Page 111 of Grown

“Excuse me,” I whimper and race to the bathroom, chest caving in.

How can he be dead? We were supposed to sing together forever. He loved me, with a heart too big for his body so it leaked into his lungs, giving him a voice dripping with honey. Who sang with passion and made everyone believe they could be anything. Now the world will never hear his voice again.

Shouldn’t I be happy? Relieved instead of torn and crumbling at the idea that the only love I’ve ever known was also my greatest torturer?

Love is complicated, he would say. But love shouldn’t hurt. And deep down, I know I went to his apartment that nighthoping he’d change. I was always hoping he’d change. But you can’t hope or wish someone to be anyone that they’re not.

My phone buzzes. Another unknown number and I’m tempted to answer, listen to the same woman threatening to kill me. I deserve it.

A news anchor cuts through my thoughts.

“And we have exclusive footage obtained of the suspect’s father, Terry Jones, seen outside Korey Fields’s apartment the night of the murder.”

I rip the door open. “Wait, what?”

Louie is on his feet, turning up the volume. The video is blurry, black and white, taken from a distance, outside Korey’s building. But there’s Daddy, storming inside the building, at eleven thirty p.m.

“Whoa,” Louie mumbles. “Where the hell is he going?”

Chapter 77

The Real Hero

The more time goes on, the more I see what Daddy went through while I was gone and how his quiet suffering wasn’t so silent after all.

There’s video footage of Daddy outside our hotel in Charlotte.

Footage of Daddy kicking and screaming while Tony and his goons tossed him around like a rag doll in the hotel parking lot.

Footage of Daddy on the phone in the lobby of our Columbia hotel, calling about the suicide pact, hoping it would draw me outside.

Footage of Daddy outside Korey’s mansion, waiting for the police to do another welfare check.

The media has twisted it. They see Daddy stalking Korey... I see Daddy trying to save me this whole time.

Transcript with Terry Jones–May 26

Detective Arnold:I understand you’ve been unemployed the last five months.

Terry Jones:Not unemployed. Our union is on strike.

Detective Arnold:So you’ve had plenty of time to make trips down South.

T. Jones:Yeah. And I’d do it again. The man had my daughter.

Detective Arnold:Did it make you feel like less of a man that you couldn’t protect your daughter?

T. Jones:Really? That’s all you got?

Detective Arnold:OK. Tell us about what happened the night of the murder.

T. Jones:Front-door security turned me away. I told them my daughter was up there, but they wouldn’t let me in.

Detective Arnold:And that’s when you called the police?

T. Jones:Yeah. But they said there was nothing they could do since she’s eighteen. That’s when that woman came. Jessica or whoever.

Detective Arnold:So you’re saying you never went inside the apartment?