Baton Rouge.

Chapter 43 - Chemical X.

Jionni sat at Jmo's house, staring off into space as all of the old heads smoked, laughed, and chopped it up with him. Two prostitutes sat beside him, kissing him on his cheek, neck and collarbone. Still, it didn't even feel like he was with anyone. Just in his own world. The girls blew smoke out and glanced at him, nudging his shoulder.

"Hey Jionni, what's wrong?" The second girl asked.

Jionni didn't answer. He stayed in his own world as the first prostitute got up with her friend.

"I told you he ain't been the same since he fucked with that Filipino bitch." The first girl scoffed as they walked off. "Let's go fuck with Jmo's cousin."

Jionni kept the same expression on his face as Jmo walked through the handful of adults, sitting next to him.

"Still takin' it hard, huh youngin?" Jmo asked.

No response. Jionni sat there as smoke whizzed past his face and nose as Jmo pat him on his shoulder.

"I promise, you'll get past it." Jmo said as he smacked his shoulder and got up. "Trust me."

And by "over it", he meant about the news he found out about his mother.

When Jionni got back home later on, he saw his father making dinner with his shirt off. He scrunched his eyebrows at him, placing his blunts into his back pocket.

"Want some burgers?" Jarold asked.

"Where my mama?" Jionni asked.

"She at da' strip club workin'." Jarold chuckled.

Jionni gave him a disgusted look as he plopped down on his couch, cutting on the TV.

"Maybe dat'll give us some 'father son' time, right?"

"Yeah and maybe we'll go murda' some old folks togetha!" Jionni laughed sarcastically as he shook his head.

Jarold scrunched his eyebrows at Jionni, shaking his head and flipping his burger.

"I can tell you 'ont know a lot of shit 'bout yo moms because you'd be sayin' the same shit to her if you di-"

"My momma ain't no damn murderer, so you can cut da' shit."

"Yeah, but did she tell you she helped? Did she tell you she stole some shit WIT' me?" Jarold asked. "Did she tell you dat' some of dat' shit she stole went towards her too?"

"How do I know dis' ain't comin' outta yo' ass?" Jionni scoffed, still not believing him.

"Well, ask her." Jarold said. "If she lie to you, den' she ain't shit cause she'd be lyin' through her teeth."

Jionni didn't want to believe him, but it didn't sound like his father was making anything up.

The sad part was, he wasn't.

In December of 1995....

"I'd like to sell this, please...." Diana murmured as she placed a few rings on the table.

The owner of the company used his magnifying glass to look at the rings to make sure that they were pure gold. He shook his head, handing two of them back.

"Two of these aren't gold ma'am, sorry." The owner said, shaking his head. "I can give you $100 for one of them?"

"$100!? That's i-"

Diana paused, placing the rings into her pocket and smiling.

"I'll take the money." Diana smiled.