Lion's Pride

Chapter 7

  

T . r . e . D . o . n

     LIFE HAS ALWAYS BEEN TOUGH FOR ME. I WAS CONSISTENTLY TAUGHT that the only way to survive was to be greedy, more greedy than the next man in line. I've hit rock bottom so many times that rock bottom had become the normal standard for me. That's until I found my hustle and ever since then, the bottom has become a faint memory. I've lost all of my family when I went into prison, had no friends to run to when I got out, and basically just left all alone. I couldn't blame anyone for that though because I made the decision to start running the streets on my own. No one is obligated to support someone who makes illegal money, facing the legal consequences. Its safe to say that I have learned from my past mistakes but yet I still learn everyday that mistakes are natural. Going to jail was one of the biggest mistakes I could have possibly made but also the biggest lesson to from not just mentally but physically too.

     For me, family doesn't mean a damned thing despite what happened when I left. Its just a word now that labels a cluster of people who are supposed to be there and provide for you, but instead betray you in every way possible. I never understood how one could call themselves my family but yet, hurt and deprive my way of living in every way possible. I really don't understand. Seeing my mother beaten by my father every other day when I was a kid, isn't love to me. Witnessing the rape of my baby sister by my uncle in front of my eyes while I was tied up and couldn't do anything, definitely isn't love. Knowing that I don't wanna even see any cousin of mine, let alone aunt because of the grimey tendencies they are known to have, definitely isn't love. Family is what I perceive as something that I don't have, and will never ever in life get.

     Things haven't always been this hostile and difficult from my end towards them. I mean, I remember there were days for me where I woke up and the new Jordan shoes were by at bedside. As well as new clothes, food in my stomach and love in my heart. Seeing a smile on the most beautiful woman I knew, my mother, face every morning couldn't make me more happier than I had already felt. I remember when things were all the way good, great even. Dad would sit at the table with me, my brother Ledo, and our adoptee brother Jay talking about God knows what. Momma would be cooking her favorite dishes on other days while my dad read the newspaper at the kitchen table, me and my brothers outside roughing around and our dog, Legend, would be asleep at the back door waiting for our arrival. Life was great, excellent even.

Up until dad found out that my mother had been consistently cheating on him for a while now.

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O . m . n . i . s . c . i . e . n . t

     "Baby have you seen my ring anywhere by chance?" My father Don, asks my mother Adalina as she finishes clasping a genuine silver diamond necklace around her petite neck. Adalina was more than just a beautiful woman. Her curves were dedicated to the right places and her smile... oh that smile. It brightened Don's world every encounter that he had with it. She carried herself like no other, her soul is old but body looks young. Don wasn't oblivious when it came to Ada though. He knew that men were lurking after his beautiful wife, but he knew that those same men also had the idea that Don just wasn't the one to mess with. He moved heavy weight in the streets, sold big things and made a name for himself. Don ultimately wanted someone to try their hand with his wife because whomever did was surely going to meet his or her match.

     "Isn't it under the little black box on the jewelry table?" Adalina says. Despite the way that Don felt about her, Ada was at a point in her life where was sick of her husband. His tendencies after all these years had not waived and that alone did not sit well with her. She had love for him without a doubt, but she was in love with someone else. Juno Santiago owned her heart and Don Cartier was just renting a piece of it in her mind. At one point in her life, Adalina was head over heels in a deep pool of love with Don, but unfortunately that same sparkling love soon faded away. In the beginning, he was an accountant at a law firm and making legal money at the time. Life was good, great even, and it was damned sure worth it when she got those designer dresses and purses he bought her just out of spite. Adalina was content with a legal working man because she was a stay at home mom, taking care of their three children. TreDon whom was the youngest, Jay being the middle child and Ledo the head of the three at the oldest. She loved her little boys more than she loved herself at times.