Page 333 of Kentrell

I kept staring at the floor. At the rug. At the coffee table.

Anywhere but at him.

And then… finally…

His voice cracked the stillness.

“Zoe…”

I closed my eyes.

Just hearing him say my name like that… soft, low, torn apart at the edges… nearly undid me.

“I… I don’t even know where to start,” he said, voice strained like it hurt him to get the words out. “There’s nothing I can say that’ll cover what I did… what I didn’t do… what I should’ve done.”

I bit the inside of my cheek hard, willing myself not to cry.

Not yet.

Not here.

Kentrell’s hand squeezed my thigh, grounding me just enough to keep me from unraveling.

“I should’ve been there,” Darius went on. “From the beginning. Every day. Every year. I should’ve fought harder to be in your life. I should’ve?—”

“Stop,” I said, cutting him off before he could drown me in all the things heshould’vedone.

My voice shook, but I held it steady enough to make him freeze.

I finally lifted my head… locking eyes with him… giving him the full weight of what I’d been holding in for years… and especially for these last few weeks.

“I’m trying to be receptive,” I said, the words scraping up from my throat like they’d been hiding there too long. “I’m want to sit here… and hear you… and not flip this whole table over.”

I heard Kentrell’s low exhale beside me. Felt him shift like he was ready if I did.

Darius’s face cracked. The regret deepened… cut sharper… settled harder in the lines around his mouth and eyes.

“I get it,” he said quickly. “You’re angry. You have every right to be.”

“No.” I shook my head, voice low and bitter. “Angry… would’ve been years ago. When I was in high school… or college… or sitting in your damn office working overtime for a man I didn’t know was my father.”

His whole body flinched.

“I’mpastangry,” I whispered, fighting the burn behind my eyes. “I’m furious.”

Zora’s head dropped, like she couldn’t hold her own tears back anymore.

But I didn’t look at her.

Not yet.

I kept my gaze pinned on him.

“And you know what makes it worse?” My chest rose and fell in uneven bursts. “It’s not just that you weren’t there. It’s that you were willing to stay gone… willing to let me sit in the dark about who I was… because she decided you should play the background… and you agreed to it.”

Darius’s face crumpled.

Like I’d thrown a brick straight at his heart.

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