Sweet Thang [COMPLETE]

Prologue

Suzette
One Week Ago

"Ugh, Sammy you so crazy." I chuckled softly into the phone as I stood by the window in my bedroom talking to my lifelong best friend Samuel. I'd seem to have known Sammy as long as I'd known myself. He grew up attending my family's home church with his grandmother nearly every Sunday and we became fast friends at the tender ages of six and seven, Sammy being just a few months my senior.

As we grew older, we formed an even tighter bond outside of church. In a way you could say I was the Bonnie to his Clyde— Sammy and I used to get ourselves into all kinds of crazy things. But as I matured, with the help of my mother Rose May and my late great aunt Judith Lee, at the budding age of 18 I began to feel like the hand of the Lord was really on my life. I'd been singing since I was just two years old and ministering since I was about twelve if you can call what I was doing that. But with the guidance of my mother and the connections I made through auntie Judith, I began a singing career. The gifts God gave me took me places I never thought I would see. I had gold and platinum records, I was well respected in the industry, and I even snatched me a Stellar award.

Nowadays though, between ministry and being married to the man I proudly call my husband, Bishop Cortez Woods Jr., I hardly ever have the time to hang out with or even talk to Sammy. So I always cherished every second I did. "I always been crazy. Ain't that what you love about me?" Sammy asked and I shook my head. "You somethin' else, you know that?" I asked softly.

"Uh-huh. So about that question I had, when will I get to see you, SuSu? I miss you. I've never gone this long without seein' my best friend." I smiled, flattered by the thought of him missing me. "I'm not sure. I'm pretty busy lately with Shayne bein' home. Maybe we can set somethin' up for the three of us. I'm sure she misses her Goddaddy and I'm also sure you can talk some sense into that hard head of hers about this no good boy she won't let go." I shook my head.

"I'd like that. Let me know what Sweet Pea says and get back to me." Before I could respond I heard my husband call out for me, "Aye Suzette!" I jumped a little and turned my head to see him out of sight. I turned back to the window.

"Ight Sammy. I will. I gotta go, I'll text you." Sammy cleared his throat before speaking again, "Ight. I love you, Sue. Don't forget about hittin' me back." I laughed. "I won't forget, I love you too. Bye-bye." I dropped the phone from my ear and as I turned to leave our bedroom I bumped right into my husband. I went to wrap my arms around his neck and he slapped me dead across the face causing me to fall to my behind.

I placed my hand on my cheek as I tried to get up but Cortez only stood over me and delivered punches to my face and my chest as I cried and begged him to stop with my arms over my head. "Cortez you promised me you wasn't gone p—." His fist slid across my jaw. "Shut the hell up!" Cortez barked in my face as his hands wrapped themselves around my neck and he pulled me to my feet by it. When my tear-filled eyes met his, he held me there dangling in the air before he spoke through gritted teeth. "Who were you saying 'I love you' to on the phone?" He asked as I cried before him. "That wasn't nobody Cortez please..." I pleaded as my hands struggled to pry his apart.

"Lie again, and I'll kill you just like this. Was it Samuel?!" I didn't answer as I coughed in his face trying to breathe but I couldn't. I just shook my head no as I felt his hands wring my neck even tighter. "I heard you say his name!" He growled and I started throwing punches of my own in an attempt to get out of his hands even if I knew it would only be for a second. "You sleepin' with him, aren't you?!" I heard banging... But I couldn't tell if I was hearing what sounded like my pulse in my ears or if I was actually hearing something.

Cortez dropped me and I laid on my back for a second as my head throbbed and I began to feel pain all over my body. As I tried to scurry to my feet I saw him adjusting the rings on his fingers. "You supposed to be my wife... and that's what you do?! You sleep around on me?! Now you can't speak, whore?!" With every pause of his words came another blow to my head. I wrapped my arms around my skull in an attempt to protect myself but it all failed. After getting a couple more licks in, Cortez called it quits. He sat in his chair watching me cry as he'd done too many times throughout the years. It was then that I realized the sound I was hearing wasn't my heartbeat, but my eldest son Shakur hollering and banging on my bedroom door so hard that it was shaking. I lifted my aching head with tears streaming down my face to see Cortez sitting there with his belt in his hand. "Don't... Say... A word," he said so calmly and I laid in the very spot he left me in just crying.

An hour later, Cortez rose from his seat and stood over me. He kneeled and lifted my head and looked at me with what looked to be hurt in his eyes. "You're sleeping with him. Aren't you, Suzette?" I shook my head. "Bishop, I swear," I paused to swallow my tears, "I ain't seen him in years. I told you it ain't like that... I swear." He brought my face to his and said, "You scare me Susie." My brows drew together out of confusion. "How, Cortez? How do I scare you?" I asked. "I'm afraid to lose you to him."

My head hung low and I stared at the broken nails on what was once a freshly manicured hand on the floor. "You won't." Cortez chuckled. "Good. Because if you try to leave me... I'ma kill you." He tapped my cheek with the palm of his hand. "Now I'm sorry. Gone get up and get real pretty for me like you do and make me some dinner." I didn't move.

"Gone now. Don't make me tell you twice."