“I also inherited my stubbornness and determination from you. So blame yourself,” she said.

“The determination came from your mother. So did the trait of never knowing when to ask for help or let something go.”

“You’re singing the same old song again. I can take care of myself, and I know what I’m doing.”

Elliot shook his head and scratched at his beard. “You told Dingani you were going to question those drug runners. Just a conversation and you’d let him know when you were done.”

She shrugged. “They were very talkative. I must have lost track of time.”

“Really, Izzy? What about Felix Ginger? Was he talkative?”

“Actually, yes, he was very helpful and hospitable. How did you know—”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re all worried sick about you.”

She sat down beside him on the old brown and yellow couch that she had picked up at a resale shop. It was ugly as sin, but it was hers. She took her father’s hand and said, “I’m a big girl, Papa. This is what I need to do to be whole again.”

Elliot struggled to hold back tears. “And what if this crusade ends your life?”

“Then I’ll have died fighting for something.”

“You’re young. You could have a child of your own.”

She gritted her teeth and looked at the ceiling, which was marred with brown water stains. “We’ve been over this. Why would I bring a child into this world when there are so many already here in need of love? So many kids who were born to a mother like I had.”

“Don’t talk about your mother that way. She was a complicated woman.”

“Complicated? As soon as times got rough, she drained your savings and left us to starve.”

He stood and walked into the kitchen, pulled the vodka from the cabinet and took a swig from the bottle. As he leaned against her counter, he said, “You think I could ever forget what she did. I see her every time I look at you. I’ll probably die in a shack with a dirt floor because of your mother. But I will never speak ill of her, and neither should you.”

“I don’t know how you can defend her.”

“Because she was the love of my life. And, most of all, she gave me you.”

She joined him in the kitchen and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you, Papa.”

“I can’t lose you too.”

“You won’t, but imagine if someone did kill me, what would you do to that person who stole me away from you? Would you hunt them, kill them?”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and met her gaze. “No. That would make me just like them.”

She smiled and kissed him on the forehead. “You’re a good man. An even better father. But I’m not like you. I won’t forget, and I’ll never forgive.”

Chapter 37

Lamar Franklin kept his eyes on the front door and did his best to seem confident and in control. But on the inside, he was nothing but fear and prayer. Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way. The army was supposed to be his “get out of the hood free” card, but instead, joining the military had led him down a path where he had made even worse mistakes than he had during his youth in Oakland.