Chapter 57
Yuna
TWO WEEKS LATER…
“Your Past Don’t Stay Buried”
Vivi’s congratulations gift came in a white box and a smirk.
A brand new iPhone.
Pretty. Sleek. Pink. All mine.
Or at least that’s what she wanted it to look like.
I remembered when she handed it to me like she was giving me freedom, then said, “Congratulations. You’re officially reachable now.”
I had smiled.
But then she added, “Just remember, my son sees everything.”
That part made me laugh.
Because, of course, it came with strings.
Everything in Ares’ world did.
Still, I took the phone.
Still, I used it.
I kept it close tonight in my bag while the four of us sat at a private dinner tucked into the hills, where the lights were low, and the city below looked too far away to hurt us.
It was one of those rich dinners that tried to feel intimate.
Candlelight.
Soft music.
Chef in the kitchen somewhere, making everything too beautiful to eat.
Ares sat at the head, naturally. My brother was across from him, one arm slung over the back of Emily’s chair, looking calm in that way that never really meant calm. Emily sat beside him, glowing soft and warm, one hand around her glass, the other resting in Zay’s lap.
I was sipping some sparkling non-alcoholic cherry mess in a crystal glass, playing the role.
I’d gotten good at that.
Playing the role.
Playing sober.
Playing stable.
Playing the woman who belonged in luxury instead of the one who once nearly drowned herself in drugs, trying to outrun her own mind.
The truth was, I was tired now.
Not of sobriety.
Not of Ares.
Not even of the rules.
I was tired of California already.
Calabasas was too close to the girl I used to be.
Too close to old habits, old streets, old energy.
Too close to the kind of life that whispered my name when things got quiet.
I hadn’t had a drink. Hadn’t craved drugs in the way I used to.
That part still surprised me some days. Turns out being cared for right could do more for a woman than any high ever had.
Ares and my brother had built something around me that was better than drugs.
And I hated that I ever let drugs convince me otherwise.
I set my glass down.
“I know you said we were staying here a while longer for business,” I looked at Ares. “But I’m going back to France.”
The words came out flat and easy, like I’d been saying them in my head for days and finally got tired of hearing myself think.
Ares looked at me first.
Didn’t ask me what I meant.
He just watched and said, “Okay.”
Zay leaned back a little, studying my face.
Emily was the only one who looked halfway surprised.
I shrugged and kept going.
“I can’t heal here.”
My fingers brushed the stem of the glass.
“This place too close to who I used to be. Everything that almost killed me still breathes out here. I’m clean. But I’m not safe here.”
That part sat heavier than the rest.
Because it was true.
I wasn’t spiraling.
I wasn’t craving.
I wasn’t weak.
I was just clear-headed enough now to understand that geography mattered. Energy mattered. Distance mattered.
Emily spoke next, soft but sure.
“We wanna go back with you.”
Zay looked at her. “We?”
Emily’s eyes widened for half a second.
“I mean… I.”
That made me smile a little.
“And my sister goes with me,” I said, before anybody could shrink the moment down into something smaller than it was.
Emily looked at me and smiled into her drink.
I leaned back in my chair and looked at the men.
“You can stay here and do man stuff.”
Zay laughed under his breath.
“We can help each other with Lil Z,” I added. “Me and E gon’ be just fine.”
Now Zay smirked for real. He looked over at Ares.
“You can handle both of them?”
His eyes moved between Emily and me.
“‘Cause I know you’re going back too.”
Ares didn’t hesitate.
“Your lady and my nephew are safe with me.”
His tone was easy, but there was something underneath it. He looked at Zay and added, “But you know I’ll be back. I can’t leave you out here alone now.”
That made sense.
Men like them never really stayed in one place long. Not when too much money, blood, and unfinished business lived across oceans.
I cut in before the moment could turn too serious.
“You can stay here too.”
Both of them looked at me.
I lifted my glass.
“E and I are about to run France. We leave in two days.”
Emily laughed.
Zay shook his head like he already knew he couldn’t debate my orders.
Ares just looked at me in that quiet way of his, like he was trying not to smile too hard in public.
The dinner settled after that.
The women had made a decision.
The men had accepted it.
And beneath all of that, under the candlelight and the expensive food and the glasses sweating on the table, I could feel my phone sitting inside my bag like a secret with a heartbeat.
Vivi’s little gift.
Ares’s little leash.
I brushed my fingers against the leather of the purse once and looked down at my plate.
I didn’t care if he watched the phone.
Didn’t care if he saw what I was thinking through the way I moved next.
Before I left California, I had one thing to handle.
One loose end.
And I planned on finishing it quietly.
I smiled at something Emily said, nodded at something Zay added, and let Ares refill my glass with another fake sparkling drink.
But my mind wasn’t in France yet.
It was somewhere else.
Getting ready.