Page 171 of 4 Corinthians

“If you’re going to run-“

“I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I just want to look at you while we talk.” Reluctantly, I let her go, and she got up, leaned against her workstation, and put her hands in her pockets.

“If you were in my situation, would you trust Psalms?” I asked her.

Cori shook her head. “You can't compare the two situations,” she said. “We were victims.”

“And what was Kenbral and me? Willing accomplices?” I asked. I could feel my temper rising. “Is that how you see us? Like we wanted to do that shit?”

“You? No,” she said, shaking her head. “But Kenbral? He went back, right? You said he went back.”

“To protect me!” I told her, standing. “He went back so I wouldn’t have to, just like you would’ve done for Psalms. Like you did for Psalms as a kid? How many times did you fight so Psalms was protected?”

“That was different.”

“The only difference was our ages,” I told her. “You did it as a kid. Kenbral did as an adult.”

She stared at me for a few seconds. Our silence was heavy with anger and fear of what the other person would say. We’d never fought before. At times, we disagreed, but for the most part, there was never a fight. We didn’t do anger. Not that we didn’t get mad, because we did; we just never let it lead our conversations. This was different.

“Okay, Uri,” Cori finally said, nodding. She licked her lips and looked away.

“Cori, Kenbral is-“

“Let it go,” she quickly said, shaking her head. “If you think your brother is a good person, then leave it at that. There is no reason to talk about it further.”

“You’re upset.”

“I’m not,” she said, turning to look at me. Her eyes were guarded. There was no anger in her gaze. Just hesitation. Like she had a secret that she didn’t want me to know. “Tell me what else happened.”

I sat back, wiped my hand over my mouth, then nodded. “Javien Jr. said there’s a video from that night,” I told her. Her left hand started moving in her pocket. She tapped when she was nervous or frustrated. “I plan to go see my brother.”

“You know where he’s at?” she asked.

“Something like that,” I said, nodding. “I’ll be gone for a few days though.”

“That’s fine.”

“I want to talk to the older generation. I was on my way to see Xayne. Please go with me to talk to them. Nine gave me some information that I want to run by you first.”

“Okay.”

“Unc told us that everybody basically knew each other, but what he didn’t say was why they all stopped talking. From what Nine could find, they cut ties with Robert after your parents’ death. I want to know why. I set up the meeting for when I come back.”

Corinthians

It was one thing knowing that the parents of my cousins' friends knew my parents. Being in the same room with them was a totally different experience. I sat next to Uri, watching everyone, looking for that one tell that they were just as fucked up as my parents were. I never found anything. There were a few faces that I’d never seen here too. Tulane Forrester; his daughter was Yale and she’s Amethyst’s best friend. Carmen Carter, her niece, played basketball with Mercy as kids and now plays in the WNBA as well.

After I dropped off Uri at the airport this morning, I called Bradon and told him I wanted to meet with everyone. As much as I wanted Uri around, I needed answers, and I wasn’t going to wait.

“Corinthians?”

I looked up from my hands to see Bradon and the rest of them staring at me. “Yes?”

“We didn’t know,” he said.

“About?” I’d zoned out. I didn’t know what they were talking about.

“The abuse,” he said and nodded. He’d already told me he didn’t know. “None of us knew.”