In which a woman learns the ways of the world, going from love & luxury, to the streets, to the church, and ending up in the middle of the most violent gang war in her city, which leaves her in the middle of yet another feud. Mahzianna Bennett begi...
Little 2 year old Mahzianna Bennett sat like a doll on her father's full sized bed. His sheets were a midnight blue, stitched with pieces of yellow, black and white as well. His grandmother, Magdalene, had hand stitched the thick blanket and shipped it from their homeland of Peru for her first and favorite grandson. The walls were painted a sky blue, since Mahzianna's birth, he decided to paint the ceiling to look like a beautiful partly cloudy sky. As anticipated, Mahzianna loved to stare at her father's ceiling with big curious eyes. There was artwork all over the room, a big mural of Angela, Antonio and Mahzianna was painted over the wooden headboard of the bed.
Antonio was the first to be born in America. His father, Michael Valdez was an ex gang member turned politician when he met Carmen, Antonio's mother, who had became a realtor upon gaining citizenship. Michael was a strong willed, leader of a man. He had a tall, athletic built body and skin the brown color of a freshly made penny. Antonio's mother on the other hand, was reserved, her skin was a glittery paper bag brown. She was quite short in stature with thick jet black hair that looked almost like a lions mane swallowing her tiny head. All together as a family, Antonio looked strangely out of place. He was the darkest of his family, he had smooth rich skin as dark as midnight. It was a wonder how his grandfather's genes outshined those of his mother's family. To the average person, Antonio was a black man, as strong and confident as his father had been.
Mahzianna was fully dressed, waiting, laying on her back staring at the ceiling. She spent the weekend with her father, laughing and playing games that although she didn't understand, were very fun. Now that the weekend was coming to a close, her mother would soon be coming to pick her up.
"Antonio, I swear... you drive me fucking crazy!" Mahzianna heard her mother's voice yell.
" It's all bullshit, Angie! All you do is bullshit!"
"I'm not fucking lying to you! Let me the fuck go!" Angela screamed.
There was an abrupt bump into the room door and there were clear sounds of struggle from the other side of the door. Mahzianna looked on in wonder.
"Get it the fuck together!" Antonio said in a serious tone, shaking Angela against the door. "Fuck! We have a kid Angie!"
"Antonio I am sixteen years old. I have a fucking two year old daughter. You don't do a quarter of the work I do for her! You don't get to tell me what the fuck to do!" Angela argued, pushing Antonio off of her.
"I apologize for snapping at you." Antonio said in a calm hushed tone. "I— I just... you know how I get about you, Angie. Together or not, you're still my girl. You gave me my first child, you'll always mean the world to me." He confessed. "I just want you to be safe. If not for me then at the very least, for Mahzi."
It had been about 7 months since Angela and Antonio went their separate ways after the pressures of having a child became too much. Angela had been acting out since she gave birth to Mahzianna. The divide between her parents started when Angela became miserable being a mother. She claimed she wanted freedom, that being a mother so early on was never in her plan, nor was it something she wanted to continue to do. The truth is she felt trapped in motherhood, as if she had no value to anyone outside of Mahzianna.
"I'm keeping her until you sober up, Angie." Antonio sighed. "You not bouta come in here smelling like a liquor store and think you gonna take our baby anywhere. You can visit her til you can handle her on your own."
"Whatever." Angela said, bumping Antonio's shoulder as she moved past him. "I don't needa fucking lecture."
It took 4 months for Angela to return to get Mahzianna. Her father was taking excellent care of her, taking her out to the park whenever he could, telling her long stories about his day at work and school, wishing sweet things over her life as she slept and dressing her up every single day to take his daily thousand pictures of her.
The Saturday that her mother would finally be picking Mahzianna up had creeped it's way along. Mahzianna was again fully dressed and waiting.
"Hey Angie, you look good." Antonio smiled at Angela as she walked past him into the apartment with an eye roll.
"Ain't got time. Where's Mahzianna?" She questioned, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.
"You okay?" Antonio asked, cocking his head or the side.
"Boy just get me my baby." Angela said.
With a sigh, Antonio walked into his small bedroom to get Mahzianna and hand her to Angela. As he picked up the small girl, he heard the front door be broken into and Angela let out a fearful shriek. There was a harsh, deep voice booming throughout the house, yelling at Angela as she screamed.
"Fuck!" Antonio whispered to himself, darting across the room to his closet. He had painted the inside of his closet with scenes from Beauty and the Beast, Mahzianna's favorite movie. There was a huge glow in the dark enchanted rose painted on the inside of the door. Antonio painted it when he realized that the closet was Mahzianna's favorite place to hide during their weekly games of hide and seek.
"Shhhh, keep your eyes on the roses, baby." Antonio whispered, piling clothes on top of Mahzianna. He kissed her forehead and grabbed his gun from the closet before he slammed the closet door.
"Get the fuck out!" Antonio screamed to the two men inside of the apartment. One who had his gun pointed at Angela's face and the other who was aiming for Antonio. As soon as the room door swung open, shots rang out. Antonio dropped to the ground as blood splattered across the doors and walls. Angela shrieked in absolute terror, tears running a marathon down her cheeks. As the men zoomed past her and out of the front door, Angela sprinted past Antonio's body into his room to grab Mahzianna. Upon opening the door, she faced with a bullet hole in the middle of Mahzianna's head on the mural above Antonio's bed.
"My baby!" Angela screamed, yanking Mahzianna up into her arms.
Mahzianna saw horror in her mother's face as Angela carried her to the beat up Honda Civic that she drove at the time. They sped away from the two story building as quick as ever.
That was the last time Mahzianna ever saw her father.
Although Mahzianna didn't particularly remember much about Antonio, she did remember some of the events that happened during that time. Memories were all she had of Antonio Valdez. He lived strictly in her memory.
🥀.
Hey my loves, happy holidays!💗
I didn't wanna give too much away in this chapter but I wanted to include this very early on. This particular chapter is veryyyyy important to our story😉.
Next chapter is coming tomorrow cause y'all knowwwwww I gotta double it!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
