Page 23 of Mafia Kings & Wedding Rings 2: The Finale
“Hey, my Jury! Look how pretty you look! I miss you!”
“I miss you too!” She bounced on the sofa and grinned as her little ponytails bopped up and down with her movements. “Guess what!”
“What, baby?”
“It’s almost time for my visit with you! Daddy said in four more weeks, so he let me call today! Are you ready to see me?”
“Oh, I am so ready! Me and your uncle are moving into our new place today. I got a car and soon I’ll have a better job. We are going to have so much fun!”
“Yeah!” she cheered and glanced over her shoulder. “You hear that, Daddy?”
“Yeah. I heard, Jury.” Juke’s deep voice spoke up as he came around the couch to sit down with her.
There was no denying his gruffy beard and piercing eyes had him looking like a whole snack, but the indifference in his glare reminded me of harsher times. Juke came from the streets, but he retired by the time I met him and focused on building a graphics business. He was very successful, and it left him able to still be tapped in with the hood. There was a time I loved him more than anything and thought we would get married and have more kids. Instead, he abandoned me during one of the hardest times in my life, and I could never forgive him for that.
“What’s up, Em?”
“Juke,” I grumbled with a slight eyeroll.
“So it sounds like things are looking up for you.” He flicked the tip of his nose.
“They are,” I muttered. “I’m moving today and working on trying to find a better job. I can’t wait to see my baby though.”
“Yeah, she’s excited about it too. I thought I would stick around a few days, just to make sure she’s good. I know the visitation is for two weeks.”
“You’re not doing that for Jury. You trying to keep tabs on me.” I tossed the last of my clothes into a tote and shook my head. “I got the clear from my therapist and the judge for visitation. Unsupervised. Not that you care.”
“What that mean?” he sneered.
“Nothing. I guess I’ll see you in four weeks.” I wanted to talk to Jury some more, but Juke had already triggered me, and I wasn’t in the mood.
“Bye, Mommy! I love you!” My baby poked her head back in the camera and waved excitedly.
“I love you too, Jury! See you soon, baby!”
We ended the call, and I stared down at my screen for the longest. I tried not to think about Jury as much because it was just such a painful time losing her. I cried for months over that, and begged God for a second chance to be her mother again. Juke took advantage of my mental state after losing my father. All because he had a new bitch who didn’t like me and thought she could take my daughter and raise her as her own. I hadn’t even asked about Ashley because I didn’t want to know if they were still together or not. For all I cared, that bitch could kiss my ass. The only thing that mattered to me was that Jury was loved and cared for when I couldn’t be around.
“You good?” Lola questioned, breaking into my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I assured her, my misting eyes saying otherwise. “I miss her,” I whispered.
“I see. She sounds good though, and you get to see her before you know it. So, don’t let it get to you.”
“I have to keep telling myself I’m not just doing this for me and Sapphire. This money is going to put me in a position to be able to petition for custody again. I deserve to be a part of her life. I don’t care what her daddy thinks.”
“Come on. Let’s start loading some of this stuff into the car. You go make sure you got everything in the kitchen together. Dinner is on me tonight, so you don’t have to worry about cooking either.”
“Thanks, Lola. I really appreciate all this.”
“Girl, it’s no problem. I’m happy for you. You deserve good shit to finally happen for you, Em. So don’t ever doubt that.” She gathered the tote off the floor and carried it with her to the door.
I searched the rest of the room. The only thing left was my bedroom set, which I decided I would just put in storage when I got the chance. I still had a couple of weeks left on my lease since I just paid rent, and I was sure Ivo wouldn’t have a problem with it. It felt like things were finally moving in the right direction, and all because I walked into that clinic almost two weeks ago. Talk about a turnaround. My head was spinning from all the changes taking place so quickly.
About an hour later, we had Lola’s Jeep loaded to capacity with our stuff, and Sapphire was tucked in a corner between boxes and totes with his earbuds in. I gave Lola the address, which she plugged into her GPS, and she drove us across town to our new spot. I could tell by the streets that we weren’t in the hood anymore. We were sliding into suburban territory, which was about fifteen minutes from the very block my family’s house used to sit on.
“Here we are,” Lola announced, coming to a stop in front of a building with a wraparound balcony on the second level.
A set of winding wooden steps led up to the front door of a very vast-looking condo. There was a garage on each side, and I was guessing there was another resident across the way, but itwas broken down with privacy access for both units and a large ten-foot fence wrapped around each. There was even a rooftop swimming pool.
