Page 177 of Riot

She’d been calling nonstop, demanding answers. Accusing me of hiding the truth about Carmelo’s death. I hadn’t returned her messages. I wasn’t sure I owed her that. But something in me needed to see her face one more time. To look her in the eye and ask why. Why she let it happen. Why she let him sell me like some family heirloom they didn’t value anymore.

I wiped my hands on my apron and stepped away from the machine, the weight of the evening tightening around my chest.

The front door clicked open. Riot was finally home.

He moved through the brownstone like thunder, quiet but charged. I met him at the threshold, and the moment his eyes landed on me, I felt my spine soften.

“You good?” he asked, brushing a kiss against my temple.

“I’m better now,” I murmured, resting my forehead against his chest.

He held me a second longer than usual, like he knew the storm I was trying to outrun. Maybe he did. Riot had always seen through me. Past the calm. Past the poise. Straight into the pieces.

I stepped back. “Did you talk to the lawyer again?”

He nodded. “Yeah. They’re gonna give me all of Cannon’s information about how to visit him and make sure that we get this money Mama left to him. I still can’t wrap my head around it. Another fuckin’ brother,” he said as he brushed his hand down my belly. I was no where near showing yet but he always showed my belly attention.

I was still shocked that he had another brother out there. That his mother actually cheated on that psychopath Silas and gotten pregnant. It’s incredible that Silas didn’t kill her. Guess that’s one murder he didn’t think he could get away with.

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear from you. I mean, $10 million dollars coming your way when you get out of prison in a few months is a such a blessing,” I said.

“Yeah. I wonder if he’d want anything to do with us.”

“Only one way to find out.”

“Yeah… the secrets our mothers…” he said as he shook his head.

“Speaking of which. I’m going to see her tonight,” I replied.

His brow lifted. “Your mother?”

“She’s been calling. Asking about Carmelo. She wants to know what happened. What I did.”

He reached for my hand. “You sure you’re ready?”

“I’m never ready,” I said softly. “But I need to end it. Or it’s going to keep bleeding into everything I’m trying to build.”

He nodded slowly. “You want me to go with you?”

“No,” I responded. “I’ll deal with this on my own.”

I looked at him, the man who had taken in a child that wasn’t his, who carried the weight of a legacy drenched in blood, and still found room in his heart for softness. For me.

“I want to ask her why she let him do it,” I said, voice low and bitter. “Why she didn’t stop him from selling me like I was nothing. And then maybe I’ll remind her that she should be thanking me. Because I spared her life, Riot. I didn’t spare Carmelo’s.”

He pulled me in and held me tight.

“You’re not the same girl they tried to break,” he murmured. “You’re the woman who survived it.”

And God help her if she forgot that.

By the time the Uber dropped me off at my aunt’s apartment, my nerves were still wound pretty tightly. Every time I thought about my mother, I thought about the fact that she didn’t do shit when my father sold me. And my brother was the middle man.

I climbed the narrow stairs, heart pounding with each step. My mother was still staying there for, trying to convince me to leave with her. There was no way in hell I’d do that.

She opened the door before I even knocked. Like she’d been standing behind it, waiting. Her face looked older than I remembered—drawn, hollow, brittle like glass.

“Allure,” she breathed, eyes sweeping over me like I was both ghost and threat. “Where is your brother?”

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