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She nodded, fresh tears slipping down her cheeks.

"Five and a half months."

"FIVE AND A HALF—"

I stopped, looking between her and Malachi.

He held both hands up.

"Don't look at me! I just found her ass in a grocery store!"

I turned back to Jru, overwhelmed by everything hitting me at once. She was pregnant. She'd been gone all this time, carrying a baby without any of us knowing.

I reached for her hand, pulling her closer.

"Girl, we got so much to talk about."

"I know," she whispered, squeezing my fingers.

Yara had been watching us from the foot of the bed when her expression suddenly changed.

"Oh, fuck."

Malachi glanced at her. "What?"

"Ezra. I forgot that nigga said he was coming up here."

The smile disappeared from Malachi's face.

Before he could respond, the door opened.

And Ezra King walked in.

Chapter 25

“Malachi, bruh, why the fuck you ain't answering your—”

The rest of my sentence died in my throat.

For a second, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. It wouldn't have been the first time. Six months of looking for the same woman had gotten me to the point where I'd catch a glimpse of somebody with a similar hairstyle or a familiar walk and damn near break my neck trying to see her face.

But this wasn't some stranger walking down the street.

This was Jru.

My Jru.

Standing beside my sister-in-law's hospital bed, wearing a cream-colored cardigan over a fitted black dress, her glasses sitting on that pretty little nose I'd kissed more times than I could count.

And she was pregnant.

My eyes dropped to the unmistakable curve of her stomach, and something inside my chest shifted so violently I forgot how to breathe.

What the fuck?

The room went quiet around me. Malachi stood beside Ashlynn's bed with one hand resting against her shoulder, while Yara watched me from the opposite side. Nobody said a word.

Jru's eyes met mine.