Page 43 of Make Me Forget

“Damn, sis! Maybe y’all should go on and head home. Shaaat!”

Well, that broke us out of our bubble. My mama laughed, and Daddy slowly shook his head. “You should have let me take her to the doctor when I hit her head against the wall,” he said.

Ebony side-eyed him as we all laughed. When I calmed down, Daddy hugged me. “This is what I always wanted for you… to experience an unfathomable love like Kendall and I had. It found you, baby girl, and I couldn’t be happier for you.”

He kissed my forehead, then my brother hugged and congratulated us. Kendrall grabbed my hand as everyone headed to the kitchen and pulled me into his arms.

“This moment was overwhelming, Kendrall. It took my breath away. This ring is beyond gorgeous.”

He didn’t respond verbally, just laid his lips on mine. He pulled me so close until air couldn’t even pass between us. His erection felt powerful and so damn irresistible. I grabbed his hand and licked my lips then led him to the bathroom.

For the first time, I didn’t care about disrespecting my parents’ home. People around us had better get used to this. Whenever the spirit moved us, we would be fucking.

CHAPTER 15

KENDRALL

“Man, hurry up! They got Jacob hemmed up! You ain’t gon’ believe this shit.”

I hung up the phone in Ryder J’s face and ran out of the house and down the street to Jacob’s house. I expected to see the cops, but it looked like he was getting jumped. When I heard the gunshot, I froze. When the fucking roaches scattered, I saw Uncle Storm standing there with his hunting rifle. SS had caught one of those niggas and was working his ass over.

I was gon’ grab the first one that got close to me. When I saw Jameka’s brother, I went straight to his ass and clotheslined him. There was no way those muthafuckas would get away with jumping my cousin. I looked down the road to see Christian had another guy on the ground, and even Rylan was fucking somebody up.

I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, other than Jameka’s people thought they would fuck Jacob up. I didn’t know what led to this shit though. Jacob didn’t look too bad. Just blood coming from his nose and mouth. When I got closer, I noticed he had swelling around his eye too. There had to be at least ten niggas out here. Somebody must have intervened quickly for him not to be completely fucked up.

When I got closer to him, Uncle Storm, and Uncle Marcus, he collapsed. I immediately called my dad to come get him. Jacob’s breathing was somewhat labored. I got on the ground next to him and asked, “What the fuck happened?”

“Jameka… committed… suicide.”

My eyebrows lifted. I was stunned. Uncle Storm said, “She left a note saying it was Jacob’s fault for not accepting her as his and not accepting his baby. They want to do a DNA test on the fetus. If Jacob is a match, this family is going for the fucking gusto. He’s pretty sure that it wasn’t his baby though. I wanna resurrect her ass and blow her back to hell. That gotta be where she went.”

“You ain’t supposed to speak ill of the dead, Storm,” Uncle Marcus said.

“If you don’t get yo’ hail Mary chanting ass away from me with that shit. Fuck that girl. It wasn’t Jacob’s responsibility to see to her crazy ass. Her family should have intervened on her behalf and got her the help she needed. Stupid bitch. Between her and Courtney, I don’t know which one of those muthafuckas worse.”

I couldn’t believe the shit I was hearing. “Jacob had a restraining order against her, so that should count for something. He didn’t want to be bothered with her ass. That shit wasn’t a crime,” I said.

“Naw, it ain’t. But SS wasn’t found guilty of a crime either, but guess where we will be in three months, although those muthafuckas keep pushing the date back?”

“They doing that shit because they don’t have a fucking case. They think their white privilege gon’ get them what they want. They gon’ find out though,” Uncle Marcus added.

I slowly shook my head. This shit was out of hand. It was like everybody was out for Henderson blood. Christian almost got caught up with the law fucking with Courtney’s ass. My phone vibrated with a text. I knew it was probably Cassie. I didn’t say a word when I bolted out of the house. She had already fallen asleep, and I was just about to come out of my clothes.

We’d had a great day at church and had talked to my parents about us getting married. Mr. Price and Mrs. Kendall had come over, and the ladies started planning for our wedding while Mr. Price and Dad prepared to “write checks” for everything. I tried to tell them that I could pay for everything, but they wouldn’t hear of it.

Mr. Price said he longed for the day his daughter would get married to a man that loved her like I did. He’d been saving money specifically for that for the past ten years. After that explanation, I left them to it and chose to watch my beautiful wife-to-be the entire time. The way she blushed when I stared at her too long always made me smile.

When I heard Dad’s siren, I knew he had probably turned into Henderson Village. This was proof that they needed to get that fucking gate up and running. We thought it would be fine if it just stayed open, but this was proof that things had changed. Niggas didn’t give a fuck these days, and the Hendersons were gonna have to go full throttle and not give a fuck either.

Dad stopped that ambulance on a dime and hopped out and ran to Jacob. His breathing was still labored, and that shit was making me nervous. Aunt Jen and Uncle Carter’s car came to a screeching halt, and Aunt Jen hopped out of it before it completely stopped. I moved out of the way so she could get to Jacob.

The tears streaming down her face made me want to just go hug my mama. I needed to talk to the younger Henderson men. They were going to have to make better decisions about who they slid their dicks into, because this shit was senseless. Jacob should have never gotten involved with that bitch. God, forgive me.

“He has a broken rib. It may have punctured a lung, so I need to get him to the hospital right away.”

Dad went and got his gurney and threw an oxygen tank on top of it, then came back to us. Everyone pitched in to help him get Jacob on the gurney. He seemed to be in a lot of pain now, and I knew that was attributed to his adrenaline slowing down. They loaded him up quickly, and Dad, Uncle Storm, and Aunt Jen hopped in the ambulance and took off with him.

I took a deep breath and checked the time to see it was midnight. I never responded to Cassie’s text, but I may as well have just waited until I got home now. I knew she hated that she was related to those people. Jameka’s mother and her mom were first cousins. When I turned to leave, Christian and Rylan were standing there, looking as worried as I did.

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