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I gave him a small, tired smile.

“No. I choose men who choose me.”

He didn’t answer.

His breathing started to slow again, exhaustion creeping in. The sickness was winning little by little. He hated that.

I stood up and adjusted his blanket.

“I’m going to see her,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because somebody should have seen me.”

I walked toward the door, then paused.

“You built an empire,” I said without turning around. “Don’t let it be remembered for breaking women to hold it up.”

Then I left him there with that.

CHAPTER 14

Ares

“This Used To Feel Easy”

Los Angeles felt different when you owned pieces of it.

Private hangar. Black truck waiting. City waking up under morning haze while I slid on my shades and stepped back into my lane.

France was politics.

LA was mine.

I had to come home and act like my life wasn’t upside down. Azaria was in France, detoxing, probably giving the staff a hard time, yelling at the top of her lungs, but she couldn’t run away. So I needed to use this time to get out of the house before my crew was telling me I had to fly back.

By the time I walked into my label office, the energy had already shifted. Phones ringing. Beats leaking through studio walls. Staff moving like the building had a pulse.

My assistant, Darius, looked up first.

“Welcome back, Mr. Jackson. Busy day.”

“Always,” I muttered, handing him my duffel.

He started listing meetings, but my attention shifted down the hall where voices bounced off the glass.

My sisters. Big Ghost’s only other kids I promised to look after.

“Oh, yeah. They definitely are on your list of meetings. You might as well get them out of the way first,” Darius suggested.

I walked off and stepped into the conference room.

Raina and Nia Jackson.

Raina was the lyricist.

Nia was the digital artist.