Messiah bent down to pick up Messari.

“Are you mine?” Messari asked.

Messiah’s glower matched Messari’s. They were both skeptical of each other. Matching temperaments.

“Yeah, man. I’m yours, kid. And you’re mine. Nobody’s going to get it mixed up ever again. Daddy promise you that.”

“He’s not answering!” Morgan cried. “Ethic, please call him. Please.” She didn’t even know where her panic was coming from. She didn’t think Messiah would hurt the twins necessarily, but she hated that he was so irrational, so enraged. She had seen him that way before, and she didn’t want her babies around him when he was in that state of mind. She just wanted them home. She wanted them with her, and she was becoming undone because she knew Messiah didn’t know the first thing about taking care of children.

“You got to let him calm down and wrap his mind around this, Mo. He just found out something that changes everything for him. Give him time to process it. You can’t back him into a corner just because you need to be pacified,” Ethic said. Morgan sat with her legs crossed in the middle of the king-size bed as Alani sat beside her, rubbing her hair gently as Morgan rested her head on Alani’s shoulder. It was as if she were a little girl, sitting in the middle of her parents’ bed because the boogeyman had scared her. In a way, he had. Messiah had blown up so quickly. He was like a ticking time bomb, and Morgan never knew when he would detonate.

“He won’t even answer my calls,” Morgan whispered. She shook her head in despair as she dialed him for the fourth time. It had only been two hours since he had stormed out with the twins, but it felt like forever. “They don’t know him. What if they’re scared or crying? Messiah doesn’t know that Yolly is allergic to peanuts, he doesn’t know that Messari likes to sleep at the foot of the bed. They sleep with their ladybug night-light; he doesn’t have that. They need me, and he won’t even answer.”

Morgan’s panic was that of a true mother. Nobody was capable of loving her babies like she was. No one knew them like she did. The only person she ever felt 100 percent at ease with to care for them was Alani. Anyone else always left her with a twinge of worry on her heart. Messiah left her with a canyon-size hole of concern.