Read All Or Nothing for Free Online Page A

sentenced to life imprisonment.
    There was one person in the world who didn’t feel sorry for Reggie. That was his sister, Shantell. She thought that her brother had gotten what he deserved. She called it karma. She was glad he was gone; maybe now she could get her life on track.
    In the months that followed her brother’s arrest, Shantell discovered she was pregnant. The fact that she was going to be teenage mom didn’t even worry her. She always wanted to have something or someone to love unconditionally; now she would have that in the form of a child.
    Of all the young lives that were forever altered by circumstances beyond their control in Piedmont Courts, none would change more drastically than Shantell Bryant’s.
----
Chapter 3
    You’re a big girl now
    The warm spring sunlight felt good against Shantell’s skin. It was a picture perfect day in Charlotte, North Carolina. The nice weather wasn’t what brought her outside on this day. The reason she was out at mid-day was opportunity. She desperately needed the opportunity to make some quick money. Even more so, Shantell needed the opportunity to provide for her infant daughter.
    It was no secret in Piedmont Courts that Shantell was damaged goods. She had been around the block more than a few times. So any questions of paternity were bound to invoke anger from any suspecting male. They all claimed, “It ain’t mine.” Another favorite was, “What you telling me for?” Shantell contacted guy after guy, but no one would man up. Some guys even went so far as to threaten to do bodily harm to her. Nobody wanted their reputation tarnished by having a baby by a hoe or a freak.
    The entire ordeal was enough to break Shantell’s spirits, yet she refused to fold. If no one would own up to being her child’s father, then she wouldn’t make them. She wouldn’t take a bunch of dude’s downtown to the white man just to figure out the paternity. She wasn’t about to bring three or four possible baby daddies on a talk show, either, only to hear” You are not the father!” No, Shantell would spare herself any further embarrassment. From here on out, this was between her, Jordan and God.
----
    Shantell decided to put an “H” on her chest and handle it. She would be both the child’s mother and father. She would show these niggers that she was more of a man than they would ever be. Fuck them all, she thought.
    the interim, Shantell went downtown to the welfare agency, applied for and received public assistance. She applied for Section Eight, low-income housing and was placed on a waiting list. Shantell applied for the works; whatever she could get, she was going to get. Still, she wouldn’t sit back and depend on the government to take care of her child. Shantell was about to take matters into her own hands.
    The birth of her daughter had succeeded in doing one thing, if nothing else: it succeeded in getting Shantell to become more serious and more focused about life. She had no choice but to get out and get it. Life had never given Shantell Bryant anything except the blues, so she didn’t expect anything from it to now.
    The birth of her new baby, Jordan, had given Shantell a set of newfound responsibilities. Babies had needs and those needs had to be met.
    The Club Champagne was located on Atando Avenue, just off North Tryon Street. It was housed in an average-sized, pale white, non-descript building. Nothing about the place suggested luxury; by no means was this place classy or upscale. On the contrary, it was as hood as it gets. Still, it was a hotspot, renowned throughout the city. It was a known fact that any stripper that was about anything danced here at one time or another.
    Shantell stood against the powder white wall, relaxing. She wasn’t too concerned with getting dirty. She was just trying to stay out of the sun. Periodically, Shantell checked her wrist watch; she anxiously awaited the club’s manager, Tommy. She wanted to get this over and done with.