Page 10 of Certified Pressure
“It don’t matter if it was or not, son. She still made it.”
I didn’t say nothin’. I just sat there with the phone pressed to my ear and my jaw clenched, tryin’ to keep my voice calm.
“I’m not trying to be cruel,” she added after a few seconds. “But I want you to stop putting your heart where it don’t got no space to grow. You’ve done enough. You fought for her. You waited. You hurt. Now it’s time for something else.”
I took a breath and looked down at my hands.
“I’m not saying fall in love with whoever walks through your door next week,” she continued. “I’m just asking you to be open. To at least try.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “I hear you.”
“I know you do.”
There was another pause, then she said, “This arrangement… it’s not just about your father’s legacy, you know that, right?”
I didn’t say nothin’. I just waited for her to go on.
“It’s about stability. Your father’s built empires and now he wants the face of that power to be more than just a man with a name. He wants unity, and a future the people can rally behind. That starts with you.”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “I ain’t the one who asked for this shit.”
“No, but you’re the one who was born into it.”
She wasn’t wrong. My father made it clear: if I wanted to inherit the full infrastructure of what he’d built—not just the companies or the contracts, but the alliances, the black books, the real power, then I had to be settled, married and seen as a man who had more than money and muscles. He wanted me to have a partner, a household and a reputation that couldn’t be questioned. He was trying to build generational wealth through his legacy.
It sounded damn near medieval, but in Trill-Land, legacy mattered, and the world didn’t respect a man who looked like he was still playin’.
“You really think I’m gon’ find somebody like that?” I asked finally. “Somebody that ain’t fake, or chasin’ clout, or just tryin’ to say they Pressure’s girl?”
“I think when you stop looking for Ka’mari in every face you meet, you’ll finally see what’s in front of you.”
Her words hit harder than I expected.
“I love you, Ma.”
“I love you more.”
“I’m gon’ head to bed. You rest good.”
“You too, baby. Don’t stay out there too long.”
I ended the call and sat the phone down. Then I reached for the pre-roll, lit it, and leaned forward on my elbows, lettin’ the smoke roll out slow as I stared at the trees.
The God Smoke crept in soft and slow, just like always. First it settled behind my eyes, then moved through my chest like a warm wave. My mind started to float, but it wasn’t light. It was heavy with thoughts I couldn’t shake.
Ka’mari…
That name lived in every corner of this place. Every damn hallway, and room.
People kept tellin’ me to move on like it was simple, as if I hadn’t pictured our future in this estate already. Like I ain’talready seen her face in my kids and ain’t already given her the part of me I didn’t even know how to get back.
I didn’twannamove on. That was the part nobody got.
And yeah, I could cancel this whole damn Diamonds setup if I wanted to. I could tell Renza to kill the flyers, tell the team to pack the women up before they even touched down, but it was too deep now. There was too many eyes on it, and too much ridin’ on how I handled this.
The will was locked, and the conditions was clear. I didn’t need the money, ‘cause my accounts was fat and diversified, but what Ididneed… was access. My father wasn’t just leavin’ me paper. He was leavin’ me the tools to shape entire governments, to flip economies, to control more than just land, and if I walked away now, I’d be givin’ all that up to other family members and snakes who didn’t have half the heart or vision I did.
So yeah, I had to get my mind right, even if my heart wasn’t in this shit.
