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“Baby don’t do that. How was she to know we didn’t know?”
“Whatever.”
“Please sit down and eat. As my brother said, we have more than enough food,” Atlas says.
“Thank you,” she says as Jaasiel sits them at the dining room table with two heaping plates of food and two glasses of peach lemonade.
“Don’t. Let her have a moment to collect herself,” Josh voices, stopping me from heading out of the door to find Brooklyn. I don’t know how I fucked this up so bad. I will give her a few minutes, and if she doesn’t return, I will go get her. I have kept this, not a secret but personal, for so long, and I guess it’s time to tell it, get it off of my chest once and for all. But if I am going to tell this story, I am only going to say it once, and out of everyone here, the person who deserves to hear it the most is Brooklyn. I take a seat in the rarely used entry seat and wait for her to come back. I snap my eyes over to the dining room table where Alondra and Salove have finished eating the huge plates and finally think about what the hell brought them here, not just here in the U.S. but here at my house. And how in the hell did she find me?
“Brooklyn,” I start when I catch up to her outside.
“She didn’t say she wanted to talk to you,” True says.
“Sis,”
“Don’t try that sis shit. I am so pissed off at you, you’re lucky I didn’t just pull out a gun and shoot you,” True says.
“Trust me, I know, but I still need to talk to her.”
“Brooklyn?” Savvy asks.
“I’m okay. I’ll talk to him,” she says, and I can see the anger in her eyes. Savvy and True walk back inside the house. Turning back to Brooklyn, I reach out to take her hand, but she backs up, letting me know she does not want me touching her.
“Okay, well, come with me,” I say, walking towards my entrance to my office. I grab the box and hand it to her. “I owe you an explanation, but I only have the strength to get through this once, so let’s go downstairs so I can explain.”
“I’ve begged you for years to open up to me, and now that you’re pretty much backed into a corner, you want to explain finally?” she says, handing me the box back, but I refuse to take it.
“What can I say, Brooklyn? You’re right, and I know I don’t have the right to ask, but I am. Please just come and listen, and if you still want to walk away after, I am okay with that. But let me show you this before we go downstairs so you know this is not because I am, as you called it, backed into a corner, but because I was coming for you.” I walk away, but she is not moving, “Please.” Finally, she reluctantly moves towards me, and I lead her out of the room and down the hall. I reach the door but wait for her to join me. She dragged her feet here like a petulant child. “Everyone is waiting, Aryan. What are we doing?” she asks.
“Fuck them! Let them wait,” I say, meaning it. Making her release a deep breath. “Open it,” I say, backing away, but she just stands there. “D, open it. Please.”
“I don’t know how anything beyond this door is going to change anything, Aryan,”
“Then it shouldn’t be a big deal for you to open it. And it may not change anything, or it may change everything, but either way, you won’t know until you open the damn door,” I say, frustrated even though I don’t have a right to be.
“Fine,” she says, grabbing the knob and swinging it open. “What is so… oh my god! Aryan!” she says, looking inside the room. She slowly crosses the threshold to take in the full room. She spins around, trying to take in everything at once.
“I didn’t know what we were having, so I did both,” I tell her as she takes in the nursery. The cream, faded pink, blue, and green were soft enough for a girl but suitable for a boy, too. The crib, dressers, changing table, matching glider chairs, infant rocker, co-sleeper, and full-size bed.
“I, I don’t know where to start,” she says, immediately walking over to the crib and setting the box down before touching everything. “Oh my gosh, the nameplate!” she looks up over the crib to notice theBrennan-Gideonartwork nameplate I made from metal.
“Like I said, I didn’t know what we were having, so I just put the last name. But now I know it’s a girl, I will do one with her first name.” Brooklyn raises her eyebrow, opening her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. “I know you, D. I know you’ve given her a name. So what is it?”
“McKinley,”
“Son of the fair warrior.”
“Is that what her name means? Oh no, I have to change it,”
“No, you won’t. For her, it means daughter of the fair warrior.”
“Aryan, I love this, but this doesn’t change anything,”
“I didn’t really expect it to. I wanted to show you that I was coming to talk to you, for you and our baby. I will not sign my rights over, and I will be a father to her, even if we have to co-parent her. I would prefer being a family, and I hope I haven’t completely blown that, but I would understand if I did.”
“You’re MARRIED! I mean, I want to believe there is an explanation, a reason you kept something so monumental a secret. I poured my heart out to you about my mom and Supreme, and the entire time, you never said a word,”
“Have you ever had something so devastating happen that you don’t want to talk about it to anyone because if you do, you are not sure if you can come back from that dark place? I crawled through hell and barely made it back. I didn’t want to go back to that place, not for anyone but you, Brooklyn. I will go there just for you. I don’t care if my brothers know, I don’t owe them shit. However, I owe it to you. Will you allow me to explain?” I ask.
