Tough Love

Chap. 30 • "Illusion"

Christopher Brown

"Chris, please come get this child. She won't stop crying! I'm starting to think she just don't like me." Aya called out to me from the living room. I sighed heavily, and stood up to make my way down. I was instantly greeted by Aria's loud wailing, causing my head to pound.

Aria (uh-rye-uh) Marie Brown. First name corresponding to Aya, middle to Maurice, and my last name. March 24. She was conceived on Aya's birthday, which I find cute as hell. The only problem with that is we'll have to have birthday sex ahead of time.

"Clearly, daddy's her favorite. Isn't that right, boo boo?" I cooed as I lifted my daughter from her crib, seeing how her crying didn't cease as I hoped it would.

"You're my favorite too, daddy." Aya's voice wasn't hers anymore. It sounded more similar to—

"Ammika, what the hell?!" I yelled, taking a few steps away from her.

"I don't think you should cuss around our daughter like that." She poked out her lip while shaking her head.

"Where's Aya? And how the hell did you get in here?" I tilted my body away from her, shielding Aria's head.

"So many A's. Aya, Aria, Ammika. Must be hard to keep up with. So I figured, why not get rid of one?" She chuckled sinisterly, scaring me a little.

The hell does she mean 'get rid of'? She got me fucked up. Let me find out something bad happened to my baby and I'm going to jail for murder.

"Get out my house." I clenched my jaw, not wanting to acknowledge her presence.

"That's no way to speak to the mother of your child." She smirked and took a step closer to me.

"You know that's not my child." I squinted at her and took another step back.

"It isn't?" Ammika asked. What the hell....

"I don't know what you got going on, but Imma need you to get the fuck on. And stay away from my dau—"

As I was about to finish my sentence, I felt the lack of weight in my arms and looked down to see Aria gone. I went into full on panic mode and voided out everything else around me, trying to spot my child. I heard the door open which immediately caught my attention.

I looked up and Ammika was walking out the house like I asked her. But with my child.

"Christopher!" There was a rough impact on my face, causing me to flinch hard.

"The hell was that for?" I said in a groggy voice, slowly peeling my eyes open. Aya straddling me was the first thing I saw, which was visually appealing.

"I've been tryna get you up for like 5 minutes and you wouldn't even budge. I was getting a little scared, it looked as if you weren't breathing." She frowned a little, before slumping down.

"Aww, you missed Daddy?" I puckered my lips for her to kiss in a mocking way.

"See—" She kissed her teeth and got off of me. "I was just tryna see if you wanted to get breakfast." She mumbled before slipping on her fur slides.

"I can eat? You gon' cook for me?" I licked my lips and waited for her response.

"What part of get breakfast didn't you understand? If I was finna cook I would've said—" She paused mid-sentence and sighed deeply. "Never mind, Chris. No, I'm not cooking." I chuckled lowly at her frustration.

"I can't get a good morning kiss? Nothing?" I furrowed my brows and sat up completely, scratching my head. I need a haircut.

"Not with yo' breath smelling like 10 cans of bounce that ass and hot coochie." Aya doubled over at her own joke, while I just rolled my eyes.