Page 106 of Tangled Hearts
“I wanted my bitch… needed my brother. Want revenge on yo’ fuck ass daddy!” He hollered back, his wide nose flaring and those subtle dimples in his cheeks peeking out every now and then. “You had a baby with my nigga!”
Her eyes turned deadly as an evil laughed cracked through the air. “And you got a whole daughter you never told me about,” she fired back.
Rock’s eyes darted up.
“Yea,” she nodded, connivingly. “You thought I wouldn’t find out?”
He stepped back like the truth hit him square in the mouth. “Shakeisha told you?”
“Nah. The streets talk. Said your little girl got your whole face. Five years old. Born after you went in. Ain’t that a bitch?” Knycole scoffed.
“I ain’t even know about her ‘til after I went in,” he mumbled. “She came to a visit. Said she didn’t wanna keep adding weight to my bid.”
Knycole shook her head slowly. “That’s why I ain’t seen you? You been with your family?”
He snapped. “You had a baby with my fuckin’ brother!” he said again like they were going tit for tat. Like score was being kept when the only revelation should’ve been they were done.Officially.
“Don’t yell at me like I betrayed you,” she stepped up, eyes sharp. “I mourned you. I grieved your ass. And when I finally stopped cryin’? Hov was the only one that picked me up. He ain’t force me into nothing. We built somethin’ real.”
Rock scoffed. “You actin’ like I didn’t lose everything! My life, my freedom, my fuckin’ heart?—”
“You gave that shit away, Rock!” she shouted. “I begged you to be better. To see me. You chose everything else over me.”
They stood toe to toe, breathing hard. Voices jagged.
“You mad I got a family now?” he asked. “Mad I’m tryna be a dad to mine?”
“No,” her voice dropped. “I’m mad you didn’t tell me. I’m mad you let me carry all this weight like I was the only one bleeding.”
“You think it was easy for me?” His voice cracked but Knycole didn’t flinch. Her silence sliced deeper than a scream.
Rock didn’t speak right away. Didn’t trust his voice. He just stood there, blinking against the weight of everything he never had the guts to say when it mattered. And now that it was all laid bare—her hurt, her rage, the wreckage between them—he finally saw it for what it was.
It wasn’t a tragedy.
It was truth.
He loved her. Always would. But love wasn’t the same as home. Not the kind he needed.
He used to think Knycole was his forever because she gave him something he didn’t know how to name. But looking at her now—this version of her that built herself back up from all the times life broke her—he understood. She was light. Discipline.Grace. She made him want to be better even when he couldn’t figure out how.
But Shakeisha was where his soul rested. The one who saw him for exactly what he was. Fractured, flawed, unhealed. And she stayed. Didn’t fold. Didn’t demand he carry his self before he was ready. Shakeisha let him unravel. Held him when he couldn’t hold himself. Gave him space to be angry, to cry, to fail.
Knycole needed a man. Shakeisha made room for the boy still limping inside him.
He wasn’t ashamed of that anymore.
He looked at Knycole with reverence. Respect for everything they were and a quiet understanding of why it had to end.
Knycole shook her head condescendingly when he didn’t say anything. “Pick one.”
“What?”
“Pick. One. Nigga.” She clapped out each word. “Me or your brother?”
“Man, watch out.” Rock shook his head, his chest tight from being put on the spot.
“Nah… pick one. You get one. I’ll give you me if that’s what you want. I can’t promise I’ll be the same naïve girl that let you do whatever as long as you could whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I can’t promise that I won’t be thinking about Hov every time I look at our son. But the floor is yours… pick one.”
