A Staten Island Love Letter 4 Read online

  A Staten Island Love Letter 4:

  The Forgotten Borough

  Jahquel J.

  Copyright © 2019

  Published by Urban Chapters Publications

  www.urbanchapterspublications.com

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Any unauthorized reprint or use of the material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage without express permission by the publisher. This is an original work of fiction. Name, characters, places, and incident are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Contains explicit languages and adult themes

  suitable for ages 16+

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  A Note From The Author:

  I said part three was the finale, but I realized it is unfair for me to introduce you to characters and then cut their story short. For those who have left reviews telling me that I should have ended it, this isn’t for you. This is for all my readers who want more, and I must admit, I give them what they want. I think that’s why I’ve been able to stay in this industry for five years. I listen to my audience and they have told me they wanted a part four. Well, I’m about to give you guys what you want. I pray it’s everything that you’ve been wanting, plus more.

  This book focuses on all the couples. They all face a new challenge from issues that they have to handle. You may wonder why you hear from one couple more than another. Trust, this book has been planned and I have a method to my madness. *Inserts evil laugh*

  Some things may happen that you won’t like, but we all have read a book or watched a movie that ended a way we didn’t like. You’ll live.

  I don’t write fairytales, so if that’s what you’re expecting, respectfully bow out. Things get deep, but so does real life.

  This series means a lot to me. I don’t know if I shared this with you guys, but I was writing this book and I had everything planned but the beginning. My husband happened to be cooking dinner and listening to music on our television. He had on YouTube while he cut up onions. I sat on the couch with my laptop in my notebook, completely perplexed. I didn’t know how I wanted to start this book. The video for Double Up by Nipsey Hussle came on the TV, and I was wrapped up in it from beginning to end.

  When the video ended, I downloaded his album and was writing my ass off. My husband has always been a big Nipsey Hussle fan. It was that video that gave me the inspiration to pen A Staten Island Love Letter.

  R.I.P Nipsey Hussle

  The Marathon Continues, Beloved.

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  Playlist For A Staten Island Love Letter 4

  Click here for the playlist —> https://apple.co/30Oux8q

  Never Ever – Ciara4am – Nipsey Hussle

  Higher – Nipsey Hussle

  Stubborn Ass– Young M.A

  That’s why – Eric Bellinger ft Nipsey Hussle

  Girls Like You – Miguel

  Great one – Jessie Reyez

  Hate it or love it – Nipsey Hussle

  Homebody Remix – Lil Durk ft Teyanna Taylor

  Karma Krys – Young M.A

  Big Ole Freak – Megan thee stallion

  Cheers to you – Playa

  Talk – Khalid

  Double Up – Nipsey Hussle

  My place – Nelly ft Jahiem

  This I promise to you – NSYNC

  Make it work – Neyo

  Do you – Neyo

  NWA – Miguel

  Coffee remix – Miguel

  You Stay – Meek Mill

  I Care – Beyoncé

  SYNOPSIS:

  Ghost and the crew are back with a whole new world of issues. While the streets are calm, their home lives are far from that. Free is carrying their son and Ghost is over the moon with the pregnancy. This is his second chance to parent and become one with Free. While they’re preparing for the birth of their son, a curveball comes out of thin air and rocks the foundation of their home. How will Free and Ghost get through this? Just when they’ve find a solution and solace to their first problem, Ghost is hit with something that has the ability to take him away from Free and his children. How will Free be able to handle a new baby and this new issue? Will she stand tall and be everything that her man needs her to be? Or will she flee again like she did all those years ago?

  Liberty and Staten are together and far from happy. Chanel may have accepted that she and Staten may never be together, but she’s not willing to go away, especially with her about to have his first child. While Staten is trying to juggle being the head of the streets, a new dad, and a boyfriend to Liberty, will Liberty find her comfort in something else? When Liberty starts becoming distant, and Maliah and he start spending more time together, what will happen? All Staten wants is someone to love him, but with Liberty fighting her own demons, will she lose Staten’s heart forever? Will Maliah fill the void that is inside Staten’s heart? Or will Staten fight hard to get the woman that he loves back?

  Justice and Priest are happy and welcoming their first child together. While Justice is trying to keep calm and stop freaking out over her pregnancy, Priest is battling his issues with his nieces. Love is now sixteen and has found her way into the same hoods that Kiss once frequented. While trying to raise both his nieces, keep Kiss on the right track, and raise his nephew, will he start to lose it? Especially when someone enters his life and starts to wreak havoc for both he and his family.

  The crew is back and ready to give you a glimpse of their new lives. Make sure you’re ready to cross the Verrazano bridge and pay that toll so that you’re welcomed back into the forgotten borough; Staten Island

  1

  Liberty

  He did ‘yo ass wrong, plus your dad gone, I wanna see you happy – Nipsey Hussle

  “It’s been so damn long since I’ve been able to hang and chill with you,” Justice made sure to remind me as she rubbed her stomach.

  I laughed because I knew it had been a while since me and my sisters kicked it. With both of them pregnant, the last thing I wanted to do was be around either of them. With their hormones and attitudes, I didn’t want to be a target for their frustrations. Since I was off from work today, I decided to stop by and see my sister. Justice had been so busy with opening her center and being pregnant that I’m surprised she realized how long it had been since we were able to hang out.

  “I’ve been working and trying to spend as much time with Chance as I can. With him being older, I feel like I need to visit him more,” I explained and accepted the drink she offered me.

  “Yeah, I understand that. Mama goes up there every weekend. I’m surprised she and auntie get along with her going to visit so much.”

  “They don’t. Mommy takes Chance out or he stays with her in her hotel room, then they spend the weekend together,” I explained.

  My mother and aunt would never have a relationship and I realized that before my mother knew about Chance. My mother couldn’t forgive my aunt for the way she treated Mylah, and now she was pissed with both me and my aun
t for hiding Chance for her. So, instead of them building a relationship, it was now more strained than ever.

  “It sucks that they can’t get along for the sake of Chance,” Justice sighed.

  “I’m not stressing them. All I’m concerned with is spending time with my son. If both of them old hoes can’t get it together, then I don’t know what to tell them.” I rolled my eyes and took a sip of the water Justice had given me.

  “And is mommy still not talking to you?”

  The way I screwed my face up told her the answer she was looking for. My mother was upset with me and refused to talk to me. She didn’t even want to hear my reasonings on why I chose to keep Chance a secret. I had come to learn that my mother wasn’t mad at the fact that I had a child, she was upset that I chose to trust my aunt with that secret more than her. Truthfully, I wasn’t pressed to sit down and make things right with my mother either. She and my aunt had their reason for not dealing with each other and I understood that, but I wasn’t about to be dragged into their beef. Especially when I had nothing to do with it. My worry was on my son and his wellbeing, not two grown women who have been bickering for the last twenty odd years.

  “Before you go trying to tell me to make it right, I’m not doing that,” I sniffled and wiped my nose.

  “Sick?” Justice asked as she covered my mouth. “I can’t afford to get sick and you’ve been sniffling since you walked through that door.

  “N.. yeah,” I replied and walked into the kitchen to grab some tissues. Justice’s dramatic ass grabbed a face mask off the coffee table and put it over her face. “Justice, is that necessary?”

  “Um, yeah. I’m going to have a healthy baby without any complications. Priest went and got all of this because the girls are always complaining about not feeling well,” she added.

  “Anyway,” I rolled my eyes. “How is everything with baby girl?” I asked as I made my way back to the couch.

  A big smile came across her face. I loved seeing my sister so happy and in love. Especially with a man that loved her just as much as she loved him. In the past, Justice had loved her ex more than she loved herself at times. It was a nice change to see her loving someone and them reciprocating those same feelings back to her. As if he wasn’t surrounded by enough estrogen, he and Justice were having a baby girl. I laughed so hard when she told me that she was having a girl. Priest was walking around telling anyone who would listen that he and Justice were having a son. At first, they thought it was a boy. Then, they went to the next visit and it turned out that she was carrying a precious baby girl. With all these babies around me, I had no need to get pregnant ever again. I had Somali, Samaj, and Rain who kept me on my toes, then Free and Justice were both pregnant at the same time.

  Not to mention, Chanel was due to have Staten’s baby any day now. I was so happy when she went on maternity leave. Even though we semi patched things up, I knew Chanel wasn’t happy about Staten choosing to be with me. She made it clear with her snide remarks when he wasn’t around. Not to mention, she loved to use that damn baby to get him to come over to her place, or for her to interrupt our lives. She would use her key to Staten’s house and just waddle in without using the damn door bell. I complained to Staten a few times and he liked to act like it wasn’t a big deal. To me, it was a big deal. Why did this bitch have a key to your home, and I didn’t have one? It was small things about Staten that pissed me off when it came to Chanel. He treated me like I was fragile and couldn’t handle anything. Instead of talking to me and being real, he liked to hide

  things and act like I couldn’t process shit, or it would cause me to go back to using drugs.

  “Why are you zoned out like that?” Justice brought me back to our conversation. “I’ve been talking for five minutes and you haven’t blinked once,” she giggled. “You okay?”

  This was the part I hated the most. Everyone asking me if I was alright. I was fine. I just wanted my own space and time to think, did that mean something was wrong with me?

  “I’m good. Just tired from working.”

  “How are you and Staten?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. Depending on which one of us you asked, you would get a different answer. He would say everything was fine and we couldn’t be better. If you asked me, you would get a shrug of the shoulders and a half ass answer. I guess we were fine.

  “Good. I’m just trying to get a handle on this girlfriend thing. You know I haven’t been in a relationship in forever.”

  “Take it one day at a time. You don’t need to be the perfect girlfriend right away.” She advised. “You need to be worried about yourself and sobriety anyway.”

  I hated when they brought that up. Taking care of myself was first on my list, but that didn’t help me with trying to be the best girlfriend that I could be. It was hard trying to be a good girlfriend when I barely wanted to be around my boyfriend. Being around Staten just reminded me of a part of my life where I wasn’t in control of myself. He made me feel like I couldn’t do anything for myself. The moment he made me ask my doctor if it was good to take Tylenol was when I realized that he didn’t see me as the sexy Liberty that he had waited his whole entire life to be with. He saw me as the recovering drug addict.

  “I am.”

  “What’s wrong? I feel like you’re not telling me something?” Justice continued to pry. She always knew when something was off with me.

  “I’m fine. Just trying to think about what I’m cooking tonight,” I lied. Food was the last thing on my mind at this moment.

  “Oh okay. Priest wants Kiss to move out of the house,” she decided to switch the subject after staring at me for a bit.

  “Really? She better not be pregnant again.”

  “No, she doesn’t listen to her curfew and she leaves me with her baby all the damn time. I love Zamari, but I don’t want to always spend my Fridays in the house watching her son while she’s partying.”

  “Shouldn’t she be in college or something? Partying should be the last thing on her mind right now.”

  “Yeah, she got accepted into NYU, but hasn’t gone and had her admissions meeting. Her first semester check is still sitting in Priest’s dresser draw. We’ve worked so hard on her college applications and it’s like she doesn’t even want to go.”

  “College isn’t for everybody, Justice. Who says she has to go to college?” I had to be honest for a second. Kiss should have been doing something with her life, but it didn’t mean that she had to go to college. It also didn’t mean that she could sit around on her ass while her uncle paid for everything. The girl needed to get her a damn job or something.

  “Yeah, but it needs to be for her. Hanging out in the streets isn’t going to help her out.” Justice damn near jumped down my throat. I could tell she cared so much for Priest’s niece from how passionate she was about Kiss finishing school. “She has a son and need to get a career. Even Reese wants her to go to college.”

  “If she doesn’t want to go then you all need to stop pushing and pressuring her into going. Suggest a trade school or a job. Priest owns a bunch of businesses and she can work for him.”

  “He really wants her to go to college. You don’t understand how bad he wants this for her,” Justice tried to convince me.

  “He wants her to go because he never got to finish. Priest can’t put his shit onto her. Kiss is capable of telling you guys what she wants, but neither of you will listen. Remove yourself as the adult and put yourself in her shoes. At eighteen, I had no clue what I wanted to do and didn’t care to figure it out either.”

  “Well, you weren’t eighteen with a damn baby. She has a son that she needs to provide for and can’t fool around. It doesn’t matter that you raised Chance or not, but after you had him you grinded like hell through nursing school. Kiss needs to do the same with college.”

  “Whatever. This is giving me a headache and it’s not even my issue,” I gave up on the conversation about Kiss.

  That girl was going to run and be wild
and didn’t give a damn that she had a child. Priest thought that by enrolling her in therapy and making her finish high school that things would go back to normal. Kiss had got a taste of being free and wild and she didn’t want to go back to that school girl that he wanted. She was now a mother and a legal adult. Did he really think that she would abide by curfews and enroll in college like the good girl he had raised? She had been fucked by a hood nigga, had a baby by him and then watched him be murdered right in front of her while carrying his child. Kiss was no longer the seven-year-old that adored everything her uncle did. She was now a grown woman and was going to challenge things.

  “I’m just so overwhelmed with the center and trying to keep the girls on the right path. Love has this little boyfriend, so I’ve been trying to make sure she doesn’t end up following after Kiss.”

  “I get that you and Priest are together and stuff, but that’s not your job. You should be focused on your baby and business, period. Love and Kiki aren’t your responsibility, Justice.”

  “They are. When I decided to be a part of their life that’s when they became my responsibility. I can’t just ignore and allow them to fuck their life up because I’m expecting my own baby.”

  This whole visit and conversation was pointless. I came over to kick it with my sister and now she was sitting here with tears in her eyes crying over her boyfriend’s nieces. “I’m going home. You’re too emotional. Between you and Freedom, I don’t know who is worse.” I grabbed my purse and walked over to kiss and rub her stomach.

  Justice sniffled and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. All these emotions are everywhere, and I can’t control them,” she apologized and then giggled. Her stomach jiggled while she laughed.