Page 105 of Body Language
Mama G’s scream ripped through the room like glass shattering. She dropped to her knees beside her husband, her white dress instantly stained with the deep red pouring from him. Her hands shook as she tried to press against the wounds, sobbing, her voice cracking, “What did you do? Oh my God, what did you do?!”
Kendrix stood frozen for a moment, his mind refusing to catch up with his eyes. The woman he loved was the one on top of his father with a knife still dripping in my hand. He moved, instinct taking over, but when he grabbed for me, I thrashed so hard that he lost his grip.
He didn’t even realize he’d let me go until I was stumbling backward, chest heaving.
His brothers came running. Kross dropped to their mother’s side, holding her up as she tried to stop the bleeding. Kairo bent over their father, his hands shaking as he applied pressure, his face twisted between rage and fear.
The rest of the room was chaos. Chairs clattering over, glass shattering, heels pounding the floor as people ran screaming for the exit.
Rivah was the first to reach me. She pushed me back, out of the circle of carnage, her own hands streaking with red as she caught me by the arms. Khloe moved slower, her eyes locked on the knife. “Niv,” she said softly, “hand it to me, baby. Just give me the knife.”
My chest was heaving, tears streaming down my face, but my eyes… my eyes were locked onhim.
The man on the floor. The man I’d waited years to see again—not for closure, not for healing, but for this.
My voice shook, but it was steady enough for the whole damn room to hear. “You ruined my life,” I said, voice breaking halfway through. “My mama was gonna get better. She was gonna beat it. She just needed time, not drugs. But you—” My whole body was trembling “—you gave her that shit. You put it in her hand and you smiled about it. She’s been chasing that first high since I was twelve.”
Mama G’s head whipped toward me, her face streaked with tears, her voice almost unrecognizable. “Why would you—why would you do this?!”
Kendrix’s brothers moved like they might rush me. Kairo’s jaw was tight. Kross’s hands were curling into fists. But one look at Kendrix stopped them cold. He wasn’t even speaking, but the warning was in his face—don’t touch her.
My grip on the knife loosened just enough for Khloe to slide it from her fingers. Rivah still had me by the shoulders while I cried with my whole body shaking.
Kendrix wanted to come comfort me. God, he wanted to. I could tell by his body language. But his father was on the floor bleeding out, his mother sobbing into his suit jacket, and the sound of EMTs rushing in was loud enough to drown out every thought in his head.
Security swarmed the room. The EMTs went straight to Kendrix’s father, cutting his shirt away, calling out vitals. Then two uniformed officers moved toward me.
Rivah stepped in front of me instinctively, but they shoved her aside so hard she hit the ground.
It was like the same story I had told Kendrix just weeks ago—the one about my ex, the one about being cornered at sixteen, manhandled like I was the biggest criminal on the block. That memory slammed into me as they grabbed my arms and forced me to the ground, their knees pressing into my back, their hands forcing my wrists behind me.
This time was different, though.
This time, I’d done something. Something bad.
And I didn’t regret a single second of it.
Lying there with my cheek pressed to the cold floor, I could still see him out of the corner of my eye. The man who had played God with my family. The man who destroyed my mother and left her a child to pick up the pieces.
He wasn’t untouchable anymore.
And for the first time in years, that made her feel whole.
27
Kendrix
The police were taking her out.
I couldn’t hear anything. Not the radios, not the sirens outside, not even the gasps and murmurs still floating through the air from the people who’d stayed behind to watch the train wreck unfold.
All I could hear was my own heartbeat in my ears.
I followed behind the cops, every step feeling like my body wasn’t mine. My eyes stayed locked on her. Niv. My Niv.
She wasn’t fighting. Wasn’t yelling anymore. Just crying. The kind of tears that break you from the inside out. And she was looking at me. Like she wanted me to see her. Like she wanted to say she was sorry without having to form the words.
And I got it.
