Page 68 of Heart Of A Goon II

The doctor clicked around some more things before she held the machine in one particular spot, pressing two buttons. The sound of the heartbeat flooded the room. Strong steady rhythms of its little heart made me so emotional.

Alaia swiped her tears away as she pulled her phone out and recorded the sound of the heartbeat. My eyes became even more blurry with tears, as I stared at the screen.

“That’s my baby.” I held my hand to my mouth as emotion overtook my body, and I couldn’t turn the waterworks off, even if I tried.

I felt Alaia’s lips on my forehead, as she continued to wipe her tears away. “Gerald helped make that baby. That’s a piece of him in there.”

“Our baby,” I whispered, as Dr. Tonn continued to check everything out on the screen and press more buttons.

The tears continued to fall as Dr. Tonn was speaking to me. I didn’t hear a word she was saying. Alaia was doing most of the talking and writing things in the note’s app on her phone. I didn’t think I would be so emotional seeing the baby on the screen. When Stevie was pregnant, I went with her and Menace to one appointment and as excited as I was to be an auntie, I wasn’t moved to tears.

Our baby was wanted more than the air that I needed to breathe. I told myself and others for years that I didn’t want kids, and at some point, I started to believe it. This baby had been prayed for; I yearned for this life inside of me before I met Gerald. When Goo kissed my lips in Ashbourne and asked for permission to make us parents, I laughed. It was a silly question at the time, but an intentional one.

I was too scared to believe that anything would come of that night, even with the circumstances aligning perfectly. When I stared into his eyes on that bed in Ashbourne, they told me everything I needed to know but refused to believe.

He wanted this.

He wanted us.

He wanted me.

This love and life that we created was something we both wanted. No matter how scared I was or how much I waited for the other shoe to drop. This moment was a reminder that the shoe wouldn’t drop.

I had to believe that.

GOON

“Sexy, they got the jet fueled and ready, right?” Core questioned, as he paced in front of the large floor to ceiling windows.

We were at some massive ass estate in Hudson Valley. Every time I thought this family couldn’t have more money, they turned around and had some more. The Caselli crest on the front of the iron gates let me know that this was another family home.

“Yes. I have the pilot staying at the private airport. Soon as you give me the word, wheels are up.”

He nodded his head as his attention was on his other phone. “Shit.”

I leaned up. “What?”

“They about to be able to turn those lights on soon enough. Me and Grasshopper can’t hold them off any longer.”

Jeffie sighed. “Did he give you a time when they will come back on?”

“Twenty-four hours.”

“Can’t the nigga hold off? He letting you know that he’s about to figure the shit out.”

Core chuckled. “This was him letting me know. It’s an unspoken rule… we don’t get in the way of other’s money. Out of respect, he reached out and told me that he was the one they were working with because he knew this was me.”

“I can’t wait to see you... if that makes you feel better,” Jeffie tried to cheer him up.

It in fact did, and he smiled. “Yeah?”

“Uh huh.”

“Why you can⁠—”

I jumped up off the couch. “Let me get the fuck up out of here.”

The fuck they thought? I was about to sit here and listen to them talking nasty when I hadn’t saw or touched my girl in forever?