Black Hour Glass | Calliope • MJ | DISCONTINUED!!!!

2. New King In Town

I remembered the day like it was yesterday, sitting in my daddy's office like I did everyday after school. I'd lie and say I needed him to help me with my algebra two homework, when I really didn't, just so I could spend time with him. I loved being around my father because to me he was the best (beside my mother that is), but that particular day I had my textbook on his desk and was standing right beside him.

He gritted his teeth, balancing his head in his hand. "Calliope get this answer wrong one more time..." he threatened and I tried to hold back my laughter knowing that he would do nothing but yell at me about how much he knew that I knew the answer.

It was true, I did know the answer, but the longer I didn't know it the more time I got to spend with him.

"Daddy, I really don't know it," I replied in all seriousness, biting down on my number two pencil.

"You already told me that these two are the adjacent angles, these two are corresponding, so that means these two have to be what?" He pointed to the two angles and I twisted my lip, pretending to be in deep thought. I was going to finally say the right answer when his office door was bursted into with a disheveled man who held a box in his hand.

Marianna, our maid, was right behind him, tugging on his arm. "My apologies King. I tried to stop him, but he pushed passed me at the front door."

Daddy held his hand up, his face hard as a rock. No emotion, no movement, you'd think he was just an expressionless person. "It's okay, Marianna. Leave us," he'd told her. She left, but with hesitation.

The man walked towards the desk and flipped over the contents in the box, the flaps breaking open and a headless dead rat plopping on top of my open text book.

I gagged, stepping back and covering my mouth, the pencil dropping to the ground.

"Is this some kind of sick joke, King? You sent this to my fuckin' house! My kids coulda saw this shit!" The mans eyes were wide, his hands were shaking, and I watched him swallow hard, his adams apple bobbing up and down.

"Vincent... You know very well that I don't joke around." Daddy said nonchalantly. I saw his jaw clench and maybe had I not been in the room this conversation would have taken a different turn, but because of me daddy stayed seated and kept up the appearance of being unbothered.

I kept moving backwards until my back was pressing into the wall, but my hands were still covering my mouth.

The man, Vincent, gulped again and tossed the box on the floor. "You might think you run shit King, but you don't run a damn thing. You keep thinkin' you're untouchable and somebody is gon' come and show you that you ain't."

"If somebody wants to take me down then I hope they're ready for the war that's going to come after it. But don't you worry about me Vincent worry about your son because the next time Deacon decides he wants to put his hand on my daughter I have someone who is personally waiting to kill him." Daddy rose from his seat, placing his hands on either side of my textbook, obviously unfazed by the dead rat before him. "Keep your damn son in check."

"Now get out of my muthafuckin' house before you leave here in pieces."

Vincent high-tailed his way out of my father's office, but I was still too shook to move or say something. Daddy sat back down, sighing like the old man he was becoming as he did so. He must've realized that I was still there because he froze before turning in his chair.

"Calliope..." He whispered.

"They were vertical angles," I said quickly before running and sliding to the trash can near the door, throwing up the Popeyes chicken I'd eaten earlier. My daddy came to console me, bending down to my level and rubbing my back.