Page 127 of Rah

“I’m serious, Solae,” Fabe urged. “It will help your case, but if this gets back to Rah before your trial, she might get too scared to help you.”

“I understand. What’s going on?” I pressed.

He took a deep breath and said, “Rah hit Aaliyah right before you stabbed him. She has pictures and everything. That’s evidence of him being abusive. She’s willing to testify for your defense. You gotta tell your lawyer.”

Of course, I was dumbfounded. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

I hadn’t thought about Aaliyah since the night I got arrested. But I definitely had thought of her while stabbing Rah. Thoughts of her and her baby had swam through my mind along with all of the other things he had put me through. After leaving her house on Christmas day, I had plans to go back to talk to her. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know how long she and Rah had been together. I wanted to know how old her baby was. I then knew that Rah had made me get thatabortion because he already had one more mouth to feed, so that anger had tightened my grip on that knife as well.

But now, I was too consumed with wanting my freedom to care about any of that anymore.

“Wait. Why is she willing to do this for me?”

“Because…I talked her into it.”

“Ooookay.” My confusion came out slow and long. I still didn’t get why Rah’s brother and his side bitch were willing to help me.

“But you cannot say shit to anyone except your lawyer, especially that you heard this from me,” Fabe went on.

“Why? What’s the big deal? She and Rah aren’t together anymore?”

I knew that Essence had just said that Felicia was Rah’s girlfriend now, but it was totally possible that both of those women thought they were his woman, just as they had when he and I were together.

“No, and she’s hiding out from him for a good reason. You can give your lawyer my contact info so that he can talk to her.”

“Damn,” I cursed in shock that Aaliyah had obviously finally gotten some sense. “Okay. Well, tell her that I said thank you so much.”

“I will. Keep your head up, Solae.”

“Thank you, Fabe.”

29

SOLAE

Ihad grown so tired of courtrooms. Every time I stepped into one, the smell made me nauseous. The whole courtroom smelled like old wood and coffee gone stale. It had that dry, recycled air that clung to the back of my throat and made it harder to breathe. My palms were damp, my heart was jittery, and no matter how many times I told myself to breathe, the air still felt trapped in my chest.

Today was the beginning of my trial. We were just waiting on the judge to come in and call things to order. Every tick of the clock stretched like it was trying to choke me. Each second drug me closer to a moment I couldn’t run from.

And then, like I couldn’t have been imagining it, I could smell him. I turned and Priest was sitting in the row behind me.

I blinked twice, sure I was tripping. Out of all the faces I expected to see, his was the last. My stomach knotted up worse than it already was. He watched me like he was telling me without words that he had me, that I wasn’t alone in this.

I turned halfway, whispering sharply, “Why are you here?”

He smiled. “Why wouldn’t I be here?”

Heat burned my face, not the good kind either. Shame crawled all over me. “I don’t want you seeing me like this, Priest.”

“I already see you,” he murmured, low enough for just me. “I see everything. And I’m not leaving.”

I shook my head, feeling my throat getting tighter. “This is humiliating. I don’t want you to hear—”

“Stop. You think a courtroom can make me look at you different? Hell nah. You don’t scare me, and neither does this.”

His words made me dizzy. My nerves had been gnawing me up since dawn, but him being here was a different kind of storm, one that was breaking down walls. I wanted to argue, to make him leave before my lawyer came back and the trial started, but the way his eyes pinned me said he wasn’t going anywhere.