Namier was quiet for a minute.
"Calm down," he said finally. "Just wait till you get all the facts. Tatti looked real scared in there. Real scared. You need to hear her out before you do something you can't take back."
I didn't respond. Just kept driving.
We were about twenty minutes from the compound when my phone rang.
Judge Atkinson.
I answered.
"Mr. Carter," the judge said, and his voice was different. Not scared. Not careful. Just professional. "I have good news for you. The District Attorney has agreed to file a nolle prosequi, complete dismissal of all charges against your brother. He's being released unconditionally. We'll have the paperworkprocessed within two hours. Tomorrow, the court will issue a formal apology and the DA's office will make a public statement regarding the mishandling of this case."
I couldn't speak.
"Your brother will be a free man," the judge continued. "All charges dropped. Complete exoneration. And Mr. Carter, please forget anything we’ve previously discussed. All this will be fixed.”
I hung up without saying anything. I knew his last sentence meant that he wanted me to lose the file that I had on his triflin ass. None of that shit mattered to me no more.
Zaire was coming home.
I pulled over on the side of the highway and got out of the car. Just stood there for a second, letting it hit me. The weight lifted. The worry about my brother. The pressure of the courtroom. All of it shifted.
I looked up at the sky and let it out. A sound that came from deep in my chest, something between a laugh and a cry and pure relief.
Namier got out and came to stand beside me. He didn't say nothing. Just stood there with me. He’d heard the whole call, and I saw a weight be lifted from him.
We hugged. My little brother and me, standing on the side of the highway, holding onto each other like we'd just won the war.
We got back in the car and I called my mother.
"Zaire is about to be free," I told her. "Case dismissed. All charges dropped. He's walking out within two hours. I told you to let me handle this! You see what I’m saying?”
My mother started crying. I could hear my father in the background. When I told them what happened, he said something I'd never heard before.
"Tell Kaseem I said thank you. Tell him he did good. Tell him he did DAMN GOOD!”
I nodded even though he couldn't see me.
"Meet us at the compound in an hour and we can ride together," I told my mother. Then I hung up.
I looked at Namier.
"We got him back," Namier said.
"Yeah," I said. "We got him back."
But as I pulled back onto the highway, heading home, all I could think about was Tatti. About the little girl in the back room. About the fact that my wife had been lying to me this whole time.
I'd just won the biggest battle of my life.
But it felt like I may have lost everything else in the process.
When I made it to the compound, I saw Kaseem’s truck leaving again. Before coming home, I drove around for a while, tryna get my thoughts together and prepare myself for a talk with him.
I called his phone to ask where he was going now, and he didn’t answer my call. I parked and went into the house.
I was sitting in the office trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say to Kaseem when I noticed the mail had been delivered and was sitting on his desk. One of the staff must had brought it in and left it. I wasn't paying attention to it at first. My mind was still at my aunt's house. Still processing the fact that Kaseem knew about Nariyah now. That everything had exploded.
