Page 2 of This is Law

I shot another look over at Yaya, and her lawyer, and I took my seat.

“I will grant that. The court orders that any intimate recordings, that involve Mr. and Mrs. Crawford be permanently deleted, effective immediately,” Judge Bowden said. I nodded my head, not having a problem with that ruling. I was trying to play big gangsta in the courtroom, but that shit was going to hurt my chest to delete our videos. I lied my ass off when I stood up and said that I’d deleted the videos months ago. Shit, on those nights, when I’m drinking that brown, with a cigar in my hands, I like to go back and look at that old footage. I was faithfully putting Yaya through the mattress just about every other night. Those were our happy years. When we would all be downstairs in the living room, watching TV as a family, and I would send her a text, telling her to meet me upstairs in our bathroom for a quickie.

The last time I fucked Yaya was probably five months ago. We were still going through our divorce at the time, and I’d come over to the house to see the boys. She’d eventually found her common sense, and she moved back into the house, and while she stayed at our house with the boys, I left and got a condo. One night, I came over to chill with them. I played on the game with my sons for about an hour, and I remember going upstairs to let Yaya know that I was leaving, and next thing I know, we’re arguing about me coming in the bedroom that I used to sleep in at one point with her. We go from arguing, to me putting my dick in her, but because our boys were still up, I had to take her in the bathroom. Yaya wasn’t on birth control. She never got back on it after Sarai. On some toxic shit, I made sure that I dumped at least three loads in her because I figured that if I got her pregnant, she would come back to her senses and try and work our shit out. Till this day, she will look me in my eyes, and tell me that she didn’t get pregnant, but I feel like her ass was lying tome. I felt like she had gotten pregnant, and she snuck her ass off, and got an abortion. So yeah, she couldn’t trust me, and I didn’t trust her ass, so it was only right that we were right here in this courtroom, finalizing this divorce.

There was about two minutes of silence, and then judge Bowden quickly cleared his throat, and the glasses that had been resting on the bridge of his nose, he lifted them, so that they perfectly sat up on his face. After that, he began to read his ruling.

“Okay, so after reviewing the terms, and hearing from both parties, I’ll go ahead and share what the court has ruled on. Before I do it, I do want to leave Mr. and Mrs. Crawford with a little word of advice in hopes that you listen to what I’m going to say, and ponder on it. This could have been fixed. Mr. Crawford, I’ve known you for years because of the legal world that we are both in. I know the kind of person you are. Mrs. Crawford, we’ve been in communication a few times over the years, and you have a kind heart, and a loving spirit. Losing a child is never easy. I know the strain that it put on your marriage, which is why when the motion was filed for the divorce, I recommended that you two take therapy, just to see if it would bring you back to what it was in the beginning, but it didn’t happen that way. Maybe the limit on you all’s love has reached, but I’m going to hope that it’s just temporary,” judge Bowden shared. Neither one of us said anything. We kept quiet because this wasn’t our first time hearing someone say that we could have worked it out.

“On to the court’s ruling. Custody of your minor kids Legend Crawford and Creed Crawford will remain 50/50. There was a parenting plan that Mrs. Crawford shared. Mr. Crawford, you and your team agreed to it, so we will honor it. Holidays, school breaks, including summer, thanksgiving, and Christmas breaks will all be shared time. Mr. Crawford, you are ordered to remove any remaining vehicles from the marital residencewithin the next ten days. Mrs. Crawford will continue to retain ownership of the home. In this case, we have ruled out any spousal support or child support issued to either party, as both parties are financially independent, and can manage. As far as the businesses that you two have, we’ve ruled that you two will continue to retain full control of your own businesses. The jointly owned vacation properties, they will continue to have shared access, which is what both parties agreed on. From here, this divorce is now finalized. You two are no longer legally bound to one another,” judge Bowden concluded. It was a clean cut, straight to the point kind of ruling.

Yaya had her own money. Just as I was a millionaire, running my business, I could say the same for her. She wasn’t trying to come for a nigga’s pockets, and I wasn’t trying to come for hers. I didn’t care about her keeping the house. I wanted her there with my boys. It was a well-protected area. I had about six of my cars still there in the driveway, and her petty ass wanted them gone, and as you can see, the judge told me that I had ten days to get them out of the driveway. I wanted her to think that I didn’t give a fuck that this marriage had come to an end, so as soon as we leave this bitch, I was going to get on the phone with a tow company and have them tow away all my whips.

“You good, man?” Trent asked, putting his hand out, so that I could slap it up with him, and I did just that.

“I’m good. Thank you, bruh,” I assured him, and he nodded his head, letting me know that it wasn’t a big deal.

I looked past him, and I could see Yaya, and her lawyer, and they were hugging each other. I could only see Yaya from behind, and Taryn, her lawyer was rubbing her back. I’m sure her dumb ass was crying. She asked for this shit, and now her ass had the nerve to be crying. I just shook my head, and I let Trent know that I would see him tomorrow back at the office.

From there, I walked out of the building, and before I could make it over to my car, I ran into a few people that I knew, that I quickly chopped it up with. I didn’t make it back to my car until fifteen minutes later. I was standing in front of my two- tone black, and silverMercedes- Benz S580 Maybach.I loved this car. This was the car that I pushed about every day. I had the privacy tents so dark that it was damn near illegal.

Standing with the keys in my hands, getting ready to unlock the door, I could hear the sound of heels clicking against the stone steps that led to the court building. It was Soraya coming down. Her head had been down, watching herself closely as she took the stairs down, and the second she reached the bottom step, and she saw me standing there, she paused, as if she had to contemplate what her next move was going to be. She was going to have to walk my way because her chalk-coloredPorsche Cayenne coupewas parked in the same row as my car.

Her eyes looked up at me, she rolled them just like I knew she would, and she walked her slender frame over to me, and she surprised me when she didn’t do any petty shit, like pretending that she didn’t see me standing here, and choosing to walk right past me. She stood just a few inches away from me, scratched at her head, and because we were face to face, I could see her eyes, and they were telling on her ass. They looked almost swollen, and judging by how red they were, I knew that she had been crying.

“I’m just trying to figure out what the fuck are you crying for?” I shot. There was no hint of me being soft with her, offering any sympathy, none of that shit.

She didn’t answer my question. She just stood there, looking like the grown-up version of what Sarai would have looked like if she had made it this far in life. Soraya was beautiful. Like, drop dead fuckin gorgeous. She’s what the world would describe as afro- Latina. Her mother was a beautiful black, dark skinnedwoman, and her father was Dominican. Together, they’d created something so unique. She stood up tall like a model. Soraya was 6 feet even. She’s always been slim, but after carrying three children, you could see that she was slim/ thick. Super tiny waist, hips that spread a little bit, and her ass wasn’t the biggest, but you couldn’t tell her that because she believed that that lil motha fucka would poke out when she walked. Her brown eyes were soft, and innocent looking, but I knew there wasn’t shit innocent about her ass. Her skin tone reminded me of a warm bronze color. Her hair has always been long. Right now, she had it styled with a middle part, and with loose waves of curls. The color of her hair was like a deep brown, with golden highlights throughout it. Shit blended perfectly with her face. She had big, full lips that at one point used to kiss a nigga everywhere on my body. If I moved on, and I started fuckin with someone else, any bitch that I entertained was going to be in their head and probably second guessing themselves because the woman that I was once with was damn near perfect.

“This the shit that I be talking about when I call you weird. You weird as fuck, and you like playing the victim. You filed for divorce. You had a nigga served at the crib with divorce papers. I showed up, so that you could get what the fuck you asked for, and now you walking out this bitch crying? Man, get the fuck on with that shit. You about to go home? I’m going to call a tow company, so that they can come get my cars out of the driveway!” I snapped on her.

“Why do you have to do that right now? Just do it tomorrow!” she snapped back.

“My days of going out of my way and trying to appease you are over. I don’t make choices anymore for the benefit of you!” I snapped, and she groaned at that.

“Sevyn, please! And fuck you! When is the last time your black ass considered me, tried to appease me, and made a choicethat was beneficial for me? Wrong bitch!” she fired back. I tugged on my chin hair, laughed a sarcastic laugh, and shook my head.

“Nah, right bitch!” I fired right back at her ass.

“And just for that, your ass not coming nowhere to get those fuckin cars! Keep playing with me, and I’ll auction all those fuckin cars off, and leave you with just the one that your standing in front of! I keep telling your stupid ass that you got me confused with them hoes! I birthed three kids for you, nigga! The least you could do is give me the proper respect by not calling me a bitch!” she was on her way to crashing out.

“I’m not trying to hear all that shit. I’m calling a tow truck so that I can have my shit picked up, and out of your driveway. You got good sense, Soraya. You know not to even touch my cars. It wouldn’t end well in your favor. Because I don’t live there anymore, I can’t let the tow company through the gate, so are you going to be there, so that you can let them in? I’ll come following behind them, so that a bunch of random niggas don’t have to be at the crib, while your by yourself,” I finished. Even in separation, I still gave a fuck about her.

“Whatever,” was all she said, and then she walked away. I watched her strut, doing that model walk that she easily possessed, hating that she had to have looked so fuckin good in that brown,Alexander McQueensuit. I mean, she was wearing the fuck out of it. It fit her body like it was made for her.

I picked my hand up, used it to run it down my face, as I thought to myself that this was only day one of this shit. With the occupation that I had, that shit was already stressful enough. I don’t know if I had the energy to have to get around my wife every day and argue with her ass about some bullshit. Oh… correction,my ex-wife. I keep forgetting that I’m a single man now.

Chapter Two

SORAYA ‘YAYA’ CRAWFORD

“I’m just not understanding the tears. What the fuck are the tears for? You, and Law have been in court for almost a year. Yaya, you knew this was coming, and if this wasn’t something that you wanted, you had plenty of time to back out of it, and work on your marriage with him,” my mom flared at me. I had been having a heart felt conversation via facetime with my twin sister, Shai, when my mama suddenly hopped her ass on the call.

I expected this to be my mom’s rection. She was tough. She’s always dished out tough love. Last year, she retired as a correctional officer. She’s been in that line of business since me, and Shai were two years old. She raised me and Shai to have thick skin. She didn’t coddle us because she always told us that the world wouldn’t do it, so by her coddling us, it would be her doing us a disservice.

“I don’t know, ma. Give Shai back the phone,” I replied through sniffles. I knew that my twin sister would allow me to have my moment over the phone without judging me and calling me out on my bullshit like my mom had been doing. I need gentleness right now. I didn’t need tough love at the moment. I needed someone on the opposing side to see that this shit was hurting me. I needed them to understand that reality had finallyhit me that I was no longer a married woman, and that I was now single. Granted, I knew that this day was coming, but when I walked in the house after being in court this morning, and judge Bowden had finalized our divorce, that’s when everything felt like it had unfolded.

“You want to talk to Shai because you know that Shai is going to entertain the bullshit, and I’m not. When is he supposed to be coming over to get the cars?” she asked, changing the subject. For her to have known about Law coming over to get his cars, that just let me know that she had been standing around the whole time that I had been on the phone with my sister, telling her everything that took place in court.

---