JUNIPER

Chapter IX

      Sai'Yanna woke up to a light in her face. "Aghhhh", she yelled out in pain. "Baby are you okay?" An older woman asked. Sai'Yanna jumped up at the sound of her voice. "Why it feel like I was hit in the head with a brick?" "Baby that's basically whatcha been hit with. You gotta knot bigger than a nugget on yo head chile." "Did you hit me?" The woman looked at her as if she was crazy. "No I was coming home from work when I seen you unconscious on the flo'. What happened?" "I was supposed to meet somebody here next thing I knew I wake up on the damn floor." "Meet who? Nobody stayed in here in six years." "Yeah I know now." Sai'Yanna stood to her feet pulling her phone out of her back pocket, turning on her flashlight. Taking a look around she found a Manila envelope with an S on it. She snatched it off of the table and rushed past the woman, leaving the building.

Sitting in her truck, she contemplated on opening the envelope. What if is wasn't the information she was yearning for? What if it was all a set up? She let out a sigh of hope, opening the envelope. They were all pictures of her and a man that looked exactly like her, just darker. Tears streamed from eyes as she looked at each photo. It was like her childhood was erased from her memory because she didn't remember a thing. A letter slipped out. She opened it and it read:

Dear my beautiful babygirl,
Sorry I won't be around to watch you grow up into a beautiful young woman that I know you're going to be but some things just doesn't work out. You're mother and I have had our faults but she's always forgiven me and I pray that you can forgive me too one day and if I'm not dead within the next 5 years. I want you to come see about me. I haven't always been the best man but I need you to understand the depths of secrets our small family holds baby. Well I gotta go. By the time you read this I know you'll be a grown woman.

~ Love Antonio Kain

Sai'Yanna rested her head on her steering wheel letting the long overdue tears flow. "He actually wanted to meet me", she cried out to herself. She finished going through the envelope finding a set of keys and an address. What the fuck is really going on? All this weird didn't start happening until High Society? None of this shit is adding up. She thought to herself.

After tonight she knew nothing would be ever be the same. She finally knew who her father was but that only got her so far. Sai'Yanna sighed underneath her breath dialing Leena's number. "Hello?" Leena answered. "One last time." "You sure." "At this point I don't have a choice. Reagan needs me and I refuse to leave her like that." Sai'Yanna said surely. "Alright tomorrow night it's on." She hung up the phone leaving King Towers.
Sai'Yanna looked in her rear view mirror, examining the gash on her head. "Damn whoever hit me took me out", she said to herself. Everything that happened over the past couple of months really made her realize a lot. She knew it was time for her to leave New York and start a new life.

Leena sat on FaceTime with Jayceon, keeping him entertained. He was her escape ticket to a new life, she'd been in New York her whole life and never seen anything out of it. It was time for something new, she was going to take her half of the money and move down South with her cousin KeAura.
"So tomorrow night it's on, huh?" Jayceon asked. "Yeah it's on but question is are you ready?" "Ma y'all ain't got shit I can't handle." "We'll see about that." Leena had the elements of surprise and it sure as hell was going to surprise a couple of folks. They ended their call and Leena lied back on her back, staring at the ceiling. "Tomorrow night it's really on", she said to herself.

The Next Day:// 5:30 p.m.

Sai'Yanna sat in the salon chair trying to decide what to do with her hair. She didn't want anyone to see the gash on her head, she needed a style that was going to cover that all the way up. "Gorlllll get some bangs to cover that shit up, you'll be okay." Sai'Yanna's stylist told her. "Mmm yeah whatever do what you gotta do to cover this shit up", she shit her a look of aggravation. "Alright gorllll. And if youn mind me asking but yo man must went upside yo head or su'in?" Sai'Yanna couldn't lie, she had one ghetto nosey ass stylist. The only thing she liked about her was her work and the fact that they knew each other since high school. " Chardonnay please don't try to give these hoes in here some to talk about cause it's not even like that." "Then what it's like Sai?" "Damn Nay. I came to get my hair done not to be 21 questioned." She gave Sai'Yanna a stank face behind her head. "Whatever gorlll. But did you hear bout that nigga Ace?" Sai'Yanna's heart sunk to her ass but she had to play it smooth. "Nah what happened?" "He was found shot in the head in his lil business." "Do they know who did it?" Chardonnay looked over Sai'Yanna's shoulder scrounging up her face. "Now look at yo yella ass bein nosey. But no they don't know who did it but his boys been out here lookin for the girls who use to work for'em to get answers." "Damn that's some fucked up shit."
This was reassurance to Sai'Yanna that New York was no longer home to her. Killing Ace just made her an unidentified target. His niggas were no joke neither was she but it was only one her and too many of them. Sai'Yanna wasn't ready to go out in a blaze of glory. She wanted to get married, have kids, start a legit business and live her life as she should've done in the beginning.