Page 107 of Tangled Hearts
The knot they’d weaved so flawlessly was starting to unravel.
It wasn’t sudden either. This was a lifetime in the making. It was the slow kind of break that happened when two people pulled in opposite directions, hoping the rope would stretch but never snap. Every memory they shared, every secret, every moment of loyalty was tangled up in that knot.
For years, it held them together through pain, betrayal, want, and need. But now, the threads were loosening. The trust thatonce tightened them was thinning. The love that once made them ignore the mess was no longer enough to hold weight.
Knycole could feel it in her chest. The relief and the ache of it coming undone. Rock felt it too, even if he tried to hide it. They weren’t enemies, but they weren’t what they used to be either. The unraveling was proof that some bonds weren’t meant to stay forever, no matter how much history is tied up in them.
“I ain’t come here to argue with you,” Rock said once her anger had simmered.
“Then what did you come for? I’m giving you a choice. I’ll rock with whatever you decide but I will never be okay with you bringing harm to Nick. That’s my father and no matter how flawed he is, I love him and need him.”
“So, what you saying?”
“I’m saying, me or Hov but it can never be Nick.” Knycole gulped, scared at what Rock’s decision was going to be.
“Come on, Knyc… you ain’t giving it up like that,” he smirked, pulling her card.
Knycole held her hand out flashing the beautiful queen chess piece on her hand. “I keep telling you, I’m not the same little girl, Rock. I own these streets too… been crowned and I will do what needs to be done if you step to Nick. I will call the dogs on you and they won’t stop until your blood is on their hands. Don’t let me being a college girl fool you.”
His eyes turned into slits. “Don’t threaten me.”
“I don’t want to. I love you so much that it’ll kill me to do it but make no mistake, I will do it and go to class the next day.” Knycole was serious. So serious that it scared her.
Even when he wanted to be mad, he couldn’t. Knycole was in his heart too deep. It angered him a little knowing she knew that too. “Com’ere.” he pulled her into his arms. “That nigga really got you out here with matching tatts and claiming to own the streets. What did he do to my little Knyc?”
“He loved me… protected me.” Her words sliced him, but Rock wasn’t going to show it.
Still, she folded in his arms, inhaling his cologne.
“I’ll always love you. You know that right?” Rock rocked their bodies side to side.
Knycole nodded. “I’ll always love you too, Rock but I done fucked up bad and although I don’t regret anything I’ve done… I regret driving a wedge between you and Hov. He’s going to need someone to lean on now that I’m out of the picture.”
“You dumped that nigga too?”
She laughed. “Yep.”
He squeezed her tighter. “You and Noir got some shit with y’all,” Rock laughed.
“I know,” she whined.
“You right, though,” he said, circling back to what she said a few minutes ago. “You mourned me. You built somethin’ without me. And I hated that shit… but I get it now. I really do.”
Knycole didn’t say anything, just let him talk.
“I loved you, Knyc,” he went on. “But you was always too soft for me. Delicate. I ain’t know how to meet you where you was at… and I ain’t gon’ lie—being with Shakeisha… that shit just feels safe. And I ain’t saying she’s tough like that.” He flipped his locks out of his face. “She just matches me. I hear her when she talks, yells, screams, cries. I want her to be soft… I want to give her a softer life because she deserves that.”
He paused, clearing the grit in his throat. “With you, I had to be somebody I hadn’t grown into yet.”
Knycole’s jaw ticked. She wasn’t mad, just processing.
“So yea,” he shrugged. “I should’ve told you about my daughter. I should’ve told you everything. But I think a part of me always knew, we wasn’t endgame. We was the lesson.”
They both sat down on the curb, the night air cool against their skin. For a long while, they didn’t speak. Just listened to the faint hum of crickets and the occasional car rolling past.
They could sit in the silence forever. Even when the words and thoughts in their minds were anything but quiet.
“You know she came to see me while I was locked up?” Rock’s voice finally broke through the quiet.
