The Stepbrother 2: Noah

Creed-

"Alright, I fucking hear you." I woke up to Noah yelling and pacing the room, completely naked.

He hung up the phone and looked as if he was ready to throw it against the wall.

“What is it?”

He stared at me with that perturbed look he sometimes had when he was angry.

“Maine claims Devon had her sign custody papers under false pretenses.

Then yesterday morning he went to your parents' house with the police to pick up DJ.

Troy busted his jaw. Now he’s been arrested, and they won’t give him bond because of his two other assault charges.”

Devon had lost his fucking mind.

I pulled myself up from the bed, feeling my stomach twist.

I ran to the bathroom.

After throwing up and brushing my teeth, I went back into the room. Noah had dressed by then.

“I have to go see what I can do for your father.”

I hurried to throw on some clothes, silently thanking the heavens that I was getting out of that basement.

Noah had been making me FaceTime with an actual therapist.

I was Black; we didn’t do the whole head-shrinker thing.

It felt awkward, spilling my feelings to a stranger.

After getting dressed, I waited for Noah to stop typing on his phone and let us out.

I knew he had a way out besides the one he claimed.

He looked up at me, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.

“I said I was going.

The only way you get out of here today is if we’re married.”

My mouth fell open.

Instinctively, I took a step back.

“There’s no way I’m marrying you,” I yelled.

"How in the hell do you have my momma's wedding dress?"

When I was thirteen, Momma and Daddy got remarried for some reality show money.

Momma wore a black, gothic-style mermaid dress with a silk train attached.

I talked about that dress for weeks.

I said I would get married in it, but the show took it back, so I knew it wasn’t really hers, but it was still her dress.

“I had it made for you.”

My heart skipped a beat.

He remembered.

“When?”

“Five years ago.”

I frowned.

“Why five years ago?”

He gave me this cheesy smile that annoyed me and endeared me to him at the same time.

“I knew when you took my innocence in the back of Maine's van that I was going to marry you.”

This man was truly crazy, but I couldn’t let him know how much he affected me in a good way.

Before I could say something slick or sassy, there was a knock at the door.

We were in the house of the judge who was going to marry us.

Everybody knew if you needed something to look legal and had the money, Scarpetta was the judge to call.

I wouldn’t say I was getting married by force, but I was under slight duress. It was better to go along with the things Noah made up in his head than to fight. I’d get an annulment, but at least I’d get to wear the wedding dress I’d dreamed of.

Of course, Noah couldn’t just take us to the courthouse.

He had to be extra.

But I guess getting fake-married at a beautiful Victorian-style house was better than waiting in line at the courthouse, surrounded by strangers, while also waiting for the lawyers Noah had hired to get Daddy out.

Daddy’s own lawyers were too busy and had sent a junior associate to handle things for him.

I was all for supporting Black women, but this lady, Simone, just didn’t look like she could dominate a courtroom like we needed her to.

Daddy had assaulted one too many people in his career. This might be the one that actually got him put in prison if Devon wanted to be an asshole.

Noah let in a makeup artist to get me ready.

“Noah,”

I called after him before he closed the door to get himself ready, “your mother’s best friend took your innocence.

Don’t put that lie on me.”

I sniggered.

He shook his head.

“We have a lifetime to teach you to express your feelings for me without snark.

Love you too, Creed,”

he said before closing the door.

Two middle-aged Black women, who looked like sisters with relaxed hair and natural faces, cooed and hooted.

“White boys were never my thing, but they didn’t look like him back in the day,”

one lady said.

“Or we didn’t notice,”

the other chimed in.

After an hour and a half, I looked at myself in the mirror.

I looked gorgeous with my hair all blown out and curly.

The dress hugged every curve I had—all the right ones, at least.

I’d seen my reflection countless times, but today was different. My eyes seemed more alive, my skin had a glow, and my lips had this soft, rosy hue. But it wasn’t just the makeup and hair that made me look this way. It was the fact that, for the first time, I was actually okay with the thought of marrying Noah. If I closed my eyes, I could see a future with him and our child in it, and that freaked me out.

“Oh, she’s a runner,”

I heard one of the ladies say.

That’s when I realized I was moving, had already opened the door, and was halfway down the hallway.

Something in me was determined to save me from my own foolishness, even if my heart was ready to give in.

I had tunnel vision.

I made it down three flights of stairs and then collided with what felt like a wall—until the wall reached down to help me up from the floor.

“Jason? How are you here?”

“I came to rescue you, little sister, only to find out I’m about to be an uncle and you’re about to get married.”

I stared at his face.

“I’m not getting married.

How did you know I was here?”

“Because of me,”

Tempest stepped out from behind Jason.

“What did you do, Tempest?”

I had seen that guilty look on her face before.

“Where’s your child? Why are you here?”

She squared her shoulders and raised her chin.

“I helped Noah kidnap you,”

she blurted out, then took a step back.

I surprised myself by laughing.

Jason and Tempest stared at me like I’d grown another head.

“You know this means you owe me, Tempest.

Anything.

And you know what that means.”

Her face dropped.

“The whole thing?”

“The entire penis.”

She nodded.

“When all this mess is over.

I did it for your own good, you know.

You’re just being a butthole.”

She’d dangled the fact that AJ’s equipment was legendary in my face days after we met, like I wasn’t going to want to see it.

Now I was finally going to get my chance.

Satisfied, I pushed past Jason and headed for the front door.

I pulled it open and came face to face with Noah and the judge, a tall, elderly white man with almost no hair, who looked like he was having trouble standing upright.

Somewhere, someone started singing.

“You’re the jagged edge to my torn-out seam.

In a world of crumpled pages.

Two hearts, battered but not broken.

A love raw, real, and genuine…”

I looked to my right and saw Mrs.

Justice singing my momma’s song better than she ever did.

Mrs.

Justice grew up with my momma.

She was rumored to be involved with two brothers whose parents had adopted her.

My momma told me to mind my business and not believe rumors when I asked, but I was almost positive it was true. I remember when I was little, peeking through the fence and seeing her dancing naked and singing for one or the other brother, sometimes both. Everybody said she was crazy because she’d watched her entire family be killed by her daddy, and she still didn’t believe her sister was gone. Her story was sad, but she always seemed happy and taken care of. The brothers were always with her, like now, watching her like she was their world.

“Here.”

Noah shoved a bouquet into my arms.

“I knew you’d run.”

“You don’t know me.”

Tempest stepped up next to me, and Jason joined her.

I hadn’t even noticed Jason was wearing a black suit with a vest and jacket, and Tempest had on a flowy floral dress with her hair big and pretty.

Noah… he looked so handsome in his black tuxedo.

The sun was at his back, framing him like an angel.

I heard the judge say something, and then Noah started speaking.

“Creed, I’ve loved you since before I even understood what I was feeling.

I just knew I would do anything to see you smile and laugh, even if it meant I had to endure your bites with those little chipmunk teeth.

As broken as I am, I never thought I had a chance, but then you…”

he smiled, “I won’t tell that part.

You know what you did.

But even after everything, you’re everything I don’t deserve, and yet everything I’d give all to have.

I embrace every part of you. Your passion, your anger, your crazy, your spoiled, your mean, your vicious, and your loving and caring. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Tempest leaned in to wipe my face.

I hadn’t even realized I was crying.

That pissed me off.

I hated crying. I wasn’t weak. Everybody was watching me, waiting for me to say something, to do something other than cry. “You suck,”

I sobbed.

“But I love you too.

Those are my vows.”

I wiped away my tears with the back of my hands, rose to my tiptoes, and pecked Noah on the lips.

“Now, can we go get my daddy? I really need one of his hugs.

Bye, Tempest,”

I said without looking at her.

She didn’t need to see me crying.

I pushed past Noah and headed for his car parked in the driveway.

I didn’t want to talk about anything that had happened in the last hour. My brain couldn’t process it.

I was sitting in the passenger seat with my train in my lap and my heels in the backseat when Noah joined me in the car.

He gently took my hand and slid a ring onto my finger—a single band of diamonds—before making a show of sliding an identical band onto his finger.

“Instead of taking you home and ripping you out of this dress, I’m taking you to your daddy now, wife.

You better behave when we see Scarlett. I have a feeling your snark and her shock at seeing you in her dress, combined with our news, might be too much for her. She might combust or beat your ass.”

He laughed.

Jason tapped frantically on my window.

Noah lowered it.

“You look beautiful, sister, and congrats on your marriage.

I’m telling you this now, before Maine can weaponize it against me, and I want to start by saying I’m sorry for lying, but I never had cancer.

I used the money you gave me to send Vincent’s daughter away because I didn’t want him to find out I might have impregnated her while also having an affair with him.”

“What in the fuck, Jason? Why would you tell her that now?”

I heard Noah curse.

Shocked, I watched Jason jog off towards the street as I sat there, thinking about how fucking toxic and dysfunctional my family was.

How in the hell were me and Noah the most stable ones?