Eight months in, we we're engaged to be married, with a little princess on the way. Her name was gonna be Natalia Rose Brown. Marcus was already spoiling her, singing to my belly and giving her butterfly kisses. The most wonderful experience, was when she would kick for the first time. I loved to feel her move in my belly, it gave me so much joy and amazement. its a beautiful Saturday morning, at the Grand Slam Banquet Hall, the day of my baby shower. everyone was all gathered around as Marcus and I begin to open gifts. "y'all gotta open mine first, this for my niecey poo." candice said "ok auntie, chill out." marcus said chuckling. "awwww, candice, this is so pretty, thank you." I said she had given me a beautiful floral ballerina dress. "you welcome sis, she gonna be a beautiful dancer." candice said "not my niece, she gonna be a gang banger, let me stop playing, this from me and mark, hope you like it." derek said handing me and envelope. "what this is, money?" I asked "Just open it." mark said It was the deed to a brand new house. I couldn't do anything as I was speechless. I couldn't do nothing but cry, on top of being very hormonal. "dam mane, I appreciate y'all, brothers for life ya heard me." marcus said "true dat, I knew y'all was gonna need some room living in that studio you had, so Derek and I saved up some money and got it." mark said "thank y'all." I struggle to say. "All for you sweets, you and my niece can stay safe and it's paid off, no body gonna fuck with you in that neighborhood, your brothers got you." derek said I was blessed to have a fiancee who loved me for me, no matter the odds, he was right there every step of the way. My family was everything to me, we all stick together and here for each other. "No fair, I didn't get a house when I had to give birth to jay jay." candice said crossing her arms. " man grams had you straight before derek and I had our game right, spoiled ass." mark said "shit yeah, you know the baby of the family get all the love anyway, don't hate." derek said we all began to laugh. "the way I see it, all y'all was spoiled." auntie lane said "yeah ok auntie." derek said "who ready for cake, whoever get the baby, u gonna be next for one." Mrs. shalonda, Marcus grandma said. As we all surround the cake, Marcus and I begin to cut the cake together. candice was taking everybodys pictures. "Nigga got me fucked up, got me on a limp, comes with a cost of a life nigga." Damien says walking in, holding a 58 with two other guys behind him with each a 48 gun in their hand. Marcus immediately jumped to his feet and helped me get to safety in a near by bathroom stall. " nigga you don't know shit about the streets, fake ass nigga." derek said "what nigga, bitch I'll kill you and your whole family." damien said "you better think twice before pulling that trigger homie, got niggas in line ready to end your life, pussy ass nigga."mark said standing in front of Damien's gun, looking him straight in the eye. "mane kill this fool"one of Damiens friends said. "you ain't even worth the bullet, let's bounce." damien said as they slowly back up and walked away. "yeah, pussy ass nigga, stanky like your momma pussy." derek said dabbing mark and laughing. damien turned around and shot two bullets through his heart as he fell to the ground grasping for air. " mark shot four times as damien and his two friend ran away. I ran to see what happen and fell to my knees seeing candice hovering derek. I started crying and screaming. I started to rock back and fourth. "Hold on my nigga, we gonna get you to the hospital, marcus come get his legs." mark said "Derek! no Derek!" candice screamed as her son jay holds her. everyone else went to go get help. they try to lift him up and get him into the backseat of mark's truck. "I love y'all" derek tried to say as he was slowly taking his last few breaths. "Derek come on man, wake up man, D." mark said but it's was too late, he was gone, lying in the back seat. Mark heard the Sirens of the ambulance coming and police cars. one of the officers came up to mark and marcus to see what has happened. "We came over because we got a call of a shooting." he said "yeah mane, they shot my brother dead mane, he laying in the back of the truck mane, tried to get him to the hospital, fuck mane." mark said trying to tough his tears out. the officer Kenny walked over and seen Derek's body lying there, then begin to to speak through his walkie talkie. "Yeah looks like we got a aggravated assault due to a shooting at Grand slam Banquet Hall, the victim is deceased, send out forensic out here." Officer Mcdowell said "On it Cheif." the responder said "ok so, what went down here, what happen to your brother ?" the other officer Mcdowell said
" its my finances and I baby shower today and we all having a good time and Damien moore come walking in with a gun with two other niggas carrying a 48, they exchanged words and before you know it damien shot first and then mark shot second." Marcus said "you still got that weapon on you sir?" Mr. kenny asked. "Yeah, it's in my truck." mark said " ok we gonna have to take you down to the station for questioning, any other witnesses?" Mr. kenny said "Yeah my girl and sister-in-law, auntie and my grandma, but my auntie took my grandma to call you guys so I don't know where they went." marcus said "ok that's fine, will check into it, sir if you please turn around". office kenny said "For what, I ain't do shit, why would I kill my own fucking brother mane, come on mane."mark said "you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be hold accountable in the court of law, you have the right to a attorney or a public defender." Mr. kenny said "why y'all arresting him, he ain't did shit, I just told y'all, y'all ain't even said what y'all arresting him for." marcus said. "protect my sisters mane." marcus said as they placed him in the back seat of the car. "Don't worry homie, they can't hold you, I got you." marcus said "have everyone meet us down at the station for questioning." officer Mcdowell said as he got into the police car. marcus rushed back inside to see me and candice on our knees holding each other and crying. jay walks up to marcus. "what happen to unk D?" he asked "Imma let you mom's tell you, okay." marcus said "Mane I'm not no little boy, Unk D dead huh." jay said marcus look at jay with sadness over his face. "uh....yeah....he's gone man." marcus said and gave jay a hug as he began to cry. "Marcus, amayla water broke!" candice screamed. we rushed to the hospital, I couldn't believe I was going into labor now. while marcus was by my side in labor, marcus told candice to go down to the station and tell everyone else. they was questioning everybody. "Ok Mrs. Montgomery, so your brother and brother-in-law told us the basics of the story, we wanna hear your side on how the story went." ditective Mallory said. "If they told you the story then why the fuck you asking me, y'all wasting time when his killer out there running freely." candice with raging attitude. "who is that exactly" Mr. myers asked. " that pussy ass nigga Damien moore, why y'all ain't arrest him, yall arrest my brother for what, huh?" she said "ok in order to talk to you, you gonna have to calm down Mrs. Montgomery, we trying to get to the bottom of this, we wanna know who killed your brother, as far as your other brother, he's charged with a misdemeanor of a fire arm in a public property." Mrs. mallory said "Bullshit, what we suppose to do, let the nigga kill all of us, the fuck." candice said getting up. "Sit down Mrs. montgomery." Mr. myers said "fuck no, fuck this, y'all need to do y'all fucking job!" candice yelled and walked out the door. "come on jay." candice said walking out the police station. "Mrs. Shalonda brown." Mrs. mallory said. "that's me baby." she said as she walked slowly into the room. "hey Mrs. shalonda, how are you." Mr . myers said "can I get you anything?" Mrs. mallory asked. "Oh no sugar I'm fine." she said "Mrs. brown can you tell us what happen today."Mr. Myers said "Yes, that young boy came in and shot my grandbaby fiance brother and I hid behind the wall till lane, them children auntie came got me out of there." she said "so you didn't see mark Montgomery fire back at damien moore?" mrs mallory asked "No baby, I was scared, it happened so fast." she said "Ok thank you for your corporation, you can go sit back in the lobby and let Mrs. lane know to come in." Mrs. mallory said "ok baby, y'all have a good day now." she said getting up and walking out the door. our Auntie walked in. " why y'all got my nephew behind bars?" she asked as she walked in and took a seat. "Ma'am he being charge with a misdemeanor to 1 year in prison." Mr. myers said "For self defense, so we can't even protect ourselves?" she asked "Its was at a local business, the staff working there could of got hurt or other people who held a gathering there which is dangerous to the community." mrs. mallory said " danger to the community, what about that boy damien, he was danger to us but I don't see y'all doing shit about that, he killed my other nephew, but y'all wanna sit here and question all of us." she said shaking her head. "we have forensics looking over everything right now and we gonna bring in damien for questioning and dna for this case, we just trying to get all the facts right."mr myers said "Bring him in for questioning, y'all should be arresting that nigga for murder." she said "We can't press charges without evidence ma'am." mrs. mallory said "y'all can at least do something, I gotta bury my nephew, I can't deal with this." she said getting up and walking out the door and helping mrs. shalonda to the car. candice had just got to the hospital and sat in the waiting room with Jay as she texted marcus she was there. marcus came to the waiting room. "hey you ready to meet your niece?" marcus said "yes, come on jay." candice said I was holding my sweet Natalia while she sleep. candice and jay walked in the room with Marcus. "hey my niecey poo, oh my God, can I hold her." candice said "yeah she been waiting to meet you." I said "How you feeling mama?" candice asked I signed for a mintue. "how derek...where's mark?" I asked marcus and candice didn't have the courage to tell me the honest truth. "unk D gone auntie.." jay said letting his head down low. Dam, not my little brother, who was gonna protect us now. he was the one who held everything together, the piece to our puzzle. natalia will never know what a good man he was. it was like I went to cloud nine to hell. so much left unsaid, so much I wanted to do with my brothers and sister. now I'll never have that opportunity with him. if felt like my heart was ripped out of my body and suddenly felt cold. "Mark locked up, they trying to charge him with a misdemeanor." marcus said "What!" I said so confused "Yeah, they probably gonna come in and question you guys, just wish they do they fucking job." candice said "mark should be with us right now, God knows how he feeling right now, he needs us." I said " they not gonna let us back there while the investigation going on." marcus said "hey pretty brown skin, I'm your cousin jay." he said brushing her cheeks with his finger. natalia smiled as she was still asleep. when it came time to bring our sweet babygirl into our new home, it felt empty and lost without my brother. we had a few things from the apartment moved over to the house by the moving company. but it just didn't feel like home, it was gonna take a lot of getting use to. it was Friday evening, candice was out doing arrangements for my brother funeral, Wednesday. (continuing)
© without a test, you can't have a testimony.