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He couldn’t.

I squeezed Samantha’s hand so hard she cursed.

“Damn, Heather!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

The contraction peaked.

I closed my eyes.

And somewhere on the other side of the room, I heard Avery ask Xay quietly⁠—

“Who fucked you up?”

My eyes opened.

Xay looked at her.

“Nobody.”

Avery sucked her teeth.

“Clearly somebody did.”

Sam looked back too.

“Exactly. And we’re gonna talk about that.”

Xay shook his head.

“Not right now.”

I almost laughed.

Because apparently that was Xavier Lawless’s favorite fucking sentence whenever one of us asked a question he didn’t want to answer.

Not right now.

Not here.

Later.

Give me time.

Three years of that shit.

I looked at Samantha still holding my hand.

Then Avery sitting across the room.

Then Xay standing by the door with his busted fucking mouth.

All three of them in my delivery room.

And suddenly I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh, cry or tell every motherfucker in there the truth.

Another cramp rolled through my stomach.

Yeah.

Maybe after I got this baby out of me.