Kade #4
Fresh tears blurred my vision as I smiled down at her. “You ain’t never gotta wonder if somebody love you. You hear me? Before you ever took your first breath, your mama and I had already spent months talking to you, praying over you, and planning for you. You were wanted long before you got here.”
Mama Sina wiped her own eyes while Ysis watched us with the kind of smile I’d never seen before.
The doula shifted our daughter, before placing our son against my chest. He was just as tiny, just as perfect, his little face somehow carrying pieces of both of us.
I studied every inch of him, from the soft curls already resting against his head to the determined little frown spread across his face, and I couldn’t help smiling.
“He already look like he plotting something,” I laughed.
“He definitely your child,” Ysis teased weakly.
“I rebuke that.”
“You should.”
The room chuckled, but I barely heard them. My attention never left the little boy lying against my chest. “Kasen Zaire Myles,” I whispered, tasting his name for the first time.
“That’s a powerful name, little man.”
I looked at my daughter sleeping peacefully. “And your sister, Kinsley Yalani Myles.” My smile widened. Saying their names out loud made everything real.
My throat locked so suddenly I couldn’t swallow around it.
Tears spilled freely down my face before I even realized I was crying, and no matter how many times I tried to pull myself together, another wave followed the last. I’d buried friends.
I’d survived wars. I’d built companies from the ground up and stared death in the face more times than I cared to remember, yet nothing had ever broken me open the way two tiny babies had in the span of a few minutes.
I understood why grown men cried when their children were born, why fathers spent their entire lives chasing security, why people said children changed you. They didn’t just change your priorities. They changed your heart. I looked from Kasen to Kinsley before meeting Ysis eyes.
“They’ll never know the life we did.” I said, the promise etched deep inside my soul. “They’ll never wonder if they belong. Never question whether they were loved. They’ll never have to survive before they get the chance to live.”
Ysis reached for my hand, her fingers threading through mine despite the exhaustion pulling at every part of her.
“I know,” she whispered.
“No foster homes.”
She nodded. “No running.”
“No looking over they shoulder every day.”
Her lips trembled into a smile.
“They’ll only know family.”
I leaned over and kissed her forehead before pressing another kiss against her lips, silently thanking her for giving me the greatest gift I’d ever receive.
A knock sounded against the bedroom door.
Cassian eased the door open just enough to lean inside, his eyes finding the twins before settling on me.
A smirk crossed his face, but it disappeared as quick as it came. “Kade.” The tone in his voice told me this wasn’t congratulations. I carefully handed Kasen and Kinsley back to the doula before walking toward the door.
“What is it?”
Cassian waited until we stepped into the hallway.
“We found him.”
Every ounce of joy inside me collided head-on with every promise I’d made to protect my family. I closed my eyes for a brief moment before looking back into the bedroom. Ysis was watching me. She already knew. I walked back to the bed and knelt beside her, brushing my thumb across her cheek.
“I’ll be back.”
“I know.”
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
I smiled, leaning in to kiss her before resting my forehead against hers. “Take care of our babies.”
She smiled through tired tears. “Always. Now go handle your business, and make sure that motherfucker never gets to breathe my name again.”
“Consider it handled. You got my word on that troublemaker.” I looked down one last time at Kinsley and Kasen before forcing myself to stand.
Every instinct inside me wanted to stay where I was, but fathers didn’t just protect their children with words.
Sometimes they protected them by making sure evil never reached their front door again.
Yayo was already waiting in the hallway beside Cassian by the time I stepped outside the bedroom.
Neither of them spoke. Mama Sina followed us into the hall, pulling the bedroom door closed behind her before looking back one last time at Ysis and the twins.
A proud smile touched her lips, but there was something else behind her eyes.
The four of us started down the staircase together, the house unusually silent after the emotional storm we’d just weathered. Nobody said much as we crossed the foyer, each of us lost in our own thoughts. The second we reached the front door and Cassian pulled it open, we all froze.
Yuki stepped across the threshold, looking past us like we didnt exist. We followed her line of sight toward the staircase where my mother stood waiting.
Neither woman spoke, nor did they look away.
The air inside the house changed in an instant, years of betrayal, grief, sacrifice, and unfinished business sitting between them.