Blossom could only listen as Rose's soft struggled to stay strong. She was lying in her bed in the candle lit room. "You can say you're getting an exclusive sneak peek to my book. But after some things were discussed with my lawyers, I may not be allowed to write this book."
"What's so bad?"
"This all starts a long long time ago. Before we had empires and all this money. We were regular kids from the streets" Blossom watched as she began to mentally dose off into the memory. "We were coming into money, all that hustling and scheming. Maurice and John were some of the top distributors in Townsville. Your mom and I were good friends since we shared the same struggles. Men being one of them but, that's nothing story for anything day" She chuckled. "the infidelity and scandals were wild. The run-ins with the law, the lies, it consumed us. All of us." She began to cry. Blossom lifted from the bed to console Rose, but she blocked her from getting up. "Don't mind me sweetheart, this is all apart of the healing process. I have countless stories but the most important which may be coming back to haunt you."
"Haunt me?"
"Listen. There were these sisters Lolita and Sedurita Gonzales, the hottest things coming into town. Of course, Maurice and John were linked with them in the tabloids. John wasn't at first, but Maurice sure was. He fell in love with Lolita a high member in the Gonzalez cartel..."
"So, what are you trying to tell me? She's pregnant?" A young Rose as yelling at a young Maurice. Her hands were quickly picking up pillows and other materials to throw. "After everything? We just got through the last girl. I was just starting to trust you again. What ever happened to 'this is the last time Rosie' or 'that will never happen again Rosie'. All lies Maurice? All lies?" After each question something was launched in young Maurice's direction.
"Will you quit before you wake the kids" He dodged everything but looked at his newly wed wife wildly.
"Oh, now you give a fuck about the kids! You should have thought about that before you added more additions to our family. I can't enjoy my pregnancy with my husband because he can't keep it in his pants! Great I married an idiot." Rose stood with bloodshot eyes and the meanest face you would ever see on the most beautiful woman. She was livid, hormone levels skyrocketing with anger and disappointment. "I seal the deal with my father and gain more territory for us to grow and dominate, while you're out what? Fucking? Obviously not working. You may be the face of this family but you're damn sure not the brains." Maurice managed to sit on the end of the bed, merely listening to Rose ramble on and on in anger. This was her venting. He would let her vent because he knew he messed up.
"Rosie, I'm sorry." He started crying in devastation.
"No, you don't get to be sorry. You get to hate yourself. Hate yourself because you will never get to see your baby girl" Rose quickly made her way out the room and Maurice didn't dare follow. He sat in shock because he was having another baby girl.
"So, Maurice had a kid with Sedusa's sister. How did Sedusa get with my dad?" Blossom's question pulled Rose from the memory, quickly wiping her tears.
"That's one for your elders love I'm here to give my piece. This is all stuff none of us will talk about. Dealing with the Gonzalez cartel was hell. They fight dirty, know no boundaries and will do anything. That child was the vein of my existence and tied our families together and they tried to tie together our business too"
"What the hell do you mean we get supply from the Cartel? Whose about to move that shit?" Rose was starring Maurice down as he sat at his desk not looking at her at all.
"I expect the people to do their job, where does it matter where it comes from?"
"It matters because of the ties and loyalty we have to certain people"
"We have loyalty to the Gonzales family" He looked up at her tried to gather dominance, but Rose wasn't intimated.
"No, you have loyalty to them. Fuck the cartel as far as I'm concerned. As soon as that little bastard of yours breathed air the cartel has had you by the balls."
"Us by the balls love, us. Don't speak on Isabella as such, thanks"
"Don't speak on Isabella as such" Rose mocks him in annoyance. "The cartel is not attached to me nor my children"
"Our children"
"MY children, they stopped being yours when you started to treat them like shit. You don't spend time with them or anything"
"They're toddlers Rosie they won't notice my absence"
"Yet. I know you, things like this will become a habit. Years down the line they will grow to resent you because of your absence. Just like your father, right? History only repeats itself."
"We're not discussing this right now. New shipment dates, alert everyone and start shopping for a new warehouse" Maurice went back down to his paperwork. Hilda knocked on the door and walked into the office.
"Kids are all packed up and ready to go" Rose immediately turned to her in confusion.
"Go where?" She turned to Maurice.
"Thank you, Hilda, you may go" Hilda quickly scurried from the room and Maurice took a big sigh before looking up to Rose. "Rosie, we are a family. An extended family but a family. They need to be around their sister a- "Rose quickly stridden toward Maurice sitting at his desk and slapped him across the face
"I didn't sign up for this shit. I didn't sign up for a fucking extended family. I married Maurice JoJo, not into the fucking Gonzales family. I will not be included; MY children will not be included. I don't want Brick around anything of the likes of that woman." Rose took a minute to calm down and gather herself. Things were slowly unraveling, and her patience and loyalty was constantly tested. "I just got the Feds off our case for a while, okay? Fucking respect me enough as a woman and don't take my kids around that woman and her family. Okay?"
"Rosie, we're a family"
"Okay act like you didn't hear me. You were going to kidnap my children and take them to hell's kitchen. The exact story I would tell the police"
"Oh, you threatening me now?"
"No, this is the threat. Go against my wishes and I'll kill you in cold blood. Try me" Rose looked him sternly in his eye. "Now, go tell them we're not moving shit, go get your balls back and let's run this business. I don't care who you fraternize with but don't risk the kids' lives over some bitch Maurice." She turned away to leave. "My children will not be around those people. They have a history or violence and instability. Did you hear?! Killing off John's people like they were fucking fish and you want my kids around them? What a joke. Don't make me call my father" Maurice slapped his paperwork on the desk in frustration.
"There you go again dragging your dad into everything! This is our family, our business and our way of doing things."
"Did that get under your skin? Does he bother you?" She turned around at the door. "Is it because he knows how to handle his fucking business and act accordingly? Or is it because he's more of a man then you will ever be?"
"Maybe I wouldn't have to cheat if you held me at high as a light as you do your father" The venom on his words sunk into Rose's heart.
"Like I said, all you would ever be is half the man he is. If I didn't know any better, it sounds like you had an offspring with an international cartel to get into their pockets like you tried to do my family. It back fired with me but you're going to try again. Here's why that won't work." Rose quickly made her way toward him as she spoke and whispered once she got close enough "I'm the brains of this operation. I was made for this and you're just trying to fit in. Don't test- "Maurice grabbed Rose's throat looking deep into her eyes.
"You speak to much love. I got your message. Don't forget I'm just as powerful as you. We're even dear. Now run along." Maurice let her go and Rose quickly left the room in tears. There was only one thing on her mind, call her father.
"Sounds like a very unhealthy relationship" Blossom was playing with her fingers as the story got uncomfortable.
"Love is a façade at a certain point. I loved that man. All my children were made with true pure love, but the world corrupted it all. But it gets worse. Isabella died. Killed in cold blood on the playground. Talk about mourning. Maurice did not get over it and I couldn't make him. That was his daughter, he had two others, but Isabella was something special. Buttercup may remember her, but Bubbles doesn't. When she died, a series of unfortunate events took place for the Cartel. For consolidation as it was called, we took in one of Lolita's children. Angel. Maurice raised her as his own." Rose was starring off into space.
"How did she die?
"There's where the legal conversation comes into play. If I tell, everything we know will fall." Rose and Blossom looked at each other for a moment. Both conversations in their head going in different directions
"How did you stay so loyal?" Blossom asked a question to fill the void.
"Easy, I had kids. I wanted nothing more than my children to be raised in a two-parent household. That's an essential part of life, it roots in stability for the child. Stability neither one of us had."
"Now let me ask you this, Angel's somehow resurfaced from the dead." Rose held her hand up to stop Blossom once she finished her sentence.
"I never trusted that family and I never will. I would advise you to not put anything past them." Rose's voice was stern and serious.
"Do you think Angel or Sedurita may have found out?" They looked at each other in owe. Rose covered her mouth and just stared doe-eyed.
"And if they have, may God help us all."
