“I said where you been?” she repeated as she stood up and walked towards me. “I been calling you all day. You can’t answer the phone?”
 
 I watched her but could only see her lips moving. I heard nothing but my angersimmering and my patience running thin. I just wanted her to shut up and quit nagging.
 
 I had moved in with Felicia once I got out of the hospital. It was the last thing that I wanted to do, but I didn’t have a choice since Solae and Aaliyah weren’t options anymore. Felicia’s crib was the only place where I could lay my head for free while getting fucked, sucked, and my wounds tended to. She naively assumed that I was here because I wanted to be with her, but as soon as I hit a lick, I planned to be out of there.
 
 “You could have answered the phone!”
 
 I drew my hand back and then threw it forward so hard that it whipped across her face. My hand connecting with her cheek caused a cracking sound to echo in the room. Her head jolted back as she grabbed her face in awe.
 
 “Arrrrgh!” she screamed as she fell back on the bed, looking up at me with tears in her bulging eyes.
 
 Not one organ in my body could produce any guilt for what I had just done.
 
 “Don’t fucking question me! You think because I live here that you run shit? You don’t run shit! I run this! You hear me?!”
 
 “Okay, okay!” Felicia conceded, scooting back on the bed away from me.
 
 “Guess you want me to leave now, right?!” I barked.
 
 “No, baby. No! I’m sorry,” she pleaded with tears streaming down her face which was now red.
 
 A triumphant grin spread across my face. “Act like it then,” I told her as I started to unbuckle my pants. Pulling my dick out, I ordered, “Show me. Come suck this dick.”
 
 Crawling on her knees, she hurried towards me. When she hungrily took my dick into her mouth, I palmed the back of her head and started to fuck her face so hard that I could hear herchoking. The sounds of her inability to breathe made my dick even harder.
 
 The next morning, I was back to wreaking havoc on motherfuckers.
 
 Aaliyah thought she had pulled a fast one on me, but I had always been the type of nigga to show a bitch that I played no games. If my thirst for riches was real before, it was definitely in rare form now. She had lived off of me for a year; she wasn’t about to play me and keep living off of my cash.
 
 I had been blowing up her phone, but it was obvious that she had me on the block list. My calls went to voicemail. I had left a bunch of threatening messages, but none had been threatening enough to get her to bring me back my bread. I had looked everywhere for her; at school, all her hangout spots, her friends’ cribs. She was nowhere to be found. So, if she wasn’t going to come out of hiding, I was going to bring her out.
 
 “Hello? How may I help you?”
 
 I gave the receptionist a friendly smile, along with a smooth, sultry voice to seduce her into doing what I needed. “Hey, beautiful...” When she blushed, I knew that I had her. “I’m here to see Ethel Grant.”
 
 “And you are?” she asked with a beastly smile.
 
 “Rah. Her son-in-law. Soon to be anyway, I hope.”
 
 She perked up. “Oh! You’re that beautiful baby’s father. Aaliyah brought him in a few weeks ago.” Then she looked around, puzzled. “Where is Aaliyah?”
 
 “Well, ma’am...” Then I sighed and let a gloomy look come over my face. “That’s what I need to talk to Ethel about.”
 
 She gasped and brought her hand to her chest. “Oh no! Is everything okay?”
 
 I pretended to get ready to say something, then paused. “I prefer to talk to Ethel first, if you don’t mind.”
 
 She stood and walked around the desk, saying, “Okay, baby. Come on.”
 
 As I followed her, I asked, “She in her right mind today?”
 
 “She’s having a good day,” was all that the lady said as she continued to walk down the hall.
 
 Good, because I needed answersright now.
 
 As we walked up on a room, the receptionist stuck her head in and said, “Ethel, you have a visitor.”
 
 “Okay,” I could hear someone say as the woman looked back at me, stepped out of the way, and gave me room to enter. This old bitty had the nerve to look me up and down with some funny look in her eye. Instead of smacking her for having the audacity, I forced a smile, walked in, and closed the door.