Ysis #5
I closed the lid of the gift box and rested my hand on top of it for a moment longer than I probably should have.
Looking up, I found Yuki standing where she’d been when she’d handed it to me, neither expecting praise nor asking for forgiveness.
There was no speech waiting to be delivered, no explanation for the years she’d missed, and no attempt to rewrite a past neither of us could change.
For the first time since she’d reentered my life, we simply looked at one another as two women standing on opposite sides of the same pain. I offered her the smallest smile I could manage. “Thank you.”
She returned it with the slightest nod, stepping back into the crowd, allowing the moment to belong to what we’d all gathered here to celebrate. She only made it a few steps before Majeston intercepted her.
“Where the fuck have you been, Yuki?”
“Not here, and not now, Majeston.” She glanced toward him from the corner of her eye.
She continued toward the foyer without another word.
Standing only a few feet away, I caught every syllable.
I didn’t say anything, but something about the way they looked at one another told me there was an entirely different story waiting to be told.
The room filled with conversation again as everyone admired the gifts scattered around me, laughing over tiny designer outfits and arguing about which twin would inevitably become Kade’s spoiled favorite.
I looked around at every smiling face and couldn’t help but think about how different this day felt from the life I’d once known.
There’d been a time when birthdays passed without anyone remembering, holidays came and went like ordinary days, and milestones were things I celebrated by myself because there wasn’t anybody to celebrate them with.
Now, I was sitting in the middle of a room overflowing with people who had chosen to love me, each one finding their own way to welcome my babies before they’d even entered the world.
Lauren suddenly clapped her hands together loud enough to pull everyone’s attention away from the mountain of gifts.
“Alright! If everybody done stuffing they face, it’s time. ”
“Time for what?” I looked around the room, confused. Nobody answered. Instead, smiles started spreading from face to face until it felt like I was the only person who hadn’t been let in on the joke.
“Kade...” I turned toward my husband. “Why everybody looking all suspicious again?”
“I have no idea what they doing.” He lifted both hands innocently.
“Liar.”
“I’ve been called worse.” Before I could interrogate him any further, Kayla stepped forward holding a small white envelope between her fingers.
The second I saw it, my heart skipped.
“The gender results.”
I gasped. “You looked?”
She laughed and shook her head. “I only looked at one thing.”
I frowned. “What you mean?”
“I had to know the babies sex so we could coordinate the reveal.” She held the envelope up with a smile. “That’s it. I didn’t read anything else. Just enough to make today happen.”
“So, nobody else knows?” Every head in the room shook no.
“I wanted this to be y’all’s moment,” Kayla said.
“We all agreed the first people who deserved to find out were you and Kade.”
“Bitch...”
“I know.”
“You gone make me cry.”
“I hope so.”
Laughter rippled through the room as Kade helped me to my feet, slipping his fingers between mine before kissing the back of my hand. “Come on, TroubleMaker.”
He leaned close enough that only I could hear him. “You ready to meet our babies?” I looked down at my stomach before looking back into his eyes.
“I’ve been ready.”
Hand in hand, we followed everyone through the oversized glass doors leading out to the backyard, and the second I stepped onto the deck, every ounce of composure I’d managed to hold together disappeared.
Thousands of white roses framed a custom-built platform overlooking the lake while towering arrangements of baby’s breath and fresh greenery lined a winding stone walkway.
Floating candles danced across the surface of the infinity pool, delicate string lights stretched from century-old oak trees overhead, and somewhere in the distance a live string quartet played softly as the evening sky melted into shades of lavender, peach, and gold.
It looked less like a party and more like something straight out of a dream I never would’ve been brave enough to dream for myself. Right in the center of it all stood an enormous black display wrapped with shimmering gold ribbon.
“Oh my God...” I slowly turned toward Kade.
“What did you do?”
He smiled the way he always smiled whenever he’d successfully kept a secret. His hand found mine again, squeezing my fingers gently. “I listened. You told me you wanted one normal day. So...I gave you one.”
That was it. The tears came anyway.
Around us everyone found their places while photographers moved in position and phones appeared in every direction.
Mama Sina wandered over beside Yuki without either woman seeming to notice how close they were standing.
Marcus lifted his phone to record while Yayo argued with Cassian over who had the better angle.
Lauren stepped into the center of the lawn, raising both hands until the chatter faded.
“Today ain't about the past. It's not about the people we buried or the tears we've cried.
We've been given enough days of pain.” She smiled at me before looking at Kade and pointing toward my stomach.
“Today, we celebrate what came anyway. We celebrate hope, new beginnings and most of all...” Her smile grew even wider. “...we celebrate these babies.”
Cheers erupted all around us. Kayla walked over to Bella, placing the sealed envelope in her hands. Bella nodded before opening the envelope. Her eyes dropped to the card for only a second before she looked back up wearing the biggest smile I’d ever seen.
“Oh...I love this.” She laughed.
Without revealing a thing, she handed the card to the event coordinator waiting nearby before returning to stand with everyone else.
“Okay! On three.” she called out excitedly. Kade slipped his arm around my shoulders as I leaned into him, resting my head against his chest as my heart pounded harder with every passing second.
“One...” The entire crowd joined in.
“Two...” I squeezed Kade’s hand so tight he laughed beneath his breath. He leaned down, brushing his lips against my temple. “No matter what happens, I’m already the luckiest man alive.”
“THREE!”
The enormous display burst open as hundreds of balloons soared into the evening sky.
At that exact moment, fireworks erupted overhead in brilliant sapphire blue and radiant blush pink, exploding one after another until the entire sky reflected across the lake beneath us.
Cascading fountains of matching sparks shot upward from both sides of the lawn while the quartet gave way to triumphant music that seemed to swell with every burst of color overhead.
For a suspended heartbeat, the entire backyard stood frozen beneath the shower of confetti as everyone stared toward the sky, waiting for their minds to catch up with what their eyes had just seen. Then Bella screamed louder than anyone.
“IT’S A BOY AND A GIRL!”
The backyard exploded in celebration. Cheers echoed from every direction as laughter, tears, hugs, and applause all collided into one beautiful moment.
Mama Sina dropped to her knees thanking God while Majeston threw both fists into the air before wrapping Yuki into the biggest embrace I’d ever seen him give another human being.
Kayla tackled Lauren and Nia so hard all three of them nearly fell into the grass, laughing and crying at the same time, while Marcus and Cassian hoisted Yayo off the ground despite his loud complaints that he was “too grown for this.”
I barely noticed any of it. My eyes never left the sky. A boy and a girl. One of each. My hands covered my stomach as sobs escaped before I could stop them. “We did it,” I whispered.
Kade turned me toward him, tears streaming down his own face now. “We did. A son.” He nodded, his smile trembling beneath the weight of his own emotions.
“And our little girl.”
I laughed through my tears. “You got your princess.”
He smiled, resting both hands across my stomach as if he couldn’t help but touch the life we’d created together. “And my prince.” He pulled me into his arms as another round of blue and pink fireworks illuminated the sky above us.
For one perfect moment, there was no fear waiting beyond tomorrow, no grief demanding space in my heart, and no darkness stealing my joy.
There was my husband, our family, and the two little miracles who had already taught us that sometimes the most beautiful chapters begin long before the story is ready to end.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of Kade’s security guards stop smiling altogether.
The change was so subtle most people would’ve missed it, but after living with a man like my husband, I’d learned that the people protecting him rarely reacted without reason.
His shoulders squared almost imperceptibly, one hand drifting toward the radio clipped to his jacket while his attention fixed somewhere beyond the tree line overlooking the estate.
Another member of the detail followed his line of sight.
Then another. They weren’t watching the guests anymore.
Every pair of eyes seemed to lift toward the ridge stretching behind the property, their expressions hardening with a seriousness that unraveled the warmth sitting in my chest. The tiny hairs along the back of my neck stood up all at once.
“Kade...” He followed my gaze just as one of the guards pressed two fingers against his earpiece. Whatever he heard made every bit of color disappear from his face.