He looked at me like I was sayin’ somethin’ crazy. “You hear yourself right now?”
“I’m dead serious,” I snapped. “’Cause that’s what it feel like. Everything is about her and what you want, and I’m just sittin’ here like I don’t got no say in shit. Like I’m a fuckin’ surrogate for YOUR child.”
He shook his head, draggin’ his hand down his face like he was losin’ patience. “Man, gone ’head with that bullshit,” he muttered under his breath.
That made my eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he replied, lookin’ back at me. “I’m tired of goin’ in circles with you about this shit.”
“And I’m tired of you actin’ like you the only one allowed to do somethin’ when it come to protectin’ family!” I shot back. “You done shot, killed, did whatever the fuck you wanted to do, but the minute I do it, now I’m the problem?”
“I told you already,” he said, his tone sharper. “It’s not what you did, it’s when the fuck you did it. You eight months pregnant, Toni.”
“And?” I snapped. “That don’t make me weak!”
“I ain’t say it did,” he replied. “But it means you got more to lose than just yourself now, and you movin’ like that shit don’t matter.”
“It do matter!” I yelled. “That’s why I did what the fuck I did!”
“And look where the fuck it got us!” he shot back, his voice raisin’ just enough to cut through mine.
The room went quiet for a second after that, but it wasn’t a calm quiet. It was heavy, dark, nasty, tense, and sittin’ right between us like neither of us was willin’ to back down.
“Argue by ya fuckin’ self, Toni,” he said without lookin’ back as he walked toward the door. “I’m done.”
My heart almost gave out ’cause ’Lo had never told me he was… done. “And what you mean you done?”
He paused at the door, his hand on the handle. “I’m done tryna be perfect for you,” he said. “After the baby come, some shit gon’ have to change.”
I swallowed, feelin’ my chest rise and fall while I looked at him. Even though I was mad, there was still somethin’ else sittin’ under that.
“If I leave after I give birth…” I said slow, my voice lower now but still carryin’ weight, “just know I’m takin’ my baby with me.”
That made him pause…
He turned his head and looked back at me over his shoulder, his expression shiftin’ just enough for me to see it.
“Try that shit if you want to,” he said, his voice dangerous in a way that made my stomach drop, “and we both gon’ fuck around and find out.”
A chill ran through me, but I ain’t let it show.
I just looked at him with my jaw tight, standin’ on what I said, even though my heart felt like it was cavin’ in at the same time.
He held my gaze for a second longer like he was makin’ sure I understood exactly what he meant, then he turned back toward the door like he was really done this time.
Before I could respond, he opened the door fully and walked out, slammin’ it behind him hard enough to make me flinch.
The room went quiet again, but it didn’t feel the same, and for the first time since all this shit started, it felt like I wasn’t just fightin’ with Kay’Lo…
It felt like I was losin’ him.
The Royal House of Grace
As I stood over my baby girl’s casket with her body resting peacefully in it, I gripped my wife’s hand tighter, not because I thought it would ease anything between us, but because it was the only thing keeping me grounded while everything inside me kept trying to come apart. The pressure in my chest kept building in waves, like something inside me was pushing against bone, trying to break free. The only thing stopping it from happening right in that moment was the simple fact that I refused to fall apart in front of a room full of people who could never understand what it felt like to stand where I was standing.
Echo looked… beautiful.
That was the part that didn’t sit right with me, and it never would, because there was a calmness on her face that I hadnot seen in months, since before everything started unraveling around our family. Her skin carried a soft glow under the lights, her makeup was done just enough to highlight her natural features without taking away from who she was, and her hair lay perfectly around her shoulders like she was about to open her eyes and complain about how long this service was taking. It looked wrong… all of it looked wrong, because she looked like herself, and not like someone who was supposed to be buried.
