“Sit down, Mekhi.”
“You killed them.” His voice cracked like glass. “You killed my brother and my sister.”
“Your brother sold my family to a cartel. Your sister kidnapped Mehar. They made their choices. You made yours when you hid them instead of coming to me.”
His knees buckled and he sank back down into the chair. Tears were streaming now. Snot on his lip. He didn’t even bother wiping his face. “Quest, please. We grew up together, man. I didn’t have nothing to do with what they did. I was just trying to protect my family.”
“So was I.”
That shut him up. His mouth opened but there was nothing left to say. He looked at the gun, then at me, then at the phone still glowing on the desk with the last frame of smoke rising from rubble.
“I can’t leave this to chance, Mekhi. I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering if you’re coming back for revenge. I got a woman. I got a daughter fighting for her life in a plastic box. I can’t have this hanging over my family.”
“I wouldn’t come for you. I swear on my mother I would never?—”
The shot was clean. One round. Center of his forehead. His body slumped sideways in the chair, his hands still raised like he was trying to surrender.
I holstered the gun. Stood there for a second in that silence that comes after a gunshot, where everything holds still like the world is deciding whether or not to keep spinning.
A single tear rolled down my face. I didn’t bother wiping it. I just picked up my phone and walked out of the office without looking back.
52
Serenity
I changed my outfit three times before settling on the first one.
I kept it simple with a black wrap skirt and a cream blouse. It was the outfit of a woman who had nothing to hide, even though I’d spent twelve years hiding everything.
Today was my big day. It would determine if I was going to go to trial, or if I could go home and be with my family. And I desperately wanted to be with them. I wanted to nurse Sarai in the comfort of a home that I knew very well. I wanted to see Aziza for the first time. I wanted to cook for Rita. I wanted to see the twins and Yusef. I missed girl time with Mehar and Zainab. And I missed my brothers.
I couldn’t believe this was what it came to. Vivica saved me that night and punished me with it for the rest of her life. Even from the grave, she found a way to make me pay. This bitch was so evil.
I looked at myself in the mirror and barely recognized the woman staring back. Pregnancy had a way of morphing you into someone unrecognizable. The lack of sleep had me looking terrible but I cherished every moment spent with my baby. The pain of not getting rest was temporary.
“You look beautiful.”
Rita’s voice came from the doorway. She was dressed in a navy skirt suit with a string of pearls. She moved into the bathroom and reached up to straighten my collar with steady hands. Justice had come up over a week ago and taken Rita to the doctor. She’s showing early signs of dementia. This shit was so heartbreaking. She was mostly lucid but every once in a while she would revert to a much younger self.
“You’re going to beat this babygirl. You hear me?”
“What if I don’t grandma? What if they indict me and I gotta stay up here on house arrest?”
“Then I’ll be right there with you. But whatever happens in that room, you hold your head up. You understand me?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good. Now let’s go show these people who they’re dealing with.”
• • •
Xander was waiting outside the courthouse when we pulled up.
He was leaning against a black sedan in a charcoal suit with his briefcase in one hand and his phone in the other. He looked up when our car stopped. His face shifted from focused to something warmer when he saw me step out. He pocketed his phone and walked toward us.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like I want to throw up.”
