Page 142 of Collateral Love
He didn’t raise his voice.
“If you don’t,” he said, “I’ll still get Jared home, but you will spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wonderingwhen today will be the day the King Brothers blow your head off from behind.”
She flinched.
“Either way,” I added, “you’re done pretending to be the victim in this family.”
Her eyes filled.
She looked at me, really looked, maybe for the first time since I was eleven, and told her I’d handle my own hair from now on.
“You always thought you were better than me,” she whispered.
I shook my head.
“No, Ma,” I said. “I always thought I could be better for us.”
She looked away.
As we walked toward the door, I heard her voice behind me, small and raw.
“Kenya,” she said.
I paused but didn’t turn.
“Yeah?”
“I loved him,” she said quietly. “Your brother. I loved him.”
Pain hit me like it always did when Jared’s name settled in a room.
“I know,” I said. “You just didn’t love him enough to lose anything.”
I walked out without looking back.
Outside, the air felt colder. Cleaner. The sky was low and gray, as if rain were still trying to decide whether to fall.
Xavier lit a cigarette he didn’t intend to finish.
“She gave us everything we needed,” he said.
“Not everything,” I replied. “Just enough to make a judge nervous.”
Channy stood between us, arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold her ribcage together.
“She’s really going to testify?” she asked.
“She will,” Zay said. “Whether she wants to or not.”
I looked past him, down the block where the city stretched out in all its messy glory.
For the first time in a long time, I could see a version of the future where Jared wasn’t just a voice on the phone or a folded picture in my wallet.
And I could also see the price.
Because the evidence that was going to free my brother was built out of my mother’s confession.
The recording was submittedto our attorney, and within a few days, the court called my brother to vacate.
