Page 52 of Set me Free

I exhaled heavily. "I don’t know, Serenity. I swear to God.”

She studied me for a long moment, then let out a slow breath, nodding.

"I should go," she said, moving to grab her bag. “I’ll call an Uber.”

I reached for her wrist. "You don’t gotta do that."

"Yes, I do." She snatched her arm out of my hand. "And you need to figure out why your ex and your mama are at your door."

She was mad. I could see it in her eyes, in the way she was handling this. It had taken me by surprise too. What possible reason could they be here for? I had made shit clear to my mama that things between Gianna and me were over and when I had the conversation with her, even after the actual breakup, she seemed like she understood that I was firm with my decision.

I cursed under my breath but knew Serenity was right. So, I didn’t stop her from packing and with her bag in her hand, I walked her to the door. The second I opened it, Gianna’s eyes zeroed in on her. The glares they shared. The tension. The silent war. I felt Serenity stiffen beside me, but she didn’t give them the satisfaction of a reaction.

"I’ll call you later," I murmured. “Love you.” She nodded but didn’t say it back before brushing past them and walking away with her head high.

It stung not having her repeat the words we’d just shared with one another for the first time only hours ago. My jaw tightened as I continued to look out the door.

“You love her?” Gianna snapped from behind me. “You fuckin’ love her? We just broke up Creed, so when did you find time to love somebody else.”

I ignored Gianna, not feeling the need to explain myself, not to her or anybody else. I turned to them glaring, my patience dangling by a thread.

"Aight, somebody need to tell me why y’all here. Because showing up unannounced ain’t it Ma.”

My mama exhaled, rubbing her temple before stepping aside. Gianna stared at me, her expression unreadable—until she opened her mouth. "I’m pregnant, Creed."

The words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest. I stared at her, not blinking or breathing.

"Nah," I finally muttered. "That’s not mine."

"Yes, it is!" she snapped. "We were still together when you came home for Christmas, or did you forget about that?”

My head spun. My stomach dropped. “Nah… that was?—"

Mama stepped closer, her expression determined. “I know this is hard to hear, but she told me and said she had been reaching out to you with no answer, I knew I had to get here.” Her hand went to my face and she sighed; "You need to make this right, Creed," she said firmly. "You need to end whatever you got going on with that girl so you can be a family with Gianna and that child."

I couldn’t even speak. I felt like my entire future was slipping through my fingers, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it. Because if this was real?

And if there was one thing I knew, I was about to lose Serenity.

13

SERENITY

It had been three days since I’d last seen Creed. Three days since I walked out of his apartment with the sharp stares of his mama and ex-girlfriend burning into my back. And I still had no idea what the hell was going on. Not for a lack of trying on his part. My phone had been blowing up nonstop—calls, texts, voice messages—all from him. But I couldn’t bring myself to pick up. Not yet. Instead, I gave him short, empty responses when I did reply.

Heartbeat: You good?

Me: Yeah, I’m good.

Heartbeat: I miss you.

Me: Okay.

Heartbeat: Can you please answer the phone

Me: Not yet

I knew I was being childish, but what was I supposed to do? His mama and his ex showed up at his apartment unannounced. That wasn’t normal.

---