Chapter 18
Malik
Isat back on the couch, one arm stretched along the back while the other rested across Eternity’s legs, my hands were working slowly, steady circles into her feet.
She deserved that. After everything she had been through, after everything we had been through, moments like this felt earned.
On the television, Life played. It was one of our favorites.
The glow from the screen flickered across the living room.
I wasn’t fully paying attention, but I knew this part by heart.
I have seen it too many times not to. Eternity was locked in, though, like we haven’t seen it hundreds of times.
Her laughter came easy, full and real, the kind that made me look at her instead of the TV.
When Eddie Murphy was crashing out on Martin over his daddy’s watch, she was shaking her head while laughing.
“You can’t say watch around me. Say little clock or some shit.”
Eternity burst out laughing while hitting my shoulder lightly.
You would have thought this was her first time watching the movie.
I let out a quiet chuckle, but my focus wasn’t on the movie anymore.
It had changed… to her. To us. My hands slowed just a little against her skin as my thoughts drifted somewhere deeper.
I found myself just looking at her, really looking at her, taking in the way she smiled and the way she looked comfortable and safe. My baby looked at peace.
And suddenly I thought of the request she had asked me about a week ago.
The request was full of change, full of something new and something that would shift everything about the life we had gotten used to.
This house wouldn’t be quiet anymore, not with a baby.
The older teenagers already came in and out like they owned the place, bringing noise when they felt like it and leaving silence behind when they didn’t.
The youngest pretty much stayed to herself, locked away in her room.
But a baby? A baby would fill every space and every corner.
There would be no more waiting for the next sound and no more moments where the house just sat still.
Life would always be moving. And for once, that didn’t feel like too much. It felt right.
A small smile pulled at my lips as I kept massaging her feet, already picturing how things would go.
We would both be facing late nights that no longer belonged to just us, but I wasn’t worried about it.
I was ready. More than ready. And sitting there, with her laughter filling the room, I was prepared to fulfill her request.
I leaned over and then kissed the side of her head before I got back to massaging her feet.
We went back to enjoying our movie in silence, then the front door flew open.
The sound cut through everything so fast it didn’t even feel real at first. My head snapped toward the hallway to see the child who was making an appearance.
Her voice hit me before I even saw her. She was crying and sounded so broken.
“Daddy!”
Everything in me budged. I was on my feet before Maliah had even made it into the living room, my chest felt like somebody had punched me and knocked the air out of my lungs, the second I saw her. She rushed in like she couldn’t get to me fast enough.
Tears ran down her face, and her breathing was uneven, as if she had been holding it together just long enough to make it home. My eyes scanned her quickly. Her hair was a mess. Her face was wet with tears. And then I saw her shirt was fucking ripped. Something in me turned cold.
“What happened?” My voice came out low and controlled, but there was nothing calm about what I was feeling.
I looked over Maliah’s shoulder and then saw him.
Tahari stood right behind her. Everything that had been soft seconds ago hardened instantly.
Something jagged settled in my chest as my eyes locked onto him.
My jaw tightened as my mind was trying to piece together why he was here and why my daughter looked like that at the same time.
“Maliah,” I said again while stepping closer to her. My voice was steady, but serious in a way that left no room for anything but the truth. “Talk to me.”
Ever since she was a little girl, she would shut down.
Especially when she thought she was in trouble for something.
This wasn’t that kind of situation. I needed her to tell me what happened so that I could handle the situation.
So that I could make whatever happened better.
So that I can be a dad, her dad, and handle the person.
This wasn’t my little girl who cut up her knee and needed a kiss on the boo-boo.
Someone had shattered her spirit, and I needed to know who the fuck was the culprit.
“Maliah, talk to me.”
The second the words left my mouth, Eternity was already moving.
Her feet hit the floor as she stepped around me.
Her arms opened without hesitation. Maliah went straight into her, collapsing into her chest. And the way she cried wasn’t normal.
That wasn’t frustration or attitude or anything small. She was hurt. She was scared.
My jaw stiffened as I watched her cling to Eternity.
She was just a little girl again in her mother’s arms. Her fingers were gripping the shirt Eternity was wearing as she cried.
Her shoulders trembled as everything she had been holding in finally started to spill out.
Eternity wrapped her up instantly, one arm around her shoulders, the other cradling the back of her head.
“I got you, baby. I got you,” she murmured softly.
Her voice was steady in a way mine couldn’t be right now. But I wasn’t focused on calm. I was focused on him.
My eyes lifted slowly, locking onto Tahari, and whatever was sitting in my chest turned jagged all over again. He stood there like he knew exactly what kind of situation he had just walked into, but that didn’t matter to me. Not with my daughter looking like that.
“What happened?” I asked again, but this time directly to him.
This time, I made sure that my tone carried weight.
I was applying pressure. He had about two seconds to answer me, or he was about to touch every fucking wall in this house.
And we had plenty. I stepped closer to him, closing the space between us just enough to make it clear this wasn’t a casual conversation.
“You brought her home like this. So, talk.”
For a second, he didn’t say anything. And that silence didn’t sit right with me.
My shoulders squared, my patience was thinning quicker than I liked.
“Little nigga, you got one second to answer before I show you a version of me that I had buried years ago.”
“I…”
His voice barely got out before footsteps sounded from the stairs.
“Yo, what’s going on?”
MJ’s voice cut through the tension as he came down. His tone was laced with confusion that shifted the second he took in the scene. His eyes moved from me to Tahari, then over to Maliah in Eternity’s arms, and just like that, his whole demeanor changed. He was on demon time just like me.
“What the fuck happened to her?” he asked Tahari.
“I’m asking the same thing,” I said, my gaze never leaving him. “So, you better start talking.”
Before he could answer, my baby girl’s broken voice filled the room.
“Daddy, stop.”
I turned my head immediately, my facial expression saddened as I looked at her. She was still holding onto Eternity. Her face was pressed halfway into her shoulder, but she lifted her head just enough to look at me.
“He didn’t do anything,” she said, her voice shaky but firm in a way that made me pause.
My expression hardened slightly, confusion mixed with the anger that was already sitting there. “Then why do you look like that?”
She swallowed, and her grip tightened on Eternity for a second before she spoke again.
“If it wasn’t for him,” her voice wavered, and she shook her head slightly like she was trying to steady herself, “it would’ve been worse.”
The room went still. My eyes shifted back to Tahari slowly, a different kind of weight settling in my chest now.
“Explain,” I said, quieter this time, but no less serious.
Maliah took a breath, her voice still unsteady as she spoke, but she pushed through it.
“He… he tried to force himself on me,” she admitted, the words heavy, real, and hard to hear no matter how controlled I tried to stay.
MJ cursed under his breath behind me. Eternity’s arms tightened around her. My hands clenched at my sides so tight I could feel the tension running up my arms.
“But Tahari,” she continued, her eyes flicking toward him for a second before coming back to me, “he saw it. He pulled him out of the car. He… he helped me.”
Silence fell over the room again, but it wasn’t the same kind as before.
My gaze stayed on Tahari. I was really looking at him now and taking in the way he stood there.
Both his knuckles were bloody. He stood there tense and quiet, like he didn’t care about explaining himself as long as she was okay.
I stared at him, and he met my gaze. I made a noise like I was cleaning food out of my teeth.
I couldn’t stand anything about this little nigga, but no matter what I felt about him…
He brought my daughter home. He stepped in when it mattered.
And that wasn’t something I could ignore.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
My attention went right back to Maliah. She nodded slightly, even though I could still see the tremble in her.
“I’m here,” I told her with my tone softener now, “you’re safe.”
Maliah went from Eternity’s arms and into mine. As I hugged my daughter, I stared at her knight in shining armor for the evening.
“You’re okay,” I said to Maliah as I kissed her forehead repeatedly and rubbed her back.