Page 52 of Betrothed To Love

Giselle and Kyrah stand too. When I see them stepping over to the sofa Mireya and I are sitting on, I get up too. Giselle hugs me first.

“You have the best of us. Treat her right. I know too many people willing to do what I want if you don’t,” she whispers in a threatening tone, contradicting the smile on her face. Her threat doesn’t land though. For one, I’m never going to mistreat my wife, and secondly, I genuinely fear no man.

“She’s perfectly safe with me,” I assure her and she nods.

As she hugs Mireya, Kyrah hugs and thanks me again. Then Alex embraces me. “My question was purely out of love for my friend. I meant no disrespect,” she says apologetically.

“None was taken. We straight.”

“Good and thanks again for my bottle.”

Mireya and Kyrah hug then she pulls Alex in for a hug. When they are out of the living room, she steps right into my space and into my arms.

“You not going up to finish y’all Friday night routine?” I ask and she shakes her head.

“No. I’m letting you take me home,” she says with a simper.

“Is that right?”

“Absolutely.” She beams then raises on the balls of her feet to lean up for a kiss I don’t hesitate to give.

“I guess I passed the friend test,” I say while still holding her.

“It wasn’t a test. I really wanted you to meet them and also let them see the man I’m becoming more and more enamored with each day. But know this, if it was a test, you definitely aced it.”

“Not the man, your husband. You’re slipping, kyau,” I remind her before pulling her in for a deep kiss.

“I like to draw. Do you like to draw?” Niya asks as she grabs Mireya’s hand to take her upstairs to her room.

“I love to draw but I’m not that good,” Mireya says.

“I’ll show you,” Niya says.

As they ascend the stairs, I fall back for a moment and just watch the two of them, my heart and my kyau. Niya means the world to me. She is my world and having her come into it being unwanted by Janis fucked me up. When she said she didn’t want a baby, she meant that shit.

At every doctor’s appointment, she was so disinterested. For our first sonogram, she played on her phone the entire time and refused a copy of the picture at the end. Stupidly, I thought that maybe while carrying Niya, Janis would change her mind. Of course, she didn’t. When Niya came into this world, I cut her umbilical cord. Her first cries almost exploded my damn heart. While I fell in love immediately, Janis didn’t. She wouldn’t even allow the nurse to place Niya on her, so the nurse advised me to remove my gown and shirt and I held my baby first. I stayed with her in the hospital that night, and the next morning, I left with my baby girl and Janis left Diamond Falls.

“Daddy, you can stay there,” my baby girl says, breaking my thoughts. I just shake my head and laugh. I also stay downstairs. I’ll eventually go up but I’ll give her some time with Mireya.

My baby girl really likes my wife.

Instead of going to Crescent Falls this morning to shop for our dinner on Saturday, Mireya came here. She searched online and found a small boutique that specializes in formal dresses. It’s located in the new plaza behind the mall. The three of us went there at eleven.

From the moment Mireya arrived, Niya was stuck to her. She even let Mireya fix her hair and redo her ponytails with no pouting or fussing like she does when I try to do anything to her hair. I learned a new trick watching her. A little water and leave-in conditioner works like magic when combing through Niya’s head full of hair.

At the shop, they picked out a few beautiful dresses for Niya. While she tried them on, I slipped away to handle something, and when I got back, they had decided on two pretty dresses just in case. Mireya also let Niya choose the color. Her dress is green like some princess with a frog she recently fell in love with. We went to the mall next, and after about an hour, Mireya found a beautiful green and gold dress that hugs the hell out of her curves. My suit was last but the easiest. We went to my normal shop and Mike hooked me up.

Niya insisted that we eat lunch at her favorite spot, so we had crab legs. My baby girl can legit eat seafood every day and not just legs. She loves shrimp and fish too. We just got back from the Seafood Spot and Niya immediately wanted to take my wife back up to her room to draw.

This day couldn’t have been more perfect if I planned it. The two of them together are just right. My baby doesn’t take to new people this fast and she definitely doesn’t let just anyone draw on her wall. As much as she loves the twins, they don’t even have that privilege. All of that just solidifies my mission to make my wife see what I already know. She’s mine, I’m hers, and what happened with us was some meant to be shit. I needed her before I even met her.

Giving them time together upstairs, I head to the kitchen and grab a bottle of water. I also call Ace. This evening I got the news I’ve been waiting for.

“What’s up, bruh?” he answers.

Getting straight to it, I ask, “You ready to have this case shit over with?”

“You know I am. Even though I’m home with my baby, I can’t really sleep,” he admits.