Ruthless: The Sequel To "Clemency" ✓

Chapter 10

Shawn Carter,

I sat on Dria's sofa scrolling down my Instagram feed looking at photos and videos from the luncheon. I made sure the setup and the food that was being catered was approved by Beyoncé.

The only thing I didn't see was Bey anywhere.

Nothing posted on her story or page. None of the girls posting her at all. Her brothers either. I actually saw everybody but her.

Pressing Nicki's story pulled up video of the dessert setup. It was pretty much a video of the cupcakes, cookies, fudge bars and everything else junk food. It then skipped to her filming her, Meg, Lauren, Kelly and Angie in selfie video....but no Bey.

I began to send her a message. Lori's call came through the phone interrupting my typing.

"Hello." I answered.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey, wassup?"

"I don't know. You called me." She replied.

"Oh, well I told you I was back. I wanted to see if I could pick the girls up from school or something." I said.

"You're not on their emergency contact or pick-up sheet, so they can't just go with you." She said.

If it ain't one thing, it's another.

"So what do I need to do?" I asked.

"You stay where you're at and I'll bring them to you. That's you're only choice." She said.

"You can't just call the school and tell them I'm picked them up?" I asked.

"No, you should've said something earlier. They don't take phone calls after 2 PM." She said.

I cursed under my breathe.

I groaned lightly, "Well can we go get them together? I promised them I would pick them up."

"I mean yeah, I guess. I'm at home."

"Aight, I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay, bye."

I hung up and immediately went to throw my shoes on. I made sure I looked halfway decent in the mirror before grabbing my keys and heading out the door.

——

"When'd you get here?" Lori asked.

We decided to drive my rented Mercedes-Benz truck to pick the girls up. That was after transferring the car seats and the car-rider tag that allows us to pick them up.

"Early this morning. I got to Dria's and went back to sleep. It was that early," I told her.

"Oh." She said.

You are approaching your destination. My car GPS sounded.

"It's on the left right here. Just turn in and pull into the line. The bell should be ringing in about two minutes."

"Aight," I pulled up behind a brown Suburban. "They both gone come out this school?"

"Yeah, this is elementary side."

"Where will Shai be next year?"

"All grades, K-12 are in the same building. They just release at different times and parts of the school. So I'm thinking pick Suri up at ViewPoint, right here, then drive around to what they call MidPoint, and pick Shai up there. It's like a circle kinda."

"Oh, gotcha." I nodded.

"Yep. So what are your plans while you're here? How long are you planning to be staying?" She asked.