Chapter 21
Malachai
"I can handle it if you want."
Kael grunted on the other end of the line. "No, I'll handle Darius myself."
We spoke for a minute longer, with him telling me the rest of the day's events. He was going through a lot for a woman like Bria. She will only create more problems, I thought, but didn't say it. Indigo was teaching me to, as she would say, "keep some shit to yourself."
I headed upstairs from the kitchen with a bottle of water in search of my wife and daughter. I stepped through the door of the study and stopped.
Indigo was on the phone, her back to me, one hand pressed to her temple. She didn't hear me come in, too focused on whatever was being said on the other end of the line.
"I don't think it's okay for you to come to any of the kids' events anymore."
Her voice was flat and final—the tone she used when she'd already made up her mind and wasn't looking for an argument.
A pause.
"I know. It won't be forever."
Another pause, longer this time.
"I'm not asking, Cooly. I'm telling you."
She said his name with a weariness that made me stop and listen. This wasn't the Indigo who screamed and threw things; this was the Indigo who had finally run out of patience. I wondered why.
I leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, and watched. She didn't know I was there.
"I know you've done a lot for me, and I'm grateful. But that doesn't mean you get to decide what my life looks like. It doesn't mean you get to show up whenever."
A long silence.
"You're not going to make me change my mind. You don't know me as well as you think you do. And stop calling me Midnight. I got kids. I don't want them to ever ask me why."
She listened for a moment, then laughed—a short, humorless sound.
"Goodbye, Cooly. I hope it ain't forever, but if it is... I love you like family and hope you live well."
She ended the call and set the phone down on the desk. Her shoulders sagged slightly, the tension bleeding out of her. Then she turned and saw me.
Her eyes widened. "Malachai."
I didn't move. "Was that Cooly?"
"You heard."
"Explain."
She sighed, rubbing her temples. "Cooly wanted to come to Gioia's birthday party. I told him no."
I walked into the room slowly, my eyes never leaving her face. "Why?"
"He's been texting you," she said before I could speak. "And you didn't tell me."
I stopped. "I didn't think you would care."
She stared at me, then laughed—a sharp, defensive sound. "That's fair," she said, looking down. "That's actually fucking fair."
I didn't smile. I had asked her to get rid of him before, and she never did. Why would I think his threats against my life would matter?
"I've been acting like it didn't matter," she admitted, looking back up at me, her eyes dead serious. "I liked that me dealing with him got a reaction out of you, Malachai. But he can’t fucking threaten you. It doesn’t matter how mad I am at you—him threatening you is him threatening to take away the father of my children. And I won't let that happen.”
I didn’t know how to feel about what she said.
Indigo thought I didn't feel because I had a paper with a diagnosis.
She looked at that clinical label and assumed I was completely blank inside, incapable of being hurt or pushed to the edge.
But I could feel. I felt everything—the rage, the possessiveness, the burn of her distance when she was gone, when she looked at him, or invited him places when I said no.
I just didn't process it the way normal people did.
My face didn't always show it, and my voice didn't shake, but the dark, violent urge to keep what was mine ran hot through my veins regardless of what some doctor wrote down.
And wasn't that the irony of it? Weren't all those things human emotions?
The jealousy, the instinct to protect, the feeling that came from the suffocating weight of betrayal—they were just as real inside me as they were in her.
She just needed them wrapped in tears and screaming so she could recognize them.
Now he had crossed her bottom line, and suddenly she was considering my feelings.
Was this maturity, or just the sick way we functioned?
I didn't know, and I didn't care. I only cared that she had finally arrived.
Before I could respond, her phone buzzed on the desk. We both looked at it. Cooly's name flashed on the screen. She ignored it.
It buzzed again. Then a message notification popped up. I was close enough to see the message: Answer the fucking phone, Midnight.
I watched her face—the way her jaw tightened, the way her eyes flickered with anger. She picked up the phone, looked at the message again, and laughed. Then she blocked him. She tossed the phone onto the couch.
"There. You should block his number, too. Then no more Cooly. I need you to understand something."
"What?"
"I love you. Even when I hate you. Even when I want to stab you again. So it’s 'fuck Cooly' since he made me choose."
She walked toward me, stopping and rising onto her tiptoes. She kissed me, sliding her tongue into my mouth. I couldn't help but kiss her back, even though my mind was completely occupied.
When she pulled back, she smiled. "Don't brood too long. I know you’re about to overthink the situation." She pointed toward the laundry basket. "But I can’t help you. I got kids and three loads of laundry waiting on me."
That was it? The end to the three-year Cooly-Midnight conundrum?
Three years of texts, calls, favors, and whatever the hell else she’d never fully admitted to.
And now she cuts him off in one flat conversation and blocks him like he was nothing?
No screaming. No tears. No lingering guilt she’d try to hide from me later.
Kael had said she kept him around purposely because of what had happened with Sasha. Maybe he was right, but I knew her better.
My jaw tightened. Part of me was furious that she hadn't done it sooner. Part of me acknowledged that she had finally chosen me over him, even after everything. Even after the years of pain, betrayal, and distance. Even after all the reasons she had to hate me.
She had chosen me.
What I didn’t like was the reality: I knew that men like Cooly didn't let go just because someone asked nicely. They held on until someone forced them to.
Which meant one thing: he wasn't done.
I pulled out my phone and dialed. I knew Kael was probably still with Bria and her parents, but I needed to talk to him now.
Kael answered on the second ring. "Yeah."
"Indigo just told Cooly to fuck off."
Kael was quiet for a moment. Knowing where my mind was, he said, "He’s going to be trouble. What do you need?"
"Eyes on him. I want to know where he is, who he's talking to, and what he's planning."
"I'll make some calls."