Page 185 of Kentrell

I smirked, shaking my head.

Shorty had me all the way fucked up—but I let her do it anyway.

“Zoe… do you even know who this man is?” Darius asked, voice tightening with every word.

“I don’t even know whoyouare!” she snapped back—turning the full weight of her anger on her mother.

“You lied to me!”

“No! I protected you!”

Zora’s voice shook as her eyes darted back to me.

And in that look… I saw it.

That same fear. That same knowing.

Her past and present crashing into each other at full speed.

“You…” she breathed out, shaking her head. “You got my daughter in the streets?”

She didn’t say it loud… but she said it incode.

And I caught it clear as day.

Zoe didn’t.

Not yet.

And I wasn’t about to help her connect those dots today.

“I’on even know whatchu talkin’ bout.”

I shrugged, keeping my face unreadable as all three of them looked at me.

And then… Zoe doubled down.

“And if he did… so what?”

Her voice? Spiteful. Sharp. Defiant.

And I wanted to break character so bad.

Ah, Zoe… baby… you don’t even know what you saying.

I clenched my jaw… holding it in.

Zora, on the other hand, reacted for both of us.

“Oh my God…” she gasped, turning straight into Darius’s chest—sobbing like the weight of the whole room just broke her.

“Take me home,” Zoe whispered—her fingers curling in the drawstrings of my hoodie. She yanked me down until our foreheads touched.

“Home?” Zora and Darius echoed together, their voices layered with confusion and something else… panic maybe.

I frowned a little too…

We had just left her house—and it was still taped off with police and fire trucks.

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