Page 70 of Rose

The pounding at the door jolted her awake, followed by the shrill ring of the doorbell.

Ahzii’s brows knitted—no one should’ve been out here.

The beach house sat in the middle of nowhere, no neighbors for miles.

William had left hours ago and hadn’t come back.

She’d finally drifted off watching reruns of Living Single , her first real sleep in days.

The knocking came again, harder this time, then a woman’s voice rang out. “Ahzii! I know you in there! Your damn bike’s in the driveway!”

Kyre.

Heart thudding, Ahzii pushed herself up too fast, stumbling as the blood rushed to her head.

Her skull still throbbed from crying, and she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She opened the door to find Kyre on the porch, tears streaming, with A’Mazi standing behind her looking like he’d just swallowed a gun barrel.

“What—” Ahzii started, but Kyre crashed into her arms, sobbing.

“Oh my God… you’re okay,” Kyre breathed before jerking back with a frown. “Bitch, I should beat your ass. You had me worried sick all night—had me driving way out here.”

“What the fuck you even doing out here?” A’Mazi demanded, scanning the house like he expected trouble.

“I told you I needed space,” Ahzii said, crossing her arms. “I knew y’all would show up at my place, so I came here instead.” It was half a lie. She wasn’t ready to tell them William was alive. Not when she was still furious they’d let her believe he was gone.

“How’d you even find me?” she asked.

Kyre scoffed. “Bitch, we share locations. Guess your ass forgot to turn it off while you were trying to pull a Houdini.”

Ahzii groaned, rolling her eyes. She’d been so caught up in everything, she hadn’t thought about it.

“Okay, you see I’m fine. Now y’all can go.” She stepped back, motioning to the door.

“I’m not going nowhere until you explain what the fuck is going on,” Kyre shot back. “First you disappear after your showcase, then you drive an hour out of the city. And you thought one text was enough for us to just… understand?”

“Yeah. Usually when someone asks for space, you give it,” Ahzii snapped.

Kyre’s eyes narrowed. “We ain’t never fought a day in our life, but you’re pushing it, Ahzii. What the fuck do you even need space for?”

“Because you two lied to me!” Ahzii’s voice cracked, raw and furious.

“Lied about what?” A’Mazi’s brow furrowed.

“You told me William was dead! That the police couldn’t recover his body.

That you saw him when you pulled me out!

” Her tears came harder, her head pounding.

She’d thought she was cried out, but the flood wouldn’t stop.

“And now you both stand there looking confused like I’m the crazy, grieving bitch.

Ma already told me everything. The only body in that damn house was one of the men who robbed me.

You knew there was a chance William was alive, and you still let me believe he was dead! ”

She was shaking now, every word like glass in her throat, and still they said nothing.

“Ahzii, we didn’t know if William was dead or alive. You can’t blame us for wanting you to move on instead of drowning in maybe ’ s ,” Kyre said.

Ahzii scoffed. “Well, there’s no maybe anymore, because William is still alive. You two are standing in his damn beach house.”

They froze, eyes flicking around like the walls might answer for them.

“I saw that nigga dead, Ahzii,” A’Mazi shot back.

“Well, I don’t know who the fuck you saw, because he’s very much alive. Those ‘visions’ I was having? Not visions. It was him, in the fucking flesh. He told me to come here. William has been living here for a year.”

Shock cracked across both their faces.

“The fuck—” A’Mazi started, but Kyre’s phone cut him off, buzzing in her hand. Sarai’s name flashed on the screen. She answered, putting it on speaker.

“Gold—hey, right now is—”

“It’s… Savior. HE WAS SHOT!” Sarai’s voice was jagged and hysterical, slicing through the air.

Everyone’s stomach dropped, including Ahzii’s.

“What? Is he okay?” Kyre’s voice trembled.

“No… they’re saying he… he might not make it. Did you find Ahzii? She needs to know. My brother might die!” Sarai cried.

Kyre and A’Mazi were already heading for the door. “We found her. But RaiRai, breathe. What happened?” Kyre asked, though her own breath was shallow.

Ahzii didn’t move. Her body stayed frozen, her mind splitting in two. She was furious at Savior… but she’d never wish death on him. No matter what she’d learned, no matter what William told her, her heart still beat for him.

“I can’t—just come. Please. Please bring Ahzii… he needs her,” Sarai pleaded through sobs.

Ahzii’s chest caved at those words. He needs her.

“Ahzii, we have to go!” Kyre barked, snapping her out of the spiral.

William’s voice echoed in her head—saying he couldn’t leave because of Savior. But if Savior was hurt… how could he have been the threat William warned her about? Did William do it?

Still, she needed answers from the Carter family. She needed to know why they did what they did.

“Ahzii!” Kyre’s voice cracked, breaking her out of the storm in her head. “Come on!”

She moved on autopilot, stepping out of the beach house and sliding into A’Mazi’s Charger, leaving her bike in the driveway .

The blackout choking half the city didn’t make things any better. Streets were swallowed in darkness, traffic lights dead, and every block crawled with stalled cars and frustrated drivers. The farther they drove, the louder her thoughts became.

Logic told her she should’ve stayed and waited for William. But her heart—the same heart Savior had shattered and revived—was clawing toward him, refusing to let him die without her there.

Ahzii burst into the hospital, Kyre and A’Mazi right on her heels. Before she could reach the receptionist desk, Olivia and Sin appeared, eyes red and swollen, clear they’d been crying.

The sight made her chest tighten, her own tears threatening. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay?” Her voice trembled, the anger she’d been holding for Savior now drowned by fear.

“We still don’t know,” Olivia said softly. “Ahzii… can we talk outside?”

Ahzii’s eyes narrowed. If Savior had been behind the fire a year ago, Olivia and Sin had blood on their hands too. Olivia had told her before, there was nothing Savior did that she didn’t know about. And Sin? That was his brother.

“Yes,” Ahzii said coldly, “but Kyre and Mazi are coming too.” She wasn’t walking anywhere alone with them.

Her pulse pounded as they stepped outside into the thick hospital air. Surrounded by Carters, she almost regretted leaving the beach house. All she’d wanted was to see if Savior was alive… so she could tell him to stay the hell out of her life forever.

“Ahzii… Savior was shot—” Olivia began.

“I know,” Ahzii snapped. “Isn’t that why we’re all here?”

“Yeah, but… did you have something to do with it?”

Her whole body went still before her head whipped toward Olivia.

“Why the fuck would I have anything to do with Savior getting shot? Oh, wait—let me guess. You think I did it to get back at him and your unhinged-ass Carter family for shooting my husband, me, and burning us alive in that house. I lost my daughter because of him!”

Both Kyre and A’Mazi froze at her words.

“It wasn’t because of him,” Sincere said quietly.

Her glare cut to him like a blade.

“It was because of me.”

A’Mazi’s head turned slowly, eyes locking on his best friend with a look that could kill. “The fuck you mean?”

Sincere’s jaw worked, shame in his eyes.

“A man named Lazarus caused a terrorist attack—killed thousands, including kids—at a charity event in Atlanta. He moved to Miami, changed his identity, started over. We were hired to kill him. Savior had me running point. But I didn’t know he had a wife… named Jane Doe.”

Everyone looked at him like he’d spoken another language.

“Who the fuck is Jane Doe? And Lazarus?” Ahzii’s voice cracked with anger. “Last I checked, my birth certificate says Ahzii Rose and my husband’s name is William Davis . So what the hell does that have to do with me?”

Olivia’s expression softened, almost pitying. “Oh… you didn’t know.”

Ahzii’s voice shook as her tears finally broke.

“Olivia, I’ve had a confusing couple of days.

I found out my husband is alive. I found out the man I fell in love with—so fucking deeply—is responsible for putting my daughter in the ground.

That same man is lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life, and instead of being on a plane to Bali with my dead-alive husband , I’m here…

checking on the man who patched my scars just to be the reason I have them.

“And I can’t for the life of me figure out why I still came here. So please…” she stepped forward, eyes locked on Olivia’s, “enlighten me on what the fuck else I’m supposed to know.”

“Your husband is not who he portrayed to be,” Olivia began.

Ahzii froze. She was exhausted, exhausted from the secrets, the lies, and the way every person seemed to have a different version of the truth.

“Let me guess…” she said bitterly. “He’s a serial killer who murders old people and keeps their pets as souvenirs.”

Kyre and A’Mazi turned to her like she’d lost her mind, but Olivia didn’t flinch.

“Not a serial killer,” she replied evenly, “but a terrorist… yes.”

Ahzii blinked, stunned. “What?”

Olivia’s voice didn’t waver as she laid it out. “Lazarus is William Davis, your husband.”

The words punched the air from Ahzii’s lungs.

“And you,” Sincere added quietly, “are Jane Doe.”

Her chest tightened as Olivia pulled up proof on her phone—legal documents, news articles, even a picture of William as Lazarus from four years ago.

Ahzii’s hands trembled. William had lied to her for years. The man who’d walked into her shop, made her fall in love, marry him, carry his child… had been living an entirely different life. The wrong man she’d fallen for hadn’t been Savior, it was William.