Gena listened as Quadir finished his story. Still dazed and unable to believe that Quadir was alive, Gena couldn’t help but think about the series of unfortunate events. Meeting Jerrell at that gas station was the worst thing that could have happened. What was worse was that he was Quadir’s enemy, the one behind killing her beloved Quadir. He was nothing more than a monster. How could I have been so stupid? Gena couldn’t help but blame herself. Just then she thought of the baby she was carrying-Jerrell’s baby. Quadir must not ever know that I’m pregnant. What will I do?

“So, you’ve been staying here, getting well?”

“Yes. Amelia brought me here after I was released from the inpatient rehabilitation center at the hospital. Now, I have physical therapy here and I go to outpatient treatment.”

“And Amelia, where is she?”

“She’s at work. She’s always at the hospital.”

“So, you said that you and her became involved after you saw me and Jerrell together.”

“Gina, listen…”

“No, Quadir, please, just answer me. You are involved with her, right?”

Quadir was silent, trying to figure out her angle. He honestly didn’t understand her line of questioning, but the look on her face told it all. Her entire world had crashed all around her the night he died. Now, it would crash again when she learned that he was not only alive, but also in love with someone else.

“Answer me, please. Please tell me the truth, please.”

“Yes, Gena, yes. I love her.”

“You love her?” Gena asked, as tears began to stream down her face. She broke down, seating herself gently on the end of an ottoman that was next to a chair. “I don’t understand, I just don’t understand. Why, Quadir, why? Why’d you do this to me? Why? I thought you loved me, please, I would have never been with Jerrell. I didn’t know who he was, please, Quadir. I don’t know what to say,” Gena said, trying with all her might to hold back the tears that just seemed to flow down her cheeks. She wanted to be strong; she wanted to have an ounce of pride. But she had none. The man she adored and loved more than life itself was standing there confessing that he was in love with someone else.

“I mean, what is there really left to say? You and Jerrell were together, or at least you were with him,” said Quadir, full of frustration.

“Oh, my God, I can’t believe what you’re saying. I just can’t. It can’t be this way. It’s not supposed to be this way, no,” she said, freaking out, shaking her hands in the air, trying to find the reason for everything that was happening.

“Gena, please calm down…”

“No, don’t tell me to calm down. You were dead, Quadir, gone. Why would your mother throw me out like that, if… did she know?”

Quadir stood still, knowing what his mother had done.

“Listen, Gena, my moms did what she had to do. She was only trying to protect me.”

“Protect you? Protect you? Are you serious? That’s your answer? You just let her throw me out like that, with nothing. You left me with nothing. You died, and now you’re back, but you’re back and you don’t want me anymore because of Jerrell, and I can understand that. I can understand it all. I see it all real clear. Fuck me, right? Fuck me, right, Quadir?” she yelled at the top of her lungs, ready to break something.

“Gena, please, it’s not like that. It’s not like that, really.”

“Then what could it possibly be like?”

“You don’t understand; you’re too emotional to understand right now…”

“Please, Quadir, please, just leave me alone,” said Gena. They both stood in silence as Amelia’s BMW pulled into the driveway. The garage door opened and then they heard it close.

“I guess that’s her. Amelia, the most fabulous doctor in the world. The doctor who brings people back from the dead. Wow, she must be something, really something. Not only does she save her patients, she fucks them too,” said Gena as she began to make her way back to her room.

“Gena, wait, listen… Please, Gena, there’s something I need to tell you; please listen to me, it’s important.” Quadir followed her as she slammed the guest bedroom door in his face.

“Tell it to yourself!” Gena screamed, opening the door. “No, better yet, tell Amelia,” she said, slamming the door in his face again.

She ran over to the phone on the nightstand and called a yellow cab.

“Hello, yes, ma’am, I need a taxi.” Fuck, I don’t even know where the hell I’m at. “Never mind,” she said, hanging up the phone.

Gena searched the room quickly for her clothes. She dressed, quietly crept down the stairs, and climbed out an open window in the library. She snuck away before Quadir and Amelia knew she was gone.

Terrell walked briskly through the park, trying to make it to his meeting place and wrap things up before the rain started coming down again. He hated the weather this time of year, especially when it got locked in a rainy cycle. It was one of the reasons he had left the city. He hated the rain, and even more so, he despised the cold. The weather in his new city was as different from this shit as night and day. He had relocated to beautiful, sunny South Florida, and he loved it. He had vowed never to set foot in the city of brotherly love again, but now, business had forced him to come back. He had flown in to avenge his younger brother.

Champagne pulled up to the park in her black S600 and backed into a parking space. She hated meeting Terrell; he was worse than his twin brother. At least Jerrell had a little bit of sense about him, even a little bit of class, compared with Terrell. They were both cold, heartless men, but Terrell was a straight-up animal. He was a brute, with no sense of social grace, no understanding, no limitations, no nothing. He followed his most basic instincts, as if he were a hyena or lion or some other wild-ass animal. The bad part about Terrell was his attitude. The penal system ate him up a long time ago and even though he had not been locked up for more than fifteen years, he still had an institutionalized mentality. He didn’t give a fuck and he didn’t care. He never would, just like most men who served time.

Champagne could see him in the distance, standing and waiting for her. Goosebumps covered her body, and she felt creepy, crawling creatures up and down her spine. It was a feeling she got whenever she was around Terrell. She hated the way he looked at her, the way he stared at her body. He really was the worst. Champagne knew if he ever got the chance to sex her, he would. And she had no doubt that he would be as brutal as possible while doing it. Jerrell had told her plenty of stories about his brother. Terrell liked to take pussy. Jerrell never understood why the women didn’t press charges. Some would end up with black eyes and bruised bodies. But no one ever pressed charges. Jerrell figured the women were too scared. Either that or they had such scandalous pasts that the charges would never stick and they would just end up looking like the whores they truly were.

Champagne looked at the sick, twisted grin spread across Terrell’s face. She could picture him beating the shit out of her, raping her, and then sadistically burning her body inside some giant cathedral or something. He was just a fucking weird, deranged, serial killer type, waiting to be set off-probably from the simplest of things, such as saying the wrong word, like “bananas.”

Champagne walked to the center of the park where Terrell was standing and waiting. He pulled her close and hugged her. She could feel his hand sliding down to her ass as his fingers reached between her legs.

“Hey, motherfucker, slow down!” Champagne shoved him away.

“I’m grieving and distraught, and this is how you treat me?” Terrell asked.

“Not distraught enough where you can’t grip a handful of ass though, huh?”