Chapter 26 #2
“This is exactly why I had to cut ties with Cooks,” Ertan lied, spreading his hands like he was the victim. “The kid’s talented, sure, but he’s reckless…impulsive…doesn’t know the first thing about money management.”
The reporter blinked. “You’re saying the situation with his…alleged girlfriend proves that?”
Ertan didn’t hesitate. “I warned him. I always warned him, but Zaire wants to play savior…wants to attach himself to people who drain him…people who don’t bring anything to the table but debt.”
Meadow’s stomach twisted.
Ertan kept going, voice dripping with superiority. “He’s always been hardheaded, but now the world sees it. He doesn’t make smart choices. He-”
Zaire threw his phone across the room. It shattered on impact.
Meadow jumped. “Zaire!”
He didn’t look up. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Quiet Zaire was the dangerous Zaire.
“Tell you what?”
He finally lifted his head, eyes locked on her, grief and heat mixing in ways that made her stomach twist. “That your land…your family’s land, been in tax default for years.
That the bank been circling it…that people online talking like I’m out here lettin’ you just fail…
like I ain’t great with my money. Why you ain’t say somethin’? ”
Meadow stiffened. “Because it wasn’t your business to fix.”
“Here we go with this bull shit again.”
“Yes, nigga! Here we go.” Meadow was all bite, no bark.
His voice rose. “Meadow, do you understand how this makes me look? I finally get a clean slate, I got sponsors paying attention again, people believing in me again, and now my fired agent out there on national TV talking like I ain’t got the sense the streets gave me when it comes to money because of you? ”
Something in her eyes shifted, hurt disguised as fire. “So that’s what this is,” she whispered. “This isn’t about me losing my land. It’s not about what I’m dealing with. This is about your precious image?”
“That’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair?” she asked, stepping closer. “The world seeing you with a girl who doesn’t come from money? Seeing a woman who had to fight for every inch of her life? Or you finding out I’m not perfect? Which one is it, Zaire?”
He rubbed the back of his head. “Stop twisting my words.”
“No,” she said. “I want you to hear yourself. You walked in this house and made this whole thing about what people gon’ think of you.”
“I didn’t-”
“You didn’t even ask me if I was okay…not once.
” Her voice cracked, and she didn’t hide it.
“The second that camera hit your face, you made it about headlines and sponsors and how Ertan making you look. You think I have time to worry about your image when my family’s legacy is slipping through my fingers? ”
Zaire swallowed hard. “I’m trying to understand.”
“No, you’re not,” she snapped, and the pain in her voice filled the room.
“I am trying!” She pounded her chest. “Every day! I am trying so fuckin’ hard not to lose everything.
You think I want the world knowing my family was promised forty acres and got played down to thirty-nine and really can’t even afford that?
You think I want people watching me struggle to keep the only land my blood ever owned? ”
Her tears came hot and fast, but she didn’t back down.
“You think I don’t wake up every morning with one mission?
” she asked. “To keep my land. To keep my Mama safe…to keep the only piece of America we weren’t pushed off of…
you have no idea what it feels like to walk land your people worked for and feel it slipping out from under you because of numbers on a paper. ”
Zaire just stood there.
“This ain’t about embarrassment,” Meadow scoffed. “This is about survival…this is about legacy…this is about the last gift my ancestors passed down that hasn’t been ripped away.”
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke a room.
Zaire finally spoke, but not with the calm he usually had.
His voice had heat and history in it. “You done?”
Aggressively, she wiped her face, chest heaving.
Zaire took that as his sign to say what he needed to say.
“In my profession, those headlines matter,” he told her.
“Not because I’m shallow, but because the people who control the tournaments, the endorsements, the future of my career…
they judge everything. I had to clean up my name.
I have to prove myself every time I touch that green. ”
Meadow looked away.
He stepped forward, grabbing her attention again. “But that’s not what had me in here blowing up…that’s not what had me standing in this house feeling my whole body tighten up.” He tapped his chest with two fingers. “I’m pissed because I have the money to pay for it.”
Meadow’s eyes fluttered.
“You’re fuckin’ me,” Zaire’s words came out breathlessly because he wasn’t understanding what she wasn’t getting.
“You’re praying over me. You’re holding me at night.
You got my card in your purse. You could’ve said one sentence, just one, and told me, ‘Zaire, I’m drowning.
’” He swallowed hard, the hurt bleeding into his voice.
“I told you to pay the bills,” he reminded her. “All of them. I told you, I got you. You think I give a fuck about sixty-something thousand in taxes? I drop more than that flying from coast to coast tryin’ to play golf in a league that barely wants me there.”
Meadow stepped back instinctively.
He followed, not with force, but with heartbreak.
“You really think I’d rather see you fold?” he asked. “You think I’d rather see you carrying this alone than swipe a fuckin’ card you already had in your hand?”
She opened her mouth but nothing came out because what could she say? He was right and she’d let her pride get in the way of a blessing she was too afraid to accept.
He kept going, voice fierce but trembling. “You think I want you drowning in silence? Nah, fuck that, cuh…you think I want you drowning at all?”
Meadow’s voice finally rose. “I didn’t want to be your burden!”
“You’re not a fuckin’ burden!” he shot back. “You’re my woman.”
She sniffled, feeling even worse for allowing her own ego to get in the way of something good.
His voice got softer, but no less intense.
“You came in here talking about legacy,” he said, “but Black love is part of that too. Our people ain’t survive on land alone.
They survived because they held each other.
They survived because when one person was about to fall, the other one lifted them… you forgot that part.”
Her lips shook.
Zaire stepped close enough to feel her breath. “I would’ve paid it,” he said, “all of it. Not to own you…not to control you, but because you shouldn’t have to fight everything alone, not with me standing right here.”
Her tears spilled again.
Zaire pressed his finger to the side of her head. “I’m not a man who dips when shit gets heavy. I don’t disappear. I…don’t...fuckin’…fold.”
“You should’ve told me,” he whispered. “Not because of the headlines…not because of the cameras, but because you’re not supposed to carry our future alone. Because you’re supposed to trust me with all of it. I’m a man, Meadow.”
Her face crumpled.
His voice dropped to that low, raw register only she could pull out of him. “Baby…” He leaned into her, bending to make sure she heard him loud and clear. “I’m trying…for us.”
She broke - sobbing into his chest, body shaking with all the fear, shame, exhaustion, love, and grief she’d been holding since the moment those reporters stepped foot on her land.
Zaire wrapped his arms around her. “Pay, the fuckin’ bill, Meadow.”
Days had gone by and Meadow was still sad. Zaire was still in Juniper but he’d been keeping himself busy just to avoid her. His Mama, wasn’t acting funny with her, so Meadow took that as a win.
The weather had been nothing but rain and storms ever since Zaire’s fame brought them to their doors.
Neighbors called Ray twice, maybe three times, letting him know reporters had been spotted parked near the local diner. Some even approached folks to ask questions. The gossip wheel was turning without oil, squealing loud enough for Meadow to hear it inside the house.
It was a mess, a shit show and she was worn thin.
She was now holed up with Magnolia, just listening to the rain and her brain reminding her how stupid she’d been. Meadow hadn’t even had the energy to talk to Tia long. She was ready to jump on a plane but Meadow begged her not to.
Ray had been out in the shed claiming to be fixing something. Meadow knew he was sitting out there in that old rusty chair with his shotgun over his lap. That was his way of protecting what he loved.
Magnolia always hated storms. Meadow didn’t realize she’d slipped into her Mama’s room until she was sitting on the edge of the bed, smoothing the blankets over legs that used to dance circles around Ray for fun.
Magnolia’s breathing was uneven. Her eyes fluttered but didn’t fully open until the lightning cracked again.
“Mama,” Meadow whispered, brushing her fingers through her hair. “It’s okay…I’m here.”
Magnolia blinked a few times, confusion sliding away like fog. For a moment her gaze sharpened. “Where’s Ray?” she asked.
Meadow’s chest pinched. “He’s in the shed.”
“You tell him stop runnin’ from the rain. He used to run outside barefoot. Swear he could catch lightning.” She chuckled softly. “My Mama hated him…always keepin’ up noise. But I told her, ‘One day, that boy gon’ love me like the world never did.’”
Meadow felt the words hit her throat like a bruise.
Magnolia kept going, voice wandering through an old memory. “And he did. Loved me every day…even now. Even when my mind forget everything but his name.”
Meadow swallowed hard, tears welling. “Mama…”
Magnolia reached blindly for her hand, squeezing it with a surprising strength. “When love shows up, baby…you hold on. You hear me?”
Meadow nodded, her whole body trembling. “Yes, ma’am.”