Page 35 of Kissed By the Trillest Thug 2

“Daddy…”

I shook my head.

“No, listen.”

My eyes stayed on hers.

“Your whole life I’ve tried to make sure you never had to see certain things.”

She stayed quiet while she listened.

“So, if you were going to sit across from me to ask me whether there’s parts of me you don’t know…” A humorless laugh left me, “there is.”

For a moment, neither one of us said anything. Then she surprised me.

“You being the protector that you are is what I always admired.”

My eyes lifted to hers, and she shrugged slightly.

“Everybody loves you.”

She added before a small smile touched her lips.

“Not because they’re scared of you,” she paused, “because you take care of people.”

Then she said the part I already knew was coming.

“That’s why I love Tahari.”

I closed my eyes briefly. Of course, that’s where she went with it. A quiet huff left me as I leaned back in my chair. I watched her expression change. The confidence she once had disappeared and uncertainty appeared.

Slowly, her eyes started filling with tears. She wasn’t crying, not yet. It was just enough moisture for me to see where this was headed. Her voice came out smaller this time.

“Daddy…”

I already knew the question before she asked it. I already knew that she must have heard this story from Tahari already, but I’m certain that she wanted to hear my side of things.

“Did you shoot him?”

The room went completely silent. I stared at my daughter. And for the first time since this whole thing started, I realized what she wanted. She didn’t want the truth. She wanted anything but that shit. She wanted me to say no. She wanted there to be some misunderstanding. Some explanation that fixed everything, but there wasn’t one. And I couldn’t lie to her. Not about this. So, I nodded. Just once and slowly before my lips parted.

“Yeah.”

The tears immediately spilled over. It wasn’t dramatic, but I could see the pain in her eyes.

“Why?”

Seeing her this way choked me up a bit, so I sniffed back tears that started welling in my own damn eyes. I couldn’t takeany shortcuts with this. There was no more protecting her from the ugly parts. If she was going to understand why I shot Tahari, then she had to understand everything. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my hand across my jaw.Damn, I gotta come clean.

There wasn’t really a clean way to tell this story. So, I didn’t try. I told her all about my past of being in the streets. Then I jumped from then to telling her exactly what had happened with Tahari. I told her about the robberies at the auto shop. I told her about the footage I saw recognizing Tahari. And then I told her about me confronting him. By the time I finished talking, Maliah was quiet. Her eyes stayed locked on the floor for a few seconds before she finally looked back up at me.

“Maybe he didn’t know.”

A small laugh left me because that was almost word for word what Tahari had said.

“That’s what he told me.”

Her shoulders relaxed slightly.