He kissed me. Deep and desperate and hungry. The kind of kiss that said everything words couldn’t. I love you. I need you. You’re the only good thing in this broken world.
I kissed him back just as hard. Poured everything into it—the fear, the relief, the hope, the grief. All of it.
His hands slid down my body, pulling me closer. I arched into him, needing to feel alive, needing to believe that something good could still exist after everything we’d been through.
“I’m gonna take care of you,” he murmured against my lips. “You and Yusef and this baby. I’m gonna give you everything. I swear to God, Zainab. I’m gonna?—”
A scream.
Blood-curdling. Primal. The scream of a child trapped in a nightmare he couldn’t escape.
“NO! NO! PLEASE! NO!”
Yusef.
We were running before the second scream finished. Down the hall. Through the door. Into the room where our son was thrashing in the bed, tangled in sweat-soaked sheets, screaming like someone was killing him.
“NO! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME! NO!”
I grabbed him. Held him tight against my chest even as he fought me.
“Yusef! Yusef, wake up! It’s Zainab! You’re safe! You’re home!”
His eyes flew open. Wild. Unseeing. For a moment, he didn’t recognize me. Didn’t recognize anything. Just stared at me with the eyes of a boy who had seen something no child should ever see.
Then the screaming stopped.
And the silence that followed was somehow worse.
After we finally got himsettled again, we headed back to our room and plopped on the bed.
“I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” I said as tears raced down my face.
“Creed… My brother Cannon’s brother…”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“His wife is a big time therapist. She helps little boys. I think we should reach out to her,”
“Yeah let’s do that.”
The worst was over but we had a long way to go.
43
ZAINAB
5 MONTHS LATER
I woke up to the feeling of his lips on my thigh.
“Mmm.” I stretched, my eyes still closed, a smile already spreading across my face. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” Prime’s voice was low, rough with sleep and something else. Something more passionate. “Giving my Goddess a proper good morning.”
His mouth trailed higher. Slow. Deliberate. His hands spreading my thighs wider, making room for himself.
“Prime… we have to get ready. The grand opening?—”
