Page 34 of Certified Pressure 2

Trill-Land, Jungle Estate

The following day…

T oday was Kashmere’s parents’ last day in town so she decided to go spend time with them outside the mansion, even though I knew she ain’t really want to.

She told me she felt like she had to, that it was only right since they flew all this way, and I ain’t push back.

I let her go, kissed her goodbye, and told her to enjoy her time with them.

She left out lookin’ good, makeup soft, sundress flowin’, and even though she was tryin’ to smile, I could read her easy.

Kashmere wasn’t tryin’ to leave my side, but she did it anyway.

And while she was gone, I was already gettin’ myself together for the next round of family shit.

Yesterday I sat down with Kashmere’s weird ass mama, and today it was Ka’mari’s turn.

Her pops, Darius La’Rue, was a pain in my ass, for real.

The nigga was always sittin’ at the head of family dinners, always speakin’ with that voice that said he expected to be obeyed.

And I also knew he ain’t never liked me.

He never hid it either. In his eyes, I was too wild, too unhinged, too much of everything he thought a man shouldn’t be for his daughter.

If it was up to him, Ka’mari would’ve been Donovan’s wife by now, livin’ that picture-perfect life he could brag on in his circle.

But this was my house, and outta respect for Ka’mari, I was gon’ stand tall and give the man the chance to say whatever he felt he needed to.

I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to see Ka’mari’s parents ‘cause me and her been off ever since that night we went to see Rallo. After my dick wouldn’t move, and the way she looked at me after that—like I wasn’t the same nigga she used to know—burned into me.

I told her straight up if she wanted to walk away, she could, maybe it was for the best. But she didn’t.

She stayed, even though the silence after that felt like a wall we couldn’t climb.

We came back to the mansion, and she tried to act normal, still bringin’ me my mornin’ coffee, still tryna spark them light little conversations like everything was cool, but I could feel it.

She started takin’ everything personal, actin’ like my body failin’ me for one night was some rejection of her as a woman.

Ever since, the vibe between us had been even more tense.

Add in the constant back and forth between her and Kashmere, and Ka’mari dipped for a day just to cool down while I met Kashmere’s family. I thought it gave us space.

An hour later, the quiet in the mansion shifted when Ka’mari walked back through the front door with Darius beside her…

As she made her way toward the bar area in the livin’ room, she looked uneasy, and she wasn’t wrong for that.

Darius wasn’t the type to soften himself in another man’s house.

He walked in tall, broad shoulders stretched wide, skin the same rich shade as hers, and his pride sittin’ on him like armor.

I stepped up like I was supposed to, extending my hand.

“Mr. La’Rue,” I said, lookin’ him dead in the eyes.

He looked at my hand, then looked at me, and let that shit hang in the air. He didn’t take it. His face stayed hard as stone. “The only reason I showed up here is because my wife refused to come. Don’t think I’m here for you.”

In my head, I was thinkin’, well, why you bring yo’ bitch ass over here then? but I kept my face calm. There was no need to blow up yet. Ka’mari reached for her daddy’s arm, tryin’ to ease him. “Daddy, please, can you not start?—”

“Be quiet, Ka’mari,” he snapped, sharp enough to make her flinch. “I’m talking.”

I leaned back against the edge of the bar, glancin’ at the cigar box from earlier still sittin’ there like a reminder of how different today could’ve gone. I folded my arms, letting him talk.

Darius locked his eyes on me. “At first, I wasn’t going to come. I didn’t want to sit here and even acknowledge this situation. But I thought about it, and I realized I needed to see you face to face. Because what you did—what you pulled—was out of line.”

I stayed quiet.

“You had no right,” he continued, his voice climbing.

“Crashing Donovan’s bachelor party, pulling a gun on him like a criminal, and humiliating my daughter.

Do you have any idea the embarrassment? Do you understand the time, the planning, the money that went into that wedding?

Do you know how much I paid to put that day together, only for you to rip it away in one night?

Do you understand what you took from her, from me, from this family? ”

His words hit like blows, but not because I felt guilty, but because I wasn’t used to no man aiming his anger at me like that, especially not in my space. Not even my father came at me this direct.

Ka’mari stood off to the side, her arms crossed tight like she was holdin’ herself together. I caught the shine in her eyes. She was tryin’ not to break, but she was breakin’ anyway, torn between the man she came from and the man she kept runnin’ back to.

I let my eyes drift back to Darius, and my thoughts went left. Crazy how you in my crib, talkin’ reckless, like you pay bills here. Nigga, you don’t run shit in this house.

I could feel the heat in my chest, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seein’ me lose it. Instead, I shifted my eyes to Ka’mari. My voice stayed calm. “You wanna leave with your pops or you gon’ stay here with me?”

I then stood up and headed toward the door, just in case I wasn’t makin’ myself clear enough.

Her head snapped toward me. She heard what I was really sayin’. If she didn’t check this shit, I was seconds away from puttin’ this old ass, bitter nigga out on his ass. And she knew it, ‘cause she knew me.

That’s when her tears finally fell. She wiped at them quick, but more came. She looked between us—me, the man she couldn’t let go of, and him, the man who raised her— and I swear the silence stretched long enough for the whole mansion to feel heavy.

Finally, her voice cracked. “Daddy… I’ll call you later.”

Darius’ jaw tightened as he shook his head.

His eyes cut into her like she was a stranger.

“If you want to live a life of pain with someone who treats you like an object, that’s your choice.

I’m done. I’m washing my hands of this entire situation.

If he chooses to marry you, which I doubt, I want no parts of it. ”

He turned for the door without even glancin’ back at me.

That might’ve been the only thing that kept me from sayin’ somethin’ out loud, because I was right there, ready.

Ka’mari wiped her face, squared her shoulders, and walked him out to the car.

I stayed inside, my arms crossed, watchin’ from the doorway, lettin’ him walk out my crib without another word.

They went back and forth about some shit for a minute, then he got in the car and pulled off slow.

Ka’mari came back in, her eyes red, and shoulders low like she lost a fight she never wanted to be in.

She didn’t look at me right away. She walked past, sniffed once, and pressed her hands to her face.

I didn’t chase her. I didn’t say shit either. I just stood there, feelin’ that same conflict I had been fighting for weeks.

If there was ever a sign that I needed to leave this shit with Ka’mari alone, this was it.

It was 9 p.m. and I was sittin’ on my balcony, still mad as hell about the hoe shit Kashmere’s hoe ass daddy said to me.

I don’t even know why I let that old nigga get under my skin, but he had.

Him walkin’ in my house, tryna flex like he could speak my future into existence, like he had any say in how his daughter should move with me—it stayed with me longer than I wanted it to.

I wasn’t even smokin’ this time, but instead, just sittin’ here in my chair, lookin’ out at the trees that surrounded the estate, thinkin’ about all the bullshit that done gone down under my roof these last few months.

I was down to two women now—Ka’mari and Kashmere.

That shit alone was wild to even think about.

I started with twenty, really nineteen… a whole squad of Diamonds, each one walkin’ through them doors with a dream of wearin’ my ring, and somehow this circus been cut down to just two.

At this point it felt like both Kashmere and Ka’mari had history with me.

Both of ‘em could get under my skin in ways nobody else could, and both of ‘em had me wonderin’ if I was even meant to choose either one.

My mind drifted to Toni, because I realized I never even addressed her leavin’.

One day she was here, laughin’ in the kitchen, talkin’ loud as hell about how she could out-cook half my chefs, sweatin’ with me in the gym, rollin’ my weed better than I could, and then the next…

gone. Just like that. No goodbye, no pull-to-the-side conversation, no note slid under my door.

She just dipped, like none of it mattered.

And I ain’t gon’ lie, that shit stung. I thought me and Toni was tighter than that.

I thought at the very least she would tell a nigga she couldn’t stay, that this life wasn’t for her, but the silence she left behind said everything.

It made me feel like she ain’t value the time we shared the way I thought she did.