All That Matters

Chapter 7

"Thanks Mark." He walks away. "Hey babes."

"Hello sweetcheeks. What's up with Carrano?"

"He wants me to do Ride Along."

"Really? That's great. It's about time."

"I know. Finally. And um..."

"What?"

"I'm staying back here during the match. I need to stick by the phone just in case."

"I understand baby. Our baby comes first." He kisses my hands. "Everything will be fine."

~

About half way through Joe's match, my mom calls.

"Hey mom. Is everything alright?"

"She's not doing any better so I'm going to pick some things up from your house."

"How's her behavior?"

"Irritable. She won't stop crying." I sigh.

"Alright get Dean on Facetime. He can calm her down while you drive."

"I will."

"Ok mom. Be safe." I hang up the phone and sigh. I'm watching Joe and Kevin exchange blows back and forth and Rusev comes in with the distraction as the match comes to a close and my phone rings. "Renee? What's---" she starts talking too fast for me to understand. "Renee slow down. What happened?"

"Malaika it's your mom. She got into an accident."

~

"You have to cut the segment. Now!" I yell at the production manager.

"Why?"

"My mother and my baby got into an accident. We need to get to Florida now!" he speaks into his earpiece to break off Rusev and get Joe backstage.

"What happened?" Joe asks me when he gets backstage. "It wasn't supposed to end that early."

"My mom and Anjali got into an accident." Joe's face goes pale.

"H—How do you know?" I ask as we rush to the locker room.

"Anjali wasn't doing well so she said she would get some things from the house. I told her to FaceTime Dean to calm Anjali down until they get home. It must have happened on the way to the house and Dean was still on the phone and he texted Renee to call me." we grab our bags and get the hell out of the arena ASAP.

~

We took the first flight out of Baltimore for a two hour flight that felt like so much longer. Joe took a quick shower and changed to kill time until the flight. We arrive in the waiting room to see my sister and my father in chairs.

"What happened? Where's my mom? Is the baby alright?" I ask frantically.

"They're both fine." My sister says. "Some asshole ran a red light and collided into them."

"You used the word 'collided' that's not a good word." I say in a panic. "That's not a good word. That means that it's bad and it can't be bad." My sister takes my hands.

"They're fine Malaika. He hit the trunk and the car spun. Mom just has minor injuries."

"Baby. Don't worry." Joe says. "Can we go see them?"

"Jocelyn is still sleeping." My dad says. "But you can go see Anjali. She's with the Pediatric doctors. Third floor." My husband and I race to the third floor to see our baby. The doctor tells us that she just has a little scratch on her forehead. I pick up my baby and hold her close to me, kissing her scratch.