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“There is something you’re gonna do before this ends, though.”

His expression tightened with uncertainty.

“Face her,” I clarified.

He hesitated.

My voice hardened. “I said face my woman!”

Chalis finally turned toward Lakelyn.

She wasn’t looking at him the way someone looked at an ex they still carried anger for. Whatever attachment she might once have had to that man was gone. All I saw in her face was hurt, disbelief, and the kind of disgust that came when you realized somebody you once cared about had been capable of something far uglier than you ever imagined.

I stepped closer to Chalis. “She spent all this time wondering why I never came back, and yo’ ass knew the entire time.”

He lowered his head.

“And here’s something yo’ dumb ass didn’t even know when you pulled that trigger.” I paused until he brought his attention back to me. “Lakelyn was pregnant… with my son. I’m sure you know that now, though. So yeah, you didn’t just take me from her; you took me from a child I didn’t even know existed yet. My son grew up asking questions his mama couldn’t answer because the one mothafucka who knew the truth was too busy trying to slide back into her life.”

“Man, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me.” I pointed toward Lakelyn. “Apologize to her.”

Chalis swallowed hard before facing her again. “Lakelyn…”

Her face tightened immediately. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking dare stand there and give me some bullshit apology because you’re scared now!”

I stepped aside.

That part belonged to her.

Chalis wiped his face. “I swear I never meant for everything to go this far.”

Lakelyn’s expression changed. “What you expected Chalis?! You shot him… multiple times!”

“I was mad. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted him out the way.”

Something about those words struck her harder than anything else he had said.

“Out the way?” She shrieked, then pulled free of Willow and moved closer. “That man loved me!”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” Her voice cracked, but she kept going. “You don’t know a damn thing about love, because there is no version of loving somebody that ends with you murdering the man she chose just because you couldn’t stand losing!”

Chalis opened his mouth, but she wouldn’t let him interrupt.

“You had the nerve to keep coming around me afterward.” Lakelyn’s voice rose. “You knew he wasn’t coming back because you fuckin’ killed him!”

The words tore out of her so loudly that Willow moved closer again, ready to catch her if she needed it.

“I fucking hate you!” Lakelyn sneered, quieter now but somehow harsher. “I don’t even know what I ever saw in you!”

Chalis finally lifted his head.

I smiled. “Well, damn. Looks like killing me didn’t work out quite how you planned.”

That seemed to break whatever control he had left. He rushed toward the front entrance and grabbed the handle, jerking it hard enough to rattle the door in its frame.