Strength

Shiloh ignores her plea, pulling Leon up by his shirt. He stands him up, turning him to Nia. "Apologize." Leon is still covering his face, still in shock. "Nigga, I will cut you again if you don't open your fuckin' mouth."

As he puts the blade back up to Leon's face, Leon flinches. "Okay, okay." He quickly looks at Nia, who is looking in horror. A huge cut was going in a diagonal direction and blood was everywhere. Leon looked petrified. "I'm sorry, Nia."

Shiloh grabs his wallet out of his pocket, and opens it. Nia watches as he searches for something. Finally, he pulls out Leon's license and pushes him down. "You better stay away from her. I know where you live, nigga." He holds up the card.

He steps over Leon, and attempts to grab Nia's hand. Nia moves her hand away and walks in front of him.

Shiloh looks back at Leon with a lingering glare before catching up with Nia. He saw that she was getting into her car.

"Nia." He calls out.

She ignores him and attempts to close her door, but Shiloh stops it with his arm. "Leave me alone, Shiloh."

He looks at her hand, noticing that she was severely shaking.

"I'll drive.." He insisted.

Nia looks at him with now water filled eyes. It was mixture of hurt and anger. "No!" Shiloh wasn't sure why she was so hostile towards him. He was confused.

"You mad at me? I was defendin' you." He shot back.

Nia slowly rests her head on the steering wheel, and Shiloh cautiously looks around. He wanted to flee, but he didn't want to leave Nia in this state.

Shiloh sighs. "Come on, baby girl. Let me drive."

Reluctantly, Nia moves into the passenger seat and Shiloh gets into the driver's seat. He presses the engine button before quickly putting the car into drive and drives off.

Nia rests her head on the window, and stares off. Shiloh glances between her and the road. "You wanna tell me what happened?"

Again, she ignores him and he bites down on his jaw before fully placing his eyes on the road.

"I called you and you ain't answer." Shiloh breaks the brief silence.

"He broke my phone." She mumbles.

Sighing, Shiloh scratches his head. "Can you please tell me what happened? Or how he even get you in that area?"

Nia sighs, and runs her hand down her face. "I just wanna talk to my mom, Shiloh."

"What? No, you can't tell her." He looks at her.

Nia seems to be taken aback as she looks at him. "Excuse me?"

"I said—"

"I know what you said." Nia interrupts him. "Is it crack? Is it crack you're smoking? If this is to protect you, you're selfish. I didn't tell you to slice his face."

Shiloh lets out a sharp breath, signaling that he was annoyed. "He was disrespectful so he paid the price. That's how it go."

"You still have charges against you, Shiloh." Nia folds her arms across her chest. "You didn't think rationally at all. Now you can really go to jail."

"He ain't gon say shit."

Nia nods, turning her body fully away from him. "Okay."

"You not gon' tell her, right?" He asks as they come to a red light.

"She'll eventually find out, Shiloh. My mom and I's relationship is super solid. I don't want to break that. And her knowing ahead of time can potentially help you out, just in case Leon do go press charges."

Shiloh doesn't say anything. He was mad that she wasn't loyal to him. But, at the same time, he didn't want to come in between Nia and Naomi. He wasn't that type of dude.

His phone rang in his lap, but he ignored it. He didn't feel like talking to anyone.

Nia made it her business to not look at him or talk to him the rest of the drive. That gave him time to think about his actions. He came to the conclusion that it wasn't smart.

He didn't regret it, though.

When they pulled up to the house, Nia immediately got out of the car and Shiloh let out a small sigh.

He reluctantly got out of the car, following her inside of the house.

He could hear a man's voice that didn't sound like Zeke's. Shiloh goes into living room, not seeing anyone. His eyes turn to the patio door that's slides open and sees a crying Nia being consoled by Naomi.

He curses lowly under his breath, and when he and Naomi lock eyes, she motions for him to come.

"The fuck happened?" The guy, whom Shiloh doesn't know, asks.

"Messiah." Naomi glares at him as she consoles Nia.

Messiah waves her off and looks at Shiloh. "What you do?"

Shiloh raises his hand in surrender. "I swear I ain't do nothin' to her."

"Nia, baby," Naomi calls out. "What's wrong? You're scaring me."

"Some nigga was tryna assault her. I got there just in time and I sliced his face." Shiloh admits.

"What?!" Naomi basically screams.

Messiah tries to calm himself down, talking to himself lowly. "You just got outta prison. You said you wasn't going back." He mumbles repeatedly.

All of that just seemed to make Nia cry harder. Everything just sort of hit her all at once. She hadn't been able to process everything until now.

Naomi secures her arms around Nia. She notices that parts of her clothes were ripped and it made Naomi angry. So angry.

"Where he at now?" Messiah looks at Shiloh.

Shiloh shrugs. "Ion kno'. I threatened 'em. I hope it worked or I'm fucked. Excuse my language."

Messiah lets out a frustrated sigh. "Man, that's why she don't need to be wearin—"

"Messiah Julian Cartier." Naomi glares at him once more, this time with anger in her eyes. "You're not going to blame my daughter for a guy wanting to assault her. Hell no."

"I'm just say—"

"Shut up!" Naomi yells, interrupting him again.

That made Shiloh jump. He knew that Messiah had really made her angry. Shiloh was scared to say anything else. The look she was giving Messiah... if looks could kill. He'd be a dead motherfucker.

Naomi reluctantly takes her eyes off Messiah and whispers something incoherently into Nia's ear. Nia takes a few minutes to get herself together before pulling away from Naomi.

She avoids contact with both Shiloh and Messiah before going into the house.

Naomi looks at Shiloh. "Do you know the boy's name?"

"Leon, I think. She could identify him if she needed to."

Naomi nods, then takes several breaths. Out of nowhere, she knocks the vase off the patio table and it shatters onto the concrete.

"Dammit!" She yells.

Maybe she was naïve or delusional. She didn't want neither of her kids to even come close to what she experienced in sixteen. Thankfully, it didn't get that far.

She was still pissed, however.

It was hard not to react. She had to protect not only Nia, but also Shiloh.

She finally looks at Shiloh. "Thank you for protecting Nia."

"Yea you good in my book. But, I would've killed that nigga." Messiah looks at him. "Good lookin' out for my niece."

Shiloh nods. "But, you have to be smarter than that." Naomi continues as if Messiah said nothing. "It's easy to react, I know. You still have a case against you. And if this boy goes presses charges, that's assault."

"I was defendin' her."

Naomi nods in understanding. "Trust me, I know. We have to prove that. It's his words against ours."

Shiloh shakes his head. "I thought I was doin' the right thing, Ms. Naomi. I was just tryna protect my girl. Where I'm from," He shakes his head again. "I gotta getcha."

"My nigga!" Messiah agrees. "See Naomi, that's how I felt with that cop. It's a mindset we adopt. You can take us out the hood, but you can't take the hood out of us."

Naomi looks at Messiah. "He's also the same age you were when you got sentenced to fifteen years in prison, too."

Shiloh looks at Messiah curiously. "Damn, what you do?"

"Show me Leon and I'll show you."

Naomi shakes her head. "I'm going to go talk to Nia." She excuses herself and goes into the house.

"Why NiNi crying?" Chase asks as he walks down the staircase.

"Yeah, why my NiNi crying?" Saint pouts as he walks behind Chase.

Chase face contorts. "What Shiloh do?"

Naomi sighs, and kisses them both on the forehead. "He didn't do anything. Let me talk to her, okay?"

They both nod allowing Naomi to go tend to Nia. She walks into Nia's room, seeing that Nia was fully under the covers with her head covered.

Quietly, Naomi closes the door and walks over to sit on the bed. "Are you ready to talk to me?"

Naomi was trying to stay sane. She wanted to know the details and the only way she could was to let Nia know that she was calm.

Although, she was raging with anger within.

Nia slowly removed her head from up under the covers. Her eyes were bloodshot red and her makeup was ruined. It really broke Naomi's heart to see her in this state.

"I tried to run, I did." Nia's voice cracks. "But, he was so strong and so angry."

Removing her shoes, Naomi got into the bed fully and rested Nia's head in her lap. Gently running her hands through her hair, she maintained silence until Nia was done.

"I always felt like something wasn't right about him. The way he always looked at me. It—it just didn't feel right." Nia continues. "I should have said something."

"You had no way of really knowing, sweetheart. This is not your fault and I don't want you to blame yourself, okay?"

Nia nods. "Okay."

"What did he say to you?" Naomi asks.

Nia sighs softly. "Well, I was outside talking with one of the girls on the track team. Afterwards, he approached me and it was a normal interaction. He'd compliment me, I'd thank him and that's it. But, I guess today he wanted more. He said he was tired of me ignoring his efforts. He was angry that I was in a relationship with Shiloh. He felt like I was too good for him.

"...But I was defending Shiloh and he swung at me. We were tussling then he broke my phone because my friends and Adrian were calling. In a split second, I got distracted by him breaking my phone and that's when he started getting the best of me. He attempted to take my clothes off. I kept fighting and fighting. That was enough until Shiloh came. And you know what happened after that."

Naomi leans her head back on the headboard. "Nia, we're going to pursue charges if you want to do that. If you do, I must prepare you for what's next to come. But, I just want you to know and understand that you're not at fault. And that if no one believes you, know that I do."

Nia nods her head. "I know."

"And don't be too hard on Shiloh. He did what he knew best. He just wanted to protect you." Naomi looks down at her.

"Is he going to jail?" Nia asks.

Naomi lets out a defeated sigh. "I'm not sure, baby."

—

Next morning
3am

Adonis quietly walks into the house, and gently closes the door. He is trying to not wake anyone up, knowing that Ascaria and Adrian were light sleepers.

As soon as he closes the door, a light flickers on and Ascaria is sitting in the chair with an unpleasant look on her face.

"Shit, you scared me." Adonis holds his chest, letting out an awkward laugh.

Ascaria doesn't find anything funny. Over the last few days, he had been coming home pretty late. He even cancelled one of their date nights at the last minute.

He claimed that he was busy with the clubs. But, Ascaria felt that she was being lied to.

"Where the hell have you been?" Ascaria asks in a calm manner. For Adonis, it was too calm. The Haitian was quickly jumping out.

"Baby, I ca—"

Ascaria holds up her hand, abruptly interrupting him. "Men only say that when they're cheating."

"Aria, I swear to God I'm not cheating on you. That's the God honest truth." He says quickly.

Ascaria scratches the back of her neck and gets up out of the chair. She folds her arms across her chest as she walks towards him. "Help me understand why you've been coming home at 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning the past few days then."

Adonis sighs. "I really can't tell you yet babe."

Ascaria lets out an uncomfortable laugh. "Oh my God, my crazy is about to jump out." She says more to herself.

"I'm not doing nothing foul. Just trust me, Aria."

She looks up at him, and he could tell that she was wrestling with the million possibilities. "You've been ignoring my phone calls, you're barely home, you haven't touched me and we both know that if you could have sex every night, you would. How can I feel secure right now?"

"Okay, it looks bad." Adonis admits, and wraps his arms around her waist. "But, baby I promiseeeee. I wouldn't dare betray you. I'm not cheating."

Ascaria rests her forehead on his chest, and sighs loudly. "Okay." She looks back up at him. "But, Don, if you are doing some foul shit, I will kill you and that bitch."

"You don't have anything to worry about." He leans in, and kisses her.

She kisses him back. "You're sleeping on the couch, though."

Adonis's face drops. "Wow, really?"

Ascaria nods her head and pulls away. "Yes, really. This is your punishment for fucking ignoring me for three damn days." She scowls before walking away.

"Damn." Adonis curses lowly and looks at the couch. "Ain't this bout a bitch."

Shaking his head, he goes to sit down and takes off his shoes. Ascaria appears back in the living room seconds later to throw him a pillow and some cover.

She aims the pillow to his head perfectly and walks out.

He laughs lowly to himself. "I love that woman so much."

"Need some company, pops?" Adrian walks in the living room with just a pair of shorts on.

Adonis looks up at him. "Do I look lonely?"

"Nah, but just wait until tonight though." Adrian snorts before laying down on the other couch.

"Very funny." Adonis looks at him. "Why are you up anyway?"

Adrian shrugs. "Can't sleep. I'm trying not to go to this guy named Leon's house." Adonis looks at him, confused. "Some dude who tried to hurt Nia. I wanna hurt him."

"What? Oh, wow. How is she? Is she okay?" Adonis asks.

"Yeah," He nods. "She's good. Apparently, Shiloh sliced the dude's face."

Adonis shrugs. "I would have did the same shit. Or worse if that was your mom."

Adrian looks at him. "You not cheating right?"

Adonis shakes his head. "No, you have my word on that one."

"Good. I don't wanna hate you." Adrian closes his eyes. "I respect you alot. I don't need nothing getting in the way of that."

"I didn't know you felt that way about me."

Adrian looks at him. "Ever since you found out about me, you've been the Dad I've needed. It took you a minute to figure it out, but you did. You're cool, not overbearing. You're the balance me and Augustus need."

Adonis smiles a little and laughs. "I love you too lil nigga." Adrian reaches and turns off the light. Adonis stretches out. "Adrian." He calls out.

"Wassup?" Adonis farts loudly. "Oh my God! Just ruined the moment. Can you ever be serious?" Adonis laughs hysterically at Adrian, finding his complaining amusing.

The fuck is Adonis doing?

Sorry for the short chapter, but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging too long with that cliff hanger lmao! Buckle up!!!