Page 284 of Kentrell

“What?” she laughed with me. “Pokie was fine back in the day. Had them niggas lined up… ya mama ain’t hang with no fookies.”

“Fookies?”

“It’s what me and my homegirls called funny-looking bitches,” she said, giggling like she was back on the block with her girls.

I shook my head, still smiling. Even in the middle of all this… leave it to my mama to get me to crack a grin.

I felt the shift before she even opened her mouth.

The laugh she just had… gone. Like it got snatched right out the air.

Her whole face changed.

“Ma… what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer right away. Took a long pause… like she had to breathe through it first.

“This shit been going on for too long,” she finally said, voice low… almost like she was talking to herself.

I nodded slow, thinking she meant this… her being locked up… rotting in here for me.

I sat back, chewing on that guilt that never really left me.

But then she went quiet. Too quiet. Long enough for my thoughts to spiral… for my stomach to knot up like it always do when I think too long on the past.

“You know she was the concealed witness.”

My stomach jolted like I took a hit I ain’t see coming.

“Whatchu just say?” I asked, slow, like I ain’t hear her the first time. Like she ain’t just say what I knew she said.

She pursed her lips together, lifted her brow… gave me that look that said I heard her just fine.

“Pokie was the concealed witness.”

I damn near pushed back from the table.

“What?” My face twisted up, full of disbelief. “I know you don’t believe that shit?—”

“Kentrell… she was there.”

I shook my head hard, refusing to let that settle. “Nah… ain’t no way. I was there. I know who all was in our house that night. I know who was there when I…” I stopped myself, clenching my jaw, because even now… saying it out loud felt like swallowing glass. “That’s why she did all this shit!” My voice rose beforeI could catch it. The cushy-ass prison… the relaxed COs… her lawyer nigga pulling strings… all of it. She did it to clear her conscience.

“Kentrell… relax.”

Her hand came over mine, soft but heavy… grounding.

“Listen… when I tell you this… I don’t want you to react.”

My eyes cut low, but I didn’t pull away. My pulse was already thumping hard as hell… but I kept still.

“Say it then,” I muttered, jaw tight.

And I braced myself for whatever she was about to drop next.

“I been battling with myself on whether or not I should even tell you this… ‘cause I just got the news last week.”

My face softened a little, the tension in my jaw easing as I listened.

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