"don't even know what we're fighting for
but damn I need a minute
so baby keep your distance".

it's been about a week since iman and roman's blowup and they haven't spoken to each other since. no interactions, no affection, nothing. roman was barely in the house and instead spent most of his time at the warehouse or at bars and whenever he was home, iman completely ignored him. this has been going on longer than it usually does, and it wasn't looking good for the two.

julianne for one was fed up with it. she did not like that iman and roman were acting this way towards each other and she needed it to be fixed now.

"are you finished with your cereal jianni?" iman asked her daughter as she was eating breakfast before heading off to school.

"yes!" jianni told her mother.

"okay, i'm gonna go get your backpack and coat and then julianne's gonna take you to school okay babydoll?!" iman explained, and jianni responded with a nod and a small smile.

iman walked out of the kitchen and was walking through the hallway to go to jianni's room. while she was walking, roman came shooting out of their bedroom. he was dressed, presumably dressed to go to the warehouse. iman just looked at him and roman looked at her back. they didn't say a word to each other. no good morning, no small talk, not even a little kiss or hug. they just stared at each other like they didn't know each other.

after getting out of their trances, iman continued to walk to jianni's room and roman went to the kitchen to make himself a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee. once iman got jianni's things for school, she went back to the kitchen to help her put her coat on.

"have fun at school jianni" iman told her.

"bye momma!" jianni exclaimed.

then after that, jianni ran over to roman who was standing waiting for his coffee to be done and she hugged him. roman then proceeded to pick her up and kiss her on the cheek.

"have a good day, love you babygirl" he smiled.

"love you too daddy, bye!" jianni said back, and roman put her down and she walked out with julianne so she could take her to school. now it was just iman and roman in the house, alone, still no communication.

once jianni left, iman went back into the bedroom and roman went back to making himself some food before he left out. since it was very early in the morning, iman ended up going back into bed and drifting off to sleep for a few hours.

when iman woke up it was a little after ten thirty so she got up and went into the living room. she found julianne sitting in there watching an episode of the wendy williams show.

"good morning again iman" julianne said to her.

"morning, again" iman chuckled.

"so.... did you talk to your husband while I was out?" julianne asked her, which made iman sigh and walk out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"I knew you were gonna ask that, but no I didn't" iman shrugged.

"cmon iman, it's been about a week since you two last spoke. I mean how long do you two plan on acting like this?!" julianne exclaimed.

"as long as I feel like it, and I guess him too cause he's just as stubborn as me" iman told her.

"and that's horrible. I mean you two are married with a kid and another one on the way, y'all can't be acting like this!" julianne said.

"the first thing you just said might not last for long...." iman mumbled, which made julianne give her a confused look.

"iman, you're bluffing. you're not gonna leave him" she scoffed.

"well maybe it's been a thought" iman said. "I can't do the gaslighting bullshit anymore julianne, I really can't".

"what about that marriage counselor that y'all went to a couple months ago? y'all can't go to her again?" she asked her.

".... tried that before and at the moment it worked, but clearly looking back it was a waste of time because here we are now. back in that same place we were once in" iman sighed.

"there's really nothing else that could get you to talk to your own husband again?! seriously?!" julianne wondered.

"okay julianne in all honesty, can you please stay out of this? i'm going to do what I want to do with my marriage and you don't need to stress yourself over our grown decisions. just don't" iman told her.

julianne looked at her, shook her head, and silently walked away from her. iman sighed and went to make herself a bagel. as she was making it she started to have thoughts about julianne mentioning the marriage counselor. she really did wish that it worked, she really did wish that it would've changed roman and that he wouldn't be such a prick anymore. but alas, it didn't, and now they're back to what they were four months.

September 8th, 2020

iman and roman were sitting in the office of dr. sherri parker, a well renowned marriage counselor. they were currently at this marriage counselor because iman and roman's marriage has reached an all time high of tension, stress, and hostility and iman for one couldn't take it anymore. she's already told dr. parker prior about her and roman's problems, but now today was the day that all of those feelings would come out and be said. iman was nervous, but she was ready to show roman how toxic the relationship's gotten and how they need to fix it.

they were sitting on opposite sides of the couch looking at dr. parker who had her notebook and pen in her hand, ready to write down anything that was about to be said. iman was ready to say her peace, but roman was annoyed at this whole thing. why was he here? why does iman wanna tell her problems to a random lady that won't do anything for them? it was dumb to him, and he was going to let it be known.

"look, I don't mean to come off as rude but I really don't know why i'm here" roman said, as the claws were beginning to come out. "like seriously, what are you gonna do for my marriage?".

"help fix it" dr. parker told him. "clearly there are some cracks in it, your wife seems very adamant about that".

"well iman is a very dramatic woman so of course she made it seem like there's something wrong" roman scoffed.

"roman you know something's wrong stop acting like you don't know what's going on" iman spat at him. "stop being so damn stubborn".

"if we need to fix our marriage we need to fix it ourselves, I don't need no random lady telling me what the fuck I gotta do with MY own wife. I don't need her in our business and writing shit down on a notepad to berate us, we don't need this" he said.

"oh really... whenever I do try to fix it you end up fucking me for forgiveness and nothing ever gets resolved!" iman exclaimed.

"okay calm down you two" dr. parker said to them. "this is clearly the reason why we're all here together right now, to fix what's going on".

"now roman.... iman has told me about you prior today. she's told me that you are a very irrational person, that you are stubborn, sometimes aggressive, and that you have a god complex which makes you think that you are superior to everyone around you. is she telling me the truth about you?".

"she's telling you the dramatic truth because she's a dramatic person" roman shrugged.

"nothing I say is "dramatic", I said the truth about him and look! clearly being what I described, irrational as hell" iman scoffed.

"iman you always try to make me out to be something that i'm not. if I was this bad then how come you're still with me?! anyone else would just leave but you stay and complain, why is that?!" roman said, and iman fell silent. in fact, she began to get choked up and tears were starting to well in her eyes.

"iman... are you okay?" dr. parker asked her. "I see you're getting very emotional".

"i'm just.... so frustrated" iman sighed.

"all I did was ask you a question and you're crying" roman groaned.

"yes i'm crying you asshole because you clearly don't wanna fix this!" iman exclaimed. "YOU DON'T WANNA FIX YOUR OWN FUCKING MARRIAGE WITH YOUR OWN FUCKING WIFE! that's why i'm frustrated and that's why i'm crying!".

now iman was full on crying, covering her mouth as tears were flowing down her face. dr. parker lended a tissue box for iman but she didn't take it, she just let all of her building emotions fall down her face. roman was looking at her, and for once in his apathetic life, he felt bad for her. he felt bad that someone that he did love was sobbing crying over him and for negative reasons. he hated that he made her feel this way.

"can you leave the room please?" roman asked dr. parker.

"I just can't leave i'm supposed to help situations like this" she said.

"you're not gonna help this the way that you think you are" roman told her. "I wanna fix this on my own, so can you please leave the room so I can talk to my wife about OUR issues".

".... i'll be outside the room" dr. parker said. "i'll be listening in so-".

"i'm not gonna do anything so you don't need to come in until I say you can come in" roman said to her.

dr. parker gave him a glare and walked out of the office. once she was gone, roman turned back around and looked at his wife who was still flooded with tears.

"iman... do you feel like I love you?" roman asked her.

"what?!" iman exclaimed.

"I just wanna know because you're sobbing like a baby in front of that woman and acting like I don't wanna fix our marriage, so I wanna know, do you think that I love you?" he asked her again.

"do you love me?" iman then asked him, reversing it back. "cause it never feels like it".

"god iman you act like I hate you or something" roman scoffed. "if I didn't love you I wouldn't be with you so get this narrative out of your head".

"THEN WHY DOESN'T IT FEEL LIKE IT?!" iman yelled. "it doesn't feel the same anymore. aren't you tired of not feeling the same anymore?! aren't you tired of the constant arguments, fights, hostility and tension for nothing?!".

"marriages are meant to have fights and arguments iman" roman said. "why can't you handle that?! clearly you don't need to be married if you can't handle a simple argument".

"see this is what i'm talking about... you don't even see the problem, you don't wanna fix this. you don't want to fix the clear dysfunction that we have, and you wonder why i'm sitting on this couch crying my eyes out" iman cried.

"there's no love, no affection, you're barely ever around and you don't ever make time for me or jianni. anytime we do interact there's always an argument or clear passive aggressiveness and for what?! then you fuck me as a way for me to forgive you just so shit can stay the same and nothing can get solved. having sex doesn't solve problems, everything's always back to normal! it's not even passionate sex either, it's rough and it means nothing! you fuck me for your personal gain and then you're back to being a dick!".

"don't you feel anything anymore?! i'm tired of feeling like this roman, I don't wanna feel like this. you're my husband and I love you so much and I don't wanna lose you. I have so much love for you and you're the one person that I felt like is the love of my life but I can't feel like that if you don't feel that way. I don't wanna separate our family because of you, I don't want jianni going without both parents in her household. I wanna be with you for as long as I can and I can't do that if you're acting like this. I can't do it anymore!" she exclaimed, getting choked up as she talked, until she eventually broke down and cried.

"iman I love you more than anyone that i've ever loved" roman told her. "i'd do anything for you and jianni, I have done anything for you and jianni. I don't want you to ever feel like I don't love you or that I don't care for you because I do".

"I don't want you to ever feel like I don't love you because everything I do is for you and our daughter. you guys are my everything and if I was to ever fail at being a husband or a father then it would be the biggest mistake of my life, bigger than anything else that i've ever done in my life".

"i'm sorry iman, I don't ever even apologize but i'm truly sorry. i'm gonna work my best to fix any type of problems that we have, cause I also don't want us to live like this. I don't wanna live like we hate each other because if I truly hated you I wouldn't wanna be with you. but I don't hate you, I love you, and I wanna be with you. I wanna do everything that a husband is supposed to do. I wanna be a good man, raise our daughter and even more kids, and I wanna do everything to show how much I love and care for you, because I do love and care for you. that will never change, that will be the only constant" roman told her.

"thank you" iman sighed, getting teary eyed again.

"don't cry baby" roman said to her, pulling her close to him on the couch as she cried in his arms. he held her as she cried onto his shirt, so overwhelmed from everything that has happened.

"I love you, and I got you always" roman said to her. iman then looked up and he gave her a passionate kiss to seal the deal. she kissed him back as a form of bliss and some closure. it would take some steps but as of now, it felt good that roman was willing to fix something that needed fixing so bad.

"you guys love each other, it's clearly evident" dr. parker said to the two once she got back into the room. iman was still snuggled up under roman, laying in his chest feeling his embrace.

"it's clear that you two have some work to do to get back to what it once was, but i'm very glad that today started some process. some process to a journey of love" dr. parker said again.

"i'm glad too" iman smiled, and roman kissed her forehead and she had such a pure grin on her face. she was so glad that he was willing to work on this with her.

now hopefully they'll get back to that love.

later on in the day, roman came back home to eat dinner, as he always did. the minute julianne heard him come in the door she rushed over to see him. she needed to speak to him real quick, and she also needed to speak to his wife.

"roman! how are you?!" julianne exclaimed.

".... fine, why are you so perky?" he wondered.

"what it's a nice day out it's great to be happy and perky" she said.

"I guess..... anyways what are you making for dinner?" roman asked her.

"don't know yet, let me ask iman what she wants" she told him. "you should go sit on the couch as we await".

"iman! come here!".

a few moments later iman came out to the living room. she looked at julianne and then she looked at roman on the couch. she gave him a look and folded her arms and he did the same.

"okay now that I have you two here.... I need to speak to you guys" julianne told them.

"julianne... I told you to stay out of it!" iman exclaimed. she already knew what she was trying to do, and she wasn't feeling it at all.

"no because i'm sick of the shit with you two. y'all are too grown to be acting like this when you two are married with kids, now sit down on the couch so we can fix this" julianne told her.

"oh nah you ain't about to do no therapy shit on me" roman said. "I ain't come home for this".

"oh yes you did" julianne scoffed.

"julianne who are you getting smart with? I will fire your ass right now don't play with me" roman warned.

"you can't fire me! someone gotta watch your kid while you're on the streets killing people and selling crack right?!" julianne shot back at him, which was a shock because julianne never got this buck with roman. he was taken aback a bit because he was not expecting this, neither was iman.

"all i'm asking from you two is some of your time so I can help resolve whatever is going on with you two. I don't want y'all acting like this anymore, it's stupid and unnecessary. so please, just sit down and let me talk to y'all. I have more advice than y'all think, maybe I can help. please let me".

iman didn't say a word and just sat on the sofa far away from roman. roman also sat back down on the sofa, sitting far from iman as well. julianne sat in the chair in front of them and looked at them both in the eye. they weren't even looking at each other, just looking around the living room.

"so... it's been about a week since you two last spoke or interacted with each other. why is that?" julianne asked them.

"julianne you know why we don't have to explain it again" iman scoffed.

"i'm your stand in therapist right now, if you were with dr. parker you would tell her what's going on so you're going to tell me the same regardless of if I know or not. so once again, why haven't y'all spoke or interacted in a week?" julianne said again.

"..... cause roman is a manipulative gaslighter that can't admit to his own faults" iman said, and hell was about to break loose.

"oh fuck off iman you know the reason this shit even happened was because YOU decided to put your hands on me! this is the problem with you now you always wanna play victim but when someone tells you about yourself you're crying and whining" roman spat at her.

"roman that day wasn't the first time any of this has happened! YOU'VE BEEN AN ASSHOLE FOR YEARS! this has been built up FOR YEARS! don't sit here and act like YOU'RE innocent. for god sakes you just killed a man! you got some nerve acting like i'm wrong when you've got blood all of your hands!" iman yelled back at him.

"and you benefit off of all of it, ALL OF IT! you act like you're oblivious to everything when you knew then, you know now, and you're always gonna know and still not do shit" roman said.

"roman you lied to me for a whole year about what you were doing, if I knew from jumpstreet I would've never put myself in that position. I would never wanna be associated with your bullshit" iman exclaimed.

"YOU KNOW NOW AND YOU STILL ARE! stop fucking lying iman just say that you're comfortable with the lavish lifestyle that I gave you and go cause you acting like you'd be "better off" is not working" roman said back to her.

"maybe i'll be better off now! I hope you have fun paying for child support you asshole" iman snapped back, which left roman appalled.

"this is what I mean! y'all cannot be acting like this with each other. y'all are supposed to love each other, not talking like this to each other. this is toxic as fuck, y'all are acting real toxic towards each other and that's not okay at all" julianne told them. "the therapist before ain't tell y'all how toxic y'all are?!".

"marriages are always going to have arguments but not like this. the cussing, the yelling, the gaslighting from the BOTH of you.... this ain't it. it's not healthy and it's not good for either one of you, it's definitely not good for jianni".

"please don't bring her in this. this about me and him, not her" iman told her.

"but it is about her. do you want your daughter seeing you two act like this? do you want your daughter to see this, think of it as a "good" relationship, and eventually get a man like that? roman do you want your daughter to get a man like you? iman do you want your daughter to get in a relationship like yours?" julianne asked them. they were silent of course.

"I thought you were supposed to help us, you dragging our character isn't gonna get us to reconcile" roman scoffed.

"okay, so will y'all reconcile once I tell y'all that jianni knows what's happening between you two?"  julianne said, and suddenly their eyes widened. julianne saw the look in iman's face alone and knew that they realized that they fucked up.

"this morning as I was taking jianni to school, she asked me something. she said, "julianne, why don't momma and daddy talk anymore?". your four year old daughter asked me why don't her parents talk to each other... that's insane" julianne told them.

"she didn't really say that" roman mumbled.

"why would I lie? your daughter is smart, and I can very much recall you two saying that the last thing that y'all wanted was for jianni to see her parents arguing and fighting with each other. y'all didn't want this because y'all didn't want her thinking that her parents hated each other" julianne explained. "well now look, now she's getting the impression that her parents hate each other".

tears started to fall down iman's face as her biggest fear was coming true. she looked away from everyone and began to wipe her tears away, but they continued to fall down. meanwhile roman just looked disappointed. at the end of the day he didn't want jianni's young mind to create any narratives about him and her mother. that was the last thing that he wanted, it would only make them look bad and make her upset and scared.

"this is why you two need to stop. you don't need jianni going around thinking things that she shouldn't. you also don't need to be acting like this now with a new baby coming soon. iman you know you need your husband around you at all times and roman you know you need to be around your wife, y'all need each other a lot more than y'all think, and I need y'all to understand that" julianne said.

"I failed her" iman cried. "the one thing that I didn't want to happen and I fucking failed at it. I failed jianni, she's gonna go around thinking like this and it's all my fault".

"it's not your fault iman don't say that" julianne told her.

"but it is" iman sobbed.

"nah it's on me too" roman said, which made iman look at him.

"i'm sorry iman. honest to god I am so over arguing with you every day over shit, I really am. I wanna love you because I am in love with you. you're my wife for a reason, despite all the crazy I really do love you. I don't wanna have to go through this shit to the point where our daughter watching it. i'm willing to change my ways when it comes to you, i'll try not to be an asshole with you or the gaslighting cause I don't wanna do it anymore myself".

"neither do I" iman said. "and i'm sorry for reacting the way that I did. I should've acted better regarding that and not putting my hands on you, that was my fault. I don't wanna have this toxic animosity between us anymore, it's not right. it's not right for us and it's not right for jianni".

"roman.... I love you so much, and I wanna be with you and love you forever. i've loved you for forever, and I always will. I want it to stay that way, and it only can if we get through this shit and stop acting like this towards each other. we have to stop, we have to stop the bullshit and start having healthy discussions with each other instead of the yelling, cursing, and gaslighting. we have to start a new, and even though it should've been happened, it needs to happen right now".

"I agree" roman said to her. "I love you iman".

"I love you too" iman smiled, and she went over to roman on the couch and the two shared a passionate kiss. that kiss seemed to last for a while, as it's been a week since they actually interacted with each other. they hugged right after that and stayed in each other's arms on the couch.

"now this is what I like to see" julianne grinned. "this is the couple that I remember meeting back in 2017".

"thank you julianne" iman told her. "maybe you should be our therapist for now on".

"we ain't gonna need that anymore baby" roman told her.

"mhm, maybe you're right" she smiled as they kissed again.

"yup, even down to the PDA. this is definitely the couple that I met years ago" julianne laughed, which made iman laugh too.

"I love you guys, I care for y'all so much. even you roman".

"don't get fired julianne" roman warned.

"nah after today, she definitely has a job for a lifetime" iman said.

"yup which reminds me, I think we should go out for dinner to celebrate. once jianni gets out of ballet class we can go get her and then get something to eat" julianne suggested.

"I love that idea" iman smiled. "how about dallas bbq's?".

"I love that" roman agreed.

"that's fine with me too, so bbq's it is! let me go put some clothes on" julianne said as she walked out of the living room.

"feels so good to feel like this again" iman smiled, and roman kissed her on the cheek as the two went to get ready to go to bbq's. finally, things were back to normal.

for now...

"find her account then! see if you can find any pictures of all of them together" victor instructed his tech guy who was currently on instagram. they were finding some information on an enemy of his, a big enemy of his.

the tech guy continued to scroll until he came across a post. it was the enemy with his wife and his kid, all smiles in a picture from christmas.

"you wanted to see the wife and daughter?" the tech guy asked him.

"just the daughter" victor said. "I believe she's three or four, she must be in preschool. look up any preschools or elementary schools on the upper side too".

"what are you up to now marshall?" one of the hitmen asked victor.

"just my master plan to get my revenge" victor smirked.

"how am I supposed to know which school the kid goes to?" tech guy wondered.

"wait.... go back to the instagram page, see if the daughter wears a school uniform, see if any pictures are at a school, anything. moms always post their kids' first days of school I know his wife got a post up or something" victor told him.

he did what was told and he continued to scroll until he came across a first day of school post of the daughter in her school uniform from st. ignatius loyala preschool. jackpot, that was the school.

"she gave us everything in one post, what a dummy" victor chuckled. "man, anoa'i really gotta keep a hold onto his bitch".

"wait.... victor you aren't gonna-" the hitman said.

"he should've never killed paul, simple. I wouldn't be after his family if it wasn't for him being a pussy, so now I gotta do something about it" victor said.

"according to the website the school lets out at four" tech guy told him.

"perfect! looks like their daughter will be meeting some new people tomorrow when she gets picked up from school" victor smirked.

"and one of those people will be me".