"Don't make me do something I regret" I said with hot tears rolling down my face. "It's too late for that Onika, you already made me hit you" "You're keeping secrets from me that involve my life!" I whisper shouted at him. He eyed the lamp and before I knew it he lunged towards me but I swung the lamp at him and heard his body thud. "Fuck." I checked his pulse it was faint but still there, he was clinging for dear life.
***

January 12th
Queens, NY
Funeral
Onika's POV

*Current Time*

I felt someone staring at me from behind, but I was too scared to turn around.  I murdered the person in that casket, that innocent person...my father for crying out loud.

As I slowly got back to reality I saw my mother was almost done with her eulogy and I was up next. Tears streamed down my face seeing the pain in my mother's eyes, the pain I caused.

"Nicki" I heard someone whisper, I look up to see my mom looking at me confusingly. Ever since the incident happened, reality hasn't been a thing for me. I'm always lost in thought replaying every movement that led up to the final one.

"Nicki...it's your turn" my mom grabbed my shoulder lightly moving me back and forth. I nodded in response and got up. I couldn't bring myself to write a eulogy so I was going to be saying whatever came to the top of my head.

"Robert Maraj...a father, husband, son, and friend to all. He didn't deserve what happened to him" I looked down at my fingers fidgeting with each other as my body temperature went up by the second and my breathing sped up.

"Seeing his blood on the floor, forced trauma to his head...he didn't deserve it" nausea settled in my body and it kept getting worse. "I loved him with all my heart...he was not only my father, but the best friend I never had" all the memories as me as a kid piled in.

Hot tears ran down my face. I couldn't do it, I couldn't act like I wasn't the reason he was in the casket at his own funeral. "Secrets break another's heart, no matter how good or bad."

"The older I got, the more I realized the relationship I had with my father was built off a secrets, secrets I would never suspect" I got the courage to finally look up at all the people to see my mother, cousins, uncles, aunts, a couple people I assumed were my dad's coworkers, Normani was there for emotional support...and Giselle.

I stared at her as she stared at me back with those beautiful honey eyes of hers. She was sitting with her fingers intertwined with another female. I gasped and ran off into the restroom puking up my breakfast. About two minutes later I heard the door open a little as I flushed the toilet, but stayed in the stall.

"Hello?" I recognized that voice, the only time she really spoke to me. The flashback of her first telling me her name came to my head. I smiled at her voice, but didn't say anything.

"Giselle?" "Onika." I hesitantly walked out the stall and stared at her. "What are you doing here?" She looked down and let out a sigh. "I can't tell you right now, but I'm willing to in the future" I walked closer to her.

"Please tell me" I pleaded to her but she shook her head "not now, but soon" she turned to walk out but I yanked her arm back towards me harder than I anticipated.

Before I knew it I was on the floor with her on top of me. Our bodies basically combined into each other and or faces centimeters apart. "Onika..." her country accent popped out a bit.

"Giselle" I couldn't help but stare at her lips as I licked mine. I wouldn't lie I have a small attraction for this girl, even though she's barley said like 20 words to me.

"I have a girlfriend you know"  "how could I not know" I faked a smile. "Well by the position we're in now I would say you didn't" she gave me a small smirk.

"I'd say you put us in this position, all I did was pull your arm." She let out a small giggle but quickly stopped. "We're at a funeral you know" she replied changing the subject. "How come you don't seem sad?" If she was close enough to my father to come to his funeral I thought she'd at least be sad.

"It's not that I'm not sad, it's just I don't show it. Sadness is vulnerability and being vulnerable isn't something I want to be. Plus death is inevitable, I had to go to my best friend's funeral about two days ago, it's nothing new to me" She looked down and even though she said she doesn't show it I could see the sadness lingering on her face at the mention of her best friend.

"Sometimes it's okay to be sad" I said holding her shoulder as a tear streamed down into my hair since I was still laying down. She stood up and shook her head off and I decided to change the subject.

"I don't see why you're here, if I am not mistaken I would say you have a big crush on me" she scrunched her face up "what makes you say that?" I covered my face to keep from giggling nervously "you and your van is everywhere I go...it had been for the past month or so"

The corner of her mouth curved a little as she turned and left leaving me there and confused as I followed shortly after. As soon as I left the bathroom Normani was waiting for me.

"Hi baby are you okay" she asked it one of the most pitiful voices I've ever heard as she hugged me tightly. "Yes Mani I'm fine" I sighed and shrugged her off and we both walked back to the funeral, but as soon as I was in hearing zone I heard her voice again.

"Robert was one of the best bosses I've worked with, I never would've thought his journey would end so soon" I walked out to see Giselle giving her own eulogy.

Huh? Out of all people it's her? I zoned out the rest of the speech and just sat there until I heard cheering and Giselle smiling with tears streaming down her face.

"Over here Bey-" "Coming" Giselle quickly cut my mother off. Confused can barley describe what I'm feeling now. She whispered something in my mother's ear than sat down between us.

"Hello Onika, Carol" she smiled at us as Carol gave her a side hug then look at me. "What?" I didn't know why she was looking at me but she was.

"You two know each other?" She said oddly excited. "I've always wanted you two get together" "Not with her I'm not" I pointed a finger at Giselle replying to my mother quicker than I planned to. She  leaned in and whispered in my ear.

"Not the same energy from the bathroom earlier" I put my finger down and sat facing forward until the funeral was over. "Giselle do you have a ride home?" She shook her head no and before I knew it I was in the back seat next to Giselle with my mom driving her to our house because she didn't have place out here either since she lived in Houston.

The car ride home was long and boring. Giselle kept trying to get me to talk to her but I didn't feel like it. Before my father died she only said two "sentences" to me that consisted of "My name is Be- Giselle...my name is Giselle." and "Sorry I was...lost?" So I don't know why she's talking now.

As we pulled up to the house I grabbed my bag and got out and rushed to the door before my mom stopped me. "Onika Tanya Maraj. Get over here right now and show Giselle around." I rolled my eyes and waited for her to hurry up over here.

***

"....and finally your room, it's right next to mine and we share a bathroom so please knock before entering and don't bother me" she nodded and went into our separate rooms

I sat on the bed facing the wall playing Tink's album 'Hopeless Romantic'. I'm actually falling for my father's co-worker after I married him? Giselle had great personality from what I've seen today, but something about the whole situation seems off.

I later went to the restroom and due to the thin walls I could hear Giselle talking to someone on the phone.

"How much longer till we're done pretending...it's weird pretending to date my best friend" she laughed on the phone.

I don't know if was hearing her correctly, but there's no way she's talking to Rihanna. She ended the call because my mother walked in, but I eavesdropped on their conversation too.

"you have to stop acting, Nicki is so clueless. She doesn't know anything about you"

"My job is to protect her not befriend her"

"There's an undeniable connection between you two, even I could feel it. Robert isn't around to boss you around anymore just talk to the girl."

"That's what I've been wanting to do the whole month, but if she gets caught up with me and drugs who know's what'll happen to her. The rivals already want her head on a stick because she's Robert's daughter. I don't want to risk her life"

I gasped and went back to my room and thought about what Giselle said. People actually want me dead? Giselle is a drug dealer? I stayed in my thoughts for a good hour until something brought me back to real life.

"NICKI TIME FOR DINNER" My mother's voice boomed from downstairs. Great, dinner with Giselle and my mother. I walked out noticing my outfit which was high waisted shorts and a lace bralette so I went back to my room and grabbed a robe and put it on.

Both Giselle and my mother were sitting at the table eating jerk chicken and rice so I grabbed my plate and sat in the seat between them both. I texted Normani talking about what I heard earlier and she demanded she come over later and we talk about Giselle and Dinah.

I looked up to see Giselle staring at my cleavage and my mother laughing at her. "Giselle?" She snapped her head up and her face went flush. She struggled to get the simple word "yes?" out. I laughed at her then we all talked for a good while.

About half an hour later, someone knocked on the door and I went to get it revealing Normani. "Hey Mani" I hugged her and she hugged me back looking around. "Where's your girlfriend" she teased and I blushed.

"Not my girlfriend" I said with sarcasm lacing my voice so I could tease her back. She started giggling hard as hell staring at something behind me and when I turned around to my surprise Giselle was right behind me.

"Not your girlfriend, huh?" She said in the same tone I did.

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I'm getting big writer's block for the first few chapters, but later it'll get better.

Thanks for the people, and thanks for the ghost readers upping my views, I love y'allll💕

Xoxoxoxo🌻

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