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Caspian

Chalis stood in the middle of my foyer with his attention fixed on the two men lying motionless near the entrance.

His boys weren’t getting up to save him… not a mothafuckin’ one of them.

For a few seconds, he seemed incapable of doing anything except breathe, and even that had become loud and uneven.

I lowered my gun to my side. “What’s wrong, my nigga?”

His eyes bounced from the bodies to the front door before finally landing on me. “Man… what the fuck is this?”

“What you mean?”

“You just…” His voice faded as he motioned toward his friends, apparently unable to finish the sentence.

“Yeah,” I answered calmly. “I did.”

“Nah, man. This shit ain’t real.”

A laugh slipped out of me. “You keep saying that like repeating it enough times is gonna wake yo’ ass up somewhere else.”

Behind me, Willow still had an arm around Lakelyn.

Tears covered my woman’s face, and seeing them pissed me off in a way Chalis would never fully understand.

I hated that she had been forced to witness any of this, but after six years of unanswered questions, there could not be another lie between us. She needed to know that I had never walked away from her, never chosen another life, and never spent a single day somewhere happily pretending she and my child didn’t exist.

I faced Chalis again. “Funny how shit comes back around, ain’t it? Six years ago, you walked into this same house with those same niggas thinking quantity made y’all tough. Now you the only one still standing.”

“Caspian, listen—”

“Nah, nigga. You’ve done enough talking.”

He immediately shut his mouth, and I smiled at how quickly that old arrogance had disappeared.

Six years ago, he had needed an audience for everything. Now the same mothafucka could barely keep his knees from shaking.

“You know what’s crazy?” I asked. “All that shit you did because you couldn’t accept that Lakelyn didn’t want yo’ ass anymore, and you still lost.”

His eyes began watering.

Actual tears.

I gave him a long once-over before turning slightly toward Willow. “Is this nigga crying?”

Willow, still holding Lakelyn close, nodded. “Sure looks like it.”

“Damn.” I returned my attention to Chalis. “Somebody get this mothafucka a tissue.”

“Caspian, please,” Chalis practically begged.

“Please what, nigga?”

“Just let me leave! I swear I’ll go! I won’t bother Lakelyn anymore! I won’t ever come back here!”

I let that sit between us for a moment. “You really think leaving her alone now earns you something?”

He didn’t answer.