“What did you just say?”
“You heard me.” Carter didn’t blink. “A man like that knows everything. You think a baby with your face popped up in Coupeville and it never got back to him? Come on, brother. He knew.” He shrugged, hard. “Your pops has been three moves ahead of you your whole life, and you keep lining up to lose. That’s the part that kills me to watch.”
I sat on the edge of the bench.
Carter waited until I finally looked back at him.
“Everything you ever cared about became a target. That pro bono clinic we ran in law school? You loved that thing. As soon as it started making noise, the funding dried up out of nowhere.That was him. A clinic. A girl from Silverrun with a smart mouth, no money, no family. You think a granddaughter was gonna be any different?”
I couldn’t breathe right.
Because if Carter was right, then my father had also looked me in my eye at every dinner, every holiday, every cold handshake, knowing I had a daughter. That wasn’t control. That was war.
“And one last thing, so we can move on.” He stepped in. “When the engagement to Bianca hit the blogs, I called you. Four times, Ducane. I left you a voicemail saying it was important, that I needed to see you face to face. Man to man.” He looked at me dead on. “You ain’t never call me back. Not once. And you never even brought it up. I let it go after that, kept it moving like it didn’t happen, because what else was I supposed to do? So nah, don’t roll up on me like I ain’t try to put it right when I had the chance.”
That took everything out of me. Because I didn’t remember those calls. And that was worse than if I had.
“Damn.” I scrubbed my hand down my face. “My daughter took her first steps, and I was four hours away. How fucked up is that?”
I pushed back up to my feet and cracked my knuckles.
“Here’s what I’m gonna say to you as your brother.” Carter’s voice dropped. “Go to war with that nigga. Crash out, lose to him again, do whatever you need to do with all that, I don’t care. But understand me on this one thing.” He stepped all the way into my space. “That little girl is my family. Like my own kid. You put one ounce of this mess on her, you let any of this touch her, and it’ll be you in a body bag. We clear?”
I stepped right back into his space, close enough to feel his breath.
“Let me tell you what’s clear, my nigga. That’s MY daughter. Mine. I don’t need a warning from you or anybody else about how to treat my own child.” I didn’t blink. “I hear you love her. Good. You should. But don’t get it confused. Can’t nobody take care of my flesh and blood better than me.”
“Aight.”
“Yeah, aight. And we ain’t good right now. You kept my child from me, and you gon’ carry that with me until I decide we square.”
He took a breath through his nose, then gave one measured nod.
“Fair.”
“Fuck you.”
I walked off, leaving all three of them standing there. LaDrake called my name. I didn’t turn around. So much for a fucking reunion.
I slid into the back of the car, and my phone started ringing. Skye.
“Yeah?” My voice came out flat. Worn all the way down.
“Hey.” A pause. “Are you okay? You sound, I don’t know. Off.”
“I’m good.”
“Ducane.”
“I said I’m good, Skye.” It came out harder than I meant it. “I didn’t hurt that nigga, if that’s what you calling to check on. Carter’s fine. We talked. Everybody’s fucking fine.”
“That’s not why I called, but alright.”
“Then what? Why you care so much all of a sudden, huh?” I felt it climbing up my throat, all of it, the calls I didn’t answer, the steps I missed, my father’s face at every dinner I now knew was a lie. “Where was all this caring about me when you kept my child from me? You could’ve called me. You could’ve picked up aphone at any time and told me I had a daughter. But you didn’t. So don’t call me now asking if I’m okay, like shit is sweet.”
The line went quiet. I pulled the phone back and looked. I’d expected her to clap back or hang up.
And in that silence, I stopped holding on.