel around her body.



"Angel's." He replied as she picked up the pink book on Angel's small table where she had tea parties with her teddy bears or when she acted like she was a teacher.



It was the book Mrs. Robinson made for Angel when she got older so she could remember her childhood.



Chanel opened the book before she gasped. Mario walked next to her and looked at the book, it was a picture of when Angel was first born. She was in the arms of Chanel while her and Mario admired their new baby girl.



She flipped to the next page where it showed Angel's full name, her eye color, her hair color, her weight and height, the names of her family members and the date of her birth. The next page was a recent picture, Angel had her hair in a bun, it was the best Mario could do. She wore a black dress along with some timbs while Mario stood beside her wearing all black and butter timbs too.




"She looks just like you." Chanel whispered as she glanced up at Mario, unshed tears in her eyes.



"She look like you too." He said, "she act just like you too."



"When can I see her?" She asked before frowning, "if you allow me too. I know you probably hate me but I just want to meet her, I promise."



"Where you been? How you find me?" He asked while she tightened the towel around her body.



"Tae brung me here. I told him I was looking for you."



Tae was one of the wisest ones he knew. He was in his early fifties and the owner of the best tattoo parlor in the city.



"He did that?" Mario nodded to the scorpion on her hand, she nodded, "Why you get it?"



"Something needed to be covered up." She coughed, "Do you smell that?"



He already knew what the smell was. The twins had to be smoking behind his house. Chanel had terrible asthma since the day she was born, just looking at smoke made her sick to her stomach.



"Wait a minute." D' Mario told her before jogging downstairs and opening the back door to be met by the stench of weed once again in the last twenty-four hours.



"What's up, young blood?" Pete asked, he was in his late twenties and still doing drugs like it was nothing.


His homeboy, Dean, sat beside him with a small bag of coke in his hand.



Dean noticed Mario's eyes go to the small baggy, "you wanna hit?"


"Nah, leave em alone. He still wet behind the ears." Pete spoke while D' Mario shook his head.



"My girl in the house, y'all gotta cut that out."


"Put ya windows up then." Dean suggested.


"It's hot in the house," he told him.


"I can hook you up wit a fan, Ted got one for bout twenty." Pete told him while Dean nodded on agreement.


"Nah, ion want nothing from Ted. He too secretive, he probably robbed that from somebody."


Pete shrugged, "lemme smoke this out and I'm out, young blood."



"iight, don't let no cops catch you ova here, Pete."


Pete nodded before moving his hands in a "go away" motion. Mario chuckled before going back in his house. He didn't know why he gave Pete and Dean permission to smoke at his house if Angel wasn't home.



When he went back upstairs, Chanel was back in the same clothes she wore the day before. It was going on 12 o'clock and Mario knew it was time to pick up Angel.



Maybe next time he could apply for that job again..





Once D showered and got ready, he woke up a sleeping Chanel before walking out the house and to his car.





"You speak to yo moms yet?" He asked as he stopped at a red light.



"Not yet," Chanel glanced at him, "she probably don't wanna see me."



"Where you been?" he asked. It was starting to annoy him that she came to him, he gave her a place to sleep and shower and she still hadn't told him where she had been for the last twenty-four months.



Chanel bit her lip and turned her head, not wanting to face him.



"I don't know." She mumbled.



"So you left?" he asked, a slight hint of anger in his voice, "you left yo daughter, yo parents, yo family, and me."



He looked at her before his eyes went to the light that had just turned green, "At first, I thought you just needed space after that argument then I ain't get a text or a call from you in the last two weeks. I already knew something was wrong. I spent days and nights lookin' for you, the police weren't doing nothing. After months, I knew there was nothing I could do but wait for you, I had a daughter to take care of. Two years later, you show up on my door step and I'm not even surprised."



Chanel had silent tears trailing down her face as she continued to look out the window.



"When Angel ask where her momma at, sometimes I just wanna say she ain't got one. That's how I grew up. Every time I asked my dad where the woman who suppose to help me through my child hood at, you know what he would say? She dead and gone. He wouldn't even frown, shed a tear, he brushed that shit off like it was dust on his shoulder. I ain't have no mom, I looked forward to one but soon I learned to accept it and when Angel learned to talk, I was thinking of a way to help her accept that you might not come back. So every time she ask, all I can say is I don't know. It's been months since she even brung up the word mom. She might not understand, but you something special to her. You supposed to be. You missed the first years of her life and you gotta get em back. You owe that to her."



"Please," Chanel cried, "stop."



Mario sighed and pulled into Mrs. Robinson's yard.



"You wanna stay in here?" he asked.



Chanel nodded as her cries became soft whimpers.



He opened the car door before walking to the front door. He pulled out his key ring before unlocking the door.



"D' Mario." Mr. Robinson AKA Kenneth said as soon as he laid eyes on the boy.



"What's up?" Mario replied, ignoring the look Kenneth had in his eyes. Chanel's father had hated him since the day they met, well the day he met his father. Though the older man never admitted it, Mario knew he only hated him because he thought he was or would turn out just like his dad.



"Does this look like the mafia house to you?" Kenneth asked as D chuckled.



"Nah." He replied.



"The don't act like it, speak like you got sense in my home."



D' Mario shook his head and pushed the anger down as Angel ran into his arms.



"Daddy!" Angel yelled as Mrs. Robinson came from the kitchen, wiping off her hands.



"You wanna stay f-" She started before the front door was pushed open with a creak and Chanel stepped inside. They both didn't say a word before Mrs. Robinson stepped forward, "Chanel? Baby?"


Chanel let out her tears again as she ran into her mothers arms.


Kenneth engulfed his daughter in a hug as soon as her mother let her go.



"Who's tat, Daddy?" Angel asked. Chanel turned around and looked at the little girl who resembled her and D' Mario so much.



"That's your mom, Angel." D' Mario whispered in her ear and watched as his daughters eyes lit up. Chanel walked up to Angel as Mario put her back on her feet.



"You cry?" Angel asked, noticing Chanel's watering eyes.



"Yeah," Chanel breathed out, "because I missed you soooo much."



"You know my name?" Angel asked as Chanel chuckled.



"Angel Chanel Bradley." Chanel told her as Angel gasped in astonishment.



"And who did you get your middle name from?" D' Mario asked her.



"My mommy?" Angel asked him as he nodded.



"So what's my name?" Chanel asked her with a grin on her face.



"Chanel!" Angel shouted with a smile.



"You don't remember me because I left when you were really little."



"Why?" Angel asked as D'Mario raised his eyebrows, wondering the same thing.



"Because I was really mad and selfish." Chanel told her, "but I changed."



Angel nodded before wrapping her arms around Chanel's neck.



"You really pretty." Angel told her as Chanel stood up from her squatting position and held her baby girl for the first time in a long time.



"Your pretty too, you look just like your daddy."



"Daddy say I look like you." Angel told her before she lifted up her wrist, "Look! My daddy brought me a bwacelet yesterday!"



"I love it." Chanel told her before she walked to her parents couch and listened as her daughter continued to ramble on.




_______________________________






D' Mario put a sleeping Angel in her car seat before he turned to Chanel.




He didn't know why, but something felt different. He knew the way he felt about her two years ago would be the same but it was something telling him she needed to figure herself out. He felt as if she was unsure about herself and he didn't wanna throw so much stress on her too fast especially since he was still angry that she would tell him anything.



"I think you should stay here." He nodded to her parents house.



"Why? I wanted to catch up with Angel a little more." Chanel frowned, "You don't want me to see her?"



"You'll see her tomorrow, I just think you needa be alone for a while. I don't think you ready to be in a house with Angel, you don't need the stress right now."



"I can take it, D. You know I can, why are you being so damn difficult. You make me feel like a bad mother and now you don't even want me to see my child."



D sighed.. This was the shit that was going to make them get into an argument and he didn't want nor need that right now. Were they even in a relationship or was it just being parents?




"Chill, Nel. I never once said you were a bad mother, I wouldn't even put you or myself in a situation like that because I know how hard trying to be a good parent is. I'm just saying take it slow, let Angel get used to you being around her."



Chanel took a deep breath before nodding, "Okay."



He opened the car door before getting in. She knocked on the window and he rolled it down.



"Are we .. together?" she asked, she was confused about it. Could they go to how they use to be?



"We just parents." He told her before he rolled the window up and started the car before pulling off.



Chanel walked into the house before locking the door and going straight to her old room. She pulled off her close before looking into her body mirror.



She felt so skinny then fat..




She made sure her thighs touched and they did but what that good or bad? She pulled her arms up and looked at the loose fat.



He made her like this..



She went into her closet and pulled out sweatpants, a shirt, and a jean jacket. She slipped them on along with a pair of sandals.



"Chanel?" The door creaked open before her mom popped her head in.



"Yeah?" Chanel asked as she turned to her mother with the best smile she could fake.



"I'm going to put the food up, if you want more it'll be in the fridge."



Chanel nodded, like she didn't know that already.



"I missed you so much." Her mom said before she hugged her daughter once again.



As soon as her mom left the room, she turned off her lights before sneaking out the window.



The one D' Mario used to climb through..



She landed on her feet before pushing her hands in her pockets. She walked through the dark streets of Harlem with her head down.



Her breath shortened as she looked to see a shadowed figure behind her.



It was him..



Her legs ran and ran until she looked behind her.



Nothing..



She felt as if he knew she was so close to telling D' Mario what really happened.. She pulled her old inhaler from her pocket before taking deep breaths.



She sat behind CVS and pushed her back against the bricks as she took more deep breaths with her eyes closed.



"You want some of this?" A voice asked. She turned to a old man, he barely had teeth in his mouth. She could tell he was homeless.



"What is that?" She asked looking at the syringe.



"Steroids, you'll feel better Kid." He told her.



Chanel bit her lip before she looked up from the drug and into the old mans blank eyes, "How much?"



"Free." He told her before standing up, "I've had my time, I don't need it anymore."



Chanel ignored his last comment and took the syringe from his hands and telling him a quiet "thank you."



She turned around and went back into the direction of her house.

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