Christian Brooks
Groaning my eyes slowly peeled open and I put my hand on my forehead. It felt like the sun was sitting in my lap. The sound of knocking caused my head to quickly turn left. Squinting to see who it was, I started my car and rolled my window down.
"What you doing out here?" Charlie said.
"I just got here." That was lie.
"Sooooo you missed the babies being born?"
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah."
"Fuck! What time is it?"
She looked at her phone. "It's 8."
"AM?!"
"Yeah, are you okay?"
"I fucked up, Jordyn is about to hate me."
"Well I'm going to head inside, I'll see you up there." Charlie walked away and I sat back and put my hands on my face. When I pulled up to the hospital last night the plan was to take a quick nap to sober up. I didn't want to be around all of those doctors drunk. The fact that I slept all night is crazy and just dug me into a deeper hole.
Climbing out the car, I headed inside of the hospital and up to the maternity floor.
The receptionist gave me Jordyns room number and a bracelet since I'm the father, then I headed to the room. I knocked on the door then walked in. Jordyn was sleep with one of the twins latched onto her breast.
"DADDY!" Imani yelled, running up to me.
"Hey princess." I picked her up and put her on my hip.
"Daddy, wanna see my new babies?"
"Yes I do."
She slid off my hip then pulled me over to the bed. "This is my sister, Ava and mommy is holding my brother Caleb."
"Ava and Caleb, I like it."
"Me too." I walked over to Jordyn and kissed her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open then she looked up at me. "Hey."
She let out a low chuckle. "So you finally decide to show up?"
"Baby I promise I'll explain what happened later, I just want to spend time with you and my babies."
"Chris you reek of liquor and weed. You could've at least went home and took a shower."
"The crazy thing is I've been outside of here the entire time. I was drinking last night and I didn't want to come in here intoxicated so I thought I could take a quick nap and sleep it off but a quick nap turned into 7 Hours. I'm so sorry and I promise I'll make it up to you. There's more that I wanna talk about but it can wait."
She just looked at me then down at the baby. "She's beautiful isn't she?"
"Wait that's not Caleb?"
"No, he's in his bed."
"Imani has things a little mixed up."
"Well She is a 4 year old." Jordyn laughed.
"I didn't think about that."
"I want you to hold him but you need a shower first. I'll call Tricia to bring you some stuff from the house."
I nodded. "So now we have to raise two little babies and a big baby huh?"
"Yeah, I hope that you help out because I'm obviously going to need it. I know that Tricia's there and I know you have a lot going on but I need you to put that on hold for a second and be there with me."
"Jordyn don't worry, I'll be there. You and my kids come first."
"Please don't get my hopes up only to disappoint me in the long run."
"Baby, I'll be there."
She nodded, I held onto her chin and kissed her lips.
About 30 minutes later Tricia came with my things and I hoped in the shower. Probably one of the quickest showers I've ever taken, I was just ready to hold my kids. I walked back into the room and picked up Caleb and put soft kisses on his cheek. The nurses brought in a rocking chair and put it next to Jordyn's bed.
"I still can't believe we have twins man." I said.
"Right. Double the trouble."
"Jordyn I wanna apologize for what I said the other day. I don't know what came over me. What's mine is yours, you know that."
"Chris don't even stress that. I didn't use your money though. And everybody doesn't think I'm dead. While you left your family for three days, I went and got a lot of things taken care of. The death certificate that your dad gave you was fake Chris. How can everybody think I'm dead with no proof? My ID just had to be replaced. Once that was taken care of I had Tank send me some money. Chris I've never depended on no man but my brothers, I would never just go into your money and spend it, I'm just not cut like that. I appreciate the apology I just want you to understand and remember who you're dealing with. But once I feel up to it, I'm getting back to business."
"Back to business?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"Jordyn we have three kids to raise, why not just focus on that? Sit back and chill."
"Sitting back and chilling is what caused me to get fucked over! I'm not doing that shit no more. I can be a great mom and still do what needs to be done."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"I truly don't care what you think. Like I just said, I'll NEVER rely on anybody. I've always gotten my own money and it's gone stay that way, simple."
"Jordyn you got legal businesses, how about focusing on that? I gotta make sure you good. I don't want you getting caught up in any of this. I know you've never relied on anybody but baby I'd rather that I get caught up in some shit than you. You know if anything happens with the police you'll get the harsher sentence. Focus on the babies and the restaurants and the boutiques, let me and Michael handle everything else."
"You know what, if you can answer this one question for me I'll consider it."
"What's that?"
"Where's your mom?"
I sighed. "I....I don't know."
"Exactly. This conversation is over."
Why do she gotta be so fucking stubborn?!
Jordyn Edwards
The Next Morning
I was right when I said I wasn't prepared for this. One baby is tough but two babies is indescribable. I think I only got two minutes to close my eyes and sleep last night. It would've been such a blessing if the babies were in sync but no. The minute we get one down the other starts to cry.
Chris looked like he was seconds from losing his mind. I wanted to laugh but I felt his pain.
This is going to be hard.
Luckily they both are sleep now but all of a sudden I had so much energy. Chris went to go get us and Imani some breakfast.
There was a knock on my room door. "Come in." I yelled.
The door opened and my dad appeared. "Jay, what are you doing here?" I asked.
I'm guessing Michael told him the truth about me being alive.
"Saw your brother the other day and he told me about you having the twins. Thought I'd stop by and bring you three a gift." He handed me an envelope.
I pulled the top back and it was 20,000 in there. "Thank you."
"No problem. Start a savings for them. I wish I would've did that for you and your brothers. Maybe you three wouldn't have got caught up in a bunch of mess. Everything that has happened to you guys has been all my fault."
"How?"
"I knew about you three when you were kids, I was so busy being evil I didn't try to save you. I knew about every move that y'all made. If only I would've just stepped up and been a father, when I approached you at the hospital it wasn't genuine, it was me being greedy and selfish and as time went by I thought about how fucked up it was. Dealing with Meka and Travis trying to find a way to get money out of you and your brother. Being around Imani is what made me have a change of heart."
My jaw clinched. "Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Because it's been tearing me apart, especially when I thought you were gone....I fucked up."
"So now that I know you were a snake I'm definitely not going to want you around."
"Jordyn just give me a chance."
"Give you a chance?! You knew what me and my brothers were going through and you did nothing! You're the reason my mom is dead, you got her hooked on drugs! There's nothing on this earth that will ever convince me to give you a chance." Tears ran down my face. "When you found me at the hospital I thought it was the best thing ever and that I'll finally have a chance at having a parent in my life but the whole time you were plotting. You plotted on my daughter. She got taken because of you! Because you were so desperate for money. That is fucked up."
"I know it is, everything I did was fucked up. But I wanna fix that."
"Hell no."
"I can get you Travis. I know he's working with Chris's mom and I'm going to be honest with you Jordyn, if Chris wanted to find his mom, he could have. They're not too far away. He's bullshitting you. How do you know that he's not even working with her?"
I looked at him. "Because he isn't stupid."
"No but he is money hungry. It's all over town how fucked up he is. Jordyn he's not going to kill his mom, he's not cut like us."
"I'm nothing like you."
"No matter if you want to admit it or not, you're exactly like me. And the only person that's going to kill His mom is you, Chris is going to keep making excuses."
"He's not, He promised me that he'll handle it."
"But that doesn't mean he'll kill her. That's something you and your brother have to handle. Chris is going to distract you with empty promises about getting her. The minute he's face to face with her, I know he's going to fold. He might have developed this bad boy persona over the last six months but you and I both know he's not cut for this life."
"You can leave now."
Jay exhaled. "Think about what I said Jordyn, and if you need my help just call me, my number is the same."
"Goodbye Jay."
Shaking his head he walked out the door. A few minutes later Chris came in with the food.
I'd be lying if I said Jay didn't get in my head.
"I got you some waffles and eggs with cheese baby." Chris said while placing a plate next to me.
"Thanks."
"You good?"
"Yeah, just a lot on my mind."
"Well whatever it is don't even stress it." He kissed me. "Now eat before these little ones wake up. "Mani come eat."
I didn't even have an appetite. I'm over all this bullshit.
I gotta get back to Miami, back to where shit was peaceful.