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Kaidence started laughing. “Because!”

“Because what? My head ain’t that damn big.”

“Yes, it is!”

I shook my head and pointed toward the woman. “Alright. Who this?”

“Mommy.”

“And this little handsome nigga right here?”

“Me!”

“That you?”

“Yeah!”

I smiled, but then my attention moved to the fourth person.

The little girl.

At least I assumed she was a girl from the huge pink bow he had drawn on top of her head.

“Who this right here?”

Kaidence studied the picture. “My baby sister.”

I paused. “Your what?”

“My baby sister.”

I looked at him. “You got a baby sister?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Then who she belong to?”

He laughed. “Nobody!”

“Then why she in the picture?”

“Because I want one.”

That shut me up.

Kaidence traced one finger over the little girl he had drawn. “I don’t know if I’m ever gonna get one, though.”

Something about the way he said that shit bothered me… not because he wanted a sister, but because he sounded like he had already accepted that he might never have one.

I studied the picture again.

Me, Lakelyn, Kaidence, and the little girl he wished he had.

That should’ve been my family already.

If life had gone the way I planned, Lakelyn would’ve been my fucking wife years ago. Kaidence would’ve grown up knowing exactly who his daddy was, and hell, she probably would’ve had two or three more of my babies by now. I would’ve been there for all of it, every pregnancy, every appointment, every late-night craving, every first step, every first word… every fucking thing.

Instead, somebody had decided my life was theirs to take, and my family had been paying for that decision ever since.