“To my girl.” I smiled, and I knew it wasn’t a nice smile. “They’re gonna handle this. Not me.”
The color drained from his face. Whatever he’d been expecting—a bullet, a blade, a beating—it wasn’t that. Women. The women he’d wronged. Coming to collect.
“Prime, please?—”
“Sit tight, cousin.” I headed for the door. “They’ll be here soon.”
His screams followed me out of the warehouse, echoing off the concrete walls, fading into the morning air as I walked to my car.
One down. One more conversation to go.
Mehar’s apartmentwas quiet when I knocked.
It took her a minute to answer. When she did, she looked like she’d been through hell—eyes red and puffy, hair thrown up in a messy bun, wearing sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. She’d been crying. Recently.
“Prime?” She blinked at me, confused. “What are you doing here? Is Zainab okay? Did something happen with the babies?”
“Babies are fine. Zainab’s fine.”
Relief washed over her face. “Oh thank God. I’ve been so worried, I couldn’t sleep, and then Thad left last night and I’ve been alone and?—”
“Can I come in?”
Something in my voice made her stop. She searched my face, looking for clues, and whatever she found made her step aside without another word.
I walked into her living room and stood there for a moment, trying to figure out how to say what I needed to say. There was no easy way. No soft landing. I just had to do it.
“Sit down, Mehar.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I know. Sit down anyway.”
She sank onto the couch, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes never leaving my face.
I sat across from her. Took a breath.
“I need to tell you something about Thad. And it’s gonna hurt. But you need to hear it, and I need you to let me finish before you say anything. Can you do that?”
She nodded slowly, her face already crumpling like she knew something terrible was coming.
So I told her.
I told her everything about Zahara and the fact that he had another woman pregnant.
I told her that the man she’d been sleeping next to, the man she thought was her fresh start after Ahmad, was the same man who’d destroyed her family before she even knew he existed.
By the time I finished, she was sobbing. Deep, ugly sobs that shook her whole body. I moved to the couch beside her and pulled her into my arms, letting her cry against my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I’m so sorry, Mehar.”
“How long?” Her voice was muffled against my shirt. “How long have you known?”
“Zainab just told me. She figured it out at the grand opening but she was arrested before she could say anything. She’s been holding onto it ever since.”
“And Thad? Where is he now?”
“I have him.”
