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She snorted as she wiped her face. “I’m sorry, baby…I honestly need you all. You guys and the Delgatos have welcomed me when I had no one. Even before I married Quasim, you have all been there for me.”

“B, you been my daughter before this knucklehead could make up his mind on what the fuck he wanted.” My father laughed.

It took all my strength, but I pushed up my middle finger and leaned my head back. “Alright, this is too much. He needs to get some rest and not use all his energy up before travel.”

“Travel?” Me and Blair both said.

My father sat on the couch near the window, and my mother remained at the foot of the bed. “Barbados, Pop… you have to go.”

“Ma, I’m not leaving… niggas not running me out my city.”

“Not up for discussion… and I need my bread, too. Tried to die and shit, but I need my munyun .” Cappadonna came through the door and smiled, coming over toward me and taking my face in his hands, kissing my head.

I couldn’t even fight to get out his grip because it would take too much strength that I didn’t have. “Capp, get the fuck off me.”

He kissed my head again and then looked me in the eye. “Nah… I knew you wasn’t going nowhere… nigga was just being lazy. Been running shit so long he needed a break,” He hugged me this time.

“Fuck you… I’m really in pain.”

“Leave him be, Roy.” Alaia came into the room with bags in her hand. “I made sour dough bread, and lots of soup. I also made some steak because someone mentioned craving steak.”

“Is it bleeding, though? I want a nice, rare piece of steak.” Blair gasped.

Cappadonna moved away from the bed. “The fuck she cooking in there… a vampire?”

“Girl, no… you are pregnant and can’t have that kind of steak. I checked with my doctor to be sure, and she nearly screamed at me.”

She folded her arms, looking cute as shit. I loved whenever she pouted, and the fact that she was doing it over food made me ten times happier. “Like your moms was saying… you getting out the country. I put the word out that you passed, so they think you’re gone.”

I moved so fast that I knocked over Blaze’s crutch, as I tried to remove the damn IV from my arm and get the fuck out this bed. “Fuck that shit… he not getting the satisfaction of thinking he took me out.”

“Fuck all of that shit, Sim… this shit about your health and Blair. She’s carrying your seed and the stress she has been under hasn’t been goo?—”

“I promise I am alright… I don’t want you to think I’m compl?—”

“B, this is your family. Complain… make it a problem. We’re here to solve the problem. Especially when my grandbaby has something to do with it.”

My mother came over and hugged Blair and touched her belly. “You both need to rest and heal… let us handle it.”

“ Us ?” I replied.

Blaze chuckled. “Mommy been out there handling shit with Pops… every king needs to know when to rest and let his people handle shit.”

“Barbados to rest and recover while enjoying this pregnancy.”

“Suga pie is on the news,” Gams said and rushed over to grab the remote, turning the TV up with my sister addressing the public.

She wore a NYPD windbreaker, and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a Yankee hat on. “Goodness, she makes me prouder and prouder… my Suga pie.” Gams crossed her arms as we watched Capri on the news.

“Today, our office, in coordination with the federal and local agencies, completed a multi-agency raid on an illegal human egg harvesting operation. One that we have now confirmed to be a modern-day black market reproductive trafficking ring that is international. This facility was masked as a fertility clinic that served hundreds of patients daily. Many of the women that were abused were misled, coerced, and trafficked. Stripped of their autonomy and treated like animals… cattle.” She removed her aviator sunglasses and looked right at the camera.

“Fuck, she so damn sexy.” Blaze muttered as his eyes were glued on his wife.

“When I took this position, I said I wasn’t letting anything slide, and I don’t plan to.

This was not medicine; this was exploitation in the most horrific way.

You don’t come into my city and do what you want…

I will find you and bring you to your knees.

Detectives Parker and Hill were a big help in this investigation as well. ”

Cappadonna clapped his hands, sending a loud echo through the room. “Pulling Lucia’s ass right into the middle of it. Baby Doll too fucking smart, she making sure they know they can’t trust her… giving her ass nobody to lean on.”

Blaze was too busy smiling while admiring his wife on the news. “Why that detective look familiar?”

“That’s Synthia’s sister…. She was NYPD and had taken the test to become a detective. Corleon went and gave her a promotion,” Anjo smiled at me.

I looked over at her, grinning at her best friend on the news. “You know about all of this?”

Pops chuckled. “She’s just as involved as Capri… between Capri and Blair, neither of them rested.”

“Your wife been out here in them same streets you wanna keep her out of,” Blaze snickered, as I looked at Anjo, who was avoiding looking at me.

“With my baby in your stomach, Anjo?” I raised my brow.

She folded her arms. “And did. I wasn’t going to sit around being helpless and a victim anymore.

Someone tried to take you from me, and I stood up for once.

I know you’re used to running everything; however, we are going to listen to your doctors and rest. You cannot lead when your body is weak and hasn’t healed. ”

I went to say something else, and her ass balled my lips up gently and kissed me on the cheek. “Your queen has spoken,” my mother said, smiling at Anjo.