Page 10 of Heartless

“Never that,” I say, kissing her again.

When we’re finished, I start the car again. Looking at her one final time, I say, “I promise to do everything in my power to fill you with my future little kings and queens.”

Joy fills my wife’s eyes, and tears begin to flow.

3 – MEADOW

“Do you think maybe it’s time to call an intervention?” Kaia asks, ladling soup into a bowl.

“I don’t know. Onyx wants to be there for his sister, but he also doesn’t want his parents to feel like he’s taking sides against them. They were all so close growing up, you know? For him, dealing with Dani is like dealing with a stranger most days.”

“She needs to know how he feels, at least. I mean, at some point, someone has to intervene before she continues to destroy the fabric of the family dynamic and look back one day with regrets. Maybe that person is you since, for all intents and purposes, you’re on the outside looking in. I’m sure that she’ll receive the message from you a lot better than she would her parents or her brother,” Kaia says.

I grab a dinner roll and place it onto the plate that Mak passes to me. “Pie or cake?” I ask the little boy standing in front of me.

“Pie, please,” he says.

“You have such lovely manners,” I commend him, giving him a cookie to go along with the dinner roll before I hand the plate off to Kaia who ladles soup into the bowl.

“Thank you,” he says, looking at his mom who looks tired and in need of a hot bath and comfortable bed.

His mother nods approvingly at him as she waits for me to place her roll onto her plate.

“Pie or cake?” I ask.

She looks at her son, who smiles again as he accepts his plate and bowl from Kaia.

“Pie,” she says. “He loves them so much that I can’t help but give my slice to him.”

Smiling at her, I glance around to make sure no one’s paying attention. I slip two slices of pie onto her plate and lean in, whispering, “One for you and two for him.”

The warmth and the gratitude in her eyes almost overwhelm me.

“Thank you,” she says softly, moving on to Kaia.

“You’re welcome.”

Once they move along, Kaia elbows me. “Ouch! What’d you do that for?”

“You’re only supposed to give them one dessert,” Kaia says.

“I know that, but it won’t hurt anyone if I slip that kid another slice of pie,” I argue.

“You two are getting loud. Both of you need to lower your voices before someone else hears,” Mak warns just as the next person steps up to her.

I glare at Kaia who glares back at me before we turn to serve the next person in line.

“Kaia’s right, you know,” Mak says.

“Really? You’re going to lecture me about a second slice of pie, too?” I ask, turning to stare at her.

“No. I don’t give a damn about that pie. I’d go and buy a pie for every family to take home,” Mak says. “Hell, I will. I’ll send them all home with two pies each.”

Mak is a billionaire. She’s the founder and owner of Layla Amara Cosmetics, a two-point-four-billion-dollar cosmetics company for women of color that has several skincare, cosmetics, and fragrance lines.

She’s the reason behind us volunteering atHigher Souls,a soup kitchen for the homeless. Mak has been volunteering at this place for the last year, and she recruited Kaia, her sisters-in-law, Yaya and Poppy, and me to help.

We’ve been volunteering here two Saturdays out of the month for the last four months alongside Mak.

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