“I want y’all to get to know each other. She deserves that?”
“And I didn’t?” he snapped.
“I’m not saying that. I’m just—it was a lot at the time. I didn’t find out until after you broke up with me. By then, I heard you had gone to prison. What did you expect me to do?”
“Expected you to be woman enough to do the right fuckin’ thing and not be selfish. Because of that, I missed out on nine years of her fuckin’ life!”
“You were in prison! You still couldn’t have been in her life.”
“You’on know me like you thought, because there wasn’t a cell in any institution that would’ve kept me from my daughter.”
We stood in silence. The weight between us pressing down like concrete. Finally, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his before unlocking it and handing it to me.
“Put your number in.”
I glanced at him before putting my number in his phone. I closed the contact app and before he could get the phone back; I saw a picture of a girl I saw him with a few times back in the day. She’d gotten a little thicker, but it was her. I think her name was Mel or something like that. What stuck out to me was her exposed very pregnancy belly, with Kilo’s hands resting on it as he hugged from behind. They looked happy. He looked happy.
“You have other kids?” I croaked out. I had no business being jealous, but I was.
“That’s none of your business. I’ll be in touch.” He turned toward Liberty and got eye level with her again. “It was nice meeting you, pretty girl. I gotta work some things out with ya mama, but I promise this won’t be the last time you see me. Aight?” She nodded and gave him a hug before we turned and left. I didn’t expect him to have kids that soon after being out, but I guess he wanted to get it out the way. I guess I couldn’t blame him, but I didn’t have to like it.
5
Chapter Five
Kilo
Mel was in the kitchen, standing by the sink in nothing but one of my tees and a scowl. Sunlight hit her belly just right, making her look like some untouchable goddess. But her mood? Straight war-ready.
“You leavin’ early again?” she asked, not turning around.
“Yeah,” I said, tugging on my hoodie. “Got a few things to handle at D.E. then I gotta go by the dispensary.”
“Every day it’s a few things. You got another bitch up there or something?” She turned, brow cocked, lips tight. “Or is that just where you go to avoid me?”
I paused, locking eyes with her. “Don’t start.”
“Too late. I already feel it. You been somewhere else, Kilo. You here—but you ain’t. You don’t touch me the same. You don’t even look at me the same. What the fuck is going on?”
I stepped forward, voice low. “Don’t talk like I’m neglecting you or some shit. I’m here. I ain’t out fuckin’ around.”
“Then why do I feel like I’m sleeping next to a ghost?” Her voice cracked, just a little. She tried to cover it with attitude, but I knew Mel. Knew that tremble in her throat when she was hurt. “I’m carrying your son, Franklin. And you look at me like I’m in the way.”
“That ain’t true.”
“Then tell me what is!”
She pushed me, her small palms pressed to my chest, full of frustration. I let her.
“I’m tired of playing guessing games with your energy,” she said. “If you tired of me—if you tired ofthis—say that shit.”
I grabbed her wrists gently. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Why not? It feel like I’m holding on to a version of you that ain’t even real no more.” Her voice dropped, soft now. “I’ain asking for perfect. I’m just asking you to stop treating me like I’m a stranger in my own house.”
I stared at her. I wanted to pull her close. To remind her she had no reason to feel that way, because that’s not how I felt. That her voice was the only thing keeping me from drowning some days. But how the fuck could I tell her any of that… when another woman was walking around with a kid that might be mine?
So I leaned in, close enough for our noses to touch.
