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“Listen, Everly, don’t take no mess off my grandson. If he does it again, you come to me and I’ll beat his ass,” Rita said, which made us all laugh.

Voices collided and laughter erupted among the family. While they chatted, Prime jerked his head toward his study. Phone in hand, I got up and followed him.

I’d been surveilling my daughter’s phone usage since I gave her a new phone. Well, I guess she wasn’t my daughter.

But there wasn’t much to see. It should’ve been a red flag all these years to see how few friendships Storie had. There were girls who came to her parties every year but never the same girls. She wasn’t good at maintaining friendships.

There were no messages to anyone on her phone. She watched a lot of TikTok and YouTube videos. She spent time on Discord talking about celebrities and influencers. She read the news, clocking what happened at the casino. We eventually had a talk about it.

To gauge her reaction, I let her know her actions caused all of it. She said the right things. How sorry she was. And how upset she was that she ruined so many people’s lives with her lies. But there was no real emotion behind it.

She was cold. I made it clear people died. Her godmother was dead. And she said she was sorry. But she wasn’t.

“Serenity is thinking about moving back down here and I was thinking she can stay at Rita’s house. She’ll need to clean it out. Quest said he’s fine with it. Just need your approval,” he said.

“I don’t see why not,” I replied.

“You good?”

“Why you ask that?”

“You seem distracted,” he said, eyeing my phone.

“Just Storie.”

“We still on for the accident?” he asked. Prime had agreed to help me stage the accident before Storie hurt someone else we love.

“Yep.”

“I know you feel guilty. She’s a kid.”

“I’d feel worse if she did something to Dream or my baby with Melody.”

“Then we’ll handle it. It’s just… I remember when you brought her home from the hospital. Everyone was so happy. Even Vivica’s mean ass,” he laughed.

“Remember how close she and Vivica were for a bit. Now I understand why. Darkness recognizes darkness,” I replied while shaking my head.

“But I got a few construction companies we can use for finishing up where Harlow Construction stopped. Wolfe Development is my top pick. They came recommended by Creed,” Prime said.

“We gotta vet them hard. We cannot have what happened with Roman and Julian ever again.”

“We’ll make sure they’re clean,” he replied.

After we hashed out some logistics, we went back into the living room. Storie was at school, so I had a couple more hours to run some errands.

“I have to go touch base with Priest,” I said to Melody.

“I’m not ready to leave. I can have Derrick take me home,” she replied.

“Aight. Have fun with the ladies.” I kissed her cheek and made my rounds to the rest of the family. Hug after hug, I appreciated the women and their babies before heading out.

“Aye, make sure she eats something healthy. Veggies and protein. She already had pasta the other night,” I called out over my shoulder.

“Boy, we got her.” Zainab rolled her eyes and rubbed her belly.

I knew they had her. With my family you were always taken care of and loved. I made my way to my truck and headed to the gym.

When I got there, Priest was clapping palms with another patron.