“Because I love him,” Aku said, chest rising.
French froze, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Solar looked between them. This needed to happen. Had to happen.
“I love him,” Aku repeated. “And he loves me, and that’s more than enough for me to risk everything.”
“You sound stupid,” French snapped. “Love don’t keep bullets from flyin’, baby girl. You just as dead in love as you are in war.”
“He took a bullet for me, Daddy.”
French’s mouth pressed into a hard line.
“He did his best to protect me while three masked-up niggas pointed guns at our heads. And you mad I brought him somewhere safe?”
“I’m mad you didn’t tell me,” he bit. “I’m mad you snuck my house into this. I’m mad you went behind my back and dragged a war into our peace.”
“He didn’t ask for this!” Aku yelled. “He’s been tryna get out! He made a damn app to help his community. And now he can’t even breathe on his own because some niggas couldn’t let him live past the set!”
Solar stepped forward. “We know, baby.” She looked at her husband. “I knew. She called me from the hospital. I told her bring him.
French snapped his head toward his wife. “You what?!”
“I told her bring him,” Solar repeated. “I ain’t leaving that boy out there either.”
“You been knew this was serious?” he asked, voice sharp. “You kept that from me?”
“Because I knew you’d react like this.” Solar rolled her eyes. “And I was right.”
“Y’all crazy,” he muttered. “He gang-affiliated, got enemies, and now they probably got tabs on this address.”
“So what you want me to do?” Aku stepped in again. “Let the father of my child die?!”
The revelation hit like a gunshot.
French’s jaw locked. His head turned slowly. “Say what, now?” His words came out confused- like he was begging her to repeat it so he could pretend he heard it wrong. But Aku didn’t flinch.
“You heard me.” Aku stepped forward.
“I know you ain’t dumb enough to?—”
“I’m not dumb,” Aku snapped. “I’m pregnant. And I ain’t hiding it, apologizing for it, or changing a damn thing. You don’t gotta like it, but I’m keeping my baby. And I’m keeping my man.”
French stormed across the room, chest heaving, eyes wild. He punched the wall.
The sound cracked through the room like a whip.
Aku jumped, even though she told herself she wouldn’t.
Solar gasped, but didn’t move.
French stood there with his back to them, both hands braced on the wall. His head dropped. His shoulders were shaking. That quiet, unbearable kind of silence only a father knew. The kind that forms when your worst fear comes true. When the truth stares you in the face, your baby girl ain’t your baby anymore.
He didn’t say nothing right away. Didn’t look at her either. But Aku could feel it—his fear, his disappointment, his love all tangled up in a silence so thick it felt like the air shifted.
He had loved her too hard to protect her from everything.
And now she was in too deep.
