90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfp8rhV609T
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwKslKkt76E
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOTmBtzFvTG
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡatqmNeiGkn
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOhAePauH5O
I used to ask my mama who my daddy was every birthday.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBPT2Km43UW
She’d always give me the same answer:
“Just a man I left behind to protect you.”
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMxaMrAA5S
I thought she was being dramatic, like most mamas with secrets.
But I never expected that secret to come with bloodstained money, a family with a body count, and a stepmother who looked at me like I was dog shit on her red-bottoms.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YyIypZcJc
Growing up, it was just me and Ma in a little apartment on the west side. She worked double shifts at the hospital, came home smelling like antiseptic and broken dreams. We didn’t have much, but I had love. I had peace.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RqEaxJTPS
What I didn’t have was answers.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuRMNFZBSX
She finally gave me one when I turned 21. No cake. No balloons. Just a name:
Antonio Santiago.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUgcbKjAwR
The Santiago family wasn’t just rich. They were respected. Feared. Untouchable.
And I was his “outside child.”
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGc5WZLfgE
I remember the first time I met him. He walked into the restaurant we agreed on with a black suit and eyes that didn’t blink. Looked me up and down like I was a threat before giving the first nod of approval I ever got from a man.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnQbMKV2aQ
No hug. No smile.
Just,
“You look like her.”
Her being my mother — the one who escaped his world with me in her belly.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fw5WLsSQN
He offered me money that same night. I didn’t take it.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZN61EyZu98
Instead, I took the truth.
And I guess that was enough to get me invited to the house a week later — their house.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7rvcgVd6eb
That mansion felt like a damn museum. Cold floors, colder looks.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUCBmGvBgsC
His wife, Isabel, opened the door herself. She was tall, sharp, and icy — the kind of woman who could break you with a stare. Her lips barely moved when she spoke:
“So you’re her child.”
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXwQCimSPtb
She didn’t invite me in. She stepped aside like I was the smell of something spoiled.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAaoLk2EnGM
Then came the brothers. Seven of them.
Each one worse than the last — tall, tatted, and looking like they ate loyalty for breakfast.
They stood in a line like I was on trial.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwUcXE1shl
“Why she here?” one asked.
“She look soft,” another said.
One didn’t speak at all — just stared at me like I was a chess piece he didn’t trust.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrFM6dt81R
And my daddy?
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyMv1BtWSaP
He sat at the head of a long-ass table like a king judging a stranger’s fate.
“You wanted to know your family,” he said.
“Well. Here we are.”
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87yTgsZ6Ez
That night, I didn’t cry. I drank.
Took a shot of whiskey one of them left on the counter and walked out like I hadn’t been cracked in half.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJA3FeWxHi
But I went back.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHjl7oEqmq
Because even though they didn’t welcome me, I wasn’t some secret they could sweep under a rug. I was Brielle Santiago — the piece of the puzzle they didn’t plan for. And whether they liked it or not, I had his blood, too.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8vn78Xchu
Now I own my own bar. No Chill ATL.
Built it brick by brick with no handouts.
And funny enough, the same streets that raised my brothers — the same ones my daddy ruled — now come through my doors to relax.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUi2cAMvQKa
They don’t know my last name. Don’t know I’m tied to one of the deadliest names in the city.
And maybe it’s better that way.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3dnmjHOLU
Until him.
The man with eyes that make me forget every warning my mama ever whispered.
The man whose touch feels like peace.
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu101u5K0hg
90Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjdGiFaoUQ
→ Request update
and then Add to home screen.