CHAPTER 8
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Kaleasha “Kales”
I was sitting at the table with a huge smile on my face.
For the first time in weeks, I felt like I could finally breathe.
My bills were caught up, and I had paid for my classes.
I decided to take a month off from school so I could get my mind right, because after everything that had happened, I needed it.
I still thought about Quay more than I wanted to, but at the same time, I was done with him.
He had betrayed me in a way I couldn’t come back from.
Now, I know some women deal with cheating, and truth be told, I probably could’ve forgiven that eventually.
But a baby? Nah. That was something different.
That baby didn’t ask to be here, and I knew that wasn’t his fault.
But I couldn’t even lie to myself and pretend I’d be able to look at a mini Quay that didn’t come from me and be okay.
That was just too much. And on top of that, Quay was sitting in jail fighting a murder case.
I definitely wasn’t signing up for no life like that.
The sound of a knock at my front door pulled me from my thoughts. I got up, looked through the peephole, and saw Ryann standing there. I opened the door and pulled her into a hug.
Once we let each other go, we made our way to the living room, and I locked the door behind us. After we sat down, I looked at her and couldn’t help it.
“I’m sorry,” I said just above a whisper.
Ryann looked at me for a second, and the sadness in her eyes made my chest tighten.
“For what?” she asked softly.
“For all of it,” I said, swallowing hard. “For Quay. For Markie. For not knowing what the hell was really going on around me. For not being there for you the way I should’ve been.”
She let out a slow breath and leaned back against the couch. “Kales, you can’t carry all that on you.”
“Yes, I can,” I said, my voice cracking. “Because no matter how I slice it, I was laying up with the man they saying killed your brother. And even if I ain’t know what he had going on, that still don’t make it hurt no less.”
Ryann looked down at her hands for a moment, then back at me. “You didn’t pull that trigger.”
“No, but I still feel guilty.”
She nodded like she understood, because maybe she did. Maybe grief made room for feelings that ain’t always logical.
“I been wanting to come see you,” she admitted. “I just… I ain’t even know what to say. One minute I was mad as hell, and the next minute I was just hurt. Then my mama been all over the place, and everything in my house feel heavy.”
“I know,” I whispered. “And I hate that I wasn’t there.”
Ryann looked at me hard then. “Would you have been?”
That question sat between us for a second.
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
Because truthfully? I didn’t know.
Back when Quay first got locked up, I had been so wrapped up in shock, pain, and trying to hold myself together that everything else had blurred around me. Even Markie being dead had felt halfway unreal at first, buried under the weight of my own life falling apart.
And that truth made me feel even worse.
“I want to say yes,” I finally said. “But I don’t know. I was drowning too.”
Ryann gave a small nod. “That’s honest.”
Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them back. “I loved him, Ryann.”
She looked away when I said it, jaw tightening.
“I know,” she said.
“And I swear to you, if I thought for one second he was capable of doing something like that to Markie, I would’ve never…” My voice trailed off, because even saying it felt pointless now.
Ryann sat quiet for a moment before speaking. “That’s actually why I came over here.”
I frowned. “What you mean?”
She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, and lowered her voice.
“My cousin know somebody down at the county,” she said. “And word is… Quay might not have killed Markie.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
She nodded once, slowly. “That’s what I heard. They saying it’s bigger than what they putting out there. Something about Quay being set up or used to get to somebody else.”
My stomach tightened instantly.
“Somebody else like who?” I asked.
Ryann hesitated.
“That part I don’t know for sure,” she said. “But I came over here because if it’s true, then this whole thing ain’t what it look like.”
My heart started beating faster, and I hated that it did.
Because no matter how done I kept telling myself I was, hearing that Quay might not have killed Markie still did something to me.
Still cracked open a door I had been trying hard to nail shut.
“And if he didn’t do it?” I asked quietly.
Ryann’s eyes met mine.
“Then whoever did is still out here.”
Those words settled heavy in the room.
For a second, neither one of us said anything. The only sound was the low hum of my air conditioner and the faint noise of cars passing outside. But inside that living room, it felt like all the air had been sucked out.
Because if Quay didn’t kill Markie, then that meant everything I thought I knew was wrong.
It meant Quay could be sitting in jail for something he didn’t do.
It meant Markie’s real killer was still walking around free.
And somehow, that felt even worse.
I dragged my hand across my mouth and leaned back against the couch, trying to steady my thoughts.
“Ryann…” I said slowly, “if this is true, why would they pin it on Quay?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe because of his background. Maybe because he easy to blame. Or maybe because somebody wanted him out the way.”
That last part made my stomach twist.
Out the way.
I didn’t know why, but those words hit different.
Maybe because deep down I knew Quay’s life wasn’t simple. Nothing about the men around him was ever really simple. There was always another layer, another secret, another danger sitting just beneath the surface.
And lately, I had been feeling that more than ever.
My mind flashed to Samir.
The way he looked at me.
The way he always seemed to know more than he should.
The way he moved like a man who already expected the world to bend around whatever he wanted.
A chill ran through me, but I pushed it down.
Ryann studied my face. “What?”
“Nothing,” I lied quickly.
But it wasn’t nothing.
Not even close.
I just didn’t know enough yet to say it out loud.
Ryann stood after a minute, smoothing her hands down the front of her jeans. “I just felt like you needed to know what I heard. I ain’t saying Quay innocent for sure. I’m just saying it might be more to it.”
I nodded slowly and stood up too.
“Thank you for telling me.”
She looked at me for a long second, then pulled me into another hug.
This one felt different.
Heavier.
Like two women trying to hold themselves together while standing in the middle of something bigger than both of them.
When she finally let me go, she looked me dead in my eyes.
“Just be careful, Kales.”
My brows pulled together. “Careful of what?”
Ryann hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t know yet. I just got a bad feeling.”
That made my chest tighten.
I walked her to the door, watched her get in her car, then locked myself back inside once she pulled off.
The house was quiet again, but my thoughts weren’t.
I stood there with my hand still on the lock, staring at nothing.
Quay might not have killed Markie.
That thought should’ve made me feel relieved.
Instead, it made me uneasy.
Because if he didn’t do it, then somebody else did.
And if somebody else did, then maybe everything happening around me wasn’t bad luck.
Maybe it was connected.
Maybe I had already gotten closer to something dangerous without even realizing it.
I looked toward my purse sitting on the table, knowing my phone was inside.
Knowing there was a good chance Samir would call about another run.
Knowing I was already too tangled in things I didn’t fully understand.
And for the first time since all this started, a thought crept into my head that made my skin go cold.
What if Quay going to jail wasn’t the beginning of my problems?
What if it was only the thing that pushed me straight into somebody else’s plan?
That night, I barely slept.
And when my phone lit up just after midnight with a text from Samir that read.
Be ready in the morning.
Every nerve in my body went tight.
Because deep down, I knew one thing for sure.
Whatever road I was on now, it wasn’t leading nowhere safe.