I looked away for a moment, letting my gaze move across the yard. “Justice has many faces,” I said.
Treasure stepped closer, and her voice softened even more. “Abeni, you know what I mean. You did what you did because your son was shot and you were furious. I understand that. Any mother would want to burn the world down behind her child, but you are not only a mother. You are a woman with power, and power makes decisions feel easy in the moment, but it makes consequences last longer.”
I held my hands together, my fingers interlocked, my rings catching the fading light.
“You stood in front of Kashmere with a gun pointed at her head,” Treasure continued, her voice still calm even as she spoke about something dark. “You had me deliver her child under threat, and you took that baby when he came into the world. That is not something you can dress up in elegance, and it is not something you can erase because time has passed.”
My throat tightened, but I did not allow my voice to shake. “Do not speak to me as if I don’t understand what I did.”
Treasure nodded, unbothered. “I am speaking to you as your friend, and your sister. I am speaking to you as the one who has held your secrets when your pride would not let you hold them alone.”
Her words cut through me because they were true.
Treasure continued, “You have been holding on to that baby because deep down you are a mother, and you know what it is to lose, and you know what it is to fear loss. You also know thattaking a child from his mother is something that will haunt you, even if you never show it.”
I exhaled slowly. “You assume I am haunted.”
Treasure’s eyes stayed on mine. “You are. It is written all over you, and I can see it because I have known you since we were girls.”
I tried to speak, but for the first time in a long time, words did not come easily.
Treasure’s tone shifted slightly, still gentle, but more direct. “You are so used to ruling with an iron fist that you don’t always notice how heavy your hand can be. You don’t always notice how far you have gone until you are standing alone with the aftermath.”
My jaw tightened slightly, but I didn’t argue, although arguing would have been easier than admitting she was right.
“Pressure survived,” Treasure said. “He healed. He married Pluto. He had more children. The life you were trying to protect continued, and the rage that fueled you then is not the same rage you carry now.”
I swallowed. “You think my rage dissolved.”
“I think your pain changed,” Treasure replied. “I think you were in survival then, and now you are in reflection, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
The word reflection made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t correct her.
Treasure stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I see the real you under all that armor. I have always seen her. You have a good heart, Abeni, but you keep it behind power because power has always protected you.”
I turned my head toward her. “Do not romanticize me. I’m not gentle.”
Treasure’s lips curved into a smile. “No, you are not gentle, but you are not evil either. You are a woman who loves fiercely, and sometimes that love turns into something sharp.”
That sentence sat in my spirit because it felt like the truth I had been avoiding.
Treasure continued, “You know giving Kashmere her child back almost a year later feels insane. You know your pride will scream at you. You know guilt will rise up too, because returning him will feel like surrender, and you don’t surrender.”
My eyes stayed on the flowers, but my mind was not there anymore.
Treasure’s voice softened again. “But you can return him, and if you want to, it will be okay. You can clear your conscience, and you can still be the woman you have always been. Doing the right thing doesn’t make you weak.”
I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “The world would not see it that way.”
“The world doesn’t matter. Not in this.”
I turned to her. “You speak as if it is simple.”
“It is not simple, but it is clear.”
I stared at her, and for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to look conflicted in front of someone. Treasure was the only woman alive who could hold my gaze like that and not fear me, because she loved me more than she feared me.
“What would you have me do?” I asked, my tone calm even as something deep in me trembled.
