Page 5 of Zeus: Love of a god

I never knew my father. My auntie always told me that he was insignificant. I never wanted to dig, but I knew there was a lot to unpack with that. When I was eighteen years old, my auntie told me that there was a trust in my name that was released to me. She told me it was from my mother, but when I did my research, the deposits into the account came from Aaron Cooper, my father. I only knew him by name and nothing more. That was alright with me.

SOMETIME LATER…

“Girl, Bless and his people loved that beat and your hook!” Melody praised through the speaker on the video call that we were currently on. “I told you they would!”

She did just like she always did. “Cuz, you’re the reason they loved that hook so much. My song only comes to life once you put your voice on it.”

My cousin had the most beautiful voice with no desire for a professional singing career. When people heard her sing, they assumed she wanted to be an entertainer, but nope. When I made the choice that I wanted to become a true songwriter, I worried how people would hear my work. Singing was not my forte at all. Melody selflessly came to my rescue. When a song was bought from me, she received thirty percent of the initial buy and fifteen percent of the royalties going forward.

I would always make sure that my cousin was straight. She didn’t need my money because she was paid well as an entertainment manager. Her mother also left her a healthy inheritance. Melody was the product of invitro and donor sperm. Her mom always claimed that she was too busy with her career and us to be concerned with a man. She had her ‘male friends’ as she called them, but it was never anything more.

Melody put the back of her hand under her chin. “I do what I can for my big cuz.” We tittered for a moment before it was back to business. “Your studioLoud Silenceisn’t even open yet, and the studios are already booked out for almost three months from the projected opening date. When the word got out that Harmony Kadence, one of the top beatmakers, was opening a studio in Charlotte, the industry went crazy. Half of the folks want to see the beautiful girl behind the beats.”

“You didn’t rent out my studio, did you?” I took a sigh of relief when she confirmed that she didn’t. I had a personal studio inLoud Silencethat was only for me.

The building I purchased and renovated was amazing. I paid extra to my contractor to have it completed in under a year. He challenged himself and had it done in a little under nine months. The next two months were for the completion of the installation of all the sound equipment and necessities of the studios. There were thirteen recording studios total in the two-story building. Mine was connected to my office. There were different size options when a person chose one to rent.

My realtor was a genius because the building was within walking distance from multiple restaurants and was along the rail’s transportation. Melody wanted to have this big grand opening, but I declined. I didn’t like attention. In many ways, I was this musical genius myth. I worked under the pseudonym Harmony Kadence as a homage to my mother and auntie. When I told my auntie about my name, she cried.

For another twenty minutes, Melody and I went over my schedule, song and beat request, as well as how I was adjusting to my new country life as she called it. I absolutely loved it here. It was the smartest thing for me to move when I did. The weather was amazing. I got to sit out near the lake at night with the sounds of nature around me. It was like a permanent unplug. The only time I wore my implant at this point was when I was on a call or in the city limits of Charlotte.

“Well, let me go so I can get up into this attic. The cleaners moved most of the stuff out when they cleaned but told me there were some boxes that they didn’t want to toss in case I wanted something,” I told Melody.

Instead of turning one of the five bedrooms into my reading den, I figured the finished attic would be a great space for it. The attic of the house had a balcony that overlooked the lake. It was the most serene place.

“I know your books will be happy to be in their new home. Go handle your business. I’ll let you know if anything pops off or any updates that you need to know.” Melody blew me a kiss like she always did before we disconnected the call.

Let me get in this attic to see what’s in these boxes.I smiled at all the pictures that aligned the stairs that led to the attic. Once I was at the top landing of the stairs, I smiled at how well the cleaners did with the space. The wooden floors sparkled. The contractor was coming next week to build out the shelves. On the floor near one of the windows, there were two boxes.They could have brought these downstairs.

I sat in front of the boxes with my legs crossed. I opened the first box; I froze at the first picture on the top. It was a picture of my mom and a man hugging. They both looked so happy in the picture.Is this my father?I’d never seen a picture of him, nor had I ever really thought about it. Over the years, it was like I forgot it took a man and a woman to create me.

I picked the picture up, then flipped it over to see if there was an inscription. There wasn’t. Under that picture, there were more pictures and papers.A marriage license.I never knew that my mother and father were married. My father and I didn’t share the same last name. For almost an hour, I sifted through the papers and different photos of me and my parents.

Before I saw these photos, I had no interest in knowing my father. Now there was this itch to find out what happened to him. Why did he disappear from my life? I picked up one of the pictures that was only of him and took a picture of it with my phone. I put the image into my search engine to see if anything came up. A picture with three guys came up on an Instagram page: @CooperKing_Jay3.

I clicked on the picture to take me to the page. After a few minutes of scanning the page, I ascertained that this guy must have been my half-brother. Another picture had the other two guys tagged: @CooperKing_AJ1, @CooperKing_Cor2. On the Cor2 page, there was a picture of who I assumed was my father, hugging another woman. Although they were hugging, he didn’t look happy like he was in the pictures with my mama.

I was stuck like one of the best paid private investigators as I went through page after page, connecting dots. Eventually, I was led to the bluebook were all can be found.King of King Riders.They were all a part of the same motorcycle club… No, they ran the club, based on the page dedicated to it. My father was now married to a woman named Jennifer. They recently celebrated their twenty-sixth wedding anniversary.He didn’t have time to be in my life, but he had time to remarry shortly after his previous wife’s death.

My brothers were handsome, same as my father. I could tell that I took on most, if not all of my mother’s features. I loved my curly hair, pecan skin tone, and small stature. I was a preemie, according to my auntie.

I stared at a flyer that came up on one of the Instagram pages.Drag the Streets.It looked like some kind of drag racing event this weekend. I didn’t realize that street racing was legal, but that was none of my business. It had to be something if they advertised it on a public forum. I think my plans for the weekend were just set in place.

I put all the items that I pulled out back into the box so that I bring it downstairs to finish going through it. I got so caught up with my social media search that I didn’t finish going through the boxes. My time here was about to get a little more interesting.

DRAG THE STREET…

If I knew that there would be so many people out here at this event, I would have rethought my plan. On top of that, it was so loud! I turned my implant off to avoid a headache.

This whole scene was something out of a movie or book. There were numerous car and motorcycle clubs represented from what I could see. Men and women littered the sidewalks and curbs. The amount of food trucks was commendable. I should invest in a damn food truck or trailer. With the long lines, you would think that there were only a few options here when there weren’t.

From the sight of a lot of the women, I wasn’t sure if the stores had a booty shorts, fishnets, and bikini sale. My silly ass came out here in a pair of distressed jeans, a crop top, and a pair of combat boots. I made sure to wear my hair down, but one ear showed with an earbud in it. If people called out to me, I coulduse the earbud as my reason for ignoring them instead of the whole ‘I’m deaf’ thing.

All the clubs had banners near their section, I guess I would call it, that made it easy to identify who they were. I appreciated that because it meant I didn’t have to ask. I found where the King of King Riders were after about thirty minutes of being there.The steps I’m getting in tonight are going to be great.

My father and his wife were easy to spot in the craziness of his club. He stood leaning against a car with his wife standing directly in front of him. Her facial expression gave theI’m that bitchvibe. Her stance was very possessive; however, it didn’t seem like he could care any less about her. One thing that you got good at as a hearing-impaired person was people watching. You studied behavior, body movements, and facial expressions. My father and his wife’s vibes were not a match for each other.

There was a group of women in vests that stood not too far from where they stood. One of the girls turned her back to where I stood.Kings’ Kitties. Oh, that is tragic as fuck!Someone bring back shame as Maiya Briana, Mania Crew Member would say!I noticed some of the girls in the little group eyeing his ass seductively, and he seemed to feed into it. He gave them thatI’ll fuck you laterlook.

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