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“I didn’t bring my daughter here for you to play house with her.”

“Who says I’m playing?” I cocked my head to the side waiting for her to respond. “You lost the right to try to regulate shit when you kept her from me.”

Silence filled the room as we sat in a stare off.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

I nodded once. “I’ll have the lab send you a time and place. Don’t make me come look for you.”

She said nothing as she stood to leave. I mimicked her motion, but I didn’t offer her any departing words.

***

I didn’t drive straight home after Shayna left.

I couldn’t face Mel after that. My chest felt tight, my head was clouded, and I needed something that wasn’t gonna push me over the edge.

Buck was out the question. He’d have something slick to say, and I’d be liable to snap his damn neck, so I went to Stacks’.

I pulled into his driveway and parked beside his bike.

I knocked on the door and waited for somebody to let me in.

Moments later, Kasha came to the door with a smile on her face.

“Hey, Kilo. What you doing here? Where’s Mel?” she asked.

“She’s at home. I haven’t been home yet.” She gave me a look that didn’t go unnoticed. I followed her into the living room where my nephew was looking at some cartoon on TV.

“Uncle Lo!” Jet’s little loud voice bounced off the walls as he ran into my legs like a linebacker.

I smirked. “Damn, lil’ man. You always wilding, ain’t it?”

Jet grinned, mouth covered in what looked like chocolate. “I fast like Flash!”

I scooped him up and tossed him in the air once before throwing him across my shoulder. He and Benny were some tough ass lil’ boys.. Jace came out the kitchen with his phone in his hand, smiling at whatever was on the screen.

“Wassup, Unc?”

“Wassup, nephew?”

Kasha came walking out the kitchen with a towel in her hand, and her eyes scanning me.

“You good, Franklin?”

I nodded, but it was a lie. “Where yo’ husband?”

“Out back.”

She glanced at Jet, who was now pulling at my hoodie string. “Jet, go with your brother. Uncle Lo has to talk to daddy.”

“Noooo! I wanna stay!” Jet held tighter.

“It’s cool,” I said, adjusting him on my arm. “Let him hang out.”

I stepped out to the backyard, where Stacks was in a hoodie and black joggers, sitting low in one of the patio chairs with a drink in hand and his blunt burning slow.

He didn’t say shit when he saw me. Just tilted his head and gave me the look.

I dropped into the chair beside him, Jet still fidgeting on my lap, and let out a long breath.

“What happened?” he asked as soon as I was seated. I let him know how the conversation went and how she reacted to everything. Of course he had to throw in that Buck was right, but I’ain want to hear that shit.

Stacks scoffed. “She ain’t in no position to make demands. She’s lucky the shit is going this smoothly.”

“She lucky I’ain press her skull into the table,” I muttered.

Stacks looked over at me, eyes calm but alert. “And if the kid yours?”

I didn’t answer right away. Jet was playing with my hands now, unaware of the storm I was sitting in. That innocence hit hard.

“If she mine… I step up. That’s it.”

Stacks nodded. “What about Mel?”

“I’ain telling her ’til I get the test. I already said that.”

“Bro.”

“I know.” I sighed.

Stacks leaned back. “You let this drag too long, and it’s gone blow up in yo’ face. You think she won’t find out? Buck don’t know how to shut the fuck up sometimes. He gone fuck ’round and say the shit and not even realize it.”

“I said I know.”

Jet sneezed in my face and then giggled like it was a joke. I wiped my face with my sleeve and sat Jet down, letting him run toward the door.

“This ain’t some side chick drama. This a whole gah damn human. And I missed her whole fuckin’ life.”

“So now you got a chance to fix it.”

“Yeah, and destroy everything else in the process,” I snapped. “Mel already know something is off. She ain’t said it, but I see it in her face.”

Stacks set the blunt in the ashtray, the tip still smoking.

“She gone be hurt either way. But you gotta choose. Do the shit on yo’ terms or somebody else gone do it for you. That somebody being Shayna.”

I stared at him. “I came here to clear my head. Not to get preached to.”

He smirked. “You came to me. You want Buck or Pops to give it to you instead?”

“Fuck no.”

“Exactly.”

I looked back toward the house. Through the glass, I saw Kasha handing Jet a sippy cup and Jace posted up near the fridge, scrolling his phone.

“You built all that,” I said low.

“Yeah.”

“That shit look peaceful.”

“It is,” he said. “But it came with sacrifice and choices. You gone have that shit, too, bro. Fix yo’ other shit first, though.”

I nodded slowly, like my head had weight.

We sat there for a while, neither of us saying much.

Stacks finally stood and hit my shoulder. “You’ll do what you always do. Handle it.”

I sat there alone, staring at the smoke rising from the ashtray, wondering if handling it would come with a cost I couldn’t afford.

***

I didn’t head home right away. I drove a couple blocks, cut the engine, and just sat there in the silence of my truck, the city low and humming outside the window.

Streetlights buzzed. Headlights passed. But inside my truck, it was still, but my mind was everything but.

I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes.

Liberty.

Even just thinking her name felt strange. Like it didn’t belong in my mouth yet. Like saying it out loud would make it real before I was ready to claim it.

She might be mine…She might not be.

But that kid existed either way. A whole little girl with my blood—or maybe not—walking around while I spent years behind bars thinking the only damage I left behind was scars and burnt bridges.

Shayna kept her from me. And yeah, I was pissed.

Still was. But now? Now I was scared. Scared of what the truth would mean.

Scared of what it could cost me. Scared of the look on Mel’s face when I finally dropped the bomb she didn’t even see coming.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the picture I had Shayna send me.

It was like looking at a smaller, female version of myself with a half-smile that looked too familiar.

I stared at it for what seemed like forever.

Same nose. Same eyes. Same quiet defiance in her stare.

That shit hit deep. I closed my phone and dropped it in my lap.

Mel was waiting for me at home. Probably sitting on the couch in one of my hoodies, eating pickles or something sweet, rubbing her belly like she always did.

And I was about to walk in there with all this shit on my chest.

But not tonight. I didn’t have it in me. Not yet. I turned the key in the ignition, stared through the windshield, and whispered to myself. “Handle it.” Then I drove home slowly, wondering how long I could keep this secret to myself.