9. Maddox Creed
MADDOX CREED
The first thing I did when I opened my eyes was reach for my phone. I unlocked it, even though I already knew what was waiting for me.
Nothing…
Gia still hadn’t responded.
No missed calls. No text messages. No sign that she’d even seen what I’d sent.
“Fuck.”
I dropped my head back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling.
It was still early as hell. Vegas was three hours behind Atlanta, which meant there was a good chance Gia hadn’t even seen my text yet. For all I knew, her and Nylah were still asleep.
That should’ve been enough to settle my mind, but it wasn’t.
A few seconds later, I found myself checking my phone again like something was magically gonna change.
It didn’t…
I tossed it onto the bed beside me and scrubbed a hand over my face.
That’s when my mind drifted to Nylah.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. From her point of view, I’d probably disappeared without warning. One minute I was there, spending time with her and making promises about everything we were gonna do together.
Then I was gone.
I hadn’t called.
I hadn’t texted.
Hell, I hadn’t even tried to explain why I’d disappeared.
To a nine-year-old little girl, it probably looked like I’d walked into her life just long enough to get her hopes up before walking right back out.
“Shit…”
I sat up and brushed a hand across my face.
At the time, I’d been so caught up in everything happening back home that I hadn’t stopped to think about how my silence might affect Nylah. My marriage was falling apart, every day brought another problem I didn’t know how to solve, and it felt like I was barely keeping my head above water.
None of that mattered to a little girl waiting to hear from her father.
All she knew was that I’d left.
If she’d started wondering whether I didn’t want to be around her anymore, I couldn’t blame anybody but myself.
That shit sat heavy on my chest as I got dressed and made my way downstairs.
The house was already coming to life. I heard Michael before I even reached the kitchen, talking a mile a minute about something while MJ kept telling him to shut up.
Normal kid shit.
Luciana looked up the second I walked into the kitchen. Our eyes met for a brief moment before I looked away and headed toward the refrigerator.
It wasn’t about anger anymore.
Truthfully, I just didn’t have the energy.
Lately, every conversation felt like work. Every glance carried years of history behind it, and every moment we spent in the same room reminded me of everything we were trying to rebuild… and everything that still felt broken.
“Morning,” she said quietly.
“Morning.”
That was the extent of it.
No awkward small talk.
No pretending everything was okay.
Just two people trying to figure out how to exist in the same house while our marriage hung by a thread.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator before leaning against the counter and checking my phone again.
Gia still hadn’t responded, and that shit was starting to get on my nerves.
It wasn’t Gia, though, because she didn’t owe me a response, and I knew that.
I was irritated with myself.
I knew she had a life. Knew she wasn’t sitting around waiting to answer my messages, yet every few minutes I found myself checking my phone like the damn screen was finally gonna give me a different answer.
“You expecting a call?” Luciana’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
I looked up, and for a split second, I thought about lying.
Instead, I told the truth.
“Nah… I’m expecting a text.”
Her eyes dropped to the phone in my hand before lifting back to mine. She didn’t ask who I was waiting to hear from because she already knew.
Nylah’s name didn’t have to be spoken for the weight of it to settle between us. Every conversation about my daughter carried a reminder of how we got here, and there wasn’t a damn thing either of us could do to separate one from the other.
A few minutes later, I grabbed my keys.
“I’m heading out.”
The boys barely looked up from their breakfast.
Luciana nodded.
“Okay.”
That was all either of us had.
Simple and easy.
Still, I found myself lingering by the front door for a second before forcing my feet to move.
The drive into the city didn’t do much to improve my mood. Traffic was moving, people were going about their day, and my phone sat in the cupholder like it was daring me to pick it up again.
By the time I pulled into the office parking lot, I was already irritated.
I was irritated with the situation.
I was irritated with myself.
Hell, I was irritated that one damn text message had this much control over my mood.
The worst part was knowing exactly how the rest of my day was gonna go.
Every time my phone lit up, I’d look, and every time it wasn’t Gia, I’d be disappointed.
The morning dragged by.
One meeting turned into another as people came in asking questions, looking for approvals, and sliding paperwork across my desk that needed my signature. I handled everything the same way I always had.
The problem was, my head wasn’t in none of that shit.
A man sat across from me breaking down numbers while I stared at the spreadsheet on my desk, pretending to pay attention. I heard enough to know the project was making money, but not enough to care about a single damn thing he was saying.
“You good?”
My eyes lifted to his.
The question seemed to catch him off guard the second it left his mouth. Judging by the look on his face, he’d realized a little too late that he’d just asked his boss something personal.
“I’m straight.”
The answer came so naturally I barely thought about it.
He nodded and I nodded back.
A few seconds later, the meeting was over.
The second the door clicked shut, I reached for my phone and still… nothing.
Gia still hadn’t responded.
“Fuck!”
I tossed the phone onto my desk harder than I meant to.
Waiting had always gotten on my nerves. I’d rather somebody tell me the truth, whether it was good, bad, or somewhere in the middle. At least then I’d know where I stood.
The uncertainty was the part that fucked with me.
A knock sounded against my office door and before I could answer, Kyro let himself in.
I sighed, not in the mood for his bullshit today.
“What the fuck wrong with you?” See? The mothafucka walked in on some fuck shit.
I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms across my chest. “Ain’t shit wrong with me.”
He laughed.
“You look like you wanna punch somebody.”
“I probably do…”
That only made him laugh harder.
The bastard dropped into the chair across from my desk and kicked his feet up like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“What Luciana do now?”
My jaw tightened.
Truth was, Luciana hadn’t done shit today. This wasn’t about her. At least not directly.
“I texted Gia last night asking how Nylah was doing.” I picked up my phone, glanced at the screen, then tossed it back onto the desk again. “She still ain’t text me back.”
He stared at me for a second before leaning back in his chair.
“So that’s what’s got you acting like this?”
I nodded.
“I know she don’t owe me shit, and I know she got her own life, but damn… all I wanna know is how my daughter doing.”
Kyro rubbed a hand across his beard.
“You sure this ain’t really about everything else?”
“What’s everything else?”
“Your marriage.” He shrugged. “Therapy. Finding out you got a daughter. All this shit been hitting you back-to-back.”
I sat here for a second before shaking my head.
“Nah. This ain’t got nothing to do with Luciana.”
“What then because I know it’s not just about a sorry ass text?”
“I told Nylah I wasn’t going nowhere.” I looked down at my phone again. “Now I ain’t heard from her, and I don’t know if she think I disappeared on her.”
Kyro didn’t answer right away. He just sat there looking at me before letting out a slow breath.
“Damn…”
“The fuck that supposed to mean?”
“It mean you already love that little girl.”
I frowned.
“Ain’t shit wrong with that. Nigga, she’s mine. The fuck!”
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
“Look, Maddox… she nine. Kids don’t think like we do. She probably at school right now, coloring, laughing with her friends, or driving her teacher crazy. Don’t let your mind convince you something wrong when you don’t even know if it is.”
I stared at him without saying a word.
“And even if her feelings are hurt,” he continued, “You fix that by showing up. One phone call ain’t what make somebody a father…. Showing up do.”
The words hit hard, especially coming from a nigga like Kyro Creed.
“Just don’t stop showing up.”
That was something I should’ve thought about hours ago, but instead I’d spent half the morning checking my phone every five damn minutes like Gia was supposed to drop everything and answer me.
For the first time all day, I felt stupid.
Kyro caught it the second my expression changed, which meant I wasn’t hearing the end of this shit.
“You ain’t think about that, did you?”
“Shut up.”
His grin stretched even wider.
“Baby girl probably coloring and learning fractions and shit while your ass over here having a whole mental breakdown.”
I pointed toward the door.
“Get out.”
He laughed.
“No, for real?—”
“Get the fuck out before I punch you.”
That only made him laugh harder.
The asshole kept laughing all the way to the door, but just before he walked out, he stopped and looked back at me.
“She’ll text you back letting you know baby girl is good… and ain’t worried about yo’ ass.”
The grin faded, replaced by something more serious. This wasn’t Kyro getting on my nerves anymore.
This was my brother.
“You ain’t gotta be perfect, Madd.”
For a second, neither one of us said anything.
Then he gave me a small nod before walking out and quietly pulling the door shut behind him.
I sat there staring at the closed door longer than I probably should’ve.
The crazy part was… He was right.
My jaw tightened, because he made the shit sound easy, like a little girl hadn’t already missed nine years because of decisions other people made for me, like I wasn’t trying to figure this shit out as I went.