Page 106 of Riot

My jaw flexed. I stared up at the ceiling for a second, chest tightening. The name tasted like ash in my mouth, but I knew I owed her the truth.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s time.”

I stayed quiet for a long time. Not because I didn’t want to tell her. But because I wasn’t sure how to wrap words around something that still clawed at my soul. Some truths don’t sit clean in your mouth. They burn on the way out. And this one? This one had scorched me from the inside for years.

She didn’t press. Just waited, eyes steady on mine, fingers still moving gently over my chest like she was trying to soothe the storm she knew was coming.

“Malia was my first love,” I finally said.

The words came low, gritty, pulled from someplace I usually kept locked tight. “We met when I was seventeen. Young, stupid, and already deep in the streets. But she made me feel like there was more to life than just blood and business. She had this laugh that made everything else fade out. And when she looked at me, I believed I was more than Silas King’s son.”

Allure didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just listened. I was uncomfortable talking about some other bitch with her but she asked.

“I thought I was gonna marry her,” I said, voice thick. “We used to talk about getting out. Starting fresh somewhere. Just the two of us. I wanted that shit so bad. I would’ve left everything behind if she asked me to.”

My hand came up to rub my jaw, like I could scrub the memory off my skin. But it was etched too deep.

“What happened?” Allure asked softly.

I stared at the ceiling like it might give me strength. Then I let it fall.

“She set me up.”

The silence stretched.

“Her brothers were trying to get in deep with some rival crew out in Queens. To prove themselves, they had to get at me. Still the stash I was moving at the time. I didn’t know at the time. She only got close to me to get close to the operation. They waited until I was comfortable, until I trusted her so deep I stopped carrying at night. And then they made their move. Home invasion. They tied me up. Beat me. Tried to get into the safes.”

Allure gasped, but I wasn’t done.

“I was gonna let it go,” I said. “I swear to God. I told myself I’d walk away. I wouldn’t retaliate. I’d disappear. Chalk it up to heartbreak and stupidity.”

Her hand found mine and squeezed.

“But my father found out.”

I closed my eyes, jaw locking as the next part came clawing out.

“He said if I let her get away with it, I’d be weak. Said the family would lose respect for me. That I’d be seen as a mark. A joke. So he handled it. Had her kidnapped. Brought her to the warehouse we used for interrogations. And then… he told me I had to do it.”

The memory hit like a gut punch.

“She was tied to a chair. Bruised, crying. Still beautiful. I couldn’t look at her without remembering the way she used to laugh against my neck. The way she used to whisper my name with love.”

I felt Allure’s fingers tightening around mine, grounding me. But the next words still nearly broke me.

“He made me kill her.”

The air in the room changed. The weight of that truth pressing against both our chests now.

“I slit her throat,” I said, voice cracking. “Watched the light go out of her eyes. And I told myself she deserved it. I tried to believe it. Tried to make it feel like justice.”

“But it didn’t,” Allure said quietly.

“No,” I whispered. “It felt like dying.”

I swallowed hard, the memory sharper than any blade.

“She was pregnant,” I added, the words barely making it out.

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