Chapter 20 #2
My heart stopped because, for a second, I thought it was Orion back, ready to finish what he started. I eased to the door and peeked through the peephole. A man stood there with a clipboard, and another behind him with gloves on.
“Morning,” the first one said when I cracked the door. “We’re from Midtown Moving. We got a delivery for Cayla.”
My stomach flipped.
“Delivery?”
“Yes, ma’am. It says here from an Orion Blackwood.”
Before I could even answer, they started carrying boxes and bags into my apartment, stacking them neatly in the corner of my living room.
My clothes. My shoes. Oriana’s baby swing.
Her playpen. All our things were being hauled into the space.
I just stood there frozen, watching piece by piece of my life with Orion get placed on my floor like evidence.
It hit me in waves. He wasn’t just mad. He wasn’t bluffing.
He was sending me a message in the loudest way possible.
We were really done. Although I had initially made the decision to end things with us, I would be a liar if I said this move right here didn’t sting.
I held Oriana against me, her tiny breaths warm against my chest as my eyes blurred.
I thought about all the nights we laughed on the couch, all the plans we made that never stood a chance.
Now it was just me and my baby girl. I felt stupid for feeling so beat up about it because isn’t this what I always wanted?
I was finally in a space of freedom, yet I had this nagging feeling in my chest that I had made the wrong decision.
When the men finished, they gave me a polite nod and left.
The door clicked shut, and the apartment fell silent again.
I leaned against the wall, staring at the pile in the corner.
This was it. My new life. My new reality.
Orion had just made sure there was no going back.
I made the first move, and he countered with a strong ass second, but it was needed.
This situation was stamping the finalization on us.
The emotion I felt in the moment would pass as soon as I pulled myself out of this darkness.
For three days, I stayed inside. I didn’t even allow an inch of sunlight to enter the apartment. I wanted to sulk in my emotions. Honestly, I thought that in those three days, Orion would reach out and at least act as if he wanted his family back.
By day four, when the silence and hope that Orion would call pressed too heavily on me, I wiped my face, bundled Oriana in her stroller, and headed out.
I needed to get out and start to normalize how things would be for us now that I was back on my own.
And being on my own was different now because I had a baby along for the ride.
I had to have a different mindset, and I had to move differently altogether because I had someone’s childhood and future in my hands.
The air outside felt different, lighter even, as I pushed her down the cracked sidewalks to the grocery store a few blocks away.
I wasn’t used to shopping alone like this.
Normally, Orion was right there, tossing things in the cart that I didn’t even want.
But today, it was just me and my baby girl.
I moved slowly through the aisles, picking up the basics: bread, pasta, chicken, and a little formula.
My mind wanted to wander back to what had just happened, but I forced myself to focus on Oriana.
On us. She deserved a mama who kept it together.
When I got back to the apartment, I put the bags down and looked at the pile of boxes in the corner.
Instead of breaking down again, I pulled out my phone.
During my three days of solitude, I had been texting Zy, giving her an update on my newly found independence.
Each day, she had offered to come over, but I just wanted my space. Now, I needed my girl.
“Zynea, can you come through?” I asked when she picked up. My voice cracked, but I pushed past it. “Please.”
“I’m on my way,” she said without hesitation.
An hour later, a knock at the door had me moving fast. Zynea stood there, arms wide open, before I could even say a word.
Behind her were Brandi and Ali, carrying takeout bags and bottles of wine like reinforcements.
The smell of food hit me, and suddenly the apartment didn’t feel so empty.
They came in loud, filling up the space with laughter and chatter, dragging me back into some normal.
Oriana gurgled happily in her swing, soaking up the noise and energy like she knew her mama needed this.
For the first time since Orion sent my things here, I let myself breathe.
We sat around the living room, food spread across the table, music low in the background.
My girls didn’t push me to talk, at least not right away.
They just reminded me I wasn’t alone. And that reminder felt like the first brick in rebuilding something new.
Zynea was standing in the middle of my living room, telling a wild story about her trip to Atlanta that had Ali doubled over laughing.
I laughed too, even though the heaviness in my chest still sat there.
For a moment, it felt good to just… be. But every time I looked up, I caught Brandi’s eyes on me.
Or maybe not me, perhaps the empty space where Orion should’ve been.
She wasn’t loud like Zynea, not tonight.
She wasn’t cracking jokes like Ali. She just sipped her wine slowly, her gaze flickering between me and the boxes in the corner, like she was reading my life laid out right there.
Her face didn’t give much away, but I knew Brandi.
She was always watching and waiting for her moment.
And with Orion gone, with my things boxed up like we were strangers now, I could feel her wheels turning.
I shook the thought away, forcing myself to focus back on the girls.
Tonight was supposed to be about me keeping it together and about Oriana having a mama who wasn’t falling apart.
But somewhere deep down, I couldn’t ignore it.
Brandi had noticed his absence. She saw the crack in the door he left behind.
And I had a bad feeling that she was thinking about walking right through it.