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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jahquel J.
Read between
August 4 - August 5, 2025
“Alaia don’t fight me on this because I’m trying not to rip this fucking roof off the truck. A lot of shit isn’t making sense right now and I promise you don’t want me to start drawing my own conclusions.” “What do you expect? For me to ride off into the sunset with you? This is my life, and only I have to deal with that.”
If she thought she was going to be fucking other niggas in my face, she had another thing coming. Kendra wasn’t done with me until I told her she was done with me. I could easily talk to her and ask her about our son, but since she played in my face for the past nineteen years, I was going to have my fun playing in her face.
LMAOOO you know what? i ain’t mad about it cause she did withhold your son from you. it’s fair game at this point
People assumed because me and Capone were raised by both our parents that we wouldn’t have gravitated toward the streets. We had two immigrant parents that were busting their asses to take care of us. None of that shit ever sat right with me, so naturally, I went to the streets to find a solution for the problem.
“I wore this for so long because Zayne told me that I had to. Muslim women wore this to respect their husbands.” She turned to look me in the eyes. “You’re not the only one that can switch subjects whenever you want.” I chuckled. “Oh, you think you’re funny.” “I used to be funny… I lost it a long time ago.” She sighed.
“Despite what people think, it’s the woman’s choice if she wants to wear one or not… bet his ass didn’t say that.” “Never. Always made me feel like I had no other choice, or I was disrespecting him. So much of what I so called did disrespected him… I never knew what was right or wrong. Nobody ever sat me down and taught me how to be a good Muslim.”
Francie, my great-aunt, always told me it was a respect thing and that I should call her that whenever she came around, which was never often. Kendra popped out for birthdays and important life events and even then, her ass was always fucking late.
I stopped craving that motherly love and started using her for what I needed from her. I had all the newest sneakers and fresh clothes because that was all she was good for. When it came to spending time together, she was there to slide a credit card or peel off money out her wallet.
Kincaid grew up on our block and he and Jasmine dated for a little while. When Jasmine went away to college, they broke up. She wanted more and to get away from the city, and Kincaid was so drawn to the streets that he would never leave them. I always fucked with him and told him that Jasmine was the one that got away from him. If his ass knew that she was back in New York for good, I think his relationship with Capri would be threatened.
Whenever I crossed the threshold into this house, I felt the warmth and love this family had for everybody. They treated me exactly like family, and none of them knew how much that meant to me. I already struggled with mama issues, so having the women in this family look out for me the way they did made me appreciate them.
After our argument a couple days ago, I wanted to put all the hostility behind us and start over fresh. This was a new chapter for us, and we couldn’t keep repeating the same shit that we did when we were younger. The only way I was going to get that ring was if my ass stopped eating pork and acted right.
He made trips back and forth from Delaware to New York to take me shopping and spoil me. I had become so caught up in what we were developing that I forgot about Capp for a while. I broke all my rules, giving Ace a key to my condo, and acting like a girlfriend when this was supposed to be temporary. “My man is home,” I revealed.
He looked from me to Ace like he already knew something and was waiting for me to blurt the truth out. I got back in the car with my fucking heart in my ass while Capp took his sweet ass time walking back to the truck. “God, if you get me out of this, I will be better,” I whispered before he finally got his ass back in the car.
The cars displayed in the foyer were all color coordinated. Even the mini cooper had a place within the array of different exotic sports cars. I continued to hold onto his hand while taking in everything. The big wedding picture in the foyer was beautiful, and Capone truly looked happy as he stared down into his wife’s eyes.
“Michael says he is on his way.” Ryai looked up from her phone. “Man, call him Big Mike. We don’t know a Michael,” Jaiden, Erin’s brother, joked with his cousin. “Look at her… all grinning in her phone for Big Mike,” Capp started to laugh while teasing Ryai about her relationship.
“You and Big Mike are together? How did that happen? All that man does is breathe Capone,” I joked. Nobody laughed and I felt stupid for even trying to blend in. “You be breathing in a lot of shit… see me saying something?” Capone calmly stated, while Erin just stared at me. Ryai put her phone away. “We are together, and that’s my baby… not too much on him.”
It made me emotional to think of the love a mother had for their child. It must have skipped me because although I loved my boy, I never got that feeling of just stopping everything to be his mother. I understood I was selfish, and maybe there may have been some disconnect within my brain that caused me to think like this. My own mother wasn’t the best role model, either.
“Kendra?” I realized that my stupid ass had went into a damn daze over my mother. “Huh? Sorry.” “You got kids, Kendra?” Capone asked, picking in his beard. As far as his ass knew, I didn’t have any kids and he was acting like he hadn’t known me for years. “I don’t got no little nephews or nieces running around, right?”
Capp and I had discussed me converting and at the time I promised that I would. It was easy to make promises when the man had years to go before he was actually free. Now that he was on the outside and serious about his religion, I couldn’t keep running from it.
I took a deep breath, so he didn’t know that Cappadonna was his father. “You need to be worried about school or something… what happened to football?” “I stopped playing football when I was ten, Kendra.” It was the way he said my damn name that made me upset. He said it like I was some stranger on the street instead of his damn mother. As much as I wanted to address everything, this wasn’t the place to do it.
I never felt a connection to him or motherhood. A part of me used to feel bad about it, and now I just accepted reality. My aunt loved the hell out of Capella and took great care of him. Even though me and his father wasn’t around, he still got the love he needed from her.
i feel so hurt for capella it’s like she can’t see how much her disappearance had an effect on him growing up
His compromise was that he would pay for my class to keep me happy. It did bring me some joy to be around other women going through the same changes that my body was going through. I didn’t have friends, so just having forty-five minutes to chat and pretend my life was normal felt nice.