“Noah,” she whispered, brushing my curls back, “I need you to be strong, okay?”
I didn’t answer. I just wrapped my arms around her neck and squeezed as tight as I could.
She pulled me off gently, her eyes already going glossy. “Baby, I’m going to college. I gotta go so I can make a better life for us.”
“But I want you here,” I blurted, lip trembling. “I want you home.”
Stormi dropped her head and took a deep breathe... I didn’t understand it then, but now I know that moment stabbed straight through her.
“I know,” she whispered. “I know you do.” Her voice shook. “But if I don’t leave now, I’ll never get out.”
Behind us, Jo let out a slow, drugged exhale, it filled the room with the reminder that Stormi really was the one raising me. Stormi wiped her eyes fast so I wouldn’t see, but I saw it anyway. I saw everything. She leaned in close, pressing her forehead against mine.
“I’m gonna come back for you,” she murmured. “When I get myself right when I can really take care of you, I’m coming back.”
That promise it planted deep inside my chest, a seed of hope and fear tangled together. She stood, grabbed her duffel, and walked toward the door.
“Stormi, don’t go,” I cried, running after her. “Please!”
She stopped. Her shoulders shook once. Then she turned around, scooping me up into the tightest hug she ever gave me.
“I love you, Noah,” she said, voice breaking. “You hear me? I love you more than anything.”
When she walked out, the door clicked and shut behind her. Jo didn’t even look up. I remember sitting in the hallway afterward, knees pulled to my chest, staring at that door like maybe it would open again if I wished hard enough. But it didn’t. Not that day and not for a long time.
And even though she left for the right reasons, even though she was trying to escape a life that would’ve drowned her, I carried something heavy from that day. This feeling that it was my fault she had to leave me behind. This belief that if I wasn’t so small, so in need, so damn helpless she wouldn’t have had to choose between her future and her baby brother.
That’s why I protect her now. Why I can’t let shit slide. Why Leon gotta pay and why I should’ve been the one to handle Dre.
Because she once walked out that door to save herself and now it’s on me to make sure nobody ever hurts her again. That thought hit me like a punch straight to the gut, and before I knew it, my fingers were wrapped around the door handle. I jerked it, ready to get out, ready to end Leon’s pathetic ass life once and for all.
The shit he did to Jo, the way the aftermath scorched Stormi and me. It stayed burning in my chest like a damn open wound.
I was halfway out of the car when my phone started ringing.
Normally, I’d ignore it. Everybody could wait. But something in the way it rang steady, almost urgent pulled at me. I yanked it out my pocket and answered without even checking the screen.
“Yo,” I said, eyes still locked on Leon’s house. Didn’t recognize the number.
“Noah?” the voice asked. Soft and unsure making sure it was really me on the other line.
I frowned. “Who the fuck wanna know?”
A sigh on the other end came through slow and nervous. Then…….
“It’s me, Noah SR. Your father. I… I got your number from Jo. I hope that’s okay?”
My whole body froze and at that moment all I could hear was my heartbeat trying to beat out of my chest.
“What the fuck you want?” I spat, voice low and tight, full of unsaid anger.
“I know you’re a grown man now,” he said, his voice trembling like he was holding back a whole lifetime of guilt. “And I know it’s late. Too late for me to try and come in and be a father.”
I clenched my jaw so hard I felt something crack in the back of my teeth.
He kept talking like he had to get this out before I hung up.
“But I’m clean now,” he said. “Been clean for a while. And I… I would love to have a conversation with you. If you’d allow me.”
