Page 53 of The Prodigy 2: Rise of a Queen

I picked a blueberry out of my muffin and popped it in my mouth. “I don’t know.”

“I saw the way you looked at her when you came in.”

“I was glad she made it here, that’s all.”

“Because you care about her.”

“I do. But I don’t know if that’s love. Plus, I basically fuck—sorry, Auntie. I basically messed up her life.”

“Doessheknow that? Because she looks at you like you hung the moon.”

I chuckled. “I ain’t never seen that.”

“Okay.” She held up her hands in surrender. “I ain’t gon’ fight you on it.”

“There’s like…I don’t know. A block or something that I can’t get past. I don’t even know if I can love somebody like that. Like my daddy loved my mama.”

Van pursed her lips and looked away.

“What’s that for?”

She took a deep breath and looked down at her plate. She fiddled with her silverware. “Do you know why I never married?”

“No…” I wasn’t sure where this was going, but I was curious.

“Because of your daddy.”

Oh, fuck.

“Wait…you saying y’all—”

“Oh, no! No. No, no, no, God no,” she laughed. “Listen. When your mother met him, I was so jealous. I probably did have a little crush on Lester. Just kid stuff, you know. I think I was fourteen then. She was sixteen. Anyway, he treated her like a queen. So I thought, if that’s what love looks like, sign me up. But over the years, I came to see that there’s no perfection in relationships. And I also saw how much pain my sister went through trying to hold onto that image of perfection. I think…if she was healthier, emotionally, she would have left. But she wasn’t gonna give up, because that would mean losing, and Gab don’t lose. Ever.”

“Trust me, I know. But what did that have to do with you getting married?”

“Well…if a good man like Lester could treat his wife like that, there wasn’t no hope for the rest of them, and I’ll be damned if I’ma let a nig—a man stomp all over my heart. I can do bad by myself.”

“I hear you. I respect it.”

She smiled. “But that doesn’t have to be your story. You understand?”

I nodded.

“Whatever the block is that’s keeping you from being happy, just smash through it and be happy. You deserve that.” She took my hand in hers. “And if you wanna own Midling, do what you gotta do, baby boy. If anybody can finish what your daddy started, it’s you.”

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