Page 119 of Chemistry: The Chemist

“You don’t get to give up on yourself, Pops. I will shove food down your throat myself. Please do not let it come to that. Forget everything those doctors are feeding you. The Man upstairs is the only doctor we listen to aside from the one Rhea gave birth to. You hear me?”

Roles had swiftly reversed. After years of hearing my father preach to me and demand, that I approach every obstacle with grace and excellence, I was giving him the same speech. He never showed remorse. I wouldn’t either.

With a titter, he shook his head. “You’re your father’s fucking son.”

“That’s a compliment.”

“As it should be. So, tell me about Eden.”

I lifted my glass for Veronica to refill. When the brown liquid swirled the middle of the glass, again, I relaxed in my seat and the words began to flow.

“I met her during her debut at Roulette.”

“There are beautiful women in Roulette, son. What made this one so special?”

“She’s no chameleon. She doesn’t blend with her surroundings. An inexplicable gravitational pull led me straight to her. I couldn’t stop my feet. They birthed a mind of their own and didn’t stop until I was face to face with the brazen beauty. I thought my heart would break free of my chest at any second. Though I remained composed, it took almost everything out of me. She had my adrenaline pumping. Thoughts running rampant. Trigger finger itching. I knew from the second she opened her mouth niggas would have to die behind her.”

“They have, so I’ve heard.”

“Stop listening so hard, old man.” I chuckled, pulling at my growing beard. “I don’t regret any of it.”

“Why would you?”

I lifted and dropped my shoulders. “Three months of bliss. Three whole months. I haven’t grown tired of her yet. In fact, I crave her presence more now than I did three months ago. As our connection ages, my hunger for her grows. At this point, it feels insatiable. Like, I’ll never have enough, no matter how much she gives me.”

Laughing, I caught my head in my left palm. “Arrr. I can’t believe I’m even saying this type of shit, Pops.”

“I can.”

I whipped my head in his direction at the declaration. “Why?”

“Because I always knew it was possible. You just needed to bump into the right one. There’s one woman for every man who will stop him dead in his selfish tracks and make him forget he even exists because all he will know is her. Eden has sunk her teeth into your skin and her venom is running through your veins. You’ll never recover.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Haaa!” He fell back in laughter, clapping his hands and stomping his feet on the floor. “That’s my boy.”

“She drives me mad.”

“Let her.”

“She wants all of my attention.”

“Give it to her.”

“She eats away at every bit of sanity I have, but simultaneously keeps me stable. She’s good to me, Pops.”

“Protect her.”

With a shake of my head, I continued. “Feels like I’m losing all self-control. I don’t know this person I am when she’s around or even when I’m thinking of her.”

I looked up at him with weary eyes. “Now that she’s here, I don’t want to live without her.”

“Then, marry her.”

Rhea and my father wed twenty-eight days after they met. Time waits for no man. It’s one of the many mottos he lived by. Within the first five months of their nuptials, her belly began to grow with Roaman maturing inside her womb.

Every year after, and twice in one year, in particular, she produced a child. My father wanted another son. Rhea wanted a house full of children. They were a match made in heaven. Though my father never got the second son he dreamed of, he was prideful of his tribe. None of us had been led astray.

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