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Jada West

For me, it was all about the money It always has been I think it’s in my blood I come from a family of hustlers My moms and my daddy were both hustlers That’s all my mother and father ever talked about Money, et it

They’d known each other all their lives Moms was born six months and one day before daddy They lived next to each other and randmothers were best friends Both my mother and father used to say they don’t reh they never got ether, ere always a family

My daddy was a gambler; that was his hustle That’s how he put food on our table He played poker and blackjack, shot craps, played C-low, but his thing was pool In his day, my daddy could shoot pool with the best of thea can touch me with a stick in my hand”

When I was a kid, he would take oin’ It used to make him madder than hell and he would rant and rave and say, “Swear ’for God, this the last tiot shit to do, ’cuse my French; and if I ever hear you talk like that I’ll beat your little ass But she knohat I gotta do tonight But if she was to coot no money, ould happen?”

“She would lose her o off over the slightest little thing It became kind of a runnin’ joke-us trippin’ on moms trippin’

“You daht she would I can hear her now ‘What you o on down to the rent office and tell ’eot the rent ’cause my man couldn’t find no baby sitter’,” he went on and on But the second he got in that pool room, my daddy was a rock Makin’ shots and takin’ money

My moms used to boost from the mall and commit identity theft with checks and credit cards She would do whatever it took to ot his back, a woot to get what she gotta get to take care of her faive it up for money if she felt she needed to, used to piss my father off But when he had a wo money from, moms wouldn’t say shit For them, it was always about the ettin’ money from, it was always for us We were always a family

But money turned out to be their downfall When I was seventeen, ivin’ hiivin’ it to ht the woman followed him to our apart froun to his head, and kill him

“Daddy, no!” I screa, as the woman looked up at me and ran to her car I wanted to run out there, but I couldn’tabout, but I couldn’t talk All I could do was point out theat my father’s body

“Oh God! God, no!” she yelled and ran out It felt like all the life had been drained from my body He and I were so close And I lovedIt felt like partout there

It still does