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“Hey, you,” I whispered.

Another little movement answered me. I rubbed my stomach slowly as my eyes filled with tears, but for once, I didn’t fight them. These weren’t the same tears I’d cried at the hospital. I was grateful. That was all. Lord knows that I had grieved enough for two lifetimes. So, this blessing was something that I was so thankful for.

There had been a moment today when I didn’t know if I would ever hear my husband’s voice again. I didn’t know if I would have to go home and explain to our children that their father wasn’t coming back. I didn’t know if the little boy growing inside of me would enter this world without ever getting the chance to be held by his daddy. But Malik was still here. I looked at myself in the mirror and thought about how much time people spent wanting things. A bigger house. More money. Another car. More success. Something newer, something better, something somebody else had. Shit, I had wanted things too. But tonight, standing in the bathroom of a house filled with everything I had once prayed for, none of that mattered to me.

“I don’t want more,” I whispered.

I just wanted peace. I wanted my husband to be home beside me. I wanted my children to be safe in their beds. I wanted to have this baby and watch Malik hold his son. I wanted ordinary mornings where somebody left dishes in the sink and Maylee was yelling from upstairs because she couldn’t find something sitting directly in front of her. I wanted Maliah coming through the door talking too loud, MJ eating something I had specifically told him I was saving, and Malik getting on my nerves simply because he was there to do it.

I wanted the kind of life people forgot to appreciate while they were busy asking God for something bigger. Tonight, I didn’t need bigger. I just simply needed what was already mine to stay safe. I wiped the tears from underneath my eyes and stepped out of my underwear before carefully walking into the shower. Warm water hit my shoulders and ran down my body, and I stood beneath it without moving. Whitney continued playing softly on the other side of the glass.

I lowered my head and finally let out the breath I felt like I’d been holding since the hospital called.

Chapter 7

Penelope

The navigation announced that I had arrived, but for a second, I thought it had taken me to the wrong place. I slowed the car as I approached the gated entrance in front of me and glanced down at the address MJ had shared one more time. The numbers matched, but I still found myself looking between my phone and the property beyond the gate. MJ had mentioned his parents’ house plenty of times. He had failed to mention that his parents lived on an estate.

Tall gates stretched across the entrance with stone columns on either side, and beyond them, a long driveway disappeared into the property. I pulled closer and lowered my window when I noticed a keypad mounted beside the driver’s side. A small camera sat above it, pointed directly toward my car.

“Okay…”

I sighed as I pushed my glasses higher on my nose and leaned toward the keypad. I was trying to figure out whether I was supposed to call MJ or press something on the intercom.

My phone vibrated before I could do either.

Mj: 1026#

I looked toward the camera. Of course he could see me. I entered the code, and a second later, the gates slowly began opening. The farther apart they moved, the more of the property I could see. I drove through and followed the driveway toward the house. Calling it a house didn’t even feel right. The place was massive, sitting farther back on the property with landscaping surrounding it and exterior lights illuminating the front. Even in the dark, I could see enough to know the Brownes were living very differently from anything I had imagined when MJ casually talked about going home. I glanced around as I drove.

“You could’ve mentioned the mansion, MJ.”

Under different circumstances, I would’ve had plenty to say about his humbleness when it came to his family. Tonight, I barely had time to take everything in before I saw him. MJ was standing outside near the front door waiting for me. Whatever curiosity I’d had about the property disappeared. I parked, grabbed my purse from the passenger seat, and got out. He didn’t move as I walked toward him. That bothered me immediately. MJ was usually the type to have something to say before I even made it close enough to hear him properly. He would have had a joke, a comment about how long I took… something.

Tonight, he just watched me approach. The closer I got, the more exhausted he looked.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey.”

He opened the door and stepped aside for me. I walked in, and the first thing that registered was how quiet everything was. The house was beautiful. I could tell that much without trying. High ceilings, more space than anybody needed, and the kind of furniture that made me automatically think twice about where I put my purse. But none of it held my attention for long. MJ closed and locked the door behind me.

When he turned around, I finally got a good look at him. His eyes were red. Not enough that I would’ve noticed from a distance, but standing this close, there was no hiding it. Exhaustion was written across his face, and his shoulders seemed heavier than I had ever seen them. All the questions I’d been holding onto during the drive disappeared. There was a table by the front door, and instantly, I set my purse down.

“Come here.”

Something shifted in his expression. I wasn’t asking him; I was telling him.

MJ crossed the small distance between us, and the second my arms went around him, his went around me just as tightly. I wasn’t prepared for how hard he held me. His arms locked around my waist while his face dropped into the space between my neck and shoulder. I wrapped one arm around his back and brought the other up behind his head, holding him without asking him to tell me anything. For a while, he didn’t. He just stood there. Then I felt him release a long breath against my neck. My eyes closed.

Whatever had happened, he had been carrying it for a while. I rubbed my hand slowly across his back.

“I got you.”

I didn’t even know what had happened yet, and I was there for him. His arms tightened around me. That was all I said. This wasn’t the time for questions or asking why he hadn’t answered me or telling him how worried I’d been. None of that mattered anymore.

Eventually, MJ lifted his head, but he didn’t completely let me go. His hands remained around my waist while he looked down at me.