Page 11 of This is Law

“Every time I see you, you’re talking about your starving.Me vuelves loco con eso, Creed,”(You drive me crazy with that, Creed).

When the boys got me to star speaking Spanish to them, that’s when I knew that they’d managed to get me fired up. I spoke Spanish fluently. The first five years of my life, when my dad was living with us, he made sure that Sarai and I were not only fluent in English, but Spanish as well. This man was so head strong on us knowing Spanish, just as much as we knewEnglish that even when he was locked up, and deported back to the Dominican Republic, he would call Sarai and I, and we would literally have lessons over the phone. My mom loved his ass so much that he’d taught her Spanish as well. Long before we even came into the picture, he’d taught my mom how to speak his language, and I felt like that was so adorable that she was willing to learn a different language for her man. I’d dropped the ball with my kids because I didn’t teach them how to speak it fluently, but they understood it though. They could say the basics, carry certain conversations, but it just wasn’t fluent enough.

“I saw your girl showing out on Instagram live. I can’t wait until I turn eighteen. I’m going right for her. That’s the kind of ladies that I’m into. I love those pretty girls that be ghetto like that. Autumn so fine to me,” he shared, as he jumped up on the counter, and I rolled my eyes at his choice of words. I’ve been hearing about his and Legend’s crushes since they’ve been in daycare.

“Your ass needs to focus on school. You don’t need to be worried about Autumn, or any other girl for that matter,” I said, and at the same time, Legend had made his way into the kitchen. He’d been upstairs, showering too. He went over, and he stood by his brother, ready to take part in the conversation that we were having.

“I saw that stuff earlier about Autumn on social media. She was talking crazy on that live, but I personally feel like she redeemed herself when she went live earlier, and she apologized. I see it’s a lot of controversy about it, and I really don’t think that girl is homophobic. Her delivery was just wrong. To me, her apology seemed authentic. Ya’ll did a good job with cleaning that up, ma. I did see some people say that they weren’t going to support her new album, but I can’t wait for it to drop. She already previewed one of the songs onTikTokother day, and itsounds like it’s going to be one of those albums where it has no skips,” Legend responded. I smiled at my son, loving his take on the situation.

Around six this evening, Autumn had gone live. I’d joined the live as well, and I saw that she had over one million viewers tuned in. We’d given her clear instructions to turn the comments off because people were still mad at her, and they were going to be trolling her in the comments, purposely saying stuff to get up under her skin. She touched on the key points that I’d given her earlier, and she made sure to take accountability of her choice of words, and she sincerely apologized. It felt real. It looked real. So many people had given her grace, just calling it out, saying how young she was, the guidance that she lacked, and they could even spot out that the people she was hanging with just weren’t in her best interest. I had faith that my girl would shake back from this, and hopefully after this, she would stay her ass off fuckin Instagram live.

Five minutes later, the boys were at the table, and I’d fixed their plates, bringing them over. If Law was here, he would have cursed me out for doing that. According to him, they were grown men, and could fix their own plates, but my boys were my babies, and I didn’t mind doing it for them. The way I saw it, I only had two more years of them living in the house with me. They both had plans of going off for college. I wanted to soak up every second that I had left with them because it was going to break my little heart when they left.

I fixed my plate as well, coming over with a glass of wine for me. Legend blessed the food for us, and they immediately dug in, telling me how good the food was.

“Dad texted us earlier. He wants to take us one of these weekends to see grandma. No offense ma, and I swear that I’m not trying to be rude, but nobody wants to see that crazy lady. Man, she be tripping. The last time he took us to see her, she waswilding. She started screaming when we came in the room, and she tried fighting us. I feel bad for her, and everything, but dang, I don’t like going down there to see her,” Creed shared with me.

Back when the boys were younger, Law wouldn’t take them to go and see his mom. Because she was in a facility, you just never really knew the kind of state of mind that she would be in. Law thought that it would be something that would scare the boys, so he didn’t start taking them to see her until they were around 7. She had her days when she would sit there, and be stubborn, not even acknowledging the boys. Then, she would have her days when she would cut up, screaming and stuff, like what Creed had just mentioned.

Over the years of me being in Solace’s life, I’ve gone to see her plenty. There were even times that I would go without Law. I wasn’t afraid of her. I just had to remind myself that she was different, and she couldn’t control her actions. Her mind was different from ours. She lost Knox, and from the love stories that I’ve heard about them through people in Miami, or even Dutch, who was Knox’s best friend, I knew that Knox was Solace’s person. Shortly after losing Knox, her mom died two years later.

I prayed for her all the time. There were times that I would have to thank God that I didn’t lose my mind to that extent after my daughter died. That shit broke me, but for whatever reason, I had been able to keep my sanity.

“Creed, I know. It’s hard seeing her like that. You just have to remember that her actions aren’t being done purposely. Her mind is different from ours, so she can’t control her actions. She loves you both. I’m sure she does. She just doesn’t know how to show it. Give her grace,” I let him know, reaching my hand out, and putting it on his back, since he was sitting right next to me. He nodded his head, dropping it, and finished with his food.

“So, you miss pops, yet? Be honest, too,” Legend broke the silence, and I laughed at his question.

“No, I don’t,” I replied.

“Yeah, aight. I don’t believe that,” he was quick with his response.

“Me, and Law haven’t been together in over a year. Nothing has changed. The only difference is that we’re divorced now,” I shared.

“So, if pops were to pull up right now, just to drop something off for us, and he had a girl in the passenger seat with him. You wouldn’t feel any kind of way about that?” Legend asked.

“For one, your daddy would never come to my house with another woman. He wouldn’t even try me like that-

“That’s not the point I’m making. Would you feel some kind of way in general if you see him out with another woman?” Legend asked, cutting me off. I laughed at his question, as I added a piece of the blackened salmon to my fork, and I mixed it around with the fettuccine.

“Your dad is single, and free to do what he wants. I wouldn’t care,” I said.

“That don’t even sound convincing. The second you see pops out with another woman, you gone get on the phone with grandma, auntie Shai, and Milan, and you gone be crying. Your chest gone hurt. Stop trying to play big gangsta with us,” that was Creed that jumped in, giving his two cents.

I just waved him off. I wasn’t too gangsta to admit that I probably would get in my feelings if I saw Law out with another woman. Just like Creed said, my chest would probably hurt, but I would eventually get over it. Law was a handsome man. He was successful, good looking, and he had good dick, just to name a few. He would have no problem getting a woman, just like how I wouldn’t have any problem getting a nigga. I just wasn’t in the market of looking for one right now.

Chapter Five

KROSS THORNE

“Who at the door? I hope that’s not one of your hoes pulling up,” I said to my pops, as I was sitting at the dining room table, eating a bowl of cereal.

Dutch was my pops, and I loved that nigga, even though him, and I have had our differences over the years. He was a stand-up dude, he handled his responsibilities, but over the years, him and I have clashed a little bit, but I always made my way back to him. Probably because I always found myself in fucked up situations, and I needed him to get me out of that shit. Dutch had the money, the pull, and his face was well respected in Miami, so it was only right that I went to him whenever I needed help getting out of a jam.

I just got home from prison. It hasn’t even been a week since I’ve been out. Out of all the shit that I could have gotten locked up for, I had to sit down for possession of a firearm charge, knowing damn well that I was already a felon, and wasn’t supposed to be toting that heat on me. It’s just that with the life that I was living, the enemies that I’ve made along the way, I had to have that heat on me at all times. I couldn’t get caught lacking.

I remember the day that I was arrested like yesterday. I was fuckin around with this bitch named Shayla. Me, and that bitchwas so fuckin toxic. I’ve spazzed out before in the past with her, shooting out her car windows, dragging her stupid ass out of the club, and a bunch of other shit. She’s done her fair share of reckless shit with me too, like fighting random bitches that she would catch me out and about with, slashing my tires on my car, breaking into my apartment that I used to have when I wasn’t there, and destroying my shit. Dutch had been telling me that I needed to leave that bitch alone, but we all know that the craziest bitches came with the best pussy.

The day that I was arrested, I was riding in the passenger seat of her car, while she was driving. We were leaving from dinner. Another bitch called me while I was in the car, and she went off, telling me to call the bitch back, and shit just escalated from there. In the middle of us tussling over the phone, she swerved the car, a cop saw it, and he pulled us over.

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