Page 93 of Set me Free

I sighed. "Obviously, I know I fucked up, Sev," I admitted. "I know I hurt her. I know she got every reason to hate me."

He nodded. "That’s a start. But how you gon’ fix it?" I hesitated. Sevyn sat back, arms crossed. "Look man, Tootie is stubborn," he said. "It’s gone take a lot to fix this shit, not gonna lie. She stopped talking to my mama for two years. Showering her with gifts ain’t gon’ work. You need to figure out why you did what you did in the first place and be honest with yourself about it."

I went silent. Then my mind drifted—back to that night I regretted happening.

I was drunk, not wasted, but enough to be reckless.

Gianna knocked on my door around midnight. "Creed, we need to talk about Gio."

She sat on my bed, started talking about co-parenting, how we needed to get back to being a “family.” Then she started crying.

Next thing I know she started touching me and I let her. Then she started kissing me and my dumb ass let her do that shit too. Truth be told, I was missing my baby and I was lonely. So, instead of stopping it, I just let all that dumb shit happen.

The next morning, I made her leave my room completely ashamed of what had gone down. I didn’t even mention it to my mom, but I knew I had to get Gianna out of my crib. I just wasn’t expecting Serenity to pop back up before I had a chance to.

I clenched my jaw. "I gotta handle Gianna," I admitted. "For real this time."

Sevyn nodded. "Yeah stupid, you do."

She soundedhopeful when she picked up.

"Hey, Creed."

I shut that down quick. "This ain’t gon’ work no more, Gianna."

"What?"

"Going forward, we only communicate through a parenting app. We only talk about Gio. That’s it."

"Creed, you’re being ridiculous—" she laughed like shit was funny. Even with my kicking her out my shit weeks ago, Gianna still thought this was a fucking game. And I knew it was because I had made the mistake of letting her think that for years.

"No, I’m setting boundaries," I cut her off. "You are no longer welcome at my house. You will not pop up, you will not use Gio as an excuse to be around me, and if you try some slick shit, I will take you back to court."

"Wow," she whispered. "So, this is it?"

"It’s been over," I said. “Not sure why you refuse to accept that.”

Silence.

Then—

"This is all because of her?"

I exhaled through my nose. "Serenity is pregnant."

The silence stretched and stretched until…

"What?" she whispered.

"She’s pregnant," I repeated. “And that’s who I’m rollin with.”

"So y’all just playing house now?" she snapped. "Like I don’t even exist?"

"You and me were done a long time ago, Gianna," I said. "I just finally made it official. I love Serenity. I’m building my life with her."

Gianna let out a dry laugh.

"Wow nigga…Good luck with that." Then she hung up and the sigh of relief that was released from my body was almost overwhelming.

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