Page 39 of Body Language (Mind, Body, & Soul #2)

Everyone at the table cracked up.

Kendrix leaned closer, his hand brushing against mine under the table. “You good?”

I turned my head toward him. “Yeah,” I said softly. And it was true, or at least it was before my heart started doing that flutter thing. Not because I was nervous, but because it was one of his habits. Always checking on me, even in a room full of people. That kind of care snuck up on you.

Before I could even get lost in that thought, Mama G’s face lit up. “Oh, Kendrix, there he is.”

Kendrix turned in his chair, then stood. “Dad!” he called, his whole face brightening.

I turned too, catching sight of a tall man in a dark suit making his way toward us. Kendrix put his hand at the small of my back as he said, “Dad, this is my girlfriend, Niveah. Niveah, this is my dad.”

“So… we finally meet face-to-face,” he said, his voice deep and familiar in a way that made my skin prickle. “No more over-the-phone conversations.”

I rose to my feet automatically, smiling as I extended my hand…

…and then I saw him.

The smile slid clean off my face. My stomach dropped so fast it felt like the floor gave out under me. I’d know that face anywhere. Even in my worst nightmares, it was there.

My hand, still hanging in the air, trembled. Then I dropped it before he could touch me.

And in that split second, my mind was racing, clawing at memories I’d tried to bury.

Memories that had voices. His voice. It couldn’t be the man I’d spoken to over the phone, the one whose laugh I’d gotten used to hearing, the one who’d traded sarcastic little jabs with me until the line between banter and something warmer blurred.

This couldn’t be the same man—God help me—who kept saying he was glad that his son had me in his life.

The table went quiet, confusion thick in the air. My mouth moved, but no words came.

Kendrix stepped closer. “Baby… what’s wrong?”

My chest was tight. I could barely breathe. My voice finally broke through, raw and shaking. “You ruined my life.”

The words were out before I could stop them.

Kendrix’s brows pulled together. “What?”

“You ruined my life,” I said again, louder this time. My voice cracked on the third repeat. “You… ruined my life.”

The man, his father, just stood there, looking at me like he didn’t know me. Like I was crazy. And that look made it worse.

“You ruined my life!” I screamed it and every head in the room turning toward us. Forks clinked against plates. Conversations stopped mid-sentence.

He put his hands up slightly, his voice low, like he was trying to soothe me. “Alright, let’s calm down—”

“Calm down?!” I could taste the blood pounding in my mouth. My vision tunneled. All I could see was red.

He took a step toward me. That was all it took.

Before anyone could register what was happening, I reached down to my thigh, my fingers curling around the cold steel I always kept strapped there.

The rest was a blur… just motion and heat. I lunged, the knife flashing once under the soft lights before it buried into him. I didn’t even think about where it landed. I just kept going and stabbing wherever I could reach, my breath ragged, my hand sure.

The sound of people screaming, chairs scraping the floor, someone shouting “Kendrix!” All of it blurred into the background. In that moment, there was no party. No crowd. No music. Just me. Him. And the years of rage that had been waiting for that exact second.

Mama G’s scream ripped through the room like glass shattering.

She dropped to her knees beside her husband, her white dress instantly stained with the deep red pouring from him.

Her hands shook as she tried to press against the wounds, sobbing, her voice cracking, “What did you do? Oh my God, what did you do?!”

Kendrix stood frozen for a moment, his mind refusing to catch up with his eyes. The woman he loved was the one on top of his father with a knife still dripping in my hand. He moved, instinct taking over, but when he grabbed for me, I thrashed so hard that he lost his grip.

He didn’t even realize he’d let me go until I was stumbling backward, chest heaving.

His brothers came running. Kross dropped to their mother’s side, holding her up as she tried to stop the bleeding. Kairo bent over their father, his hands shaking as he applied pressure, his face twisted between rage and fear.

The rest of the room was chaos. Chairs clattering over, glass shattering, heels pounding the floor as people ran screaming for the exit.

Rivah was the first to reach me. She pushed me back, out of the circle of carnage, her own hands streaking with red as she caught me by the arms. Khloe moved slower, her eyes locked on the knife. “Niv,” she said softly, “hand it to me, baby. Just give me the knife.”

My chest was heaving, tears streaming down my face, but my eyes… my eyes were locked on him .

The man on the floor. The man I’d waited years to see again—not for closure, not for healing, but for this.

My voice shook, but it was steady enough for the whole damn room to hear.

“You ruined my life,” I said, voice breaking halfway through.

“My mama was gonna get better. She was gonna beat it. She just needed time, not drugs. But you—” My whole body was trembling “—you gave her that shit. You put it in her hand and you smiled about it. She’s been chasing that first high since I was twelve. ”

Mama G’s head whipped toward me, her face streaked with tears, her voice almost unrecognizable. “Why would you—why would you do this?!”

Kendrix’s brothers moved like they might rush me. Kairo’s jaw was tight. Kross’s hands were curling into fists. But one look at Kendrix stopped them cold. He wasn’t even speaking, but the warning was in his face— don’t touch her .

My grip on the knife loosened just enough for Khloe to slide it from her fingers. Rivah still had me by the shoulders while I cried with my whole body shaking.

Kendrix wanted to come comfort me. God, he wanted to. I could tell by his body language. But his father was on the floor bleeding out, his mother sobbing into his suit jacket, and the sound of EMTs rushing in was loud enough to drown out every thought in his head.

Security swarmed the room. The EMTs went straight to Kendrix’s father, cutting his shirt away, calling out vitals. Then two uniformed officers moved toward me.

Rivah stepped in front of me instinctively, but they shoved her aside so hard she hit the ground.

It was like the same story I had told Kendrix just weeks ago—the one about my ex, the one about being cornered at sixteen, manhandled like I was the biggest criminal on the block.

That memory slammed into me as they grabbed my arms and forced me to the ground, their knees pressing into my back, their hands forcing my wrists behind me.

This time was different, though.

This time, I’d done something. Something bad.

And I didn’t regret a single second of it.

Lying there with my cheek pressed to the cold floor, I could still see him out of the corner of my eye. The man who had played God with my family. The man who destroyed my mother and left her a child to pick up the pieces.

He wasn’t untouchable anymore.

And for the first time in years, that made her feel whole.