“I love you, Mel,” I murmured. “Don’t confuse my silence for distance. I just got some shit I’m tryna sort out right now.”
She looked up at me, eyes wet but fierce. “Then let me help you figure it out.”
I kissed her. Soft at first, but it grew. Her hands fisted in my hoodie, mouth moving with mine like she was trying to pull thetruth out of me with her lips. I let it go there for a minute. Let that fire between us burn hot and fast until I had to pull away.
“I’ll be back later,” I said, brushing my thumb across her cheek.
Mel’s eyes cut sharp, voice low and cold. “Yeah. You better figure your shit out before this silence kills us both.”
I wanted to turn around. Wanted to give her the truth. But the weight of it would wreck everything, and I wasn’t ready to burn down the house I built for a truth I hadn’t confirmed yet. So I swallowed my words and walked out.
***
I walked into Buck’s office and caught him leaned back in his chair, phone pressed to his ear, grinning like the devil in sweats. His feet were kicked up on the edge of the desk, but the second he saw me, his eyes narrowed slightly.
“Nigga just walked in now,” he said into the phone. “Yeah, I’ll call you back. Tell Benny to stop jumpin’ off the fuckin’ counters ’fore I break his legs.”
He hung up, dropped his feet to the floor, and sat forward. “Look who finally decided to bring his ghost ass in.”
“Fuck you, Lincoln,” I muttered, sliding into the nearest seat.
Stacks was already in the corner, flipping through a spreadsheet on his tablet. He looked up and gave me a once-over. “You look like the week been beatin’ yo’ ass.”
“Shit, I feel worse,” I said, rubbing my hand over my head before sliding it down my face. “I’ain slept all fuckin’ week.”
Stacks set the tablet down. “This ’bout Shay?”
“Nah, Liberty.”
Buck leaned back again, eyebrows raised. “The fuck is a liberty? You tryna give an ‘I Have a Dream’ speech or some shit?”
“You one ignorant muthafucka. The fuck you say some shit like that for?” I frowned.
“The fuck was I supposed to say when all you said was Liberty? How the fuck I’m supposed to know what that is,” he snarled.
“Not what…who. Liberty is Shayna’s daughter…my daughter.”
When I revealed that, both of my brothers’ eyes pinned to mine. Theirs filled with questions and mine without any answers.
“The fuck you just say?” Buck spoke.
I told them how Shayna came to my office the next day and had the prettiest little girl with her. As soon as I looked in her face, I knew she belonged to me. I needed time to process the shit and get a DNA test before I said anything to Mel, though.
“Hold up.” Buck pointed at me. “You telling me that bitch showed up here after damn near a decade with a whole kid and just dropped that shit in your lap?”
“Basically.”
Stacks frowned. “You believe her?”
“I mean, she looks like me, but I can’t go off of that alone.”
“So, how you gone handle it?” Stacks asked.
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know. I don’t wanna believe it, but I can’t ignore it either.”
Buck stood up and started pacing the floor like I just said the kid was his. “Man, fuck that. She could’ve sent a letter or reached out to Mama. Hell, she could’ve told one of us. She made that choice, and now she wanna come back and do what? Be a one big fuckin’ happy family?”
Stacks rubbed his beard. “Did you tell Mel?”
