Chapter 11

Mimi

I sat in the back seat of the car, still trying to process everything that Troy had told me. Some of the shit was so unbelievable. I had lived it, and I almost didn’t believe it. I was numb to the pain though. I guessed my feelings had temporarily left with my memory. Maybe that was a good thing though, because I was sure the minute my memory returned everything would hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t believe that, after all of the things we’d been through, Kaylin would do me like that. He had me wondering what I ever did to him to deserve that. Was he missing something at home that caused him to continue to cheat on me, even after we left our past in Louisiana?

“You don’t have to think so hard about it. Your memory is going to come to you,” Troy whispered in my ear.

I nodded my head in agreement, but it was easier said than done. It was hard for me not to worry. Her memory was already intact, while I had to go searching for mine. The other thing that threw me off was when she said that I had another daughter, who I remembered nothing about. “My God, what’s been going on?” I whispered to myself.

“We’re here,” I heard Troy say. I was so deep in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed the car had stopped.

I looked at the house that was once mine, and I wondered what secrets it held. From the outside, it looked like a regular house, except for the uncut grass, yellow crime scene tape, and overflowing mailbox. The house looked like it had once been a beautiful home for a family—my family—and now there wasn’t a family staying there.

“Are you gonna get out or do you need a little time?” Troy asked me.

“Oh, I’m coming,” I said, snapping out of my daze. Reaching for the handle, I got out of the car and strolled up the walkway. I stood still as I waited for Troy to catch up to me.

“Do you want us to come in with y’all or do y’all want us to wait in the car?’ Jayden asked.

“Y’all can come inside,” I replied, looking back at him. “I need all the support that I can get.”

“Okay.” Jayden and Mark exited the car and followed us.

“We’re going to have to go in through the garage since we don’t have our keys,” Troy said, walking toward the garage. She then used the keypad to raise the garage door.

“You coming?” she asked me, because I was the only one left standing outside. I nodded my head as I made my way into the garage.

When I got inside, I peeped an all-purple Benz, sitting on rims. Since that was my favorite color, I had to stop and admire it.

“That joint is tight,” I heard Mark comment.

“Yeah, it is,” Jayden responded behind him.

“You like it?” Troy asked.

“Yeah, that mug is clean,” I said.

“Good, because it’s actually your car,” she said, shocking me.

“Really?” I asked, not believing her.

“Yes. You bought it the minute you got down here. It took a minute for you to apply the paint and rims, but it was bought with your hard-earned money.”

“Where are the keys?” I asked.

“They’re in the house. You never drove it much. You drove your other car a lot.” She sounded like a proud mother.

“Really? Where is it?” I wanted to know because I didn’t see it.

“Umm, it’s in the shop. You were driving it the day you were shot, so the police took it in as evidence.” She lowered her eyes to the ground.

“It’s okay, Troy. I’m okay. I’m alive, so you don’t have to feel sad anymore,” I said, using my finger to raise her face up.

“I know. I’m actually happy about that. It’s just that I should have been there for you and I wasn’t.”

“Look at me, Troy,” I said, stepping toward her. “What happened to me wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know that I was gonna get shot. It was Kaylin who shot me. It was his fault, baby girl, not yours.”

I grabbed her and hugged her extra tight. She’d been more than a friend to me over the years. In fact, I didn’t consider her my friend. I considered her my sister. She’d been there for me when I didn’t have anyone, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t choose anyone else.

“I love you, sis,” I said to her.

“I love you too. Now, come on. Let’s go get your memory back,” she said, walking toward the door in the garage that led to the house. She stood up on her tiptoes and searched above the door for what I assumed was a key. When she found it, she unlocked the door and allowed me to enter first.

The minute I entered the house, I got an unsettling feeling in the pit of my belly. It felt like it was trying to tell me something. I walked into the foyer, where I spotted more yellow tape and bloodstains on the floor by the front door.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t get anyone to clean it up yet. I was trying to wait until everything was over with,” she said, apologizing.

“It’s okay,” I replied softly, frozen in place. Seeing the blood on the floor made me feel incredibly sad.

She looked over to the guys and mumbled something, and then they left the room. I didn’t hear what she said because I was still in a daze. I looked over to the left, where I noticed a bunch of toys paired up on the floor. When I walked over and picked them up, I was visibly shaken as a flashback of my four kids crying entered my mind.

“Are you okay?” Troy asked, walking up to me.

“Um, ye . . . yeah, I’m okay,” I stuttered.

“Do you want me to get you a glass of water or something?”

“No, I’m okay,” I said to her. “Where did you say my body was when you came in?”

“It was over there by the stairs.” She pointed toward the back of the house.

I swallowed hard, as a lump had formed in my throat.

“Do you need me to go with you?”

“No, I’m okay,” I reassured her.

“Well, I’ll be right here if you need me.”

I respected her because she gave me all the space that I needed. She wasn’t trying to treat me like a baby, or cripple me like most people would’ve done. “Okay,” I said, nodding my head.

I took a deep breath as I made my way toward the back of the house by the stairs. With each step that I took, the pain in my stomach became worse. It was in knots as I realized that was where I had died. I knew it was the exact spot because there was a chalk outline forming a perfect shape of the position that my body was lying in. I grabbed on to the wall as my knees started to buckle.

“Mimi,” I heard Troy yell from behind me. I wanted to turn around, but I couldn’t. It felt like a magnetic pull was holding me in that spot. The moment that my knees hit the floor, every minute that I wasn’t able to remember came flashing back in my mind. It was as if the last few weeks of my life were playing on a projector screen. I saw everything Troy had told me: the moment I spotted Kaylin at the gas station, the minute I met Jayden, seeing Tyreek and Kayla, the hotel rooms with Jayden, the times I sat up with my kids waiting for Kaylin to come home. What hurt the most was when I returned to the house and saw Stacy posted up in it with a child Kaylin had fathered. It added insult to injury to find out that this child’s name was Kaylin Jr.

My body started to shake as I recalled the flashback of Kaylin pulling a gun out and shooting Tyreek first, then turning the gun on me. In my mind, I felt the four shots enter my back again as if it were happening now.

“Why?” I screamed.

“Oh, my God. Mimi!” Troy screamed again. My head started to spin as I heard lots of footsteps running up behind me.

“Mimi! Mimi! Mimi!” Troy cried, pulling me into her arms. My body was there, but my mind was gone.

“Talk to us, ma,” Jayden said, but I couldn’t actually see them because a bright light blinded me.

Looking closer I saw an outstretched arm. Then I heard a voice say, “I’m very glad that you’re back, but I need to tell you something.”

I already knew who the owner of the voice was because I remembered hearing it before. I just didn’t know what she wanted to say to me.

What’s going on? I asked her in my mind. I still could hear Troy and Jayden in the background screaming for me to say something, but I couldn’t respond to them.

“You have to get to Louisiana as soon as possible. Your kids are headed there with their father, and they’re in danger. They need you, Amina.”

What? I asked, not sure if I heard her right.

“Your kids are in danger, and you need to get to New Orleans now. I will be watching you along the way, but you have to get going, now!”

But—

“No buts. You have to get going and make sure you take your friends along with you because you’re going to need their help!” Just like that, the voice was gone.

As I returned to my normal self, I jumped up out of Troy’s arms.

“Thank God. You scared the hell out of me!” she said, standing up to her feet. I didn’t answer her though. I hurriedly ran to the kitchen, with everyone in hot pursuit.

“Ma, what’s going on?” Jayden asked.

“I have to go!” I yelled, searching through one of the kitchen drawers.

“Go? Where are you going and what’s wrong?” he asked, walking over to me.

“I have to go. I need to find my car keys,” I screamed, searching through another drawer. “Troy, where are my keys?”

“They’re in your bedroom in your nightstand. What’s wrong, Mimi? Where are we going?”

I didn’t answer her. I bypassed all of them as I ran up the stairs to my bedroom. Spotting the nightstand, I quickly snatched the drawer to get my keys. Once I retrieved my keys, I ran out of the room, running into them headfirst.

“Ma, slow down. Tell us what’s going on and where are you trying to go,” Jayden gasped, trying to catch his breath.

“I have to go to New Orleans. My kids are in danger, and they need me. They need their mommy,” I said, breaking down.

“What do you mean they’re in danger?” he asked me.

“I don’t know, and I can’t explain it to you right now. All I know is that my kids are in danger and I’m going to get them,” I replied, moving past them, headed for the stairs.

“Hold up, ma. If you’re going, then I’m going with you.”

“And you already know I’m coming,” Troy replied.

“I don’t even need to say it,” Mark added.

“Well, come on, we don’t have much time. They’re already on their way there,” I said, running down the stairs toward the garage. I got in my car and started it up.

“We can’t go in your car, ma. They’ll recognize it. Let’s take the rental,” Jayden stated, opening the passenger door.

“I don’t care what we go in. Let’s just go.” I jumped out of the car, slamming the door so hard I almost broke the window. Troy was shutting the garage door as I hopped in the car.

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Troy asked as she hopped in too.

“I’ll tell y’all on the way. Let me use your phone.” I shook my head to clear it. I needed a minute to process everything.

“We need to stop back at your crib to pick something up,” Mark said from the back seat.

“Well, hurry up then,” I snapped. I couldn’t help it. I was getting impatient. I was a mother, and I did what any mother would do if someone told them that their kids were in danger. I silently said a prayer as I begged God to watch over my kids because if something were to happen to them, I’d make someone pay—with their life.

We made it to the house exactly ten minutes later. I didn’t even get out. I was nervous and anxious that we weren’t getting on the road fast enough. I watched impatiently as Mark quickly dashed inside to get whatever it was he had to have. Two minutes after that, he was back in the car, and we were on our way to New Orleans.

I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew one thing for sure: if anybody hurt one strand of hair on my kids’ heads, I would personally add to the total that gave New Orleans the nickname the Murder Capital, and I wasn’t playing.