Silence stretched between them, thick but safe.
“I carried my sentence,” Antwan went on. “I paid what the court asked of me. But the law finally did what it was supposed to do. That’s all anyone sees.”
Zaire looked up, eyes glassy. “You lost everything because of me.”
“No,” Antwan corrected firmly. “I lostyears…and I’d give them again if it meant you got to grow up and do all this.” He waved his hands around the estate.
Zaire’s throat closed. Shit was moving too quick for him to witness what was truly happening. He felt like he was in the matrix and nothing was real.
Antwan reached out, gripping the back of his son’s neck, pulling him closer. “You were a child…and you are not carrying this into the rest of your life. I won’t let you.”
Zaire nodded against him, breathing unevenly. Seeing his father as a free man was wild and something he never thought he’d get.
“I’m home now,” Antwan added. “That’s the miracle. Everything else…we leave where it belongs… in the past.”
Across the room, Meadow stood quietly, heart full and aching all at once. She hadn’t freed a man from his past. She’d just given the truth room to stay buried, and love space to breathe. “I was gonna wait…but I think… I think this moment is the perfect time.”
Zaire turned toward her slowly.
She met his eyes, fighting against her smile that was eager to show. “I’m pregnant.” Meadow handed him the test.
Zaire stared at it then at Meadow. “We did that?”
She nodded, tears finally spilling. “Yeah, we did.”
His tatted hand cover his face as more tears pooled in his eyes. “Real shit, we did this?”
Nodding with just as much emotion, Meadow’s head bounced.
“That gahdamn pole,” Lesha teased. “I knew it.”
“Lesha,” Meadow snickered.
Zaire laughed and cried at the same time, pressing his lips to hers, then dropping to his knees in front of her…life couldn’t be this perfect. Not for someone who’d spent so long learning how to brace for impact. The world had taken turns trying to bend him, to sand him down, to remind him where he came from and what it expected of men like him. He’d been pushed, tested, doubted, survived things that were supposed to harden him. And yet here he was—on his knees, undone by joy, holding a woman who chose him fully.
It felt unreal, like happiness was a trick that might disappear the moment he blinked. Still, he stayed there, breathing it in, daring to believe that maybe this was what surviving was for.
Behind them, Antwan and Lesha watched, hands clasped together, tears falling freely.
Zaire wrapped his arms around Meadow’s waist, resting his cheek against her stomach, breathing like he finally understood what peace felt like. Meadow ran her fingers through his hair, heart full to bursting.
“This,” Zaire murmured, “this is the 19th hole.”
She smiled through tears. “The place after everything.”
He nodded. “Where the game ends…and life really starts.”
The end.
