Page 3 of Quasim III: King Inferno

His eyes kept fluttering, but he hadn’t opened them yet. I needed to see his eyes, that intense glare he gave me before he smirked.

I needed to see my baby’s eyes to know that he was going to be alright. My emotions were high, and I was trying hard not to break down because Ihadto be strong for him. I pulled his cross out of his shirt and held it tightly in my hands. Sim always wore his cross, never removing it. I prayed hard, harder than I had ever prayed before, holding the rosary that he had given me.

I wore it today because it was going to be a special day. We would be finding out more about our baby, and hearing from my doctor.

Before Quasim entered my life, I had been so angry with God. Why did he take my mother from me and put me in foster care with a bunch of people that never loved me? Then I suffered with Tyshawn, and always wondered why he put him in my path? Was I not a good person? Did I not deserve to find someone that treated me like a queen?

When I lost my son, the anger continued. The moment the doctor told me I had cancer, I stopped praying. I pretended like I had God’s number stored into my phone and I had blocked him. What was the reason to keep praying when all he kept giving me was bad news after bad news. My life was ruined, and I expected him to pull me out of it?

Then I met Quasim, a man that had experienced such loss, yet still had this unwavering faith in God. He encouraged and inspired me to start talking to God again. I prayed in the backseat while holding his cross and mine.

I prayed for our unborn baby.

His parents.

His brother.

Elijah.

I prayed for him to push through this and come through stronger than ever. I lived in this world without him before knowing him, and I didn’t want to do it again.

I couldn’t do it again.

The cops fell back as we made it to the bridge, and we breezed over it. Waiting on the other end as we entered Staten Island was NYPD, and they fell into place with their sirens blaring while leading Havoc where he was already going.

Quasim was always so humble, always so lowkey. I didn’t realize how important he was to so many people. Knowing that he was down was sending a ripple effect through the city.

Syn continued to look back at me with tears in her eyes as Havoc was focused on getting us where we needed to be.Quasim’s phone started to ring, so I went through his pockets to grab it, and saw Elijah’s facetime trying to come through.

I handed Syn the phone and she looked at me. “No, we cannot answer this call for him right now… this would traumatize him.”

Havoc looked at Syn and the phone. “Answer the phone… Sim always answers for him, and he’ll be an emotional wreck if he doesn’t answer.”

Syn did as she was told and put the phone to Havoc’s face as I held my mouth to avoid crying while hearing his voice. “Sim, can I call you Dad… Havoc?” He looked in the camera confused when he saw it was Havoc instead of Quasim.

“Yeah, man… Sim is handling something real important right now and can’t talk. He gave me his phone to answer in case you called.”

“Oh, okay. Is my mom around?”

Syn squeezed my knee because the tears poured from my face. We promised to never lie to him, and we were lying to him. “Who’s your mom, Elijah?” Havoc didn’t understand.

“Anjo… I want to call her mom. I asked Gams, and she said I needed to talk to them.” He was excited, and my heart ached.

“I think B is at home resting… look, let me hit you back with Sim… okay?” Havoc took a deep breath while trying to keep it together, but you could hear the emotion in his voice.

“Okay, Gams is taking me to the beach later.”

“Man, you having the best time… we miss you and I’ll talk to you later, cool?”

“Cool. Later, Havoc.”

Syn quickly ended the call, and he took the deepest breath. “Sim, you better not fucking die on us, nigga… you got Elijah and your seed coming into the world. You already promised your next seed was gonna be my God baby… can’t have Goon ass out here upstaging me.”

I released a loud sob as I held onto my husband.

The police cars turned off when we rounded the corner. Havoc saluted one of them while he peeled into a small upscale neighborhood in Staten Island. He quickly pulled down a tree-lined street with fancy landscaping. Every house was massive with gates that needed a code to gain access to the home.

He pulled up to a gate, hit the code and the gates opened as we pulled into the massive driveway. Havoc whipped into the garage and the doors closed on us as he quickly got out the car. No sooner than he got out, a short Spanish man came into the garage with two men behind him. Three women rushed out as well, with Hassan coming behind them wearing his coat and scrubs.

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