Page 45 of The Prodigy

I nodded. “You know what else was weird? He packed up and left. A few years ago, he said he had to get out of Midling.”

“Where’d he go?”

“Tampa.”

“That’s better?”

I chuckled as tears filled my eyes. “Right. It doesn’t make sense.”

“You think your pops had something to do with it?”

“No. I don’t know. I watch a lot ofDateline. I know the husband is usually the one. I can’t see him doing that, but why would he move? The only reason I’m still here is because…what if she came back? What if she showed up on the doorstep and all her family was gone? How would she find us?”

A lone tear streamed down my cheek.

The car came to a stop. Thinking we were home already, I looked up. We were in a Wendy’s parking lot.

“What are we doing here?”

Jakari put the car in park and turned to face me. “I don’t know. Just wanted to pull over and make sure you were okay.” He stared at me intently, like he was trying to read me. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

He was quiet. “When I think about it, I don’t know if it’s better to know. I guess it is. I mean, you still have some hope that she might come back. Is that better? Like, do you prefer that to…dead? Like my pops?”

“I don’t know. I never thought about it.” I wiped my cheek with the back of my hand. “But I do wanna know, one way or the other. If she’s…gone, I’d have to make peace with it, but at least my life would go on.”

“So that’s why you’re keeping yourself stuck here in Midling? Just in case?”

“I guess.”

His eyes fell to my hand like he was thinking about holding it. But he didn’t. “What would you be doing otherwise?” he asked.

“I wanna go to school. And I’d wanna move to a bigger city. Atlanta, or maybe Houston. Maybe even New York,” I said, smiling. “My daddy told me it’s not my burden, but it feels like it is.”

“Shit. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything. Thanks for listening, though.”

He nodded and pulled off.

To take my mind off things, I pulled up Instagram so I could zone out and mindlessly scroll. Instead, I found myself laser focused on some gossip about one of my new family members.

“Uh…wow,” I said. “Did you see this? About Terio?”

“Fuck. What now?”

I stared at the giant headline. “Some stripper is saying he got her pregnant.”

Jakari’s jaw tightened several times before he shook his head. “It’s always something, man. I swear.”

“Maybe she’s lying.”

We eased down the street, past the cars lining the road in front of the house. But amazingly, there was a clear path to the front of the driveway, and Jakari pulled right in and parked next to Gab’s Mercedes.

He cut the car off and looked over at me. His face was tight.

“I gotta go holler at my sister. But listen, when you get inside, make me a plate of whatever my mama cooked. Bring it to me in the room.”

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