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If I wanted to, I could’ve let Lakelyn hear and see me too, but I needed that moment to be the right moment. My baby had waited six years for answers. She deserved more than catching a glimpse of me in the middle of somebody else’s panic.

When I finally stood in front of Lakelyn, I wanted there to be no confusion about what she was seeing… or hearing.

No second-guessing.

No wondering if she was tired, dreaming, grieving too hard, or losing her mind.

I wanted her to see me fully, hear my voice clearly, and know without a doubt that I was there because I chose to be.

That moment was going to belong to us… just me and my woman.

Eventually, Lakelyn went inside.

I looked toward the gate.

Yonas’s boxers were still hanging there.

I snapped my fingers.

They floated down into his open suitcase, the lid closed itself, and the bag slid neatly outside the property before the wrought-iron gate shut behind it.

There were no more guests, no more overnight bags, and no more niggas trying to get comfortable in my house. My woman was upstairs, my son was sleeping peacefully down the hall, and everybody who belonged under my roof was finally where they needed to be.

I turned toward the staircase with a satisfied smile. “Now that’s more fucking like it.”

Chapter twenty-four

Lakelyn

Two days before Halloween, Willow had apparently decided she was throwing the mothafuckin party of the century… at least, that was what it looked like from the pictures she had been sending me all day.

There were boxes, decorations, even more boxes, and a chandelier she swore she needed even though the mansion already had enough chandeliers to light up a small country.

I had stopped responding after the fourth picture, but that hadn’t stopped Willow from sending more.

I shook my head, smiling as I pulled out of the Bellmont Medical Center parking lot.

My first few days back at work had gone better than I expected. I had completed orientation and was finally getting back into the swing of things. I was working swing shifts, which gave me some flexibility with Kaidence’s school schedule, and between Granny and Willow being home, I didn’t have to worry about him being alone.

It felt good getting back to something familiar, something I knew how to do, and something that didn’t involve me questioning whether my missing man was secretly living inside the walls of a mansion and terrorizing houseguests in his spare time.

I laughed to myself because, seriously, what the hell had my life become?

A few weeks ago, I had been standing in a grocery store stressing over whether I could afford seventy dollars’ worth of food. Now I had millions of dollars sitting in my bank account, a fully furnished mansion, and a nursing job I technically didn’t need anymore. The difference was that I wanted the job. I loved being a nurse, and I had worked too damn hard for my credentials to let them collect dust just because I suddenly had enough money to sit on my ass for the rest of my life.

Besides, I needed something that belonged to me. I needed to feel like Lakelyn outside of being somebody’s mother, granddaughter, sister, or the woman still trying to figure out what had happened to the love of her life.

The money gave me options I had never had before.

If I wanted to take a day off, I could.

If I wanted to pick up an extra shift because I genuinely felt like working, I could do that too.

For once, my choices weren’t being made by my bank balance, and that felt damn good.

The only thing that had remained a little awkward over the last two days was Yonas.

I had tried calling him several times after he ran out of my house in his boxers, mostly because I wanted to make sure he hadn’t wrecked his car while fleeing the property like Satan himself was chasing him.