Inevitably Love. (Complicated #2)

Chapter 21

Twenty-One

“ L ook who’s here, Mr. Williams!” the aid announced cheerily as they always did here. “It’s your brother, Mr. Patterson! You knew he wouldn’t miss your birthday. You’re such a lucky guy to have your only relative never forget about your special day.” Then she turned to me and winked. “Enjoy the celebration visit!”

I gave a quick nod as I smiled. She closed the door, leaving us alone. I took a moment to glance around the small room. The walls held generic artwork of peaceful scenery. One portrait was at an angle, showing water from a river running through rocks. Another was an aerial view of a farm and the plowed acres behind it. And of course, there was one of a beach populated with faceless people in swimsuits. These were images he could focus on while being immobile and mute.

Then my attention landed on him. I smiled. “Terry.” He sat in his medical chair near the window. His only view was an empty backyard with a patchy lawn area. “Are you counting the squirrels?” I scoffed, pulling over the only other chair in the room to sit across from him. “I’ve been doing lots of reflecting lately, my guy,” I shared honestly. “And I’m sure you can appreciate that because…” I flung my hand. “…all you’ve had the ability to do for years now is explore the length of your mind. I’d be a fool to believe you don’t revisit memories.

“Well, I have. See, I’ve had a recent twist of circumstantial events to hit my world this year. Shit that will change my life forever.” I swiped my nose with my thumb. “I’m gonna be a father. Yup. I’ve been a father for seventeen years but not to a child I created. I took on Mandy’s problems and made them mine. But this time, by circumstance, I’ve become a father. And man, I know you never experienced this but…expecting a baby makes you reflect on your life. Makes you wanna clean up the messy shit you let fester for years because you want a cleaner life for your incoming child.

“And in revisiting some shit in my past, I realized I’ve lived a thousand lives on this one journey.” I chuckled. “Remember that time we met at Fort Dix ? I was dropping off equipment, and the receiving officer couldn’t take her eyes off me. She wanted the kid, I knew, but I had a girl at the time—a child, too. So, I didn’t throw the signals back at her. Then you returned from the restroom and caught on. Your miserable, jealous ass spilled coffee on the paperwork.” I yanked at the end of one of my braids. “Man, it took almost an hour to replace the documents. Set me back half a day, and my commanding officer was on my ass that night.” I took a moment to think about that.

Then I recalled meeting back up with Terry in life since then. He’d gotten in trouble and was dishonorably discharged himself.

“Remember the next time we ran into each other was a couple of years later in Miami? You were down bad. Down there with some white chick who was a showrunner for CBS . You were drunk as hell, talking out your ass about how miserable you were. How you felt so empty and useless after losing your military bros. You said your mother had died a couple years earlier and you were an only child.” A hard hoot left my belly when I asked, “Remember you said when you got the money, you were going to hunt down your father and put a bullet in his head for leaving you as a kid? You said that muthafucka ain’t never come back around.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But that night at the bar you said you had to take a leak and stumbled off to the restroom. I was down there on an assignment but off at that particular time and had gone out for a drink.” I laughed. “Not even three minutes later, I heard you shouting from where I sat. Someone came out saying a girl was found fuckin’ in the restroom and her boyfriend had caught her in the act.” I shrugged. “I didn’t think much of it and went back to my drink. But when a fight broke out back there with all the furniture moving and wall-knocking that comes with it, I gave it my attention.”

I couldn’t help but laugh again. “I’ll be damned if it wasn’t your dumb ass fighting the white boy while his pants were down to his knees.” I pointed my index finger in the air. “Dude was holding his own against your blows. Then his friend jumped in, and you went to wailing on his ass. That gave the first white boy time to pull up his pants before rejoining the fight. I cracked the fuck up when your shortie from CBS jumped in, telling you to leave them alone.”

Still laughing, I shook my head. “White people shit. Her drunk ass was swinging on you. But you held it down, putting in work, whooping on them muthafuckas. I was watching your technique. You knocked one of them out and broke the other one’s nose while avoiding hitting your girl. And I sat back and watched you fight all white people as a Black man. It was a true depiction of what it’s like for some Black men to survive in America. Then a third guy jumped in. That’s when it got interesting.

“Your drunk ass managed to stay afoot. Energy still up! But when I saw the third guy pull out a knife, I decided to intervene.” I shook my head. “I couldn’t let you go down like that. While getting you out of there without more people trying to jump on your ass, all I could think about was what could you have done if you weren’t drunk. Man, your hostility skills piqued my interest. Then my dumb ass felt sorry for you. I guess it was the na?ve Waldwick in me who thought it was a good idea to fly you back to Jersey with me. I let you have meals with my family, took you to the security outfit I was working for at the time, and walked you through the application process.”

Staring out the window at…nothing, I remembered it all. “I practically dusted your shoes off and gave you my life, minus my family.” My brows lifted in revelation. “Or so, I thought. You got on your feet and traveled, providing high-level security to elite clientele all over the globe as I did. We kept in touch, but didn’t see each other again until Mexico.” My hand subconsciously went to my mouth as I nodded. “That’s when I got my first taste of how disloyal you were. Later, I’d be forced to eat a heap of that shit from you.”

Terry and I were dispatched to cover a billionaire Saudi who took his girlfriend home to Mexico City to ask her family’s hand in marriage. The client made sure he was overly secured, bringing his personal armed men—us—and a local outfit. We stayed in a small spot near the hotel our client had been staying in for the trip. Each night, once we were off, Terry would venture out to the local bar. He hooked up with this woman, a Mexican chick, for the duration of our trip.

One night, I’d fallen asleep alone while Terry was out being Terry. I was awakened by terrifying screams outside my window. It was Terry’s girl, screaming and chasing after the car we were assigned to while there. Down to just my boxers, I ran out and asked her what was going on. She began running off in the opposite direction while yelling Terry bet some guy from a local gang in Tute, a card game. She said Terry cheated. And when the man confronted him about it, he was able to prove it. So, Terry had to triple their bet.

Terry asked to go back to our place for the money. The guy agreed, but said he’d send a few of his goons behind Terry. The motherfucker came inside while I was asleep to collect all of his shit. He’d left me and the chick to fend for ourselves. The woman did right by running. But by the time I’d gotten inside to pull my pants on, the door of the apartment was kicked in and about four motherfuckers barged inside. That night, I fought for my fucking life.

“Thank god them muthafuckas in Mexico weren’t gun-poppers or my ass would be dead.” I snickered. “I battled through. I think I fought too hard and too well because I managed to knock two of them bitches out before they went to town on my ass. They bust my mouth the fuck up, knocking out a few of my teeth. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for two months. Couldn’t see my family until my face healed. And even then, they had to see me with five missing teeth.”

I scoffed, “Mehki don’t even remember seeing me like that for months until I got my whole shit redone.” I ran my tongue over my top and bottom teeth. “It’s a good thing the pay was good at the agency. Huhn? I wanted to kill you after that, man. Like…for real. The only reason I didn’t was because of my son. Mandy was a wild one and Troy, his biological father, was still in them streets. I wanted to be around to raise my son. And shit, if taking my damn teeth wasn’t enough for you, you had to steal my girl, too.”

My head tossed back, and I hollered hard as hell. It was mostly at my na?ve ass. I was a strong kid, just not smart enough to know I should have never hooked up with a girl like Mandy’s troubled ass in the first place. We fought more than we fucked. Mandy said she needed security, and when I gave it to her by moving her and her son into my family’s home, providing financially for them both, she complained it wasn’t enough. She said I worked too much, was away from her and the baby all the time. I tried explaining it was the way I earned a living.

When my father died, I had to fire off from all cylinders. Yes, my mother earned well independently, but the lady had always been my partner. My father raised me to choose her life over his and to care for her if he went first.

Chuckling again, I asked his stoic existence, “You know who told me you were fuckin’ on my girl?” My eyes went to the bandage on my hand. “Azmir Jacobs. He had been scouting me, having his team investigate me to apply for the role I’m in now.” I shrugged. “And I knew Mandy wasn’t keeping her nose clean, but I thought she had, at least, been keeping it a little low. I mean… My mother mentioned hearing questionable comments Mandy would make in her presence while on the phone, which tipped me off. But I was too busy busting my ass in the field, providing for my family, and most of all, learning who I was outside of being Sergeant Patterson’s protégé.”

I flexed my injured hand, enduring the pain. “I loved combat—still do. I need the adrenaline rush. I get off on physically dominating bad guys. You see how I’ve tortured you all these years.” Shrugging again, I explained, “But here’s where it ends. This’ll be your last time seeing and hearing from me. I thought that day back in Za’Ka, Québec would be the last time I’d see you. I was coming to kill you. But just like at that bar in Miami, I had no idea the girl I was fighting for was going to rescue you by attacking me.” I shook my head. “When will my dumb ass ever learn?”

Taking a deep breath, I continued, “It may not have seemed as though I did, but I did win in the end. Mandy, who left our young son with his crackhead aunt, thinking Troy would take Mehki from his sister, flew up to Canada to fuck you. Did I mention said aunt threatened to kill my son during an argument she and Mandy had gotten into about a year prior to the drop off? Did she tell you that? I’m sure she told you she cleared the bank account we shared before boarding the plane for the flight you paid for.”

I scratched my scalp, still stunned by it all. “She didn’t even have the decency to leave him with my mother. The Winfrey’s never looked after Ki. Well, Mandy fucked you and discovered the other side of the na?ve kid from Waldwick. But I bet you, like so many other people, wonder if it was me who shot the bullet sending you and Mandy in the air and into a tree. Am I right? The shit left her dead and you with severe brain trauma. What’re they called again?” I snapped my fingers. “Pons? Yeah. I think that’s it.”

I gave Terry a final onceover. “But all things must come to an end. I was talking to my girl earlier this week, out by the water. She shared with me a sermon a pastor she knows preached. It was about the importance of letting shit go. Something about it balancing karmic waves, or some shit. You, my enemy, are the piece of shit I’m letting go. Have a nice life, Jackson.”

I checked my wrist for the time on my way out. It was after four in the afternoon. Then I checked my phones and saw no messages from her car service.

I know this frustrating woman ain’t still in Harlem …

I was excited as fuck to leave this depressed place and take off for my real life. My new life. Damn, did I feel a thousand pounds lighter!

Today was turning out to be the longest ever. I don’t know why I thought flying in from Red’s Island at seven in the morning to head straight to my eleven o’clock O.B. appointment, then check in at work was a great idea. I was tired as hell after not getting much sleep last night. Ishaan warned me of this when we parted ways just outside of Dr. Brown’s office. But I was still upset with his covert ass from what I’d learned last night about Ebonee Williams.

Now, I was in Harlem. Work was like home to me. And as much of a good time as I’d had on Red’s Island , minus that bullshit with Ebonee, it felt damn good to be home. That was until I discovered gross mishaps of communication on Mika’s part. The Stay on Code Foundation , powered by ADJ Enterprise , had requested action items to close the deal on their sponsorship on Tuesday. I instructed Mika to submit the requested items and even provided in-depth instructions. She’d had access to office supplies I didn’t while out in the Caribbean. Today was Friday, and the deal could have been finalized, but we were still in limbo because of her lack of action.

When I asked about it, Mika didn’t look like herself at all. She admitted to her infraction and requested a leave of absence. I asked why, and she shared about having fallen down a rabbit hole of searching for her unrequited lover on social media. That was what she’d been doing all week since I was gone. Mika was holed up in my office on several social media platforms searching for a kitchen worker in Vegas.

I didn’t grant her request for time off. So, angry and fearing offending her, I asked Mika to take the rest of the day off. Since then, I’d been working frantically to get the foundation all they’d requested. Then I busied myself with notifying other smaller, yet necessary, donors of our new funder, The Stay on Code Foundation . I was sure to email Maureen at Keller Woods Foundation , cc’ing Jack and Kathy’s asses. It had been a busy afternoon for me. I’d hardly eaten the burger and fries from B-Way Burger Laura managed to snag for me earlier.

Laying back in my office chair, I exhaled hard, hand going to my belly. A boy. I’m having a boy. What the hell am I going to do with a boy? Shit. What the hell would I do with a girl? I didn’t know, but I was ready to try it out. Everything seemed so grayish in my world. I had not confirmed the paternity results, neither that of the sex of the baby. I didn’t have a home to call my own to bring said baby to. And most troubling of all, my fucking heart was in danger.

I may have decided to excuse the issue with Ebonee, but I couldn’t deny being angry about it. Last night, I struggled to sleep, pondering what if Ebonee had gotten pregnant before me—if the timeline was set up that way. What if Ishaan didn’t attend Azmir’s birthday party? What if I hadn’t? If he hadn’t learned of my pregnancy, he would have never tried to align his world with mine. That obligation could have been paid to Ebonee. My existence was simply that replaceable.

Then, that fucking Ebonee Williams! I admired her…was inspired by her career and public presentation. That bitch had targeted me, and I fell for the okie doke. Wait till I tell Sundryia . She’ll probably want to beat her ass. What if Ebonee decided to use the last embryo? It would mean I’d have to share Ishaan. But in what way? We’d been in an intimate relationship. Would he want that with Ebonee, too? I mean ... Ishaan’s and my relationship had been manufactured by circumstance. At best, our natural chemistry would take us to bed, not into a committed relationship. How far could we go without a solid foundation?

Could I live with my child having a sibling the same age as him but with a different mother? Possibly, yeah. With time, I could adjust to practically anything. Could I share Ishaan with another woman? Fuck no! The thought of it made me sad instantly.

“So, your ass just won’t listen. Huhn?”

I leaped in my seat a little, eyes flying up to find Lex. She was rubbing her stomach with both hands.

“Is that contagious?” I glanced down at my mommy pouch. “You got an announcement to make, boss lady?”

“Hell, no! I’m PMS’ing. Been dealing with this and a damn migraine just about all day. But you ain’t acknowledge my question.”

I sighed, looking away. “Trust me: I didn’t come back a second too soon. It’s all good.”

“Where’s your deputy? She’s been shut-in with the door closed most days since you’ve been gone.”

“I sent her home early.”

“Why?”

I hesitated. “She needed a…longer weekend.”

“Why?”

That’s when my eyes met hers. “Boss lady?—”

“ Uhn-uhn! Don’t pull that no snitching shit with me. I know all about it. I’m a Harlem pride chick all day. And I was managing folks of all ages, stages, and shades before I got here to Christ Cares . If Mika can’t perform her day-to-day duties because she got popped on a one-night stand, then she needs to explore the possible breach in her mental health.”

My eyes stretched wide. “How did you…”

“I know lots. Folks talk around here. Mika has been off since y’all came back from Vegas. Both you and her returned with a gut full of human. Mika decided to abort hers. Hormonally, she needed time to recalibrate. But that was seven months ago. If your deputy can’t pull herself together to function in her real world, Mika’s gonna have issues beyond filing for unemployment.”

I scoffed, “Nah, Lex. Mika ain’t mental.”

“Then she’s playing your naive ass and you’re letting her. Don’t try to save her and ignore the mission here, girlie.” Then something seemed to have gotten her attention in the hallway. “Well, look a’ here.” Lex turned to me with a rueful grin. “I think you may have an alpha on your hands, girl.”

Confused, I just stared at Lex until Ishaan joined her in the doorjamb. Lex and I were about the same height, so he didn’t tower over her too much with his extreme length.

His smirk and bandaged hand reviving dark memories spiked my nipples. “What is it with you women and this alpha-labeling thing? I’m just coming here to collect this very expectant beauty. It’s after five on a Friday evening.”

Lex turned to me. “See! An alpha. I’m married to one. I can spot an alpha from a mile away. The only reason I’m here at this hour is because Bishop Carmichael is speaking at a church where I had to DDT a bitch who tried to fondle my husband at the altar.”

Ishaan’s head whipped her way. My jaw dropped. “When?”

She shrugged. “A few years back. The pastor’s daughter. We agreed she wouldn’t attend service when my husband’s visiting, and I’ll sit them out. Anyway, don’t forget what I told you about protecting the mission here. Consider that my first warning.” She low key threatened me before sauntering away. “I’m off to gymnastics.”

Ishaan’s handsome face was wrinkled with confusion when he ambled inside. “You getting occupational warnings?”

I rolled my eyes, bringing my elbows to rest on the desk. “Yeah,” I sighed. “My opportunity with The Stay on Code Foundation has been in limbo all because of an obsession from a rendezvous with a cross-eyed man at a buffet station in Sikukuu ,” I muttered, feeling frustrated.

“ Sikukuu ? At HAYDAR Resort & Casino ?”

“How did you know? I mean…” Duh! It’s his place of business .

But I’d only said a name. That restaurant could have been anywhere.

“My CEO is obsessed with naming every aspect of his business something representing Black culture. Sikukuu means feast in Swahili. It’s our only buffet room on the property. But what about a cross-eyed man?”

“I wasn’t exactly that politically correct in my satire but, yeah...” I sighed.

“Hayden.”

“Yes!” I snapped.

“Stay focused, baby. It’s been a long day. Time to get you home. But who are you referring to?”

My eyes circled, and I whispered, “I can’t speak about it here.” I stood to begin shutting down my office. “I don’t want the building to know.”

Just as I stepped outside, Jonathan shouted, “Oh, hey, Mr. Patterson!” Then he cannonballed into the deep end of the pool.

“Poppy!” Mehki’s voice carried over the music they’d been vibing to. He was sitting on the ledge next to Jessica.

I performed a hand salute. An odd thought ran through my mind. I don’t want to be a grandfather yet. I was still young. Shit. I was about to have a baby my damn self. Jessica and Mehki’s juxtaposition was too conversant. They were always hugged up. The two were also just kids.

“You back, back?” he bellowed playfully.

I nodded. “Just finished dinner with your Nanu,” I shouted back.

Then I felt her hand on my lower back. Hayden rounded me, sporting a big ass beam. “Hey, Mehki!”

There was a pause before Mehki replied, “Hi, Ms. Hayden.”

“Hi there, Jessica!” Hayden waved.

“ Hiiiii! ” Jessica returned in a friendly manner.

“What’s his name?” Hayden asked me in a whisper.

“That’s Jonathan.”

“Hi, Jonathan!” She waved again. “My name is Hayden.”

“How you doing, Hayden?” Jonathan returned respectfully, doggy paddling in the water.

“Miss,” Mehki corrected him.

“I mean Ms. Hayden,” Jonathan repeated out of breath.

“How was your trip, Ms. Hayden?” Jessica asked.

“It was amazing! Absolutely amazing, but still…” she paced herself. “…one significant thing was missing.” She held her index finger in the air.

Jessica’s face wrinkled in confusion. “What’s that?”

“Mehki didn’t get a chance to experience the villas for the first time with me. It was really dope. Your dad’s hard work paid off. I think you’ll love your room there. The best view!”

Mehki managed a cheesy smile. It felt polite and appropriate in the moment. However, I knew my son inside and out. Ki wasn’t biting. He wasn’t ready to accept Hayden. My son wasn’t open.

“A’ight, y’all,” I shouted and waved. “We’re taking it down for the night. Ki, be ready for me in the morning. Seven even, and not a fuckin’ minute later!”

I felt Hayden leap next to me. I’d startled her.

I held the bath loofah in the air and let water from it trickle down onto her shoulders. “Why did you say that thing about regretting not seeing Ki on Red’s Island ?”

She shrugged. “It would’ve been nice to develop a deeper connection with a second person while out there.”

My lips pouted. “You developed a deeper connection with me?”

“Before we go there, let me just say, I really want your son to like me. It’s something I’ve always struggled with.”

“What?”

“Wanting to fit in.”

“You didn’t even want to share the same air as me just a few months ago. Shit. My baby lives in you, and I couldn’t even get your real name or your number. But a damn seventeen-year-old has you wanting to fit in?”

She turned her head to peer at me over her shoulder. Biting her lip, Hayden nodded. “It’s like the weirdest thing with me. I generally and genuinely want to be liked by all. My insecurity about not fitting in can increase my need for emotional and physical independence. I can go overboard on either end of the spectrum.”

“Why are you that way?”

“I think it started with wanting a father. I saw other kids with one, even my cousins. Then, I finally got one and saw he had two other me’s.” She giggled. “Collectively, they already had a chemistry and, instantly, I wanted in. As you know…that didn’t work out. So, moving forward, to protect myself, I didn’t allow for time in spaces where I wasn’t sure.”

“Until Ki.”

She shrugged. “I want him to know I’m not here to threaten his security. You’re his security. You’re his stability. Here is where he feels safe.” She turned her body around, slightly disturbing the water. “Every child should feel safe and have stability.”

Something more was being communicated here.

I reached out to tuck the end of one of her braids back under the shower cap. “What does that mean, Boo-baby? Do we need to discuss what happened with Ebonee last night finally?”

“We do. We have lots to discuss over the next few weeks. The Ebonee shit was cringy as hell. I didn’t like it one bit. But I get how it wasn’t from maliciousness or negligence on your part. I have been flighty…about the baby and…you. I didn’t give you the security you needed to tell me about the random complication connecting us all.” She shifted again to face me. “But moving forward, Ishaan?—”

“I know.” I swung my head, emphasizing. “I got it. It won’t happen again. The shit’s too stressful.”

“And as far as a deeper connection, yes, I was referring to you. I…like you, Ishaan. Like really…” Her eyes fell and mouth twisted. “Damn. This is hard to do.”

“What?”

That mouth twisted again, and she exhaled. “Being vulnerable. It feels like I’m giving you permission to hurt me however and wherever.”

The fuck?

“Are you shaking, Hayden?” I hooked my arm around her trembling shoulders and shifted her so her back was against my chest. “I will never hurt you. Damn sure not intentionally. I know I’m a man of an unconventional lifestyle, and I’ve got my shit with me, too. But Hayden, I ain’t never been no heartbreaker.”

She didn’t speak for a while.

“Ishaan,” she released on the softest, haunted whisper. “I was sexually assaulted as a child. For years.”

Fuck .

My mother was right. The night she called me home from Miami a few weeks ago, she told me Hayden had come here upset and crying. My mother got her to calm down and they talked. Hayden mentioned a fight she’d had with her mother, and shared how, at the root of it, was Monica not protecting Hayden as a child. Hayden told my mother she’d never trust Monica with our baby. Dr. Patterson wasn’t quite sure why and wouldn’t pry. But she said, in her line of work, one reason for their mother and daughter rift could have been child molestation. That led me to ask Rory about the topic, although I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.

I swallowed, feeling the muscles in my thighs and arms undulating of their own volition. “By who?”

“My great-uncle,” her voice was stronger. “Billy is the second youngest sibling of my great-grandmother, Louise Tempest. He got moved around a lot as a kid, and even in his adulthood, until my mother took him in after his cousin put him out.”

“Is he mentally ill? Violent? Dependent?”

She shook her head then scoffed, “A sicko for sure. But Billy’s been locked up a few times. As a kid, I didn’t know why. Now, I know it was because he has a history of public lewdness and solicitation of prostitutes. He even had an assault charge and conviction for fighting a man whose girlfriend said Billy had groped her. The man was defending his girlfriend.”

“Was Billy violent with you?”

Hayden twisted in my fold again, her expression panicked. “No. He’s never been violent with me…just sexual. He’s done it with several people in my family alone, dating back to his baby sister. My family did what lots tend to do. They swept his shit under the rug, labeling him as the weaker of them and, in essence, harbored him under the guise of protecting him. My mother has been that person to him for about twenty years now.”

Then her eyes bounced between mine, beckoning me. “Billy’s old, Ishaan. The man is in his late seventies with diabetes and heart disease. He’s wonderfully wasting away at my mother’s. Do not enact revenge for me, and it’s not because I’m protecting him. But because I’m enjoying seeing him wither away and suffer.”

“What does Monica have to say about this shit?” I controlled my tone.

“She’s harboring him. And this is why it’s important for you to understand what I’m about to say. My child will never spend a second in her home. She will never be expected to babysit, even if it’s here. My mother will never be allowed to supervise my child. She will only have the privilege of a visitor. There will always be another adult with authority over my child when my mother’s around. There will be no grandmother allowances with her. My child will always be protected. My baby will always have the stability of security.”

That’s when it clicked. Stability. Security. Protection. They were running themes for Hayden. I was sure it was because they were what she felt she lacked as a child.

I gave her a single nod of confirmation. “I vow to keep your rules, even if there comes a time where you let up.”

Her head shook and tears pooled as Hayden swallowed. “I won’t.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “But baby, I need you to know you being here does not threaten Mehki’s emotional stability or security regarding me. You’re just expanding our family. I’m going to work on making Mehki see that, starting in the morning. I need your confidence around him. He’s a kid and isn’t developed enough to take the lead in a relationship with you. You have to set the rules. You have the upper hand.”

She snorted. “Conquering Mehki, you looking into Mika’s one-night stand…sharing you as a parenting partner?—”

“Hayden.”

“No, Ishaan. There’s one embryo left. You said it yourself: it’s up to Ebonee. For my mental health, I need to prepare for my child to have a sibling, possibly just months younger than him—it,” she corrected herself. “Talk about complicated affairs.”

Again, I shifted her to lay her back into my chest then kissed her shoulder. “Don’t worry about the embryo, Boo-baby. Everything’s going to work out the way it’s supposed to.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s all love. Inevitably, it’s love. Focus on that.”