“I’m scared,” I admitted.
“I know,” he replied, pulling me into him fully now, his arms wrapping around me as he held me against his chest. “But we’re going to handle this shit. We’re going to get better doctors, the best ones. I know people. We’re not stopping at what they told you. We keep going until we beat this.”
I pressed my face into him, letting the tears fall without holding them back this time.
“We’re going to get through this,” he said again, his hand moving along my back in slow, steady motions. “You hear me? I’m not letting you go.”
And for the first time since I had heard those words spoken to me in the office, I allowed myself to believe, even if just for a moment, that I would not be facing this alone.
All night, while candles burned around us, my husband made the sweetest love to me. There was nothing rushed about the way he moved. Every touch felt intentional, as if he were reminding me of something I had started to forget.
The room stayed quiet except for the soft flicker of the flames and the slow rhythm we created together. Kojo hovered over me, his body strong and grounded, the sheet resting low across his back while his hands moved along my skin with patience.
I held onto him, my hands sliding over his back as he leaned down to me. He kissed along my face, slow and careful, catching the tears I could not hold back. He did not ignore them. He did not rush past them. He kissed me through them, like he was meeting me exactly where I was.
“I love you,” I answered, holding onto him tighter. That was the one thing that had not shifted. That was the one thing that still felt solid.
He moved with me slowly, keeping that connection between us, and when his hands came to my breasts, he did not hesitate or treat me like I was fragile or broken. He held me the same way he always had, firm but gentle, his hands moving with care that felt familiar.
“There is nothing wrong with you,” he said, lifting his head to look at me. His eyes did not waver. “Do you hear me?”
More tears fell, but I nodded. I needed to hear him say it, even if I was still trying to believe it.
“You are still my wife,” he continued. “You are still the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on. That does not change.”
His mouth moved over me again, slower now. He kissed along my chest and over my breasts, taking his time, letting his lips stay there. It did not feel like comfort out of pity. It felt like love. It felt like he was reminding me with every touch that nothing about me had changed in his eyes.
I closed my eyes and let myself feel it. When I wrapped my arms around him again, it was not out of fear.
Kojo stayed with me. He kept his movements slow, his hands returning to me again and again, his mouth finding mine as he kissed me with a quiet intensity that settled something inside me.
“You are not facing this alone,” he said against my lips. “I am right here. I am not going anywhere.”
I felt it in everything he did, in how he held me, how close he kept me, and how he never pulled away.
Time passed without either of us paying attention to it, but it did not matter.
As the night went on, I held onto my husband just as tightly. I loved on him the same way he was loving on me, my hands moving over his back, my lips finding his shoulder and his jaw because even in the middle of everything, I knew this was something I still had.
This was something that had not been taken from me and something, that even now, felt unbreakable.
RENZA MENSAH
The Chop Shop
I ain’t even gon’ lie… the way me and Kelli was around this bitch solvin’ shit, you’d think a nigga done went and got a badge and a pension the way we was crackin’ cases open. The crazy part about it was, none of this shit had nothin’ to do with no law or no rules. This was all family, and when it come to my family, I ain’t play that shit at all.
Everything lined up exactly how we needed it to.
After Kelli tapped into Roderick’s phone and synced that shit up with them burners, it was like we was sittin’ right there in every conversation that crooked muthafucka was havin’. We ain’t have to guess no more. We ain’t have to piece shit together off assumptions. We was watchin’ it happen in real time, readin’ messages that wasn’t meant for nobody but the people involved, and that’s how we found out about Marcus Hale.
Soon as Kelli showed me that name and what he had, I already knew how this shit was gon’ go. Niggas like that alwaysthought they was smarter than everybody else until somebody stepped in front of them that ain’t play by no rules.
Kelli ain’t rush through none of this shit either. That nigga sat there cool as hell with his thumb movin’ over the burners while he texted Marcus from Roderick’s number like it was nothin’. I was watchin’ him the whole time, watchin’ how calm he was while he was basically speakin’ as another man, and I ain’t say shit ’cause I knew to let him cook.
Marcus ain’t question it either, which let me know right there that he was used to takin’ orders from Roderick without thinkin’ twice. Kelli told him the footage needed to be moved ’cause shit was gettin’ hot, and that dumb ass nigga fell right in line, askin’ what the next move was like he ain’t even consider the possibility that somethin’ was off.
Kelli sent that fake location, kept it clean, kept it simple, and we waited.
