Chapter Two: Ink & Instincts- 💔The One Who Left & Came Back 💔
Joy Lawson didn’t expect to find Zion Law asleep on her porch.
But there he was hoodie pulled low, arms crossed like a shield, slouched against the side of her house as if the weight of his choices had finally caught up to him. She paused at the gate, coffee in hand, heart thudding behind her ribs like a silent alarm.
She hadn’t seen him in months well not since she packed her bags, took Cassie, and left San Myshuno for good. Yet somehow, here he was. In her quiet corner of Nordhaven. On her porch. Like the past had followed her up the coast and curled up at her front door.
She walked up slowly and decided to make her presence known.
“Zion.”
He flinched awake, blinking until able to register who it was calling his name.
“Joy…”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Her voice wasn’t raised—but it cut like glass.
“I wanted to see Cassie,”
he said, trying his best to explain through the hurt.
“I didn’t know what time was okay, so I just… waited.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Waited? Or stalked?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“I didn’t stalk you. I—look, I asked around.”
“Asked who, Zion? I moved here to disappear.”
His silence said more than his words ever could. She felt her stomach twist.
“How did you find me?”
she asked, low and sharp now.
“Malaysia,” he admitted. “I ran into her a few weeks back. She said you opened a shop out here. That it was small. Quiet. Thought maybe I’d get lucky.”
Joy let that sink in. Malaysia. Her oldest friend. The only one who even half knew the truth about why she left. The betrayal stung, but she filed it away for later.
Right now, Zion was determined on asking to see the daughter she raised alone while he danced with danger.
“You’re not coming in,”
she finally said.
“We talk out here.”
Zion nodded. No fight. No slick words. Just a man with nowhere else to stand.
He told her he got clean. Got work. Said he was done with the streets, that he wanted to be there for Cassie. That seeing her last time… changed him.
Joy watched him closely. The hood, the bags under his eyes. He looked different but how much of that was real?
“You want to take her for the weekend?”
He nodded.
“Yeah. I do.”
“You follow my rules,” she said. “I get updates—pictures, videos, her voice if she’s too busy to call. I don’t get those? I call the cops.”
“I got you.”
“No girls. No smoke. And if she comes back smelling like regret, that’s the last time this ever happens. You feel me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Don’t make me regret this”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
She turned and walked back into the house to pack Cassie everything she knows Zion won't have at his bachelor pad.
And Zion?
He stared thinking about the rules discussed. Still hoping she meant it when she gave him one last chance.
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She didn’t plan to see him again especially not in Nordhaven. Not like that. Joy Lawson built a new life, brick by brick, tattoo by tattoo… but when Zion showed up asleep on her porch, everything she buried came clawing back.
She gave him a weekend with their daughter. But she didn’t give him her trust.
This isn’t a love story. It’s a test.
🖤 Joy’s story continues. And she’s not here for second chances unless they come with receipts.
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