Sneak 👀 📖

Ace:

I’m the one with the cut on my cheek. I’m the one who held my hands instead of putting her down. And still, I’m the one riding to a cold-ass cell while she sleeps warm in the house I pay for.

Hours later, I sit on a hard bench, concrete closing in. The buzz of fluorescent lights drills into my skull, humming like they’re mocking me.

I lean back, eyes heavy, and before I know it, I doze off.

And there she is again.

My mother.

I haven’t seen her in months—not like this. But now she’s back, like the dream just picked up where it left off. Only this time, she ain’t yelling, ain’t cussing me out in silence.

This time she sits right next to me on the couch at home, like she never left.

Her hand is warm when she takes mine, her thumb brushing slow over my knuckles the way she used to when I was a boy.

She looks at me with eyes that see straight through all the bravado, all the scars, all the armor I built to survive.

And she says:

“Don’t let the wolf tell you it’s friendly. I don’t care how pretty it is. It’s still a wolf.”

Her words cut through me.

I open my mouth to respond, but before I

can—

BUZZZZ.

The sound rips me out of the dream, jolts me upright. The heavy door clanks and pops open.

“My turn,” I mutter under my breath.

Time to see the judge.

https://a.co/d/fAWtVJw