Urban - Four individuals going through different aspects of life. Each going through their own struggles surrounding Lyrewood - HARDAWAY.
VOLUME ONE - Carmen Richardson. Kylan Burgess. Aalea Jimenez. Marshay Hayes.
VOLUME TWO - Asia Jimenez. Sharif...
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If anyone would've asked me if I believed in second chances when I was sixteen, seventeen years old, I would've replied "Hell noo,". No one where I'm from ever got second chances. Hell, most of everyone I grew up is either dead or in jail. But me, I'm out free. . At least physically.
Seventeen, going on eighteen years old being charged with a murder you never committed, nor was around when it happened. I matched a description. . racial profiling at its finest. 2:05am I was picked up from my moms- more like her door being kicked in and me getting dragged out my bed and slammed on the floor with numerous guns pointed at my head. I can still hear the screams of my Momma and the police officer. .
You keep your black ass still, or I will pull the trigger.
Kylan, please just stay still, baby. Please!
I could've died that night- no, would've died that night. I wanted to attack from being taken out of my bed the way I was while being sleep. I had no idea what was going on, but I was going to fight. The only thing that stopped me was hearing the fear in my Momma voice. She already saw one of her son's be murdered. I'd be damned if I made that a second one.
Five years I was away for something I didn't commit. I start losing hope. Your miracle will come, baby. I pray for you everyday- as my Momma would say every phone call we had from 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
First two years I had hope in her words, but after nothing changed and I was still the same predicament, I lost faith in anything. I'm just another nigga locked in a cage, Momma. That's all I am and all I'm ever gone be- I'd reply to her. I know it pained hearing those words from me, but I had to live with the fact that it was true.
That is until, March 11, 2013, I all of a sudden became a free man after finally getting my first court date after being sentenced to twenty five to life on a first degree murder. A black guy, brown skin and in his late fifties, stood by my side as my attorney. Never hired him. Never met him. He was just there. He set me free and brought back my faith. Once I heard, Kylan Burgess, you're now a free man, my heart dropped to my stomach in complete shock. I never questioned it. I was only proud to be walking out of that prison with all charges dropped and a clean record.
My Momma was the first face I saw walking out of those prison doors. She cried and thank God so many times I lost count. I even lost count of how many times I thanked the mysterious attorney. . the mystery attorney I'll never forget, Dwight Washington.
He's the reason I was freed. Freed to clean up my act. Freed to eat better food. Freed to sleep in a bed alone and not in a small cell with one other person. Freed to have privacy. Most importantly, freed to be a father to my daughter, Raquel Burgess.
An ex girlfriend became pregnant when I was locked up and birthed my priest possession. The best thing I could've ever done is been apart of making Raquel; my intelligent and kindhearted eleven year old daughter. A twin of mine, but more feminine features.
