Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
STORMI
Ilay in the hospital bed, the white sheets tucked around me, but my mind drifted far from the four walls around me.
My body ached, my heart still carried bruises, but I was here alive.
My son was here healthy. And despite all that Dre tried to take from me, he didn’t take that. He didn’t take me becoming a mother.
No, my labor and delivery hadn’t gone the way I dreamed.
Hell, it was traumatic, chaotic even, but Shiloh made it.
We made it. And even though I didn’t get to watch him come into this world, I made a silent promise to him while I held his tiny fingers in mine that that would be the last moment in his life I ever missed.
The room was silent. Jo had left for a quick meeting, and Seth went to grab food.
I told him I was hungry, but that was a lie.
He hadn’t left my side in weeks, and I needed him to breathe.
He was wearing the weight of the world like it was stitched into his skin, torn between being here with me and tearing the city apart looking for Dre.
I held Shiloh in my arms. My baby boy was perfect. My eyes and lips and Seth everything else. He was the perfect mixture of both of us. I could get lost just staring at him. I never thought I would be here, but I was so thankful I was. A wife, mother, and I had finally found real love.
Knock. Knock.
My heart jumped slightly at the sound.
“Come in,” I called, expecting it to be another nurse doing rounds.
But it wasn’t.
“Stormi, you have a visitor. Nigga name Leon,” Josh said as he opened the room door.
Seth had him playing security while he was gone. I know he blamed himself for what Dre did, but you never really know where evil lies. Hearing Leon’s name made my stomach turn. I now knew exactly who he was but why was he here? And how did he know I was here?
“You can let him in,” I replied back with a smile that I knew would fade the moment the father I never knew entered the room. The door creaked open slow, and then I saw him.
My breath caught in my throat not from fear, but from confusion. What the hell was he doing here? Of all places, here?
He stepped fully into the room, the door shutting behind him like it knew we needed privacy.
“Stormi,” he said.
His voice rolled through the room heavy, unfamiliar, soaked in something I couldn’t name. Was it regret? Guilt? Or was it just manipulation wearing new cologne?
I tried to sit up straighter in the bed, clutching my side as pain wrapped around my ribs. My eyes never left him. Every cell in my body was on high alert, but my mouth didn’t move. I just stared at him, stunned into silence.
He looked older than when I first saw him. Or maybe the evil in him just finally showed on his face. His eyes weren’t wild, but they weren’t calm either. The longer he stood there, the more the air in the room became thick and hard to breathe.
“You probably know who I am by now. I’m your father. We shouldn’t be meeting like this but that’s how life works sometimes right?” He said with a laugh like anything about this was funny or something to joke about.
I continued to stare at him. Holding my son a little tighter, needing his warmth for the comfort I needed to get through this conversation.
“Is that the baby?” He asked walking closer. I pulled Shiloh even closer hiding his face from who would’ve been his grandfather but the man responsible for half the childhood pain I had to heal from.
“I heard what happened,” he said, stepping back. “I just I had to come see for myself. Make sure you were okay.”
I blinked slowly, still quiet, still unsure if this was real life or some twisted ass dream.
“Why now? It’s been thirty-one years, and you have never just come to make sure I was, ok? So, I ask why now my voice shaky and a little weak.
“Things have been complicated?” He said and I could tell the lie before it left his mouth.
“Uncomplicate them” I said clearly, my attitude visible. I was willing to hear his version, but it was nothing he could say to explain anything. It was clear he was years older than Jo now, so he was years older than her when she was 16 and pregnant by him.
“Jo not innocent in none of this. She was fast.”
“She was a child!” I screamed out no longer able to handle my composure.
“Nothing didn’t happen that she didn’t want to happen.”
“You sick motherfucker,” I said, looking at the man, I now knew as my father like the monster he had been to my mother.
“Listen, I know it ain’t nothing I can say,” Leon started, his voice low, almost broken.
“Jo already told you her side, and you made your mind up about me. I just—” He swallowed hard, eyes heavy with regret.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Stormi.
And I’m glad you okay. But I need you to talk to Seth.
Dre is my sister’s only child. If something happens to him, she wouldn’t survive it. ”
“She wouldn’t survive it?” I repeated, my voice sharp, disbelief dripping from every word.
My eyes cut into him like the stranger he had always been.
“Leon, I was eight months pregnant when the boy you begging me to protect shot me. Three times. Three.” My hand tightened around my son, rage and memory colliding.
“I almost died. My son almost died. And you want me to give a fuck about somebody who ain’t give a fuck about me or my baby?
” My voice cracked but my anger carried it, burning hotter.
“I’m not saying what Dre did was right,” Leon said, stepping closer, palms out like peace could even fit in this room. “But let me handle him, Stormi. Please.”
I laughed. Bitter. “You know, as a little girl, I used to dream about my dad swooping in, handling my battles, making me feel safe like a father should.” My eyes locked on him, cutting deep.
“But Leon, this is one fight I don’t need you for.
You know why?” My chin lifted with pride.
“Because my husband got it. And trust me, he doesn’t miss.
So no, I won’t spare Dre. Matter fact, I hope your sister has life insurance on him but knowing Seth… she won’t even get a body to bury.”
“Stormi, you don’t want to become that person.” He tried to move closer, voice trembling now, as if he still had the right to guide me.
I glared, my voice sharp enough to draw blood. “When it comes to my son and my life… I am that person already. So, get the fuck out before you find yourself hiding from Seth the same way Dre is.”
“Stormi.”
“Send my auntie my condolences for her future loss.” My tone was ice, final.
And that’s when he saw the steel in my eyes, the cold fire he couldn’t put out.
There was nothing left to argue, nothing left to beg.
Leon did the only thing he could to save his life.
He backed away… and left my hospital room.
A single tear fell down my face, and I quickly wiped it away.
That was the last time I would cry about the childhood that could no longer break me.
I smelled his Crestwood cologne before I felt the warmth of his lips on my forehead. That’s how I knew he was back. My body always recognized him before my mind could catch up. My heart knew him like it knew how to beat.
I opened my eyes and there he was my husband.
My peace and my chaos wrapped in the same man.
Yeah, I had become that woman. My man, my man, my man.
And I didn’t care who rolled their eyes about it.
I loved every second of being his. Funny thing was, I spent months trying not to be his… even when I already was.
He kissed my cheek slow, like he was checking to make sure I was still real. Like if he blinked too long, I’d disappear.
“Tired?” he asked, voice low, soft but with that edge only I could hear. His eyes met mine, and for a second, it was like all the broken pieces in me found their way back together.
“A little,” I said, shifting up on the pillows.
He didn’t wait. Just slid into the bed behind me like it was the most natural thing in the world. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into him until I could feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against my back.
I should’ve been focused on healing. But the second he touched me like that; all I could think about was feeling him inside me.
“You, okay?” he asked, trying to sound calm. But I knew him too well. He was fuming under all that stillness. He wanted to know why the hell Leon had shown his face.
I forced myself to focus. To pull my mind out the gutter.
“I’m okay,” I said quietly. And it was the truth. I could walk past Leon a thousand times and not feel a thing. Whatever I needed from him, I stopped needing a long time ago.
Seth didn’t say anything. He just stayed there, holding me, breathing me in like he was trying to remember the exact shape of me. His face stayed tucked into my neck like he wasn’t ready to let go just yet.
Then came the question he was really holding.
“Why was he here” He didn’t sugarcoat it. He didn’t dress it up.
“He wanted me to tell you to let him handle Dre. Said Dre’s his nephew. His sister’s only son.”
Seth didn’t move. He didn’t tense up. Didn’t flinch. Just kept his arms around me like the words hadn’t even touched him. But I knew better. I felt the shift in his breathing. The long, quiet inhale. The calm before the storm.
And then, finally, his voice deep, low, and full of everything he wasn’t saying. “I want you to come home.”
It wasn’t a request; it was a decision. That protective, take no chances, do whatever it takes side of him coming to the surface.
“I’ll hire a live in nurse. Keep the doctor on call. I’ll just feel better knowing you and Shiloh are somewhere safe. Somewhere no one knows.”
The mention of our son hit me hard. He wasn’t just protecting me. He was thinking about our child. Our family. Everything he built with his bare hands and blood.
I turned to face him. His eyes were already on me, steady and fierce, but soft in that way only I ever got to see.
“I’m ready to come home,” I whispered, and meant every word of it.
Not just to the house. But to him. To the version of myself that felt safest in his arms. The one who wasn’t afraid of what came next because she knew she’d never face it alone.
I could see it in his eyes. The pain and guilt. The way he looked down at his hands like they were stained with something he couldn’t wash off. Like every mistake, every misstep, every scar in this life fell on him. And maybe it did. But he didn’t deserve to carry it alone.
“Seth, this is not on you,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I reached out and touched his face, the roughness of his beard scratching softly against my palm. He leaned into my hand like he was trying to ground himself. Maybe I was the only thing keeping him from completely falling apart.
His eyes stayed locked on mine.
“It is,” he said, jaw tight. “I knew something was off with Dre. I felt it, Stormi. I felt it, and I ignored it. Gave that nigga the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe I was just being paranoid. Knowing damn well in this life, enemies don’t always show up loud sometimes they come quiet, wearing smiles and fake loyalty. ”
He paused, breathing hard.
“I didn’t protect you or our son. And I know what this life costs. I’ve paid the price too many times to pretend like I didn’t see it coming.”
I swallowed hard, feeling the weight in his words.
But I wasn’t letting him sit in that darkness by himself.
“All that matters is that we’re here,” I said, sliding into his arms like it was second nature. Like that’s exactly where I was meant to be. I held him the same way I’d held our newborn just hours before; close, tight, like letting go wasn’t an option.
Seth carried this family. He was the calm and the storm. Solving every problem, fighting every battle. The ones people saw and the ones he kept buried in silence.
I knew that weight. Knew what it felt like to be the strong one until the strength turned to silence and the silence turned to pressure.
So, when my man hit that place, the one where the hero felt human, I had to be his peace.
“You didn’t fail us,” I said quietly. “You love us. You protect us. That’s all you’ve ever done.”
He didn’t answer with words. Just looked at me like I was his whole world and his last lifeline all at once.
Then I grabbed his face and kissed him not soft, no gentle peck. Deep. Tongue, lips, breath… every ounce of emotion I had poured into that kiss. I wanted him to feel me. Not just physically, but in his soul. I wanted him to know I was here, present, real, his. And baby he felt it.
When we pulled apart, his eyes dropped to my lips, then to my body and that smirk came out. The one that told me he was about to say something slick.
“Oh, you must be ready for another one.”
I blinked. “Another what?”
He leaned in, brushing his mouth against mine like he was teasing me with it. “Baby.”
I busted out laughing, head falling back, heart finally feeling light.
“I want my girl,” I said through my giggles. “But I need, like... a year or two. Let me enjoy Shiloh and S3 before we bring another little boss into the mix.”
He nodded, still smirking. “I’ll wait. Just say the word. I don’t mind putting another one in you.”
The way he said it sent a shiver straight down my spine. Then his lips found my neck, slow and warm, and suddenly I remembered how easy it was to lose control with him.
Four weeks postpartum. Still sore. Still healing. And yet… we were curled up in this small ass hospital bed like we were in our own damn world, ready to tear each other’s clothes off like we had something to prove.
He kissed me one last time slower this time. Like a promise.
“Come on,” he said, climbing out of the bed and reaching for my hand. “Let’s get you and our son home.”
And just like that, I knew. No matter what came for us next… We were ready.