Page 3 of Adonis Gates

I peeped him standing there, but he knew not to come out when I was pressing a nigga. AP’s safety was priority for me, so I was always cautious when he was around, but I wasn’t gon’ stand for Brock disrespecting Jru in my presence.

There were rumors circulating that he was putting his hands on her and shit, but anytime I saw her she looked fine, and on the rare occasion that I spoke to her ass, she always said that she was good, so I believed her. Seeing him push her with no regard for whether or not she fell pissed me off. If we weren’t in such a public setting and my brother hadn’t been there, I would have bodied his ass right then and there.

I slapped AP on the back of his head when he walked past me.

“Get yo’ ass in the car, and don’t fuckin’ curse again when speaking to or around me,” I chastised him.

I wasn’t his parent, but I was his guardian and didn’t play that disrespectful shit. I wasn’t his lil’ ass friend or his equal in any way, so I wasn’t going for no funny shit.

Chapter Two

Jruelle O’Neil.

“Where you gotta go today?” Brock asked when we pulled in front of my job.

“I don’t know yet, Derrick.” I rolled my eyes.

“Let me know as soon as you find out.”

Derrick Brockman was the worst decision that I’d ever made in my life. He was so sweet and kind when I met him and even in the first few months of us dating, but that quickly changed after being with him for a year. His true, controlling and verbally abusive nature reared its ugly head, and I’d been living in a nightmare since.

I had to give him a full itinerary of my day each time he dropped me off at work. He wanted addresses and more for every home I had to visit like he wasn’t going to know because he had at least two men sitting at my job daily. It didn’t matter that it was a direct violation of the code of ethics for the Department of Child and Family Services, he still wanted to know. He claimed that it was for my safety due to him being in the streets and people constantly coming for him and the people he loved, but I knew better. He wanted to keep constant tabs on me.

We were literally inseparable to the point that I was barely able to go to Sunday dinner at my parents without him. My family warned me that something was off about Derrick in the beginning, my dad hated how he constantly wanted to be up under me, but I didn’t see what they did. At first I thought he just wanted to feel included in the family, but once reality hit me, I understood whole heartedly what they meant. He needed to be in the know about everything that I had going on.

I grabbed my purse and bag from the floor in front of me and got ready to climb out of the car, but Derrick grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice how you were looking at ol’ boy today.” He glared at me.

My brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Jru, you know what I’m talking about.” He chuckled. “Don’t be the reason that bum ass nigga ends up in the hospital or the morgue.”

I scoffed and snatched away from him then successfully climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind me. Derrick and I both knew that Adonis wasn’t a bum and that he would never put him in the hospital or morgue. Derrick liked to act like a tough guy, but we all knew that he overcompensated for his cowardice by keeping a barrage of niggas around him to do all of his dirty work. Regardless, they couldn’t do anything with Adonis, and that was a well-known fact.

Adonis was and had always been a sweetheart. When I didn’t have friends in high school due to being the new girl, he accepted me with open arms. It was weird to find out that he and Derrick were close friends because Derrick never had anything nice to say about him in private. He was always clowning him behind his back about his misfortunes and the fact that his mother was in an abusive relationship. It was disgusting and should have been enough to make me run in the other direction when hestarted to pursue me, but Derrick had the gift of gab. He was a very charming man knowing exactly what to say and do to get what he wanted. By the time I realized who he really was, it was too late.

As I walked in the building, he let the window down and yelled, “don’t forget, Jruelle, nobody is ever going to love you the way that I do! Especially with your situation!”

I winced from hearing his words but continued my stride into work. He knew how sensitive I was about my diagnosis, and he brought it up constantly despite of how hurt I was behind it. I wanted nothing more than to get married and start a family one day, but I’d been diagnosed with Endometriosis when I was just nineteen years old, so the chances of that happening for me were slim to none.

With anyone other than Derrick anyway.

He was the only guy that I ever disclosed that part of my life too and he didn’t look at me like I’d told him I was ailing and contagious. As I got older, I realized a lot of people were ignorant and lacked knowledge about my condition. Niggas loved sex and for someone dealing with what I was, it was far and few between. Derrick knew and understood what I was going through, but that didn’t stop him from cheating.

He had no qualms about me knowing either. He always said that as much as he loved me, he was still a man with needs and because I couldn’t always fulfill them, he stepped out. He promised that they’d never mean anything more than a nut here and there, and stupidly, I believed him because he was still here taking care of me after eight years.

As soon as I got inside, I went to the breakroom to put my lunch away. I brought my own food from home because I didn’t like being hounded by Derrick’s men if I went out for food. The time I spent at work was the only time I had to myself and the only peace that I experienced, so I took full advantage of it.

After putting my things away, my phone rang. I started to ignore it because I felt like it was nobody other than Derrick, but when I looked, I saw that it was my sister, so I quickly answered.

“Hey sis.”

“Did I catch you without your guard dog?” she asked and I laughed.

“Yes, crazy, I just walked into work.”

“Great. I hate talking to you when he’s hovering.”