Shattered Trust Read Online Free Page A

time, and everybody is bored. Like, she was a real workaholic, and I’ve never known her to take any kind of real extended vacation in her life—even on so-called vacations, she was really working, scheming, schmoozing, hooking up a deal, hustling something.” Najira looked at Jamal and stared at him for a moment. “I think she’s feeling it the most.”
    â€œNot necessarily,” he said quietly, closing the refrigerator door as Najira balanced her armload of food.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Najira waited, and then watched Jamal push away from the appliance to go stare out the window.
    â€œâ€™Jira ... all my life I’ve been hustling, scramblin’, trying to get here.” He turned and looked at her, his expression pained and his tone gentle. “I always wanted to be phat paid, have enough money to never worry about the basics, with extra left over to be able to do whatever I wanted to do. Now I’m here, got that, and ... I can’t explain it, sis. It’s like this empty feeling ... I don’t know. Like living on the edge was the razor that kept me sharp, kept me—I don’t know.”
    She set down the eggs carefully, and placed the sausage beside them as a guard so they didn’t roll off the counter. “I know. Maybe because we’ve got Dad in us.”
    He smiled. “Yeah. The old man was always freedom fighting, always had something to do.”
    She chuckled sadly and reached down a pan from a hook above the center island range. “Be constructive and productive, right?”
    Jamal nodded and let his breath out hard. “Yup. How many times growing up did we hear that?”
    â€œSo, what are we doing?” she asked, beginning to prepare breakfast for her and Steve. “Laura got married,” Najira added quietly. “But she ain’t gonna have no kids, probably.”
    Jamal froze for a moment and then glanced around the kitchen, dropping his voice. “You pregnant?”
    â€œHuh?”
    He closed his eyes and rubbed his palms down his face. “Oh, aw’ight.”
    â€œJamal,” she said, both hands on her hips. “Do I look ready for kids and all that, yet?”
    â€œI’m just saying ...”
    â€œWhat?”
    He glanced around the kitchen again, clearly listening for Steve. “This is the one, ain’t it?”
    She looked away and began breaking eggs into a small bowl, whipping them hard with a fork. “You got a problem with that?”
    â€œSteve’s my boy, I’m just wondering how Pop is gonna take it, long term.”
    For a moment, neither sibling spoke. The only sound in the kitchen was Najira’s frantic destruction of egg yolks.
    â€œHave you really broken it down to Pop how deep this has gotten?” Jamal’s question lingered in the kitchen, blending into the sound of a metal fork hitting the side of a Pyrex bowl.
    â€œI didn’t think it was necessary to tell him who I was sleeping with, if that’s where you’re going.”
    Jamal watched her go back to the refrigerator and extract a stick of butter and several biscuits. She took her time, dropping a pat into the pan and turning the skillet over the heat until the butter melted and coated the bottom of it.
    â€œI’m cool with it, sis,” Jamal said in a mercifully quiet tone that finally made her look up at him. “You just need to be sure you’re really cool with it before you break it down to Pop. You know you’re gonna have to stick to your guns to get him to deal with it. ’Cause you also know he probably had one of the Budweiser king of kings series poster brothers mentally picked out for his baby girl, boo. The gunshot ain’t kill him, but, uh ...”
    â€œI know, don’t even say it,” she muttered, holding up one hand as she stirred hardening eggs around in the pan with a spatula. She watched the slurry begin to congeal in the