Chapter 24
Tammy
On the morning Damian moved the first box into our house, he burned toast again.
I stood in the kitchen holding a stack of plates and stared at the smoke.
"You know appliances are not enemies, right?"
He opened a window.
"This toaster has poor character."
"The toaster is innocent."
"That is your opinion."
Kira walked in, looked at the toast, and turned around. "I'm ordering breakfast."
Rico followed with a box marked books and said, "Order extra."
Tone came in behind him carrying absolutely nothing.
"I am here for morale."
Damian looked at him. "Carry a box."
"Morale is invisible labor."
Kira pointed at him. "Carry the box before I make you invisible."
He picked one up.
I laughed so hard I had to set the plates down.
This was life now.
Not quiet all the time.
Not safe in the way people mean when nothing bad can happen.
But full.
Mine.
Ours.
Later, when everyone left and the house finally settled, Damian found me in the bedroom unpacking Evelyn's Bible and Savannah's letter.
He stood at the door.
"Where do you want them?"
I looked at the shelf near the window.
"Together."
He placed them side by side.
Evelyn and Savannah.
Choice and blood.
The women who made sure I lived.
I set the gold queen in front of them.
For a second, I expected to feel sad.
I did.
But I felt something else too.
Peace, maybe.
Not the loud kind.
The kind that comes in small and sits down quietly.
Damian came behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"You okay?"
"No," I said. "But I am happy."
He kissed the side of my head.
"Both can be true."
"Now you're showing off."
"I learned from the best."
I turned in his arms.
"You ready for this?"
"For what?"
"Me. My family. Kira eating all your food. Rico showing up with groceries like we are starving. Tone being Tone. Alana calling at random with case updates. A wedding at a church with blue doors. The whole thing."
He lowered his forehead to mine.
"I asked for you. The whole thing came with you."
"You make that sound easy."
"It won't be."
I smiled.
Honest.
Always better.
He kissed me softly.
Then slower.
The kind of kiss that did not need to prove anything because proof belonged to people who doubted.
I did not doubt him.
Not today.
Not in this room.
His hands held my waist, gentle and sure. Mine moved to his chest, over the place where his heart beat steady beneath my palm.
For once, there was no knock at the door.
No phone ringing.
No voice calling me by the wrong name.
Only Damian.
Only me.
His kiss changed slowly. Soft became hungry. Hungry became patient. Patient became the kind of love that knew exactly where it was going and did not have to rush to get there.
He lifted me onto the bed in the room we had chosen together, in the house that held Evelyn's Bible, Savannah's letter, and every version of me that had survived.
"Good morning, beautiful," he whispered, even though night had already settled outside the window.
I laughed against his mouth. "It is not morning."
"It will be."
And when it came, I woke with sunlight across his chest, his arm around my waist, and no fear waiting on the nightstand.
This time, nothing interrupted us.
I thought about the first morning. The sunlight across his chest. The way he said good morning, beautiful like love could be simple if we let it. Back then, I had no idea what loving Damian King would cost.
Now I knew.
It had cost fear.
Secrets.
Blood.
Silence.
It had cost the lies people built before I was born.
But it had given me truth.
Family.
A mother returned to the light.
A man who learned to build instead of burn.
And myself.
I was Tammy Brooks.
I was Savannah Elaine Vega.
I was Evelyn's daughter.
Savannah's daughter.
Kira's sister.
Rico's family.
Damian King's love.
But more than that, I was my own.
I had been hidden.
I had been hunted.
I had been named by people who thought names could hold me down.
They were wrong.
The queen had come home.
And this time, she stayed standing.