By Any Means

Chapter 5

"Here you are." I said walking up to him in order to give him a hug but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this deadly look in his eyes.

"Yeah, here I am. Why are you here?"

"I can't come here all of a sudden? The fuck?"

"Nah. Everytime you come here you be on that dumb shit." He said while scrolling through his phone. I was lowkey upset with the way he was talking to me and his inability to focus on me. I not only needed to have an important discussion with him, I wanted to actually spend some quality time with him for once.

"Well I came here to tell you something and spend time with you. With the way you acting I just might take my ass home."

"So why you still here?"

"I don't know who you think you talking to but I am not the one right now. Only time you wanna be bothered with me is when i'm making money to support you and your stupid habits. I am the one paying for your gambling addiction, that liquor you drinking I paid for that shit, Im paying for you to stay in this damn apartment. Without me and this tricking im doing all the time what would you have?" I waited for a response but instead I got a punch to the face instead. Before I could react to the first punch another one came my way, this time way harder. It was at this point I knew our relationship had to be one-sided because a man should never feel comfortable putting his hand on the woman he loves. A man should never put his hands on a woman especially one who has spent 17 hours in labor birthing their first and only child.

Briyana received blow after blow despite her failed attempts to fight back. She tried biting and scratching Rah yet nothing seemed to work. It wasn't until  Briyana started to think of her daughter she gained the strength she didn't know she had to fight back. She clawed at his eyes, poking them with all the power she had, thankfully she successfully caused Rah to lose sight in his eyes long enough for her to beat his ass. After a few short minutes of fighting Rah to the best of her ability Briy was exhausted both mentally and physically. Both bruised and battered they heard police sirens in the distance. Little did they know all the commotion they made caused the nosey ass neighbors to call the cops. Briy didn't care too much because she knew her daughter was in good hands and she could post bail without any issues whatsoever.

I stood up off the ground after trying to catch my breath and decided it was now or never because as of now I have no intentions on ever seeing Rah again. Even though we have a daughter together most likely we will be able to agree on a set schedule for their visitations without us being in each others presence.

"Just so you know I'm completely done with you. Any and everything concerning our daughter is the only thing we will have to discuss with each other. I'm done being a hoe out here scamming people just to please you. Good luck surviving without me witcha bum ass." Something within him snapped after those words and both of his hands wrapped around my throat causing me to lose the little bit of breath I had in my body. One of my angels had to be looking out for me because as I was starting to see the light a heavy knock was heard throughout the apartment. "J-just let me...go" I struggled to say while Rah stared down at me and the knocking seemed to get louder and harder. He pushed me down as he let go of my throat just as the door was being opened, I must have forgot to lock the door or maybe they kicked it in. I was so focused on trying to get back on my feet I wasn't even paying attention to Rah or the cops. Once I got off the ground I walked to where all the loud noise was coming from. Rah was yelling about the cops not having a warrant while the police was simply trying to look for whomever else was in the apartment, me.

"Sir we received a call from one of your neighbors claiming they heard screaming and believed there was a domestic violence issue. So we came here to do a wellness check on all parties involved. By the looks of things we're happy we were called here. They got you pretty good there young man, you may need to see a doctor about these bruises." The officer reasoned with Rah as I walked up behind him.

I walked up a little more making my presence known to Rah. "I would like to press charges against him as soon as possible". The officers looked back and forth between Rah and I most likely because in most situations like this victim does not fight back and there are also times they usually go right back to their abusive significant other. But me? I refuse to allow anyone to put their hands on me without any consequences. Although this is the first time he ever put his hands on me in a violent way I was going to make sure this was the last time. One of the officers who happened to be a female looked like she was on the verge of tears grabbed me by my hand and walked me to a patrol car. After being examined by the paramedics while answering millions of questions I was able to leave, first I wanted to retrieve the items I had at Rah's house. While walking past Rah he was looking in my direction with this deadly look I never saw before, I honestly think he may have turned to something way heavier than alcohol to deal with his inner demons. On my way out the door Rah whispered "you'll regret all of this sooner or later" I watched him smirk from the corner as I continued walking to my car.

Is he serious? He's really threatening me of all people? The only person to genuinely care about him and his well being. Why do I even care, he won't ever have to worry about breathing the same air as me unless we are in court.

During the car ride from the neighborhood Rah stayed in I thought about how my relationship with the man I loved came to this. We once were inseparable spending all day with each other at school just to go home have a conversation on the phone until four o'clock in the morning. I have no idea what I could have possibly done so bad for him to disrespect me the way he did tonight.

After tonight's incident I went home well my dad's house to think about my life. I decided this was the last straw I needed a plan to secure a better future for my loved ones. I cleared all of the stuff that would remind me of Rah. After an hour of reminiscing on old pictures, clothes, text messages, cards, and gifts I cut and burned all of it. I wiped away some of the tears that escaped my eyes while I sat at my desk plotting my next move to secure the future for my daughter and I. I was able to enroll myself into school, I came to the conclusion I should go to cosmetology school first because it wouldn't take as long as it would if I began taking the courses necessary for me to become a gynecologist. With the legal money earned as a hairstylist I'll be able to put myself through college and provide for my daughter without anyone getting suspicious. This is only the first step of bettering myself but I am so happy to finally be getting back on the right track.

My daughter is everything to me and I refuse to let her down. With or without the help of Rah we'll be just fine. There is nothing or no one that can stop me, all of my bad days are behind me.

Who am I kidding I have such bad luck I know it won't be long before something else bad happens to me or one of my loved ones. I could never catch a break!