14. Luciana Creed #2
“She deserves this,” I said in a hush tone.
Maddox held my gaze for a long moment before nodding.
“Yeah.”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“She does.”
“I know.”
A lump formed in my throat, but I forced it back down before it had the chance to turn into tears.
Maddox gave my hand one last squeeze before letting it go. Neither one of us said anything after that. We didn’t need to. Some moments just didn’t need filling.
The sound of little feet pounding across the second floor broke the silence a few seconds later.
“Daddy!”
Michael came running down the hallway so fast I was almost certain he was going to miss the last step, but he didn’t.
“I cleaned my room!”
Maddox looked at him. “You did?”
“I put almost everything up.”
I couldn’t help laughing as I said, “Almost?”
Michael nodded proudly.
“I couldn’t find my race car.”
MJ appeared behind him and folded his arms.
“He didn’t lose it. It’s under his bed,” he said.
“I forgot…”
“Clearly.”
Maddox chuckled as he shook his head and told him, “I appreciate the effort.”
Michael grinned before looking toward the front window.
“What time they coming?”
“They should be here soon.”
“How soon?”
“Soon.”
The answer clearly wasn’t good enough.
“Like… five minutes soon?”
“I don’t know, buddy.”
“What about two minutes?”
MJ rolled his eyes, already annoyed. “You ask too many questions.”
“I do not.”
“You do.”
“I just wanna meet my sister.”
Nobody spoke for a second after he said that.
I don’t think any of us were prepared for how naturally that word had come out of his mouth.
He said, my sister, with no hesitation or confusion. Just… acceptance.
Maddox smiled. “And I can’t wait for you to meet her.”
Michael walked over to the front window again and stood on his tiptoes, trying to see out.
“I don’t see nobody…”
“They gotta drive here first,” MJ reminded him.
“Oh.”
He nodded like that made perfect sense.
“They probably at a red light.”
I laughed because these kids were too much.
“Maybe they are.”
The house grew quiet again, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. It felt more like everybody was waiting for the same moment.
Michael kept walking back and forth between the window and the couch every few seconds. MJ eventually grabbed the remote and turned on the television, though I wasn’t sure he was paying attention to anything on the screen.
Maddox wandered over beside me, slipping one hand into his pocket while staring out the same window Michael had practically claimed as his own.
“You nervous?” I softly asked.
He let out a small laugh as he nodded, “I’ve been nervous all damn day.”
“I figured.”
“I don’t know why,” he admitted. “It’s not like I’m meeting her for the first time. “It’s just…”
He stopped.
I looked over at him.
“I want today to go right.”
The knife lingering in my heart twisted a little more as I whispered, “I know...”
“I just want her to feel like she belongs…”
Before I could say something back, the sound of tires rolling into the driveway echoed through the house.
Michael’s head snapped toward the window so fast I thought he might give himself whiplash.
“They here!” He jumped up and pressed both hands against the glass. “I see a car!”
My own stomach tightened… This was it.
Maddox slowly let out the breath he’d been holding.
Nobody moved at first.
Car doors opened as voices flowed in from outside. Michael looked back over his shoulder, practically bouncing where he stood.
“Daddy…”
A knock sounded at the front door and the house fell completely silent. A second later, another knock came.
Michael looked back at Maddox with wide eyes before bouncing in place. “Daddy, open it!”
Maddox laughed under his breath, but I could tell he was just as nervous as everybody else. He took a slow breath, looked over at me for the briefest second, then started toward the door.
I found myself holding my breath without even realizing it.
This was the moment I’d spent all morning trying not to think about.
MJ stayed glued to Maddox’s side while Michael stood a few feet behind him, trying his hardest to look calm. It wasn’t working. The boy kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other, stealing little glances toward the front door every couple of seconds.
Kids really did wear every emotion on their faces.
Maddox reached for the doorknob but paused for just a second. Not long enough for anybody else to notice, but I did.
Eleven years together had taught me all his little tells. He was nervous. Excited. Hopeful. Scared. All of the above.
Then he turned the handle and slowly pulled the front door open.
For a second, nobody moved.
Nylah stood on the porch with a pink backpack hanging from one shoulder while Gia and who I assumed to be her man stood on either side of her.
A small suitcase rested at her feet, and judging by the way her fingers kept tightening around the strap of her backpack, she was just as nervous as the rest of us.
Maddox smiled first. I mean a real smile, the kind I hadn’t seen nearly enough lately.
“Hey, Princess.”
The second she heard his voice, some of the nervousness melted away. A smile spread across her face as she looked up at him.
“Hey, daddy.”
Neither one of them moved right away.
It was almost like they were both trying to figure out what came next.
My eyes drifted to Gia. At the exact same moment, hers landed on me. The air shifted. A small, embarrassed smile tugged at my lips before I could stop it.
It wasn’t warm or forced. It was the only thing I could manage.
Gia held my gaze for a second before giving me a small nod. Nothing more. No smile. No words. Nothing. Then, her attention shifted right back to her daughter.
Honestly… I was grateful because neither one of us was ready for a conversation.
Her man broke the silence by reaching down for the suitcase.
“She packed enough clothes to stay about three weeks.”
Maddox laughed and said, “Sounds about right.”
Nylah’s cheeks turned pink.
“I didn’t know what I was gonna need.”
“You packed half your room, girl,” Gia teased, finally smiling at her daughter.
“I did not, ma…”
“You absolutely did.”
The guy chuckled as he handed the suitcase to Maddox.
“I think the only thing she left behind was the television.”
“Oh, I forgot my science book,” Nylah mumbled.
Gia laughed and told her, “I packed it after you forgot it.”
“I knew that…”
“No, you didn’t.”
Watching the three of them together did something to me. There wasn’t any pretending between them. No awkwardness. Just a family saying goodbye before a little girl spent the weekend with her father.
The sight of it made me sick to my stomach.
Gia stooped in front of Nylah and gently brushed a few braids away from her face.
“You remember what we talked about?”
Nylah nodded and said, “Use my manners.”
“And?”
“I’ll call you tonight…”
“And?”
A little smile spread across Nylah’s face. “I’ll have fun.”
Gia smiled back and told her, “That’s all I want.”
She pulled her daughter into a hug and held her there for a few seconds longer than she probably intended.
When she finally let go, the guy stepped forward and said, “My turn.”
Nylah laughed before wrapping her arms around him.
“You better not forget about me while you over here.”
“I won’t.”
She giggled before hugging him one more time.
When they pulled apart, Pryce looked over at Maddox.
“Take care of her.”
Maddox didn’t hesitate.
“I will…”
He nodded when Maddox said that. Gia pulled her into another hug and held her there for a few extra seconds before kissing the top of her head.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, mama.”
Gia took one last look at her daughter before her eyes found mine.
For the briefest moment, we just looked at each other.
An embarrassed smile tugged at my lips, stretching no farther than the corners of my mouth. It wasn’t an apology, and it wasn’t an invitation to talk. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what it was.
Gia didn’t smile back, though.
She simply held my gaze for a second before looking away.
I couldn’t really blame her, but at the same time…
A part of me couldn’t ignore the fact that I hadn’t forced her to sign that NDA. I hadn’t put a gun to her head or made the decision for her. If she’d truly wanted to walk away from that meeting, she could have.
Then again…
Apollo Creed would’ve had her handled. So, maybe signing that NDA was her best bet.
But that was neither here nor there. All I wanted was for the people we’d hurt the most to finally have a chance to move forward.
“Bye, baby.”
“Bye, Mama.”
The man reached for Gia’s hand, and together they headed back toward the car.
Nylah stood in the doorway watching until they pulled out of the driveway.
“You ready to go inside, baby girl?”
She looked up at him, then nodded. “Yes.”
With that, he closed the door once they were inside.
Mama Creed’s house was already full by the time we got here.
That wasn’t surprising. The woman could turn a simple family gathering into something that looked like Sunday dinner, a birthday party, and a reunion all in one. Before Maddox even cut the engine, I could hear voices coming from inside the house.
Laughter. Music. Kids yelling over each other.
Life.
Nylah sat in the backseat between MJ and Michael, looking out the window with wide eyes.
The boys had talked the entire ride over, barely giving the poor girl a chance to answer one question before they asked another.
Michael wanted to know if she liked pizza, video games, race cars, and pancakes.
MJ kept correcting him, then asking his own questions like he was trying to sound mature and failing terribly.
Through it all, Nylah smiled.
She looked nervous, but happy too.
I sat in the passenger seat watching her through the rearview mirror, feeling something I didn’t know how to name settle deep in my chest. There was no reason for me to be surprised that the boys had accepted her so quickly. Maddox told them they had a sister, and that was enough for them.
I wished it could be that simple for me.