Page 41 of Grand Master

Tone stepped closer, his voice low but steady.

“Listen, Grand… you’ve carried this city on your back longer than anyone should.

You’ve bled for these streets, paid dues nobody else can count.

Don’t you think you’ve earned a day, just one where you let the world spin on its own?

Mira… she’s good for you, man. She’s not just a distraction; she’s a reminder that you’re more than the mess out there.

Your more than playing the hood’s Robin hood,” he chuckled.

Silence pressed between us as I replayed his words in my head then said them aloud.

“The hood’s Robin Hood?” I lifted my brows.

Seconds later we both shared a contagious laugh together.

“Hell yeah, Staress said that shit to me the other night while we were lying in bed together. You always at the top of Grand Corp doing your batman villain brooding shit.” Tone said.

I smirked but didn’t say anything as Tone lit his blunt.

“Yeah, the hood’s Robin Hood.” He chuckled exhaling his blunt.

I raised an eyebrow.

“I mean it…you out here feeding people, giving them jobs that pay more than the average. You save addicts, build programs that help out the poor. You’re keeping kids out the same trap we were raised in. But then in the same breath, you’ll put a bullet between a man’s eyes if he crosses you.”

“That’s balance.” I shrugged.

“That’s what I’m saying…you always toe that line. You build, destroy, rescue, and even ruin… but I gotta say Kenric…sometimes I really see you.” He eyed me seriously.

I looked at him sideways confused by his last set of words.

“You always see me?” I pressed.

“I see you, the version of you that’s not cold twenty-four seven.

I don’t just see the version of you with blood on your hands.

I see the Kenric that walks a strange woman through his lab like she’s royalty.

” He nudged his head in Mira’s direction.

“I see the Kenric that goes off on his free time to feed street kids and make sure that junkies get clean before they get dead.” He looked away from me then continued.

“You good to me, always been good even when you didn’t have to be… Even with the distance that you force between us because you deny the trust you have in me…” His voice cracked.

“Tone—”

“I never felt loved until our pops died…then I met you, you were cold and had your ways, but you never turned your back on me. You made sure I was straight… You never talk about our dad, my mom used to be obsessed with him. She told me her greatest mistake was having me, because once she told him that she was pregnant… he cut her off?—”

“What was your mother’s name?” I asked feeling the hairs on my neck rise.

“Irine.” He offered me knowing sad eyes.

“I used to hate her, she was Pops favorite outside of my momma. I wondered why she disappeared so suddenly.” I said in total shock.

“I wanted you to kidnap her and force her to get clean once you started your operations. I barely could keep up with her, I was always left to fend for myself…so by the time you did start taking muthafuckas, she had already overdosed.” His shoulders dropped in defeat.

“My condolences, that’s something I should have known. I’ve always been closed off to asking you too many questions.” I said feeling fucked up for never really asking Tone about his mom.

I never spoke about my parents like that to Tone, we bonded through the grind of everything I had put in place and left it at that.

“It’s okay, I don’t like talking about her or everything I’ve been through like you don’t…I recently opened up to Staress about it all and it’s been therapeutic for me.” He smiled.

“I opened up to Mira last night…it felt good.” I confessed.

“If you never let yourself breathe, you’ll forget what air tastes like.

Let the others move their pieces. For once, let yourself drift.

Swim. Laugh. Remember why you started fighting in the first place.

Sometimes what the city needs most is to see you being human…

At least that’ll remind everyone, including yourself, that life ain't just about survival. Let her be your peace, even if it’s just for today. ”

I hesitated to respond; the weight of Tone’s words pressed in on me.

He wasn’t wrong, something inside me had shifted, subtle at first, then steady as a new current moving beneath the surface.

Maybe it was Mira, maybe it was the uneasy calm after so many storms, or maybe it was just exhaustion finally cracking my armor.

I forced a weak smile, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Yeah. I’ll try,” I said, though the promise felt foreign in my mouth. Tone nodded once, the kind of gesture that said more than any speech, and turned away, giving me space.

“You ever gonna show her?” He asked, voice low, almost lost to the hush of the room. “The parts of you that’ll make her cower. The darkness you don’t let out unless you have to?” He raised his brows, waiting for my answer.

I let out a slow breath, feeling the weight of the question sink in. The answer was already there, lodged deep where the truth always lived, within me.

“Yeah,” I said, not flinching. “I’ll show her.

Every scar, every shadow. I’m not gonna hide what I am, or what I’ve done.

I won’t change my purpose just to make her comfortable.

If she doesn’t accept me, my impulses…my mood…

I’ll have to control, but I’ve considered having to let her free…

I’ll be a mad man by then.” I looked Tone in the eyes.

His eyes softened, not with pity, but with a kind of respect only another survivor understands.

“That’s the only way, bro. The only way it’s ever real.”

I nodded, the moment stretching between us, heavy but honest. For the first time in a long time, I wondered if maybe…just maybe…showing someone the full weight of your truth could be its own kind of freedom.