Page 66 of Quasim III: King Inferno

“Pops—”

“I don’t give a fuck about what you gonna say. Blaze got to have a life, fuck up, and then get everything he wanted. You never got the chance… shit was taken from you. Life was so unfair to you, Pop.” He sniffled.

His ass wasn’t emotional at all, so seeing him hang his head and avoid looking at me, I knew he was fucked up. My mother removed herself from the window and held her arms out, and my father walked over toward her, resting his head down on her shoulder while she held him as tight as she could.

“Quin, this is not your fault,” she whispered. “It’s mine.”

“The fuck?” I started choking as I was trying to raise up out this bed. “You were failed, mommy… fucking failed. This shitain’t your fault and not yours, either. Ya’ll did what you had to do, and I did what I had to do…do,” I continued to choke.

“We all did what we had to do for this family with no regrets and no shame. We protect our own and that is what we did and will continue to do. I don’t want to hear this mess anymore,” Gams entered the room, coming over to put the pink basin on the table next to my bed.

All of us remained quiet because when she spoke, we all listened. “Gams?—”

“Quinton, you may have come to me grown, but I raised you. You have loved my daughter correctly from the moment that you saw her. Have you both been through some crazy mess? Yes. But you remained. When you could have run, you remained and still loved on her. Where you fell short, you raised your boys not to. You have shown the love you have for your boys… taking out your brother is not something that is easy, and I don’t care how easy you make it seem. Where you fell short as an older brother, you have shown Moochie how to be the best big brother to Dumplin.”

“You killed Red?” I bypassed everything that Gams was chatting about right now.

I tried to remove the blanket from me, and she held onto my hand. “Rest… you will not hop out this bed and ride a bike like we didn’t almost lose you,” she scolded.

“Where’s my wife?” I knew arguing with Gams was like going toe to toe with the devil. “And my brother?”

Although I had been awake, the only people I had seen besides Gams and my parents were Blair and Elijah. It was like nobody knew I was awake, or it felt like they were hiding me.

“I’m right here, baby,” she pulled the bathroom door closed behind her.

I looked at her. “By yourself?”

“By myself… I’m okay, Simmy.” She assured me as I held onto her hands.

Kissing her hand, I stared into her eyes and my chest became tight. Blair Inferno was my world and knowing the pain she endured always made me upset. Not knowing how many showers she had to take alone, not knowing if I would ever wake up.

I don’t know what the fuck I had been doing in life before she came along, but my chest was tight when she wasn’t around me. Yesterday, when she insisted on grabbing clothes for me because I had none, I never wanted her to leave.

Even when she kissed me on the lips, I never wanted her to remove her lips from mine. Imagine me being reunited with my daughter, something I had always wanted — had spent years dreaming about it — and the minute I had her in my arms, right where I had wanted to be, all I thought about was my wife.

I thought about her having to mourn me and lose someone else she loved. The thoughts brought tears to my eyes as I stared at her, never wanting to let her go. Never wanting to let her down or put her through losing me.

My body was worn and tired because I fought like hell to make it back to her and Elijah. We had all been broken and were only fixed when we were together. When it was the three of us, we were completed. The cracks would always remain, but that was what made us special.

“What hospital is this and where is Blaze?” I tried to lean up, and she quickly put more pillows behind my back. “What are you all not telling me?”

I touched my chest because I couldn’t even complete the thought. Before I went down, I remember Blaze being on the ground. “Simmy, you need to relax. Your blood pressure is elevated.”

“Is my brother fucking de?—”

“Don’t even say those words, Pop.” I heard his cool ass voice and turned my head slowly, with tears falling down my face.

He was on crutches with a smirk on his face, as he hobbled over toward me. “Elijah and B needed time with you… I wanted to respect that.”

“Although I told him that it wasn’t necessary.” Blair added.

He made it to my side of the bed and looked down. “Pop, I thought… thought I lost you,” his voice cracked as he looked up at me.

His eyes were red while he stared into mine. “Never going anywhere… always right here. I made you that promise, right?”

My pops let the side railing down and Blaze came closer, leaning his crutch onto the side of the bed. I held my arm out, although that shit felt like it weighed twenty pounds. As gently as he could, Blaze tossed his arms around me and held onto me tightly.

“Don’t do the shit to me again, King,” He sniffled, and I squeezed him as much as I could as his locs brushed against my face.

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