Page 15 of Kissed By the Trillest Thug 2

This time it wasn’t a question. It was a statement. A realization she had finally arrived at on her own. I looked, and that was all the answer she needed. For a second, she just stared at me. Then she laughed softly because I’m sure she was in disbelief. For her entire life she knew of her father to be one way, and now she was discovering the other side to him.

“My father shot you.”

I closed my eyes briefly. Hearing it out loud sounded just as crazy as it felt. The woman I loved father put a bullet in my arm and then threatened to kill me if he ever saw me again. Yeah, letting those words fly in the air sounded fucking insane.

“My father shot you,” she repeated while shaking her head. “And you’re standing here acting like that’s not the most insane thing I’ve ever heard.”

I leaned back against the counter.

“Maliah…”

“No, because I’m trying to understand.”

Her hands moved as she spoke. I could see the frustration slowly building again.

“I leave my room because nobody will tell me what’s going on. I come all the way over here. I find you bleeding through a bandage.”

Her voice cracked slightly.

“And now you’re telling me my father did this?”

I looked down at the floor for a moment because I didn’t admit to a damn thing yet, but I didn’t deny her theory either. The problem was she had too many questions, and I knew theanswers to all of them but none that would make this easier. When I looked back up, she was still staring at me. I could see in her eyes that she was searching my face for something, for anything.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

That question settled between us. And honestly, that felt like the hardest question she had asked me so far. Because I knew what she was really asking. That one little question had a million little questions lined up behind it. Why did her father shoot me? Why did he tell her to stay away from me? Why did everything change in a single day? There were too many damn questions. I rubbed my hand across my jaw and looked away.

“Maliah… that’s between him and me.”

The disappointment that crossed her face hit me harder than the bullet I had taken because I knew she wanted more. If I’m being honest, she deserves more. But the truth wasn’t mine to give without changing everything. And once that truth came out… there wasn’t going to be any putting it back.

For a long moment, neither one of us said anything. I watched Maliah stare at me from the other side of the island, and for the first time since she got here, she looked completely lost. Like she was trying to force two versions of the same person to fit together and couldn’t make them line up.

“My father…”

Her voice trailed off. She looked away from me and shook her head slightly.

“No.”

The word came out almost like she was talking to herself.

“He wouldn’t…”

But she didn’t finish the sentence. Because even she didn’t know how it ended. Wouldn’t what? Shoot somebody? Be violent? Do something that she didn’t understand?

The problem was that whatever version of Malik Browne existed outside of being her father wasn’t something she had ever really been forced to look at before. Not like this. Not when the consequences were standing right in front of her. Her eyes found my arm again. The bandage with the blood showing through was proof. And just like that, I watched it hit her.

For real this time. The tears filled her eyes so fast it caught me off guard. I was watching my baby break down in the worst way.

“Maliah.”

She immediately turned away. Like she didn’t want me to see it. That only made it worse. A second later, a tear slipped down her cheek, then another. I felt something in my chest tighten because this moment wasn’t about me, not really anyway. This was about her trying to figure out how the man she loved most in this world fit into the picture standing in front of her.

And right now… he didn’t. She was sobbing so uncontrollably that it was hard to watch.

“Maliah.”

“I don’t understand,” her words trembled slightly.