Page 217 of I See You

“And don’t sugar me up with lies. I know you don’t do shit legal.I know you don’t call the cops when you got problems—you handle them.”

Hassan let out a short, humorless chuckle. “One thing I don’t do, Mr. Love, is lie. I’m honest. Brutally.”

Steven watched him closely, saying nothing, so Hassan continued. “Onpaper,Iownacasino.Offtherecord…I’mIce.Iprotectthe people I love by any means necessary. And I do it cold. I do it slow.”

He said it like a statement of fact. Like a man who accepted exactly who he was.

Steven didn’t blink. Just nodded. Respecting the honesty, even if he didn’t like what he heard.

“Is my daughter one of those people you love?”

A small smile tugged at Hassan’s lips. But it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yourdaughterismyheart.She’sthereasonIevenknowwhat love feel like.”

Steven was silent, caught off guard by the rawness in his voice. “Normally,” he started, “I’d tell my daughter to stay far away from men like you. Even though she never listens when I do.”

He paused—but Hassan stepped in, tone even, heart heavy.

“Not to cut you off, Mr. Love, but… I’m not the man your daughter deserves.”

Steven’s eyes narrowed, but he let him speak.

“I hurt her once. And I promised myself if I ever got the chance to save her… I’d let her go. Let her live a life without the shadows I bring.” Hassan’s voice dipped, quiet now. “Hurting her damn near killed me. And I won’t risk doing it again.”

He slid his hands into his pockets, jaw clenched.

“So you don’t gotta give me the ‘if you hurt my daughter, I’ll kill you’ talk. You won’t have to worry about me hurting her again… because once she’s safe, I’m gone.”

The finality in his voice stung worse than any blade.

On the drive to the hospital, he’d made up his mind. No matter how much he loved her, no matter how much she loved him back—he was a threat to her peace. And peace was the one thing she deserved more than anything.

Even if it meant he had to walk away from his.

Steven studied Hassan for a long moment, the quiet between them laced with something unspoken—something familiar.

He recognized the fear in Hassan’s eyes. The kind that came from loving a woman so deeply, it scared the hell out of you. He’d seen it before—in the mirror, decades ago.

Back when he first met Trina, Steven wasn’t the polished, respectable businessman he was now. He was reckless. In the streets. Drowning in demons and surrounded by danger. Trina had been the light in his chaos, the first thing in his life that felt like peace. And just like Hassan now, he tried to protect her by walking away.

Tried. And when he actually did… it broke her. Worse than anything the streets could’ve done to her, he broke her.

Now,lookingatHassan,hesawthesamestormbehindthe eyes. The same torment of loving someone so fiercely, you’d rather disappear than see them hurt. But he also saw something else—what it did to a man when that love was ripped away.

“Look,” Steven finally said, voice calm but firm, “you a grown-ass man. You make your own decisions. I appreciate you considering my daughter’s heart, I really do. But I’m gonna be straight with you…”

He looked Hassan dead in the eye.

“You walk away from her now, that’s gonna hurt her more than anything Braxton ever did.”

Hassan’s brows pulled slightly. He wasn’t expecting that.

“I know my daughter,” Steven went on. “She her mother’s child, through and through. And I been where you at. I tried walking away from Trina too—thought I was protecting her. Thought she’d be safer, better off without me in her life.”

He paused, jaw tightening.

“But all I did was stab her in the heart myself. I didn’t save her—I destroyed her. And when I realized that, when I saw what I did tothe woman who loved me unconditionally… I knew I had to be man enough to stay. To love her right, even if the world around us was wrong.”

Hassan stayed quiet, every word weighing heavy.

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