Page 108 of Quasim III: King Inferno

We had been working on finding the perfect spot for the studio when I was back. I refused to be just Quasim’s wife. I had a career and a business before he came into my life. It took a lot to build my clientele, and I refused to lose them.

We were getting by with Synthia doing home classes, but that could only go on for so long.

“Ma, are you ready?” Elijah ran into the gym and looked at me. “You okay?”

I smiled. “Perfectly fine, baby… got your journal for therapy after school? Augusta Mae is gonna bring you to therapy after school.”

Elijah was in therapy, and it was needed. It had been a few months since he wet the bed, and I thanked Dr. Killian Hill for it. She came twice a week to Ashbourne to have a session with Elijah. She used an office in town that Elijah met her at after school, and they had their sessions. She never gave me everything they discussed but emailed me the important cliff notes and things we should be looking out for.

Augusta Mae had a cottage a few blocks away from us. We were right on the water, and she was a little back from it, but it was walking distance. I enjoyed having her close because I needed that. Gams came every so often to be with us and then split her time between Meer and Capri.

Capri was a few months behind me in her pregnancy, and the twins were letting everyone know they were coming. Meerhadn’t stopped smiling since he found out that Capri was having two boys.

Blaze and Haze Inferno were already so loved, and we couldn’t wait for them to get here.

Me: Back to the BS.

I texted Capri and put my phone back in the pocket of my romper, while finally leaving out the gym with Elijah.

“Make sure you have everything, Elijah. I am not turning back around because you forgot your gym uniform.”

He smirked as he looked at me. “It was one time.”

I pinched him. “One time too many.”

While Elijah ran down the hall, I went into our bedroom. From the back window, I could see Quasim sitting outside smoking. It was something that he did more of these days. Simmy usually only smoked every now and then. Meer was the weed head, not him.

Lately, all he did was sit in the back and smoke.

I went into Elijah’s room and went into his closest and pulled some outfits for him and shoved them into his overnight bag. “Ma, I’m going somewhere?”

“We’re going to stay with Augusta Mae for a little bit.”

He shrugged. “Dad is coming?”

“No. Go and check your backpack and meet me in the kitchen.”

I watched as he left to do what I said, and I went into our room and grabbed a few outfits. Shoving all my skincare into my bag, I put the bag onto my arm and sat it on the counter.

“Ma, I’m gonna grab a muffin and sit in the car… okay?”

“Okay.”

Sim came back into the house. “Boy-Boy, no hug and kiss before school?”

Elijah went over toward his father and hugged him. “See you soon, Dad.”

The little snitch just let him know that I was leaving his ass. “What you mean?”

Sim’s eyes were low and red, and I could tell he was high. Elijah shrugged, squeezed him once more and then grabbed his muffin before leaving the kitchen, and going into the garage.

I made my protein coffee and shoved my laptop into my bag, because I planned to sit in the coffee shop to get some work done before telling Augusta Mae that I was going to stay with her.

I could tell from the way Quasim was acting that he was reverting to his old ways. Things were tense right now, when this should have been the best time of our lives. Everything wasn’t always tense, and we had done some things that made me happy and feel like we were moving in the right direction.

Then he had moments like this when he got back into his head and acted this way. He was allowing Polo to win.

“Quasim,” I stood behind the counter as he remained by the back door. His breathing was labored as he finally looked in my direction. “What’s wrong?”

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