Page 41 of A Kingpin’s Weakness

He followed me up to the house, his footsteps heavy and quiet behind me.

“Why you outside so late?” I asked the moment I stood on the porch with Noah.

“Stormi, it’s summer, give me a break. You outside too.” He teased.

“I’m grown,” I snapped back, trying to keep my cool.

Noah’s friend, Dre, smiled and nodded at Seth like he was some part of the crew now.

“What’s up, Seth? Tell your girl she gotta let me grow up,” Noah joked.

“She gonna baby you forever,” Seth shot back, his tone sharp.

I rolled my eyes, already bracing myself.

“Does Jo have company?” I asked.

“Nope, she’s in the living room, watching TV,” Noah said.

I took a deep breath and pushed open the door, stepping inside. Jo turned her head, her face lighting up when she saw me.

“Stormi,” she said, waving me over like this was our normal greeting.

Her hug was warm, but I couldn’t shake the storm inside me. She hugged Seth too; polite and gentle.

“What got you in such a good mood?” I asked, her eyes soft with concern.

“Nothing,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Just surprised to see you.”

“I’m going to be staying here for the summer,” I said, trying to make it sound casual too, but Seth’s look told me I’d just dropped a bomb on him. Should’ve thought that through before he started pouring shots on the damn yacht.

“Well, I’m gone,” Seth said, his voice tight, bitter. He kissed me, quick and cold, and then was out the door before I could say anything.

I stood there, heart pounding and rage simmering, wishing I could wipe the whole night clean, but knowing I couldn’t.

“He just found out you’ll be staying here and not with him.”

“Yeah.” I kept my voice low, like admitting it out loud might make it all too real.

Jo watched me, her eyes soft but searching.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as I collapsed onto the couch beside her my body heavier than my heart.

This was one of those moments I needed a real mother-daughter talk. But in the past, Jo was either faded out, or wrapped up chasing some man’s attention, leaving me feeling like I was on my own.

“Are you high?” I asked suddenly, eyes narrowing like I wasn’t sure what kind of mess I was walking into.

“No, Stormi.”

My voice cracked, and before I could stop it, the words spilled out like a broken dam. “I think... I think I’m pregnant.”

I leaned in, the tears I’d been holding back for hours breaking loose. My body shook with the weight of it all; the fear, the hope, the anger, the shame.

Jo didn’t say a word at first, just pulled me close, wrapped me tight like she was trying to hold all my broken pieces together.

This was new. I would even say foreign but exactly what I needed in this moment.

For once, it wasn’t about men or distractions.

It was just me and her, and that was all I needed.

“Stormi, no. Don’t do that. Stop cryin’. It’s gonna be alright.”

I shook my head, voice cracking. “Is it really? ‘Cause I don’t feel alright.”

She reached over, grabbed my hand like she was holdin’ on to me and herself. “Yeah, you grown now. You got your own grind, a career, a good man who loves you.”

I laughed bitterly, the pain sharp in my chest. “A good man. The same one I caught tonight, pourin’ drinks down some other chick’s throat. Don’t tell me about good.”

Jo’s eyes darkened, heavy with memories. “Girl, be glad you never caught his dick down another woman’s throat. I got stories, real ones. Some that’d break you if you heard ‘em.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “That’s why I don’t wanna bring a baby into this mess, into a family already broken.”

She softened, her voice low but steady. “Stormi, outta all the bad I did, all the bad done to me, I swear, you came out different. You came out good.”

I looked up, tears spilling down my face. “Why you crying?”

Jo wiped her cheek, voice thick. “’Cause I’m proud.

You ain’t sittin’ here crying ‘cause you’re scared to be a teenage mom or ‘cause some no-good got you pregnant. Nah, you might not have planned this baby, but if I know anything, I know you gon’ be an amazing mom.

You raised yourself and Noah. Just imagine what you gon’ do for your own child.

And that man? He gon’ be there every step. ”

My throat tightened. “Will he, though? They all leave. Every damn time.”

Jo’s eyes locked on mine, fierce and sure. “Nah, baby. The cowards leave. The real men? They stay. They fight. They show up.”

“Was my father a coward?” I asked, my voice breaking, but I needed the truth; no more secrets.

Jo’s hands trembled, twisting the hem of her shirt like she was trying to hold herself together. She wouldn’t look at me.

“Jo, you owe me the truth,” I said, voice shaking but sharp like a knife. “I’m tired of being left in the dark.”

She finally looked up, eyes red, voice barely steady. “You met your father. You just didn’t know.”

I blinked hard, confusion and pain mixing. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?” My heart pounded so loud I thought it might burst.

“The day we took Noah home from the hospital.”

My mind went straight to that man him. The way he called her Jolene like he had some damn claim on her. The coldness in her eyes when she saw him. The way he looked at me, like I was a puzzle piece he never got to fit.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” I almost screamed, standing up, rage fueling me. “You’re so fucking selfish, Jo! You always put yourself first. What about me? What about my life?”

Her voice cracked, almost a whisper, but it hit me harder than any slap. “He raped me, Stormi.”

The words slammed into me like a freight train. I felt my knees weaken. All the anger, confusion, pain flooding in, raw and jagged. I didn’t know whether to hate him or pity her. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream or just break down.

I stared at her, tears blurring my vision. “You should’ve told me. I deserved that much.”

She reached out, voice trembling, “I was scared. I didn’t want you to see me like that… Like... Broken.”

And just like that, all the walls I built around my anger cracked, leaving only the ache of a daughter wanting her mother to be real, flawed, and there.

“He was Sweetie’s boyfriend.”

I stopped in my tracks, eyes wide, heart pounding. “Jo, what?” I asked, moving closer, kneeling beside her. Her hands trembled in her lap, voice barely above a whisper.

“I used to think the drugs helped me escape reality,” she said, voice cracking. “But that day… that day I saw him in the hospital? The drugs didn’t save me. Didn’t save me at all.”

She swallowed hard, blinking back tears. “I’m 46 now, but the moment that man said ‘Jolene,’ I turned back into that scared fourteen-year-old girl.”

I reached out but didn’t touch her, not yet. Her pain was raw, alive.

“Six months… six months he and Sweetie were dating before he came into my room and touched me.”

Her voice broke. “I thought he was the cool stepdad.., the one who’d let me sneak his liquor, finish his joints. I didn’t know... I didn’t know what he really was.”

Tears spilled from her eyes, and my chest tightened with a fierce ache. This wasn’t just Jo telling me a story it was her finally sharing the truth she’d carried alone for years.

I could tell in Jo’s eyes she was thinking about the first night her innocence was taking away from her.

“One night,” Jo’s voice shook as she spoke, “he agreed to watch me while Sweetie and her friends went out. The whole night, he let me drink and smoke. We watched scary movies, and I thought… maybe it was okay.”

She swallowed hard, eyes full of pain. “When I got up to go to bed, he said he’d help me.”

My chest tightened.

“Leon walked me into my room, laid me down, and started to take off my clothes. Like I wasn’t his teenage step daughter but some grown woman he had met in some night club.”

Jo stopped, trembling. “I told him no. I knew it was wrong.”

Her voice cracked. “Just like all the times before when he ‘accidentally’ brushed up against me, or ‘accidentally’ walked in while I was in the bathroom. None of it was an accident.”

She looked me in the eyes, haunted. “That night, he forced himself on me. Didn’t care how much I begged, bled, or cried.”

Jo laughed, but it was broken and bitter, tears spilling over. “The next morning, the moment I saw Sweetie, I told her what happened.”

I held my breath.

“She blamed me,” Jo said, voice raw. “Said I was lying, trying to ruin her relationship. And him… He just stood there and let her scream at me, call me names.”

Her hand reached up, trembling, and touched my cheek like I was the only safe thing left. “That day, I needed my mother. I needed someone to stand up for me.”

Jo’s voice broke, trembling like she was barely holding herself together. “I think that’s the day my heart left my body.”

I felt a cold knot twist in my stomach. The way she said it like a piece of her just shattered and never came back.

“He kept taking advantage of me,” she whispered, voice ragged, “almost every night for two damn years.”

Her eyes were glassy, haunted by memories no one should carry. “Sometimes, I wondered if him and Sweetie even did anything because every night, that man was climbing in my bed.”

Her hand reached out, shaking as it touched my face so soft, so desperate, like I was the only thing holding her steady. I couldn’t stop the tears sliding down my cheeks. “Jo… you didn’t deserve any of that. None of it.”

She gripped my face tighter, as if she needed my strength more than I needed hers. “I’m telling you this because I want you to know I’m not that scared girl anymore. You’re the light I’m holding onto.”

Her pain settled in my chest like a weight, but also this fierce fire took over me. It was a fire to protect her, to protect us both. I wanted to scream at the world for her. For me. And in that raw silence, all I could do was hold her both of us broken, both of us trying to breathe again.

Jo’s voice cracked, heavy with pain. “I was sixteen when I found out I was pregnant with you.”