FIVE already written, brand new chapters from Tuesday to Saturday? With every chapter ending with a crazier cliff hanger until everything freaking explodes? Yes siree! Vote & Comment, pleaaase.

https://youtu.be/Rr7Dyp9PM0E

Reece POV

Kenzie's arm moved so fast, Preston didn't have a chance to dodge or weave him.

His fist slammed into his jaw like a car crashing through a wooden house. His head snapped backward, like someone was yanking his hair and he fell to the ground.

"Kenzie!" Ashley shouted, and bulleted toward his brother, pulling Kenzie's hand out of his pants. I can only assume a gun was in there. "Stop it!" Ashley shouted. "Get to the car."

"You heard what that motherfucker said?" Kenzie asked him, growling through clenched teeth. His eyes red, braids hiding what was left of his face, veins popping out of his arms, stretching all the way u to his forehead like connecting rivers. Jaw clenched, fists balled, mouth pursed.

"I heard him," Ashley said, clutching a fist full of Kenzie's shirt. "We do not hit white people," he said. "That only ends badly for us!" he shouted. "We end up in prison!"

His friend shot out from the back of me, the tall and muscular one.

"Niko," Ashley said, "get Kenneth home. Bar the doors, call Dee and make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

"You gonna stay here?" Niko asked.

Ashley briefly looked at me, and then back at Niko and whispered something closely to him. Niko sighed and nodded, grabbing Kenzie by his shirt and roughly pushing him toward the car lot.

"You better run, you fucking ni-," Preston said, losing his voice at the end, getting up off of the floor like he had a few too many and coming beside me, mouth pouring blood, nose too.

"You see what that gorilla did to me?" he asked, he touched the bridge of his nose, inspecting the blood.

"Watch what this gorilla is gonna do to you," Ashley hissed and marched up where we were standing by the stairs. "If you think this shit is anywhere near over, think again."

Preston wiped his nose and spat out a hock of blood, before smiling at Ashley, blood staining his teeth like coffee. "You damn right this s-s-shit ain't over, you primate," he said, woozy. "This won't be over until the two of you are locked up for a good decade, like half of your race."

Ashley's eyes flickered over to me. "I'm going home," he said. He raised his hands to his face; the light that reflected off of the ring that Mom had placed on our fingers seared my eyes for a second, stinging them like a hundred bees stinging my neck.

Then the light was gone, and a hand lifted one of mine up – palm up – and rested something small in them.

The ring.

"I'm going home, Reece," Ashley said. "I...can't deal with this right now."

"Run you nigger," Preston shouted. "I can say it all day!" he blasted, hands up as Ashley was starting to walk away.

"Can you stop it man?" I said, running my hands through my hair. I had no idea what to do, or what to say at this point.

Preston's eyes ran over to me. "You're defending them after they broke my nose, man?" He demanded I answer. He poked my chest. "Did that dirty fucking ape put his dick in you so fucking far up your ass that the head knocked your common sense right out of your body? Or did his wet, gooey jizz melt your logic?"

I grumbled something under my breath. Even I wasn't sure what it was. But my heart had started to beat faster than a speeding train and my hands were starting to shake and my bones felt like they were rattling; I could hear them under my skin.

"I can say what the fuck I want, how many times I want it. You know." he said. I didn't respond.

"This country is mine. They don't wanna say it. No one wants to say it. But it's a rich white man's world and we just allow the these other races in it so we don't have to cut our own grass and we only gave women the right to vote so they'd stop complaining enough to swallow our jizzshots." He stepped closer. "So, you know what Reece. You can either decide to stand by us, or you can fuck off."

"Preston you're being a dick," I said. I was trying so hard to just stay calm. With all of these people watching.

"Or what?" he laughed and a teeth fell out. His eyes rolled back with anger. His lips trembled with spite and his hands shook with the purest kind of hatred I'd ever witnessed. "Nigger" he said. He stepped closer to me. "Nigger." Another step. "NIGGGER." His chest bumped mine "NIGGER." One of his fingers poked my chest. NIG-"

I swung. My fist met his dumb fucking face and Preston, for the second time, fell to the ground. This time, he tumbled down the steps and slammed into the dirt outside of my house.

The crowd gasped. Someone rushed over to him to check. "He's alive, but out cold."

"Fuck," I mumbled. I looked at the crowd, who was looking back at me. Some with amazement, some with fear, others with anger. I cleared my throat.

"If you came here with the intention of attending a blackface party, I suggest you leave," I said. "Or I'm going to kick your ass."

"Me too," Liza said, coming up beside me. "And if there's one Asian stereotype that's true, it's that we can all kick some ass."

The crowd stared for a moment, before they all started chatting, clamoring to get to their cars.

"Should we call paramedics?" Liza asked, "For Blonde Hitler down there?"

I sighed. "Throw him in a dump heap for all I care," I answered. "He belongs with trash."

Liza rolled her eyes and took out her cellphone. "I'll call a private doctor to look at his wounds," she said. "Murderer isn't any better than racist."

I shrugged my shoulders and turned and went back inside.

And inside, music was still softly playing since the band had for whatever reason decided not to leave.

"Interesting night isn't it?"

My head snapped to the staircase. Anna was leaning against the bannister on the first step with a glass of wine in her hands. "I told them to keep playing," she said. "There's no reason we should dismiss Vivaldi because of some racist people."

"I'm in no mood, Anna," I said from by the door. "Go home."

"I am home," she said.

"An-"

"Shut the fuck up, Reece," she commanded, laughing through her words as she poured her wine on the floor below her and threw her glass into the foyer, where it shattered when it met the tile. "Your boyfriend isn't as righteous as you want to believe."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Anna looked up the staircase to the bedrooms and offices and then back at me. "When I told you to give me a minute while we were talking, I did it because I watched as Ashley, Erika and Lola went upstairs."

I shifted. "That is proof of what?"

Anna shrugged. "Anything, really." She held her dress as she came downstairs into the hall with me. "I went upstairs and got there quick enough – just in time – to watch them slink into a hidden room in your mother's bedroom."

I sighed. "Dad?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"So they know he's not in recovery, so what?" I said. "What could they do what that information and what benefit could there be?"

"That depends on what exactly is in that room besides your father," she answered. "I think it's time you had a chat with your mother."

"She wouldn't tell me anyway," I said. "You know that."

"Well, you better figure something out," Anna retorted. "Because this company is on shaky ground as it is, Reece. One more implosion and everything your family built will come crashing down and it will be your fault."

I wanted to choke her. That grin was starting to freaking annoy me. "Why are you doing this, Anna?" I asked.

She snorted. "I was supposed to be the new, younger Mrs. Red, Reece." She placed a finger on my lips, then moved it to caress my cheek. Her hand was cold. "I was supposed to marry into this family, not Ashley. I was supposed to run a division of this company, not Ashley." Her smirk fell. "He took everything from me," she thought for a second, "besides my tits and my great personality that is, but still."

"He didn't," I said. "Mother did, remember?"

"He wasn't exactly forgiving was he though?" she responded. "I can't get to your mother, but I can get to him."

"So, this is all just about revenge for you?"

She shrugged again. "I'm simple like that." Her hand slipped from my face. "Get rid of him. Get rid of them all, for your sake, for your family and for me."

"I don't love you, Anna," I said.

"OH, I think I'm going to cry," she retorted, folding her arms and snorting. Then she stepped back. "We could be the greatest freaking couple that news has ever seen, Reece. You're pretty and I'm all brains. We could do everything your parents never got to do."

"Anna," I sighed.

"Reece," she mocked. "I may not be the best woman on earth and I might not be the person you're in love with, but at least I'm honest with you," she said. "Ashley hasn't been. You know that deep down that he is up to something and if you aren't paying attention, he's going to throw you and your career in front of a speeding train."

"I'll think about it," I said. "Is that everything?"

"Yes," she said. "Talk to your mother, Reece. Get her to fire Ashley. Get them to back down. Make this go away before it swallows all of us whole."

"Thank you, doctor." Liza hung up the phone and blew out a breath, plopping down onto the couch across from me. "So, Preston's going to be fine."

"Ain't God good," I said, mean spirited, taking a sip of wine.

"You narrowly avoided prison," she said, incredulous.

"I'm a white, powerful man," I said, snorting. "I'm not going to prison."

Liza rested her head on the couch's arm, groaning. "What happens now?" she asked. "Mom won't be happy about any of this."

"When has Mom ever been happy?" I shot back. "I can't recall her ever being anything but a stuck up, stone cold nagging dinosaur with steel-pole shoved up her hotbox."

"Now there's a mother's day card for ya," Liza said. Three seconds. "Have you called Ashley yet?"

"What good would that do?" I asked. Five seconds. "Three times. He's not answering."

"I saw...the ring on the kitchen counter," she said. "He gave it back?"

"Do you blame him?" I queried, shrugging my shoulders and taking a gulp of the wine. "He's not going to ever want to see my face again and I can't say I blame him at all."

"You had nothing to do with that," Liza said.

"I had nothing to do with slavery either. I had nothing to do with Martin Luther King Jr. being shot. I had nothing to do with anything that went down in Germany circa the early 40s." I breathed. "It doesn't seem to matter."

"It does matter," she said. "Ashley seems very smart. But he's overly self-righteous and it clouds his thinking." She lifted her head back up. "He will be mad, he'll blame you and he'll keep blaming you because you're white...if you don't have the proper discussions with him about race."

I snorted. "I'm supposed to talk about race?"

"Yes." She blinked. "Grow the fuck up, Reece. It's about time you stop thinking you're some party boy. You're not. Sit down and have a willing, meaningful discussion with him about race. About race relations. About being black and being white. About being two humans who obviously have some kind of feelings for one another."

"I like him."

"He likes you."

"I doubt it," I said. "I think he genuinely hates me."

Liza crossed her legs. "I think he hates what you represent," she said. "Privilege."

"I think he just hates my skin color," I said.

"Ashley's not racist," she responded.

"Racism is an institution," I responded. "Blacks can't be racist since they aren't the powerful majority." I drank the last bit of wine. "That's what white liberals on tumblr tell me."

"Racism has two definitions," Liza responded. "Just like how depression can be a clinical disorder and an emotion that represents deep sadness. Racism as an institution – no they don't have that. Although, blacks did willfully participate in slavery by selling other blacks to their Spanish during the slave trade – but no, in that way they can't be. Only we can."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"This isn't a black and white situation – pun not intended. Racism is a morally grey area. Not all of us are going to agree on what racism is, the definition of it, and who we should blame for it. I'm South Korean and I have to hear people call me chinky eyes almost every day. To me that's clearly racism. To others it's a bad joke. Yet, I don't come home and blame you for it."

I huffed. "What should we do about Dad?"

Liza huffed right on back. "That's for Mom to decide." She stood. "She's the one who decided to lie about Dad not having dementia to save our family face."

"Yeah," I whispered. "What do you think she's hiding in that room with him?" I asked.

Liza thought for a moment, staring up at the roof. "Hopefully nothing too awful."

There was a knock on a table and both Liza and I looked over to see our maid, Rosa, with a phone in her hands. She didn't look happy. "Mr. Red, there's a call for you."

Ashley's POV

"What's going on?" Dennis asked, as Kenzie rushed passed it into the house. "Yo, Kenzie?" he called after him, but Kenzie slammed the door behind him.

Dee looked back at me with his eyebrows rising into his hairline. "Should I be worried?"

"No," I sighed. "He'll come around and talk after he's chilled out."

He touched my face. His hands were warm. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. And kept nodding, until those nods turned into head-shaking. "Not...really?" I said, hiccupping a laugh that was matted with a cry. "I'll be okay."

"Where's Reece?" he asked, looking to the street. "Why isn't he here checking on you?"

"He has things he needs to clean up first," I said. "It doesn't matter anyway."

Dee nodded and his hand slipped from my face. "I'm here for you if you need me."

"You always are," I said. "Why?"

"I'm in love with you, ass," he chuckled. "I don't think I'll never not be in love with you." He smiled and his gap tooth showed. I always teased him about it. He secretly loved it, I always thought. He always said imperfection was beautiful.

"I'm not going to respond to that," I said.

"You don't have to," he replied. "You're lightskin enough to turn pink when I say it."

He was right. My cheeks were burning. "Whatever, Dee."

"I wish you'd give me a chance," he said. "Like for real."

My smile dropped and my cheeks went back cold. "You know why."

"Black boys can be sorry to, you know," he said. "Jay cheated on Beyoncé and she forgave him. And I'm like a billion times finer than Jay."

I snickered. "Beyoncé, I am not," I answered. "When a book's finished, a book's finished."

"Come on," he said. "Just give me a chance." He played with his thumbs. "Let me die knowing that I get to right all my wrongs like my name is Bryson Tiller, before you walk out my life like your name is Monica."

I smiled. Dennis's eyes were also so soft and honest. That's sort of how I knew he was cheating on me. His eyes would tell his soul, even when his lips succumbed to the lies.

"I've not felt like me since I let you go," he said. His moved hands to the inside his basketball shorts. He was wearing a Kendrick Lamar shirt. "I'm over the whole side bitch shit that I was sipping on back then." He licked his lips. "I'm ready to be a faithful ass brother." He looked up to the sky, clenched his jaw and swayed a bit from side to side. "If you'd give me a chance to be one, that is."

"Dennis."

He took both of my hands. "I gotta check on my nig," he said as we heard a Future song started to play out of our bedroom.

I winced when he said that word. "If I were you I'd cut back on the n-word," I said. "Kenzie might not respond well to it."

Dennis's eyes flashed for a second. "Kenzie is gonna respond to the n-word bad?" he asked. "That's a bit hypocritical, don't you think? Considering he uses the word more that he uses the words 'the' 'and' 'so' and 'thank you'."

"Just chill with it, okay?" I asked him. "He'll probably explain it to you."

"Aight," Dee responded, still looking off about it. He let my hands go. "Think about what I said, though. Give a lightskint brother another chance."

I smiled a bit. "I mean. We'll see how that goes."

He nodded. "That's all I'm asking for, bae," he said. "Just a chance."

Dennis turned and went inside. I sighed a bit. I pulled out my phone. Reece had called me again. I sighed heavier. "I should really respond to this."

"No you shouldn't."

I spun around. "How long have you been standing there?"

Erika shrugged. "I've been waiting in my car for the two of you to finish your moment."

"It wasn't a moment," I answered, putting my hands behind my back.

"It was," she said. "I don't think I need to remind you that we've got a mission to complete."

"What does Dennis have to do with that?" I asked her.

Erika came up onto the porch and stood in front of me. Her heels made her nearly as tall. "Ashley." She had on her mother voice. "Dennis is a distraction. He's persuading you to leave Reece alone so you can get him with him. If he does that, we lose everything."

My eyes drifted to the side of her face, where I didn't have to stare into her eyes. "It's not like that."

"He cheated on you Ashley," she said. "These brothers will say anything to get you back under their control. To get you back by their side. They will do any and everything because they know they fucked up when they decided to mess around."

"Dennis is different," I said.

Erika used her hands so I would stare into her eyes. "Ashley King. I have done everything I possibly can to get you to realize that some people are going to stare into your eyes and lie to you," she said. "Dennis means you no good. He misses you, that's it. He will cheat again."

"And Reece won't?" I asked her. "He's no different."

"You're not trying to fall in love with Reece," she said. "That's the clear difference."

I shook my head and she let my head go. "I don't know..."

"You do know," she said. "You do." She took a moment. "Let's focus on getting justice for my Dad's murder and your Dad going to jail for defending himself from the police."

I looked at her again. "We have nothing," I said. "Besides the fact that Mr. Red is being kept into a little room."

"We have more," she responded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small red jump drive. There was a label on it.

I took it into my hands. "Case files?"

"I swiped it before we left the room," she said. "Something tells me this is the Trojan horse we need. All we have to do is reveal the truth if there is anything on it."

"We'd get sued," I said. "Even if this has anything on it."

"Not if you release it," she said.

"W-what?" I whispered. "Why me?"

"You're his husband-to-be. You found a jump drive while you were cleaning up. You plugged it in to see what was on it. You reveal it live on air that The Reds got Police Officer Allen Stevenson off twice for the murder of my father after he resisted arrest for a traffic violation and for your Dad as well." She took my hands. "We could get your Dad released from prison, Ash."

I clenched my jaw so hard, I tasted blood. "I mean. I guess that's the righteous thing to do."

"Good," she said, smiling. But her smile dropped when a police horn sounded.

We peered over at the cop car, and the cops that stepped out of it.

"Erika?" I said. "Do you...think they discovered you killed that woman?"

Erika didn't say anything. Not until the two officers – one white guy and one black lady – were on the porch. "Can I help you officers?"

"Is this The King residence?" the white cop asked.

"Yes," I said, stepping forward. "What's...wrong?"

The black lady cop raised a paper. "This is an arrest warrant for Kenneth King. A young man by the name of Preston is pressing charges for assault."