Its been hours since Imani woke up and Ryan still isn't here. We've all called her multiple times and she hasn't answered, it just goes straight to voicemail. I was starting to worry but I didn't want to worry Imani.
"Yo Baka, can you go over to my place and get Ryan. She must be asleep but I don't want to wait any longer, I gotta see her. I don't want to wait anymore." Imani said.
"Yeah, I got you man."
"I'm gonna go with him. Good to see you up though bro. Stay clean!" Chubbs said as he and Baka left the room.
Once they were gone it was just myself and Marcus sitting next to Imani's bed.
"Guys, I gotta be honest. Earlier I was fighting y'all about rehab, but I'm not gon fight y'all no more. I gotta be real with myself and as I'm sitting here I'm starting to feel like I need my pills, I'm getting anxious and sweaty. Its true, I'm an addict and I need help." Imani said as he put his head down. I could tell he was ashamed and it took a lot for him to be honest and tell me that.
"Thank you, for being honest. I can't imagine how hard this is for you, but I want you to know that you have a huge support system behind you and so many people that love and care for you." I told him as I reached over and held his hand.
"Thanks mom. I know I need it, I'm just scared."
"We got your back Mani, we're here to help you through this. It's our job as your parents to support you. Don't feel bad about yourself or ashamed to tell us things. I'm your dad, if you feel like you can't talk to me I'm not doing my job!" Marcus said on the verge of tears.
This was hitting Marcus really hard because he feels like Imani's addiction is his fault because he wasn't around to raise him. That doesn't make sense to me because I was there, I raised Imani, so everything he's going through must be a result or what I did or didn't do for him!
Aubrey's P.O.V.
I was out grabbing Liyah and Imani a change of clothes from my place when I got a call from Chubbs.
"Yo, I'm at Imani's place and Ryan is missing. Clothes gone laptop and phone gone. All her art is gone too." He said concerned.
"Fuck!" I exclaimed as I slammed the car door and made my way back to the hospital.
"Alright, you keep looking for her I'll break the news too Liyah and Imani." I told him.
Where could she have gone?
I made my way back up to Imani's room. When I got there Marcus was leaving and Imani was apologizing to Liyah again.
"Uh, hey Imani how you feeling?" I asked.
"I'm alright, I just wanna see Ryan. Have you heard from Chubbs yet?" He asked.
"Yeah, so about that. She's not at home, we don't really know where she is. Her stuff is gone. But don't worry I got people looking for her. I know you just wanna talk to her and explain yourself. I'm working on it."
"I gotta go look for her." He said as he tried to get up and leave the room.
I got up and blocked him from getting out the door.
"I can't let you do that Imani just sit back down. I promise you when I find out anything you'll be the first to know."
He's listened to me and sat back down.
I handed Liyah the bag of her clothes and she went into the bathroom to change. While she was in there, I took a seat next to Imani's bed.
"Hey can you go grab my nurse, my chest feels kinda tight when I breath in, I just want to make sure that's normal." Imani asked.
"Yeah, sure. I'll be right back." I said then I went out into the hall to look for his nurse. I turned the corner and got to the nurses station.
"Hi, Imani said his chest is feeling kind of tight when he's breathing, and you come take a look at him please?"
"Yes, of course." The nurse said as she followed me back around the corner to Imani's room.
When we got inside I was Immediately fuming. Imani was gone, along with his shoes and his phone.
"He ran." I said as Liyah came out of the bathroom.
"What? Where did he go?"
"Ma'am we are going to lock down this floor and look for him. Don't worry he couldn't have gone far." The nurse said as she ran out of the room to start the search.
"Baby I'm so sorry. He asked me to go to grab his nurse and when I got back with her, he was gone. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this. I just wish we knew sooner, before it got this bad. I don't know how long it will be until he gets clean, but just know imma be there to support you and him through it all."
I pulled her into my arms and held her. I felt all her stress and worry. She was so tense.
"I looked down when I felt moisture on chest. She was crying. It broke my heart.
"Baby." I said. I was lost for words. All I could do was wipe her tears and kiss her forehead.
"Ms.Smith! We found him!" The nurse said as she came back into the room.
"Our mental health staff are escorting him back to his room as we speak."
"Where did they find him?"
"He was in the operation recovery unit, looking for pills."
"What?" Liyah exclaimed.
"I know this sounds crazy but this is very common. His system is cleared out of drugs and that hasn't happened to him in a very long time. His body is just trying to do what it can to get the drugs back because that is what it is used to."
"So what now, is he free to go. We have a rehab centre available for him to go to. I want to commit him tonight. I can't keep seeing my son like this." Liyah said on the verge of tears.
"If you have a rehab ready to transfer him to, we can let him go as soon as you're ready."
"Great, I'll call Matt and set it up for tonight." I said as he pulled out my phone.
"Hey Matt, can we commit Imani tonight. He needs to go, like, immediately. He's not looking good."
"Of course man, bro is gone be just fine. I everything is already set up. He just needs to get on a flight to Phoenix and its all taken care of."
"Thank you, we really appreciate this man."
"No problem, get back to the fam, i'll see you Phoenix."
When I got off the phone Imani and the nurse were back in the room. I could see that a member of the mental health team was guarding the door to make sure Imani didn't run again.
"I was just telling Imani that he's going to be leaving to hospital tonight and going to rehab." Liyah said.
"How you feel about that Mani?" I asked.
"You acting like I got a fuckin' choice." He mumbled.
"You right, you ain't got no fuckin' choice! Forget I asked." I said back.
Sometimes I feel like I'm too easy on Imani and he thinks he can get away with shit with me that he know wouldn't fly with his mom.
After signing Imani's discharge papers and packing a bag for him we were on my plane and on our way to Arizona.
He had no idea where we were and I wanted to keep it that way. Imani is a young kid with a lot of money, if he wanted he could pay someone to sneak him out. Its just easier if he doesn't know where he is.
We are currently on the plane. Aaliyah was asleep and resting her head on my shoulder.
"Oh shit!" I heard Imani say. He was looking down at his phone.
"What?"
"Ryan! wherever she went she took $100,000 of my money with her. And she took it in cash. That's dangerous, she can't be walking around with all that cash. What the fuck is she doing?"
"That's okay, if she took the money out in cash we can track it. Or we can at least see where she took the money from and maybe we can find her."
"Y'all bout to lock me up how am I supposed to find her!"
"I promise you I will look for her and try to find her."
"Alright man."
When we landed we got off the plane and got in a black SUV that was taking us to the facility. I could tell Imani was nervous and I don't blame him. He knows this is going to be long and hard process.
"Its gonna be fine Imani, you'll be clean and back to your normal life. It's just gonna take some time my boy."
"I know. Thank you for caring so much. You really don't have to, its not like you owe me anything, at the end of the day you're just my mom's boyfriend so I appreciate everything you've done for me man."
"I feel like you're my son. I love you like you're my own kid. I'll always be there for you kid."
After a short drive from the airport we dropped him off.
"The first week will be focused on his withdrawals. This will be the worst week of his life, there is no way around it. He will feel very ill and his body will crave the drugs. Once his body is no longer relying on the drugs, we will start the rehabilitation program. This will consist of daily therapy appointments, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and a creative outlet of his choosing." The head therapist at the facility said.
"Okay. Thank you." Liyah said with tears brimming her eyes. She's been visibly upset since we had to say goodbye to Imani.
"Don't worry, we are the best at what we do. He will get better!"
"Thank you." She replied.
We left and went to settle into the house I rented not too far from the facility. I wanted to make sure we weren't too far incase of any emergencies and for visiting him.
Imani's P.O.V.
I left my mom and Aubrey and the nurse lead me to my room. This place was pretty nice, modern minimalistic interior design. It looked expensive. If I didn't know I was in for the fight of my life it would be somewhat peaceful.
"Starting this week we will be managing your withdraws. You will be served tons of electrolytes and several high nutrition meals multiple times a day. This will just be for the first week, until your withdrawals are over then we will focus on healing your mind. I know it's a lot to take in but don't worry we have a 90% success rate. You will be okay you just have to follow the steps and be committed to the process."
"Thank you." I said as I put my head down and dropped my bags.
"Alright, well dinner will be served at 7:30. I'll leave you to get settled in."
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(A/N: thanks for reading I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the book so far.
I just started planning the SECOND BOOK😋.
If you have anything you want to see for the end of this book please comment it here.
Thanks again for reading, don't forget to vote and comment!)