“Ken, I love you, but you’re wrong for this. The second you found out, you should’ve been on the phone.”
“Paige.”
“Don’t Paige me. Y’all are both people I care about. But someone is going to get hurt with this lack of communication.”
“Paige is harsh, but she’s right. You say you want love,” Isha said. “But you don’t sit still long enough to recognize it.
“Who said anything about love?”
“Ken,” she said. “You’ll leave the minute a new opportunity calls.”
“What’s your point?” Kennedi’s voice was changing. She hadn’t come here for everyone’s opinion and judgment.
“The point is, what’s going to happen now? Because you and I know damn well he ain’t about to disappear when he finds out about this baby.”
“I know,” Kennedi whispered.
Carmen leaned forward, voice gentle. “What are you scared of, Ken? That he won’t want the baby? Or that he will?”
“Both,” Kennedi admitted. “I’m scared he’ll want everything — marriage, forever, the whole thing. And on the other hand, he may want to call me every name in the book and hate me.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Isha said quietly.
“He’s a gentle giant,” Paige added.
“And he’s probably still grieving the loss of his grandma,” Carmen threw in. “She passed right before the LA trip. You really think he’s gonna be mad about a baby? That man is raising his niece while his brother is locked up. Family means everything to him.”
Kennedi’s breath caught. Her hand stilled on her water glass.
“Wait. What?” Her voice came out smaller than she intended. “His grandmother died? His brother is in prison?”
The table went quiet. Paige’s face shifted, realizing Kennedi didn’t know.
“You didn’t know?” Shadow asked carefully.
Kennedi shook her head slowly. She should’ve known that. The fact that she didn’t said everything about how she’d handled the last few months. “No. He didn’t… we didn’t talk about that.”
Carmen’s expression softened. “Ken, his grandma passed away two weeks before the premiere. And his brother Robin’s been locked up for a minute. That’s why Rolani has Monroe full-time.”
The information caused her body to seize. He had been grieving, having lost his grandmother and raising his niece alone while his brother was in prison. Her stomach dropped, and her throat burned. Kennedi had been so wrapped up in protecting herself that she hadn’t considered what he might’ve been carrying.
And now she was carrying his baby, and he still didn’t know.
“I really fucked this up,” she whispered.
“You didn’t know,” Isha said gently. “But now you do. And that’s even more reason to tell him, Ken. He deserves to know.”
Shadow nodded. “Facts. And knowing him, he’s gonna want to be there for everything.”
“I love how y’all conveniently left this out of the group chat,” Kennedi said, voice tight. “If I’d known all that, I would’ve?—”
“Would’ve what?” Shadow cut in, unapologetic. “Not slept with him? Girl, please. You needed to live a little.”
“Oh, she lived, it seems,” Isha added, lightening the tension at the table.
“Nobody told you to go get pregnant, sis. We weren’t about to block that blessing because a nigga was grieving. Niggas grieve every day, B. Don’t expect an apology from me.”
Carmen leaned forward. “But maybe it was meant to be. You’ve been alone a long time, sis. And sometimes love doesn’t come how you expect. Sounds like y’all both needed each other that night. Maybe more than you realized.”
