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I still remember the way her fingers trembled when I handed her those keys.
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Not ’cause she was scared of me—Golden never feared me, not really—but ’cause she didn’t know how to accept something without wondering what it would cost her.
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She stood in the middle of the little apartment I found for her—bare walls, hand-me-down furniture, a bed that didn’t squeak with every breath. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she’d had. Hell, it was more than I ever had.
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Golden turned around slowly, keys in her hand. “Why are you doing all this, Maddox?”
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I shrugged like it was nothing, but my throat burned. “You deserve better than an abandoned house and a mom who keeps choosing every dude that lays next to her over you.”
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Her eyes narrowed, voice soft. “So you just gonna play hero now?”
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I looked at her. “I ain’t no hero, Golden. Not even close. I just… I couldn’t sleep at night knowin’ you was out there alone like that. Freezin’. Starvin’. Pretending like none of this shit hurts.”
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She walked toward me. “So what now? You swoop in, give me this place, and what? We act like nothin’ happened? That you didn’t see everything I tried to hide?”
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I hesitated. That was the moment I should’ve told her. Everything. The deal I backed out of. The threats that followed. The bodies that dropped after my name got too loud on the block. I should’ve told her that staying would get her killed.
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But I couldn’t. Not when she finally looked like she had something safe.
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So instead, I looked at her with everything in me. “I love you.”
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Her breath caught. “Say it again.”
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“I love you,” I said, and I meant it more than I meant anything in my life.
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She stepped closer. “Then stay.”
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I smiled through the ache. “You finally got a place that feels like home. You finally got peace. I don’t wanna be the storm that tears it down.”
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“Maddox—”
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I cut her off with a kiss. Soft. Slow. Like I was tryna memorize her lips, the way they moved against mine, the way her fingers gripped the side of my shirt like letting go would break her.
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We didn’t talk much after that.
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I helped her hang a few things on the wall. Made her laugh once or twice. Rolled a blunt we didn’t finish because we just sat on the floor, quiet, pressed against each other.
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She fell asleep with her head on my shoulder. She trusted me enough to sleep.
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That’s when I knew I had to go.
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I laid her down gently, covering her with the blanket I bought at the corner store. I stared at her for a long time—longer than I should’ve. My fingers hovered above her cheek, but I didn’t touch her. I didn’t deserve to leave fingerprints in a life I was walking out of.
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I walked out without saying goodbye.
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No note. No explanation.
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Just the keys in her hand and the ghost of my love lingering in the walls.
