WHAT ARE THE ODDS - PART 2

With the small black book in hand, Nes and I stood there in silence for a few minutes, staring at the massive sum of money sitting on the table in a counting room we found behind a bookshelf, it was so surreal. I don't know what was going through his mind but in my mind I was already concocting a plan. Nes and I had only known each other for a few weeks, all I knew about him was that he was half Puerto Rican, half Dominican and had moved to Philadelphia from the island a year ago. Surprisingly, his English was really good for someone who spent most of their life in Puerto Rico. He said it was because he frequently visited the states growing up and all of his cousins spoke to him in English. It was no secret how I fell into this lifestyle, everyone knew the only reason I sold drugs was to gather enough money to get custody of my five siblings who were in foster care since our mom passed away. It's the only reason Big Sexy put me on, she had two kids of her own and was sympathetic to my situation. I had done everything for those kids since they were born, I loved them more than life itself and I was willing to do anything for them to have a more stable life than I had. As I was in my thoughts, I realized that was the first time I thought about Marisol since she died and the tears rolled down my cheeks. Nes looked at me and asked if I was okay. I wiped the tears from my face and said "I'm good, let's leave that conversation for another day. Right now, we have to figure out how to make this situation beneficial for the both of us." Let's sit and talk for a minute. We exited the small room and stepped into the office, I put the book back on the shelf to close the room. I sat on the chair behind the desk and Nes sat on a chair across from me.

"Tell me Nes, what's the worst thing you've ever done? I said.

He looked at me puzzled. I interjected quickly saying, "I'll go first, if it makes you feel better: I had an abortion when I was 14. I don't regret it at all, I had enough on my plate with my brothers and sisters and I couldn't bear the thought of raising my own kid in the environment we were living in. Thankfully, the piece of shit baby father had no issues paying for the abortion." I exhaled harshly as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and said "You're the only person I've ever shared this with."

Looking down at the floor, he took a deep breath and said "I killed my dad."

My eyes widened as a single tear rolled down his right cheek. He continued to tell me how much he regrets it but he had to protect his mom. "My dad was an angry drunk who came home to pick fights with my mom. Every other time, it was just screaming matches and I would see the bruises on my mom the next day. This time was different... I noticed my mom fell silent which was definitely not like her. I came out of my bedroom and peaked into their room, my dad was on top of her with both hands around her neck and I could see her struggling for air. I screamed and charged towards my dad, he clotheslined me and stopped me right in my tracks. I fell to the floor and he put his hands back on her neck. I ran to the nightstand where I knew he kept the gun, I pulled it out and pointed it at him. He laughed in my face and said "you're next", I took the safety off and pulled the trigger. I was fourteen years old, I did a few years in juvie and here I am."

By the time he was done, my eyes had softened and my heart ached for him. If his worst was to protect a woman, I could live with that. He brushed the tears from his face and said "Shy, I haven't talked about this since the trial." I smiled and stood up from the chair holding my arms out, he met me halfway and we hugged it out for a minute. I looked him in the eyes and said "I have a crazy idea that's beneficial to the both of us. Sure, we can split the money and go our separate ways but together, we're so much stronger." He furrowed his brow as if to agree and I blurted out "Let's get married! Hear me out before you respond."

Even though I was a high school dropout, I loved to read. I could read about anything, my dad once lectured me about how Knowledge was Power and at this point in my life when most memories of him were fading, that one stuck with me. I knew a marriage would be more beneficial to me and my cause so I had to sell it so he would think it was just as beneficial to him. After all, he was an island boy and I was a big city girl who was book smart as much as I was street smart. I needed him if I was going to get custody of my siblings any time soon.  I proceeded to tell him how it would be more like a business contract and if it led to more, I wasn't complaining. His piercing brown eyes sized me up as a smirk formed on his face. I continued telling him that we could create a prenup outlining the guidelines to this newly formed partnership. I was heavy into property law and criminal justice content so I picked up on a few things. I was a rare breed, these are certainly not subjects your average seventeen year olds are interested in. What I once classified as useless knowledge is proving to be useful, I thought. As I spoke, he listened attentively. To sum it up, the agreement was to marry and split everything down the middle. If we ever had to part ways and divorce, there would be no issues. Except I would put in stipulations for if we had children and he had no problem with any of it. He simply said "Let's do this." After we put all the money through the counting machine, we found a couple of suitcases in the house; we filled them neatly with piles of money and topped it off with that little black book filled with locations and amounts. We had nearly three million dollars. Nes told me to stay put while he went to borrow his cousin’s car. He came back a few minutes later, we loaded the car and took off.

My plan was working flawlessly, we got married at the courthouse the day after my birthday, bought a massive house in the Poconos and after six months of hearings, visits and inspections, the kids were finally in my custody. That was by far, the best day of my life. To see the smiles on their faces and hear their giggles down the halls had me overjoyed. Sergio, Jr., now eleven years old was the most excited because his room was fully stocked with everything a boy his age could dream of. He was the oldest of the five and was looking more and more like our dad, the older he got. Jennifer and Jessica were my ginger twins, eight years old going on twenty I often wondered how they became so sassy; and then I remembered, I'm the queen of sass. They shared a room that was fit for a princess or two in this case. Ivan was an energetic five year old, a bit ugly like his dad but his personality made up for it; he was the sweetest little boy. Olivia, age four was the baby and Ivan was her protector since birth so I put them in the same room. You could hear her tiny voice saying "wow" at every corner she turned, it was so cute. After all of the oohs, ahhs and wows were done, everyone settled down and retreated to explore their new rooms. Sergio Jr. walked up to me and said "Thank you for keeping your promise, Sissy," which is what they all called me. He hugged me ever so tightly and kissed me on the cheek before he darted towards his room.  Nes was in the kitchen cooking dinner for all of us, he said we should celebrate with a family dinner. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him more passionately than I ever had before, as he wrapped his arms around my body and his hands slid down my backside until he reached my ass like he usually did. Our relationship had flourished over the last seven months and I had completely fallen for him. I looked deep into his eyes and told him I loved him for the first time, he smiled and said "You are mine and I am yours, I love you too." my heart filled with happiness; everything was perfect. Nes continued cooking dinner and I proceeded to tell him what I found out about the addresses listed in the little black book.

Turns out the abandoned house we hid in was owned by the Rosario Family who operated a gun trafficking ring. They were arrested in the mid-nineties and were now serving life sentences in prison; their kids were taken by child services and all of their property repossessed by the government. The Rosario's owned all of the properties listed in the book which were now owned by the cities or towns they were located in, lucky for us. I inquired about the properties and learned that we could buy them for a steal, which is exactly what we did. Since they were in different locations, we didn't raise any red flags. According to the book, there were fifteen properties and a total of thirty million dollars stashed in them. They were all sold to us for less than a hundred grand each, it was just a matter of finding the money, easy enough right? WRONG! Each property had a different stash spot, one was under the garage; another was in a wall safe; under the floor underneath an old dusty bed; and one even had an underground bunker, end of the world type shit. Nes and I were both blessed with big hearts and we wanted to do some good with this money so we decided that after finding the money in each property, we would convert it into something the community needed. By the time we reached the last property, now three years since we'd found the book, we built three community centers; five three-story, affordable housing apartment buildings; two supermarkets; and four shopping centers. We didn't find any money in property number fifteen, I thought nothing of it; it had been vacant for so long, maybe someone else got lucky and found it before we purchased the property. Life was great! Nes and I were happy together, the kids were happy, we didn't need or want for anything and I was pregnant. Nes was elated and couldn't wait to see his son born. About a week after we searched the last property, I got a letter. It had no return address and read "YOU HAVE MY MONEY" and was signed by MR. It took me a moment but then I realized MR had to be Michael Rosario, the oldest of the Rosario's children. My heart was pounding and I turned to Nes, showing him the letter I asked “what are we going to do?”