Marshall's P.O.V.
Aisha says nothing during the car ride to the police station. She's quiet and thoughtful, stuck in her own head and her face is blank. I ain't never seen her like this before. This girl wears her heart on her sleeve, her emotions always clear on her face. But right now there's no expression on her face whatsoever, her eyes are empty, her mouth pressed into a thin line.
I can only imagine how much she must be hurting but she doesn't show it. Shock making her appear almost numb to the pain.
I swear I would do anything to ease it for her right now, but there ain't shit I can do really, except just to be there for her.
The whole ordeal with our daughter being kidnapped had come to an end only a few days ago.
Despite me being completely against it, my stubborn ass wife had gone to the location those pussy as motherfuckers had gave us to drop the money off. And the thing is, I ain't even know she went there, cause the damn girl legit snuck out of the house, no security no nothing.
And I swear to fuck, I was gearing up to kill her ass once she finally did come back, but then I was a relieved ass motherfucker that she had returned to me unharmed after pulling that dumb shit, so I ain't done shit but snatch her ass up and hold her in my arms.
A few hours later, Sienna was dropped off at our doorstep just as promised.
Neither Aisha nor myself having no clue as to who the assholes that took our daughter were. Sienna won't talk to us, she seemed to be in a state of complete shock.
But then, we had received a call from the cops, informing us that Aisha's mother, Candance Jones, was found dead at some crack house. She had apparently committed suicide by hanging herself, and all of a sudden, Sienna started talking up a storm after overhearing a conversation I've had with Aisha about it.
Talking about, granny had let her go, even if the bad man wanted to hurt her.
And only a few hours after that, the police had managed to apprehend the bad man in question.
Some lowlife dude that Candance was apparently messing with.
Now, I had expected Aisha to cry once she received the news, but she never shared a tear and that shit worries me like a motherfucker. Also, that damn cop that spoke to her and told her that her moms was dead, comforming also the fa t that Candance was in fact involved in our little girl's kidnapping, I could punch him right in his stupid face cause that ain't the way you break those kinda news to somebody. Then again, there ain't the right way, I'm guessing.
Myself, I feel more anger than anything else, but I'm also relieved as fuck that Sienna wasn't harmed and is back at home with us. I woulda had to burn the whole world if something had happened to my kid.
Now, as I'm pulling up towards the police station, all I see is the fucking paps everywhere.
What the actual fuck, man?!
Aisha and myself exit the car with our usual security guys around us, and we immediately are getting mobbed.
Some brave asshole gets all up in my girl's face, shoving his tape recorder towards her.
"Aisha, is it true that you are here to identify the body of your estranged mother, Candance Jones, who also happens to be implicated in the recent kidnapping of your and Eminem's daughter?"
Aisha's eyes slightly widen, but she doesn't respond.
Wouldn't get the chance to anyway, cause I grab her hand and shove her behind my back, getting all up in the fucking reporter's face.
"Ask her that shit again, motherfucker," my voice comes out strained through my teeth as I grab at the front of the dude's shirt, shoving him backwards. I swear to fuck I am seconds away from punching the living shit out of him.
I hate the fucking paps man, absolutely despise them. And you'd think I would be used to their shitty ass ways after all these years, but nah. I ain't. They are like fucking vultures to me, less than human. And the thing is, if it was me they was pining for right now, I wouldn't even care all that much to be honest cause my skin is thick enough to be able to handle their bullshit. But stay the fuck away from my goddamn wife, cause nah...
"Eminem, are you getting violent with me right now? Did anybody else see that just now? Eminem just shoved me. What is your problem, dude, I'm just doing my job," the fucking reporter then proceeds to rant happily. He's trying to sound all indignant about it, but you can just tell he's enjoying this shit, he been wanted to get a reaction out of me.
I grit my teeth and take a step towards him.
Only to feel one of my bodyguard's heavy ass hand land on my shoulder.
"Let us all chill out, Mr Mathers. It ain't worth it," the big man says sternly, while he continues to push the paparazzi away from us as Aisha and I continue to make our way through the crowd.
My wife clings to me.
"Marshall, please," she whispers in my ear and when I look at her I see that her eyes are huge.
Fuck man...
I remind myself to control my temper. Truth be told, I ain't had a slip up like this in public in a very long time. My public image these days is way more subdued but they have just fucked with what's mine, and I was about to lose my shit. I just can't stand watching these fucking jerks get at Aisha like this when she's in such a vulnerable state. But I pull it all back.
Our security surrounding us, I pull my hood low over my head and throw my arm around my girl, not bothering to look up anymore as we finally make our way inside of the police station, ignoring the storm of questions being thrown at us, some of which frankly don't even make no goddamn sense, but hey, those are the fucking paps for ya.
"Eminem, does it mean you are back on drugs again?!"
"Aisha, is it true that you are not really Suge Knight's daughter but a love child your mother has had with one of her dealers?!"
"You okay, baby?" I ask Aisha once the police station door closes behind us. Dumb question, I know. How could she possibly be okay in this kinda situation man? Still I gotta make sure.
"I... um... I don't know," she mutters and then looks up at me pitifully, her pain actually showing in her eyes. It fucking kills me to see it, and once again I wish I could take her fucking pain away, but I just can't.
Eventually, we make our way towards the front desk and once it's verified who we are, we both get lead down towards the morgue area.
"Yo, listen," I stop Aisha by grabbing her arm, just as she's about to go in.
She stops stiffly and looks at me questiongly.
"Baby, you don't have to actually do this, you know," I start speaking quickly as something dawns on me. "I've met your mother plenty of times before to be able to ID her. I could go in there for you and do it, so you won't have to. You don't uh... don't need to go in there and see her like this," I whisper.
She closes her eyes then, then opens them looking at me with an unreadable expression. She shakes her head. She steps towards me and buries her face in my chest as my arms automatically wrap around her.
"It's okay, Marshall," she mumbles against my shirt. "I have to do this for her, at least. I owe her that much."
I feel irrationally angry at her words. I wanna tell her she don't owe this damn woman anything. Not after what she's fucking done. Truth be told, I ain't feel bad for Candance Jones, not one bit. Fuck this evil ass bitch, yo.
I hold my tongue however. I know how my wife is. And as much as I want to protect her from this, I won't force my own will on her. If she wants to go in there and see, then it's up to her. Maybe she needs it to get closure.
"Okay, baby, then go ahead," I mumble against the top of her head, planting my lips there for a second.
Aisha breaks away from me and abruptly walks through the doors.
I follow closely behind her.
When the sterile white sheet covering Candance's body gets pulled back, revealing her face, I watch my wife closely.
She barely reacts, but she can't look away.
I place my hands awkwardly at her shoulders, wanting to comfort her so badly, but once again, I find myself so fucking lost.
"Ms. Knight?" The damn cop urges her to get a reaction out of her.
"Fucking shit, man, give her a minute, would ya?!" I practically growl at him, but Aisha speaks over me softly.
"It's... it's her. It's my mom," she confirms.
My eyes scan briefly over Candance's face. She looks strangely peaceful. For somebody that's literally want out of her way to try and make her own flesh and blood's life a living hell, that is.
Aisha abruptly walks out of the dark cold room of the morgue and I once again follow closely on her heels.
The cop that was with us is there too, talking some irrelevant as shit about funeral arrangements.
Aisha barely listens. And I have to remind myself that one shall not strike an officer of the law.
Just then, what's already been a fucked situation gets even worse. When Suge Knight walks in.
"Princess," he grumbles, stopping right in front of Aisha. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" He asks incredulously, and I then remember that Suge actually don't got no clue that Aisha even met her mother before, that was one of the many secrets she's kept from him.
"They asked me to identify her, daddy," Aisha then replies, and then I don't even know what happened, what exactly triggers it, but she suddenly breaks. She finally cries, tears streaming down her cheeks, and Suge pulls her towards him, running his hands through her hair.
"It's alright, Princess. I'm so sorry," he mumbles, then looks over her head at me. "We need to talk, Shady," he states quietly at me. "In private."
"Aight," I shrug.
Aisha is too caught up in finally reaching some sort of a catharsis with her emotions to even pay attention to mine and her father's interaction.
At some point, she goes to the bathroom to wash her face, and Suge immediately pulls me to the side.
"Listen to me carefully, cracker, cause this shit is serious," he states. "This shit that went down with Candance and why and that dirty ass nigga she was messing with had gone and snatched up y'all daughter, it's not no joke. From what I understand, she was messing with some wrong types of people, some really messed up crowd, and I don't think this shit here is over."
"Fuck you mean, dawg?" I frown, regarding Suge wearily. I don't trust the fucker from a hole in a wall.
"What I mean is that you need to double Aisha's security. Word on the street is, Candance had owed a lot of money to some dangerous ass motherfuckes, them type of niggas that don't play about this sort of thing," Suge states coldly, looking me square in the eyes, taking out one of his cigars out of the front pocket of his corny ass looking pimp suit and lighting it.
"Fuck are you... what it got to do with Aisha, she wasn't involved in whatever shit that is," I frown.
"Those types of people, they won't care about that, Shady," Suge looks at me like I'm stupidest asshole alive and he is the smartest. "So like I said, you need to watch out for her. My daughter chose you, so right now, I need you to prove to me that you are worthy of that trust and to make sure no harm comes to her. I'm counting on you with that."
I wanna laugh in his face so badly cause who this motherfucker think he is. At the same time though, this clearly ain't no laughing matter.
"You don't gotta worry about shit, Suge," I frown. "You should already know by now I'll do anything for that girl, so don't even come at me with no dumb bullshit like that. Tell me what I'm dealing with though," I ask him, referring to whoever it was Candance Jones had apparently crossed.
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Sorry if the first half of this chapter is rushed. Maybe I made a mistake adding the whole subplot of their daughter getting kidnapped to the storyline, it wasn't in the original version of this book, and I found myself lost with how to actually get Sienna out of it while mostly preserving the original plot, so I sort of rushed it 😭😭