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“Come here for a minute.”

He walked toward me while taking a drink from his water.

“What you need?” he asked once he put the top back on the bottle.

“Let’s talk in the office.”

He lowered the bottle.

“About what?”

“We’ll talk when we get in there.”

He studied my face for a second before nodding.

“Aight.”

I turned my wheelchair toward the hallway, and he followed me into the office. Once we were inside, MJ closed the door and took a seat across from my desk. I moved my chair into position and looked at him. He looked right back at me.

“What’s going on with you?” I got straight to it.

“Nothing.”

I could already tell that he wasn’t going to just tell me whatever the hell was up, so I started to dig.

“I asked Tahari about Ghost earlier, and neither one of y’all seemed too concerned about finding him.”

MJ took another drink of water.

“I mean, what you want me to say, Pops?”

“I want you to tell me what’s going on.”

“Ain’t nothing going on.”

I leaned back in my wheelchair.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” he asked.

“Sit in my face acting like you don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.”

He looked away for a second before bringing his attention back to me.

“Pops, you’re supposed to be worried about getting better. Ma just came home with the baby. Why you still stressing yourself out about Ghost?”

I stared at him. There it was. He hadn’t answered my question. Instead, he’d tried to turn the conversation around on me.

“Because the last time I checked, that nigga was still out there somewhere.”

MJ shrugged.

“Okay.”

I frowned.

“Okay?” I asked as I squinted my eyes and studied him.