Page 54

. . .

The wheels kissed the runway with a soft bounce, and the jet hummed to a stop.

Aku didn’t move at first. She just waited, knowing on that tarmac was a heart she had to break. French still saw her as his little girl which meant, no man would ever be good enough for her.

The shooting wasn’t going to help her case, but this was life…her life, and Aku felt she had the right to live it however she saw fit.

She sat stiff in the seat beside Malik’s stretcher, her hand still locked in his. Her head had dipped at some point during the flight, but the minute they landed, her eyes opened like they never closed.

Outside, the air was different. Saltier, lusher, and cleaner. Emerald City air always smelled expensive. The doors opened and warm light spilled into the plane.

French and Solar stood at the bottom of the stairs, both dressed like they hadn’t slept but were still trying to pretend they weren’t panicked. Solar had a jacket thrown over a maxi dress and slippers. French had on jeans and a wrinkled shirt with house shoes. Their eyes looked tired too.

The second Aku appeared at the top of the steps, Solar exhaled deeply and stepped forward. French didn’t move.

“Hey, baby,” Solar said, softly. “You alright?”

“No,” Aku’s voice came out flat. “But I’m here.”

The nurse and medic wheeled Malik’s stretcher carefully down the ramp. Solar gasped when she saw him—tubes, wires, bandages, bruises. She blinked quick, covering her mouth. French stared, silent with his face unreadable.

As the staff moved Malik’s stretcher to the ambulance, French glared at Aku like she’d lost her damn mind. “You flew this boy here in the middle of the night without telling nobody?”

“Mama, knew.” Aku squared her shoulders. “But I didn’t have time to ask permission.”

Solar braced herself for the blowup that was waiting to happen.

“Permission?” he repeated. “That’s what we do now? That’s how that nigga got you talking to me now?”

“French,” Solar warned.

“No! Look at him.” He pointed at Malik’s body. “I don’t know what happened but I know this ain’t what I had in mind when I thought about my baby growing up.”

Aku stepped in front of Malik like she was blocking him from the wind. “You never had anything in mind, ‘cause you can’t see past me being a little girl!”

French laughed without humor. “Girl, you just talking...what can you do for him? Tell me…unless you went to medical school without me knowing.”

“Save his life.” Aku hummed her words, tears already brimming in her eyes.

She hated arguing with her Daddy. French had always been smooth and gentle with her.

She followed his rules, kept him in mind whenever she did anything but this time, her heart belonged to Malik and when it came to being by his side, she wasn’t budging.

“Save him,” French scoffed, his bright skin turning red.

Solar stepped between them, hands up. “Not here. Not on this runway. Get in the damn car and let’s take this home.”

Malik’s hospital bed was rolled straight into Aku’s old room—now converted with soft lighting, a recliner, medical equipment, and white sheets tucked tight. The private nurse started checking vitals again, syncing the machines, speaking low into her headset to someone on her team.

French waited until the nurse stepped out, then snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Aku turned around slowly, eyes tired but blazing. “You wanna run that back?”

“You moved a critically wounded man across state lines like that ain’t illegal. You got my wife up in the middle of the night. You got my goddamn blood pressure up?—”

“French—”

“No. Fuck that, Solar. She got this boy bleeding out in the guest room like this is a hospital. And for what?”

“Because I love him,” Aku said, chest rising.

French froze, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Solar looked between them. This needed to happen. Had to happen.

“I love him,” Aku repeated. “And he loves me, and that’s more than enough for me to risk everything.”

“You sound stupid,” French snapped. “Love don’t keep bullets from flyin’, baby girl. You just as dead in love as you are in war.”

“He took a bullet for me, Daddy.”

French’s mouth pressed into a hard line.

“He did his best to protect me while three masked-up niggas pointed guns at our heads. And you mad I brought him somewhere safe?”

“I’m mad you didn’t tell me,” he bit. “I’m mad you snuck my house into this. I’m mad you went behind my back and dragged a war into our peace.”

“He didn’t ask for this!” Aku yelled. “He’s been tryna get out! He made a damn app to help his community. And now he can’t even breathe on his own because some niggas couldn’t let him live past the set!”

Solar stepped forward. “We know, baby.” She looked at her husband. “I knew. She called me from the hospital. I told her bring him.

French snapped his head toward his wife. “You what?!”

“I told her bring him,” Solar repeated. “I ain’t leaving that boy out there either.”

“You been knew this was serious?” he asked, voice sharp. “You kept that from me?”

“Because I knew you’d react like this.” Solar rolled her eyes. “And I was right.”

“Y’all crazy,” he muttered. “He gang-affiliated, got enemies, and now they probably got tabs on this address.”

“So what you want me to do?” Aku stepped in again. “Let the father of my child die?!”

The revelation hit like a gunshot.

French’s jaw locked. His head turned slowly. “Say what, now?” His words came out confused- like he was begging her to repeat it so he could pretend he heard it wrong. But Aku didn’t flinch.

“You heard me.” Aku stepped forward.

“I know you ain’t dumb enough to?—”

“I’m not dumb,” Aku snapped. “I’m pregnant. And I ain’t hiding it, apologizing for it, or changing a damn thing. You don’t gotta like it, but I’m keeping my baby. And I’m keeping my man.”

French stormed across the room, chest heaving, eyes wild. He punched the wall.

The sound cracked through the room like a whip.

Aku jumped, even though she told herself she wouldn’t.

Solar gasped, but didn’t move.

French stood there with his back to them, both hands braced on the wall.

His head dropped. His shoulders were shaking.

That quiet, unbearable kind of silence only a father knew.

The kind that forms when your worst fear comes true.

When the truth stares you in the face, your baby girl ain’t your baby anymore.

He didn’t say nothing right away. Didn’t look at her either. But Aku could feel it—his fear, his disappointment, his love all tangled up in a silence so thick it felt like the air shifted.

He had loved her too hard to protect her from everything.

And now she was in too deep.

Aku’s throat tightened. She’d braced herself for his anger. For his noise. But this… this silence was worse. It made her feel like twelve again. Like she broke something she didn’t know how to fix.

But she wouldn’t take her words back, not even with his love sitting heavy between them. Her truth mattered, too, and she wasn’t letting it die in the name of his fear.

Gently, Solar placed her hand on her husbands’.

“She’s grown now and instead of fussin’ or trying to make her change her mind, why don’t we just show up as her parents like we always have?

We’ve loved her through everything aspect of her life, we can’t leave her in the world alone now.

” She wiped her own face because love was strong and all encompassing.

They had both vowed to love their kids in ways their own parents never showed up for them.

Solar was going to ride with and for her baby, even if it was against the love of her life.

Before French could come back swinging with more words, the bedroom door creaked open.

The nurse poked her head in, brows pulled tight. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but his breathing just changed. We need to adjust his meds and reposition him.”

Aku nodded, moving first. Because whatever the fight was—whatever pain her daddy was carrying, whatever disappointment was choking him up—it didn’t matter in that second.

Malik was still fighting for his life, and she was gonna be right there.

She watched the nurse, willing herself to be strong. When she felt her Daddy’s arms around her, Aku shattered. “I—I’m sorry, daddy but?—”

French shushed her as he gave her the kind of hug that only a father could give. “It’s okay, baby… Daddy’s here.”

“You not mad?”

“Hell yea I am and when that nigga get better, I’m beating his ass again…”

Aku laughed as her body shook from crying.

This was the family she’d grown up in. Her Daddy always had her back even when he didn’t agree. Aku needed that now more than ever. Malik had a long road ahead, which meant so did she. The support of the most important people in her life would be needed now more than ever.

Everything felt…wet.

Not like rain or a bath or even blood, though he figured that’s what it was.

Just wet…Heavy…Thick.

Then there was the hum.

Low, constant,…like a heartbeat not his own.

Malik groaned, or maybe just thought he did. His mouth wouldn’t move. His chest was burning, worse than fire…it felt deep, like his bones were screaming…like his ribs were grinding every time he tried to breathe.

Then he heard her voice.

Soft…shaky…somewhere near his ear.

“…please, God, please. I don’t care what it takes, just let him stay with me.”

Damn…is this a dream?

Malik tried to open his eyes, but his lashes wouldn’t unstick. He tried to move his hand, but it was like he was buried under concrete.

“…you hear me, baby?” He heard her voice again…closer this time. “You stay with me. You fight, you hear me? You ain’t leaving me like this…”

He could smell her. Warmth and skin and that soft-ass lotion she always used after a bath. It wrapped around him, tugged at something deep.

Then—Darkness, then wind…

He was cold. No, not cold - floating.

The hum came back. Clearer this time.

He could feel something beneath him. A slight tremble, a rumble - the air conditioning brushing against his skin.