Page 301 of Kentrell

“And where were you all morning and afternoon?” Ayesha asked, already pressing me like she was cross-examining.

“I had a meeting with a client?—”

“A client, huh?” she repeated with all the suspicion in the world.

“Yes… a client. My pro bono,” I said, enunciating every word like they were hard facts.

Mars’ eyes popped. “Pro bono? Girl… rent is due in less than six days and you out here taking free cases?” She threw her hands up dramatically before planting them right on her hips like she was everybody’s broke conscience.

Stacia laughed the loudest, as usual, shaking her head at Mars being her very unserious self.

“I’m just playing,” Mars bit back a laugh, but I could see the shift in all their faces. Everybody was trying to hold it together… trying to be serious… but barely holding the line.

“What?” I sighed, already too tired for guessing games. “Just say it.”

“Oh… not you having an attitude,” Mars teased, grinning wide as she leaned over the couch, lifting the ridiculous dick-shaped pillow before tossing it straight at the back of Ayesha’s head. More laughter broke out as Ayesha flipped her hair and sucked her teeth.

And just when I thought they were done… Mars dug her hand deep between the couch cushions, fishing around with the same reckless energy she did everything else with. “Wait for it… wait for it… Lil’ Miss Victoria Secret’s!” she called out, raising her hand in dramatic triumph like she’d just pulled Excalibur from stone.

I squinted, narrowing my eyes until I realized what she was holding. My heart sank straight to my stomach.

Ayesha was already crossing her arms over her chest, staring me down like I was a teenage girl caught sneaking in past curfew. “Yeah… you see it.”

I did. Clear as day. The pregnancy test I’d shoved deep behind the tampons in the bathroom linen closet… thinking Mars would never look there.

“So… wussup, Zoe?” Stacia chimed in, using her hands like punctuation marks.

I’m pregnant.That’s what. That’s what I wanted to say. What I should’ve said. But the words wouldn’t leave my throat. All day… no matter how much I told myself I was fine… my mind kept shifting back to that test… to this baby growing inside me. I’d accepted it as fate… but I wasn’t ready to speak it into the air and make it real.

“Zoe?” Mars’ voice softened.

I sank into the nearest chair at the dining table, elbows on my thighs, face falling straight into my hands as the first tears spilled out. Before I could take a breath… I felt them… mygirls… their hands running down my back, fingers squeezing my shoulders, soft voices offering comfort I couldn’t even process.

In their minds… they probably thought I was breaking down over the baby. Thought I was scared… unprepared… thinking my life was about to fall apart. But it was the opposite.

I had the income. The stability. The resources to raise this child comfortably and with love. But I didn’t wantcomfortable. I didn’t want justenough. Not for me… and definitely not for this baby. I was raised that way. Just me and my mama… figuring it out… surviving.

And this baby? My baby… was supposed to break that curse.

I may not have said it out loud… but deep down… I wanted more. I wanted family. I wanted memories. I wanted moments that didn’t feel like survival. I wanted the kind of love that felt permanent. Solid. Unshakable.

Growing up without a father had shaped me in ways I was only now beginning to unpack… and I didn’t want that story for my child.

Not if I could help it.

Not this time.

“Damn, Zoe… you just reminded me to change my birth control,” Mars said, her voice breaking straight through my spiral of thoughts. I peeked up from my hands, sniffling.

“Which one y’all on?” Stacia asked, already half-distracted pulling her phone out like she might set a reminder for herself.

“NovaVUE,” Mars answered without missing a beat.

Her response hit me like a brick. Took me right back to the day I’d scheduled those panels for me and Kentrell… when my doctor had pulled me aside, slipped me a box of NovaVUE samples, and told me flat-out I should start it now… just in case. Just to prevent the very thing I was dealing with in this exact moment.

I felt so stupid for not taking it. Letting one bad reaction from my junior year in high school dictate my whole adult decision-making process. That… and Kentrell’s bold-ass confession that he never went into anything raw.

Not that I didn’t believe him—I did. But every time we laid down… stood up… wherever we touched… he was sliding into me with nothing but the skin of his dick.

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