Page 8 of Mafia Kings & Wedding Rings
“Good evening. I need your name and the name of who you’re here to visit.” The redhead receptionist didn’t bother looking at me as she focused on her computer screen with her hands posed at the keyboard.
“Cambrie Rhodes. I’m here to see my father, Carlos Rhodes.” She tapped her keys quickly before grabbing a visitor tag from behind me and sliding it to me.
“There you go.”
“Thank you.” I accepted the tag and pressed it across the front of my hoodie while marching toward the hallway where my daddy’s room was located.
“No! No! I said stop! You leave me alone!” His high-pitched, desperate cries alarmed me, and I took off in a jog until I reached his open doorway.
Surrounded by doctors and nurses trying to pin him down, he put up a fight, swinging his arms and legs every which way.
“What are you doing to him!” I screamed, rushing inside and alarming everyone.
“Are you a relative?” one of the nurses checked with me.
“I’m his daughter. Let go of him!”
“He’s become extremely agitated. He roamed the grounds earlier and got lost. When we found him, he was going on about how he didn’t belong here. He was asking for Chrissy,” one of the doctors alerted me.
“That’s my mother. She died years ago,” I whispered.
“The experimental treatment didn’t work, Ms. Rhodes. Your father’s early onset Alzheimer’s is getting worse. His lucid days are few and far between. He’s going to need a better-guarded facility than we can provide here. Which means it’s going to cost more.”
Daddy was still fighting and kicking, not letting up or even trying to be reasoned with. I hated seeing him like this. Lowering my eyes to the ground, I could only nod at the news I washearing. I expected this much. The last few times I’d visited, he didn’t know who I was or where he was. It was heartbreaking. Growing up, especially after losing my mama, I’d become very dependent on him. Watching him deteriorate the last few years had been stressful as hell.
“Do whatever you have to do to get him calm. I’m going to go get some air and I’ll be right back.” Immediately, I turned and rushed from the room.
I couldn’t fall apart in front of people I didn’t know. When I reached my car, I stopped and leaned against the driver’s side door. As much as I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, I held back and tried to get myself together. With a tight chest and constricted airwaves, I gasped for air. Falling against the side of my car, I sank to the ground and buried my face between my knees.
This was really my life right now in a nutshell.How? When did it start spiraling like this? How much am I supposed to take?My mind spun with a million questions I didn’t have the answers to. I decided to pop a muscle relaxer and stick around to sit with my daddy for the rest of the night rather than go home. I didn’t even want to face Plum. My best friend was crazy as hell, and if I told her what happened tonight, she’d be ready to go set Sayer’s house on fire.
Ivo Marek
The next day…
“Mmm, good morning, Mr. Marek,” my wife, Jordan, purred with one of her legs draped over mine while stroking my chest.
My morning wood was damn sure ready for whatever she had in mind. Stretching and yawning beside her, I smiled when her hand reached down to stroke my joint before softly applying pecks to my lips. Her mouth was minty fresh, which meant she got up already and brushed her teeth. We’d been married for five years, and she still did little shit like fix her hair and brush her teeth then get back in bed with me like she just woke up.
“Morning.”
“You ready for today?” she asked, sitting up and straddling me in her lavender silk gown.
Jordan was sexy as hell. She was poised and soft spoken, but baby could turn the freak up when needed. When she felt threatened, she became cold, calculated, and vengeful. I’d done my share of dirt in our time together, and although she had forgiven me, she also knew to let me suffer sometimes. She was no stranger to getting her lick back either. Shit was toxic, but we loved each other. Cuffing her fat ass and giving it a squeeze, I reached out to cup her cheek and draw her closer.
“Are you?” I checked with her.
“I know that it’s the next step, it’s just kind of scary. I don’t know exactly how I feel.” She stroked the design of the tattoo on my chest with the tip of her middle finger. “I know that I love you and I want to have a baby with you. If I can’t carry a baby for you, then this is an option for us.”
“You know I love you either way, right?” I ran my fingers through her long, straight hair and looked into her honey-tinted eyes.
“I know, but… it’s not just about us now, is it?” she posed, lifting her brows and stroking my low-cut fade and waves. “In order for us to have everything that belongs to us, we have to make a baby. However that needs to happen.” All this talk about babies and shit had me soft now.
I always thought when I got my wife pregnant it would be one of those memorable moments. I’d heard other men talk about how they knew when they knocked their wives up and thought that shit was dope. One of life’s greatest gifts was bringing children into this world. The better parts of you and somebody you love, at least that’s what I always thought looking at my life. Jordan didn’t have a lot of family so mine became hers over time.
When I met her in high school, she had lost her mother two years prior and her father just months before. She and her siblings weren’t close, and she ended up befriending the one girl in school that I would have done everything to keep her away from. Not because Emerald Crane was a bad person, but because she was the only girl in school a nigga ever had a crush on. I was a hoop star and basketball was my life. Emerald was smart, and it was hard to keep up with classes while trying to win games too. She tutored me, I even taught her how to play basketball. We enjoyed picnics together, and I always thought she was theprettiest girl in the world. From her smile to the way she laughed and her plump pink lips and slim nose.
A part of me left with her when she left the Bluffs for college. In her absence, Jordan and I grew closer, and somehow our connection to her bonded us. We got married and been locked in ever since. Emerald moved on with her life, and I was never even on her radar. It was best for everyone around in the end that she cut ties the way that she did. Every now and then I couldn’t help but think about her, that was a given.
