The night after the storm felt heavier than the one before.
Ivie sat alone in her room, the green hoodie draped over her head like a crown of shadows. The laughter from outside—the gang gathered around the fire pit again—felt distant, muffled, like it belonged to a world she no longer trusted.
The message had arrived just after sundown.
A note, tucked inside the pouch of her hoodie. No one saw who delivered it. No one ever did.
"You can run, BB. But you can't hide from a King. I see you. I've always seen you."
— Zino
Her hands trembled as she read it again. Zino knew. He had known from the moment he looked into her eyes. That calm, dangerous knowing. Not like Rico's desperate need to win her over. Zino saw through her armor and wanted her anyway—not to love her, but to own her.
And yet… a part of her wasn't scared. A part of her—small, sick, and silent—felt… drawn to him.
Meanwhile, Rico stood by the old shed with his fists clenched around a bottle of cheap gin. The fight had bruised his ego more than his knuckles. Zino had humiliated him in front of Ivie. And she didn't even defend him.
He replayed the moment in his mind—Zino calling her BB. The way her eyes widened for half a second. That was enough. That was betrayal.
Mama Tee approached him from behind, wrapping a shawl tighter around her small frame. "You're losing her, boy."
Rico turned, startled. "What do you mean?"
"She's not just a girl from the street. You know that, but you pretend not to. And that other one—the King—he knows who she is. He sees the part of her you keep ignoring."
Rico gritted his teeth. "She chose this life."
"She's running," Mama Tee said gently. "You just don't know what from."
That night, Ivie lay awake, the letter from Zino hidden beneath her pillow. Her mind raced with the weight of two men, two truths, and one past she couldn't erase.
In the quiet, her thoughts drifted back…
Flashback — Three Years Ago
She sat at a gala in Lagos, wearing a million-naira emerald dress and a fake smile. Her father's hand gripped her thigh under the table—reminding her to smile wider when Senator Lawson looked her way.
She had everything money could buy.
And nothing her soul could breathe through.
When she'd escaped weeks later, no one believed she had left it all behind willingly. They called her insane. Ungrateful. A disgrace.
That's when BB was born.
That's when Ivie buried the real her.
Back in the present, dawn crawled in slowly. The gang would soon gather for a new mission. Rico hadn't spoken to her since the fight. Mama Tee avoided her eyes. Zino was watching from the shadows.
And Ivie… was beginning to lose herself again.