Page 43 of Rhodes to Love

Uncle WJ leaned over and hugged me tightly. “God has given you wisdom beyond your years, niece. Thank you. Just from your words, my soul is at peace.”

If Uncle WJ was at peace, then I knew God was a miracle worker. He didn’t have as many years with a loving father as his siblings had, but God had given him peace through my words to them. They all hugged me one at a time and when I got to Uncle Storm, he said, “I love you, niece. You have to be the first female angel. Don’t tell Tiff. She gon’ get jealous.”

I smiled softly at him as the doctor came out and offered his condolences. Grandpa was gone, and although tears were still falling, we were all at peace. After giving directives to the hospital staff, we all walked out to the waiting area. When the rest of the family saw us all walking out of the ICU, they erupted. Screams and cries flooded the area. I could even see anger. I closed my eyes for a moment. Before I could open them, I felt hands at my waist, picking me up.

I turned to see Uncle Storm lifting me and standing me on a table. My family looked overcome by sadness, and it was extremely loud in the area because there was so many of us. God directed me to just lift my hands. Within a couple of minutes, everyone had gathered around me, and the noise level had come down completely. They were all looking to me for what I would say. I noticed Christian and Jacob toward the back, seemingly overcome with guilt. I could feel it.

“God doesn’t make mistakes. He is in full control, even when it looks like He’s not. We don’t know why He allowed Grandpa to go this way, and we may never know. What we do know is that Grandpa lived a full life. He made sure his family was set for life. It was on his back that we have become who we are. He worked hard and now he’s gone from labor to reward.”

I could see head nods. I glanced at my brothers as they stared at me. Kingsley gave me a tight smile. “Sometimes, when it takes us a long time to get this life thing right, God can choose to take us before we have time to mess up again. Grandpa had made all his wrongs right. He was missing Grandma, and he was ready to be reunited with the love of his life. I know this is hard, but we have all the memories to keep us going. We will become even closer to get through this.”

I closed my eyes as I said, “He loved all of us. Don’t allow his death to separate us. I love y’all, and I love the way we always look out for one another. Let’s not lose that.”

I turned to see Rhodes was now standing next to me. He helped me down and kissed my head. I placed my hand on his cheek then made my way to Christian and Jacob. I knew they were feeling like their interaction with those people led to all of this, but none of this was their faults. This was a random robbery gone bad.

When I got to them after numerous hugs, Jacob lowered his head. “No. Pick your head up,” I said as Mekayla made her way to him.

She circled her arms around his waist and LaTee did the same. “You see all this love you have? This isn’t on you. Don’t allow this to drag you back to that place mentally. What happened had nothing to do with any of that foolishness. Okay? Grandpa was extremely proud of you… of all of us. His job here was done.”

When Mekayla and LaTee released him, he immediately wrapped his arms around me. I stared at Christian while I hugged Jacob and said, “That goes for you too.”

Jacob released me, and I hugged Christian. When I pulled away from them, I felt extremely drained. I hoped I did what God wanted me to do. Making my way to a chair, I sat.

“Baby, you okay?” Rhodes asked as he sat next to me.

“I just feel weak and exhausted.”

“You haven’t eaten. Let me get you some potato chips or something. When we leave, I have something to tell you.” I nodded as he caressed my cheek. “I wish you could have seen what I did while you were speaking. I’m so sorry for your loss, KD.”

He kissed my lips then went downstairs as we waited for the funeral home to come and get Grandpa’s body. While I knew Uncle WJ had a lot to do with where Henderson Ranch and Farms was today, it was Grandpa’s vision. He established this company when Uncle WJ was a baby. He created wealth that would last for generations to come. He’d accomplished what God put him here for, and I was grateful that he received his flowers while he was living.

* * *

As Rhodes rubbed my feet, I lay against Kingsley, letting him offer me comfort. We were at my grandparents’ home. My dad, aunts, and uncles were in the kitchen talking. I was sure they were making funeral arrangements. This wasn’t something I was expecting to be doing today. I thought I would be laying in my man’s arms after my nap, enjoying our quiet time together. Grandpa’s attack was unfortunate, but Ace had sought retribution immediately.

Mr. Berotte and Mrs. Taylor would be here in the morning to discuss what would happen to him. He’d killed three people, and I just couldn’t see him walking away from that. Uncle Marcus and Aunt Syn had been extremely quiet, and Malia had been crying quite a bit. They’d remanded Ace the other day. That had killed Aunt Syn. While he wasn’t biologically hers, she’d cried like she’d raised him from birth.

Uncle Marcus had to console her as well as Heaven, Ace’s biological mother. She came around the family from time to time and had a sweet spirit. Everyone liked her, even Uncle Storm. Now that Grandpa had died from injuries sustained from the attack, I was pretty sure they would be going before the judge again to appeal. Ace had let his anger lead the way. His crew of cousins were suffering emotionally about it, which included my two younger brothers.

I glanced up at Kingsley to find him staring at his phone. “You okay, King?”

“Yeah. Just catching up on the group texts from SS, Royal, Ryder J, Crew, and Kane. What happened to our dawg is fucked up. That could have been any of us. We all would have killed to protect Grandpa. I don’t care if it was ten niggas. I would have killed every last one of ’em. In a situation like that, there’s no such thing as shooting to injure. Muthafuckas still could have retaliated and shot him. They said one of them had a gun on him. I can’t believe they remanded him… like he a fucking flight risk or something. He don’t even have a record. It’s bullshit.”

I removed my feet from Rhodes hands and turned to my brother. He was hurting so much. I was almost sure they all were. Our family was hit with a double whammy. Grandpa was gone, and if the judge didn’t see things the way we did, we could lose Ace to the penal system. He would be the first in the family to do serious time. This shit wasn’t right. He was defending our grandfather. All three of those boys had attacked him… and killed him.

I allowed a couple of tears to fall from my eyes. It was so messed up. I pulled Kingsley in my arms and hugged him tightly. “Hopefully the police will do something about the crime in our area. We don’t bother nobody, but these niggas won’t stop messing with us. I feel like Grandpa was targeted.” I released him and asked, “They said one of the boys was related to the Andersons, right?”

“I think so. Mister Berotte will probably enlighten us in the morning. It’s just not right. Ace is only twenty-six. He still has his entire life ahead of him. He just got a girlfriend and everything. He was trying to finally be with one woman. I don’t even know if she’s gonna stick around after this. I don’t even know if she knows him well enough to trust that he ain’t a thug.”

“I’m going to be praying hard. There is no way Ace can go down for this. We will prevail. You believe that?”

“I’m trying to, sis. It’s hard though. Let me go outside and check on my boys.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too, sis.”

He kissed my forehead and stood from the couch and headed outside. I snuggled against Rhodes, and he embraced me and kissed my head. It seemed life was mad as hell at the Hendersons, and I couldn’t understand why. Those people hated us so much.Pray for them.I frowned so hard until my head started throbbing. I couldn’t have heard the Lord right, because naw, nigga, naw.Pray for your enemies.I huffed loud enough for Rhodes to hear me then stood and went upstairs to my grandparents’ bedroom.

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