Wifey 4 Life by Kiki Swinson Page A

and my heart started racing. He was
    coming back to finish what he’d started, and I knew he was going to punish me.
    My eyes grew every bit of two more inches when I saw him enter
    the room. His facial expression hadn’t changed one bit. He looked like he had come
    back to take care of business, so I knew I was about to embark on another rocky
    experience.
    “Kasey, I want you to come ride with me and Dré uptown,” he said.
    “Is the police still outside?” she asked him.
    “No. They just left.”
    “Whatcha gon’ do with her?” she asked him.
    “Breon is gonna watch her.”
    “A’ight,” she said and left the room.
    As soon as Kasey walked out of the room, my uncle walked over
    to me. I was literally shaking on the inside and prepared for whatever he was about
    to say or do. I looked directly in his eyes. I wanted to burst into tears and beg
    him to release me, but I knew that wasn’t about to happen, so I left well enough
    alone. I did, however, get up the nerve to ask him what he planned to do with me.
    He looked at me and said, “Get the truth.”
    “Are you going to let me go?”
    “Yeah. As soon as you tell me the truth.”
    “But I’ve been telling you truth.”
    He leaned over into my face and said in a low whisper, “You and
    I both know you’re holding something back, so the sooner you come clean with it,
    the sooner you can leave here.”
    He stood straight up, but before he turned to leave the room,
    he encouraged me to think about what he’d said because when he got back my time
    would be up.
    When the other guy, Breon, walked into the room, my uncle walked
    out and headed toward the front door. I heard him say a few words to Kasey and Dré
    when he got to the front door.
    As soon as I heard the front door open and close, I knew they
    had left. What they were about to go get into was a complete mystery to me.

When All Else Fails
    B reon sat down on the sofa about seven feet away from me. He
    picked up the remote control and surfed through the channels. He stopped at channel
    28, A&E.
The First 48
was on, and his eyes were glued to the screen. I’d watched
    the show a few times before moving out of the country. I guess now wasn’t such a
    bad time to do some catching up, since I was being held there against my will.
    As I sat there, my stomach started growling. I never ate my
    sandwich from Feather-N-Fin. If I knew Tony had intentions to leave me, I would
    have eaten it before I got out of the car. I didn’t know how long I’d been there,
    but through the thin curtains that covered the windows I noticed that the street
    lights were on outside, so I knew it was past my dinner time.
    Breon was so engrossed in his show, I was afraid to ask him for
    something to eat. But my stomach persisted with the rumbling.
    “Excuse me,” I said to get his attention.
    He turned and looked at me. “Yeah, what’s up?”
    “I know you probably think I’m crazy for asking you this, but
    I was hoping you could get me something to snack on, because I am starving over
    here.”
    He hesitated for a moment. “I was told not to leave this room
    for nothing,” he said. “But I guess I can get you something.”
    Knowing that this guy wasn’t all that bad made me happy for the
    moment. I gave him a half-smile. “Thanks.”
    He walked out of the room and returned a minute later with a
    piece of chicken wrapped in a paper towel and a clear plastic cup of red juice.
    “I got you a piece of some KFC we had earlier, so it’s room temperature, and I got
    you some fruit punch to go with it.”
    “Thank you so much!” I replied. I was happy as hell when he walked
    in the room with that shit in his hands. I knew he wouldn’t untie me so I could
    feed myself, so I didn’t ask. At this point, all that mattered was that I was
    about to put something on my stomach. Well, maybe that wasn’t all that mattered
    because, if he untied me and told me I could leave, I’d leave that cold piece of
    chicken behind in a