Page 104 of Body Language
All white from head to toe, skin glowing like she was lit from within. Her smile was so wide it damn near touched her ears, eyes glistening as she took in the room. You could tell she knew the night was for her, but the way she gasped and put her hand over her chest made it clear she hadn’t expected that much.
The woman worked the room like a champ. Hugging, kissing, laughing, talking her shit to old friends and strangers alike. She stopped to tell one couple they hadn’t aged a day and another that they had, but “in a cute way.”
When she made it to our table, Kendrix pulled her in for a hug. “Where’s Dad?”
She rolled her eyes but grinned. “He’s coming. Had to run to the restroom. You know how men are when they’re tryna makea good impression. He’s probably in there giving himself a pep talk in the mirror.”
Everyone at the table cracked up.
Kendrix leaned closer, his hand brushing against mine under the table. “You good?”
I turned my head toward him. “Yeah,” I said softly. And it was true, or at least it was before my heart started doing that flutter thing. Not because I was nervous, but because it was one of his habits. Always checking on me, even in a room full of people. That kind of care snuck up on you.
Before I could even get lost in that thought, Mama G’s face lit up. “Oh, Kendrix, there he is.”
Kendrix turned in his chair, then stood. “Dad!” he called, his whole face brightening.
I turned too, catching sight of a tall man in a dark suit making his way toward us. Kendrix put his hand at the small of my back as he said, “Dad, this is my girlfriend, Niveah. Niveah, this is my dad.”
“So… we finally meet face-to-face,” he said, his voice deep and familiar in a way that made my skin prickle. “No more over-the-phone conversations.”
I rose to my feet automatically, smiling as I extended my hand…
…and then I saw him.
The smile slid clean off my face. My stomach dropped so fast it felt like the floor gave out under me. I’d know that face anywhere. Even in my worst nightmares, it was there.
My hand, still hanging in the air, trembled. Then I dropped it before he could touch me.
And in that split second, my mind was racing, clawing at memories I’d tried to bury. Memories that had voices. His voice. It couldn’t be the man I’d spoken to over the phone, the one whose laugh I’d gotten used to hearing, the one who’d tradedsarcastic little jabs with me until the line between banter and something warmer blurred. This couldn’t be the same man—God help me—who kept saying he was glad that his son had me in his life.
The table went quiet, confusion thick in the air. My mouth moved, but no words came.
Kendrix stepped closer. “Baby… what’s wrong?”
My chest was tight. I could barely breathe. My voice finally broke through, raw and shaking. “You ruined my life.”
The words were out before I could stop them.
Kendrix’s brows pulled together. “What?”
“You ruined my life,” I said again, louder this time. My voice cracked on the third repeat. “You… ruined my life.”
The man, his father, just stood there, looking at me like he didn’t know me. Like I was crazy. And that look made it worse.
“You ruined my life!” I screamed it and every head in the room turning toward us. Forks clinked against plates. Conversations stopped mid-sentence.
He put his hands up slightly, his voice low, like he was trying to soothe me. “Alright, let’s calm down—”
“Calm down?!” I could taste the blood pounding in my mouth. My vision tunneled. All I could see was red.
He took a step toward me. That was all it took.
Before anyone could register what was happening, I reached down to my thigh, my fingers curling around the cold steel I always kept strapped there.
The rest was a blur… just motion and heat. I lunged, the knife flashing once under the soft lights before it buried into him. I didn’t even think about where it landed. I just kept going and stabbing wherever I could reach, my breath ragged, my hand sure.
The sound of people screaming, chairs scraping the floor, someone shouting “Kendrix!” All of it blurred into thebackground. In that moment, there was no party. No crowd. No music. Just me. Him. And the years of rage that had been waiting for that exact second.
