Page 64 of K.I.N.: Karma Is Near

I headed downstairs, digging through my purse for my lip gloss as I went.

By the time I stepped outside, the morning air woke me all the way up.

My Camry was parked halfway down the block.

I unlocked it, climbed inside, tossed my purse and lunch bag onto the passenger seat and started the car.

My phone connected automatically.

Three notifications popped across the screen.

Ebony.

The clinic group chat.

And—

Xay.

I stared at his name.

And just like that, my mother asking about Carter’s father disappeared from my head.

Because something else had been bothering me since last night.

Why the fuck was Heather calling Xay?

HEATHER

I was eight and a half months pregnant, freezing my fucking ass off, and pulling into Freckles because Xavier had been ducking me for three fucking days.

Three.

Knowing damn well I was carrying his son.

I put my Wrangler in park and sat there for a second, looking through the windshield at the club.

Freckles looked ugly as shit during the daytime.

I didn’t care what nobody said.

At night, this bitch was beautiful. Lights on. Music beating. Girls everywhere. Niggas lined up outside waiting to throw away money they probably owed somebody else.

During the day?

Looked like exactly what it was.

A big-ass building full of naked bitches that wasn’t open yet.

I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and pushed my door open.

“Fuck.”

Getting out the car had become a whole process.

Grab the door.

Push myself up.