GONE

Part 14

Jay
1 week later

Jay walked out of my lawyers office pissed off. It wasn't even the afternoon and yet he felt the urge to run up to Aaliyah and release all off his frustrations by smashing her head in. Of course he would never do that, but it helped to imagine.

This past month has been filled with countless meetings in the office, talking to lawyers, paying for consultations only to be turned down. And now that he's  finally found one, and he's telling him to settle.

Aaliyah was basically asking for her to have sole custody of Aniyah with visitation for me. When I found out I called Aaliyah and cursed her out demanding that she withdraw the papers. Of course she wouldn't comply, and I could tell it was bringing her joy to see me suffer and panic. My daughter was my world, along with Bey and her son. It would kill me to only visit her on the weekends. Especially if I knew she was with liyah and Dame.

It didn't make the situation better that my lawyer believed I should take her deal of visitation.

"Shawn, this could be a long and exhausting process for both of you and little Aniyah." He shook his head going through all of the paperwork. "Months of court hearings and meetings, when there is only a chance that you will get joint custody. And that's if we're lucky." He sighed exasperatedly.

"To be honest with you man, I don't care. If you were in my position would would you just take the deal or try to fight for what's best for your daughter?"

"I would do everything in my power to get her back to me." He said after some thought.

I nodded. "So you have to know how I feel when they're trying to take my daughter away from me. I will wait in that courtroom for however long it takes them to grant me custody. Until then, I'll continue paying you to defend me, not to be my counselor or advisor."

It was probably stupid of me to not accept his advice. And I was probably stupid for doing this as well. But all rationale had left my body long before this point.

I knocked on the door of the single family home. As I waited, I took a moment to look at the exterior of the house. It wasn't bad looking and actually looked well kept. But you could tell whoever lived here had been here awhile.

"I'm coming, Damn!" A voice boomed from the inside. Seconds later the door flew open.

"Look who it is." Ace laughed sarcastically. "Never thought I'd see you come 'round these parts again."

I scoffed. "Trust me I wouldn't but I'm out of options."

He opened the screen door for me to come in. I was hit with the smell of weed and sex, a combination that both made me nauseous and oddly nostalgic. His house looked the same way it had the day I left five years ago. Everything in in seemed to be old and musty looking but he refused to get rid of it.

Ace was the lead drug dealer in these parts of New York. He was somewhere around 50 but his name could spark fear in the hearts of any nigga who knew what he was about. He was the type of person who could laugh with you one minute, and shoot you the next, all because he felt you had wronged him.

Once upon a time that made me look up to him. Growing up my pops wasn't around and I looked to him to fill that spot. In a way he did that, teaching me about girls, the game and shit. But he also made a ruthless, angry person. It came to a point where I barely recognized myself.

At that point, I distanced myself from him and everyone he was associated with. I promised myself I would never go back. Yet here I was, about to make a deal with the devil.