But Who's Counting?

Chapter Twenty-Six

"So, those are our babies?"

"Yep. That's baby one. That ones pretty big isn't it?  Baby two is a lot smaller. Baby one likes to hog all of Mommy's nutrients."

"So one of our babies are fat?"

"Yes. It's only baby fat though so it's okay. He just needs to share." Doctor Branae explains to Maya. Maya is sitting on the chair next to the bed while the Doctor monitors the babies. Maya watches in fascination as the heartbeats echo through the room.

"When are they coming?"

"Well, Mommy has just hit third trimester so about three months. Maybe even less. With twins it's not unusual for them to not reach the full 41 weeks. Once they both grow to a certain size, the water might just break prematurely. We are going to pray that that doesn't happen." Branae says, pressing a button on the monitor before asking whether or not we want pictures. Before I have a chance to reply, Maya excitedly says yes, raising her hands.

Branaé hands me a couple of wipes to clean my stomach off while the pictures print. I thank her for them before proceeding to wipe my stomach.

"When the babies come out, will I see? I want to see. I hope my sister has a lot of hair so I can braid it."

"Sister?" Branaé asks before handing Maya the pictures. I pull my shirt down before swinging my legs over. Branaé looks amusingly at me before typing away. "Yes, sister. I really want a sister. My dad said that I'm not going to want one because then I'll get mad at her for wearing my clothes but I think he only said that because my uncle likes to wear my dad's clothes. Besides, my sister won't be able to fit my clothes! I'm three and she's zero. She can't even talk. I can talk. I'm talking right now. She has to wear diapers and baby clothes that my baby dolls wear. My dad is a triplet so that's why him and my uncle can wear the same clothes. My sisters sister can wear rah others clothes. Just not mine. Plus I like my clothes because daddy and Uncle Tony take me to the store to get them. Sometimes we order them off line." Maya rambles as I check the small room for any of our stuff and Doctor Branaé looks at Maya. She's totally amused by the three year old and just nodded and laughed at her.

When she notices I'm ready to go, she looks up at me.

"Please enjoy your day. Remember, try to sleep on your left side. Put a pillow between your legs." She says, smiling while Maya begins to walk out. I nod before following Maya.

"Sophia, I'm hungry."

"Me too." I reply as we get to the car. She climbs in as I do. We buckle up and I check the rearview mirror before hearing her speak again.

"Sophia, is daddy going to meet your mom?"

"I don't know," I say as I pull out. "Does he want to?"

"I don't know. I do."

"You want to meet my mom?"

"Yeah. You met Daddy's mom so now we can meet your mom."

"Maybe you can. It's up to your dad." I say before thinking about food.

"So where does she live?"

"In California."

"What's her first and last name?"

What's she trying to do? A background check?

"Stephanie Matthews."

"Do you have a dad?" She questions, accidentally kicking the back of my chair.

"His name is Quincy." I check the rearview mirror, seeing her twisting her iPad around.

"How many siblings do you have?"

"I have two. One passed away." I answer, pulling into the drive thru for Chick-fil-A's

"How?"

"She just got sick."

"Sick like Leah? You know Leah got sick and killed herself? I made her sick." She says, causing my heart to drop to the ground. I look back at her and she looks unbothered, playing a game on her iPad. I frown, not knowing whether or not to speak on the topic.

"You didn't make her sick, having a baby is hard."

"So are you going to get sick? You're having two babies."

"No, I won't." I hope.

"She only had one baby. Me. She didn't like me so." She said, bluntly. She shrugs before saying oh well. "Well, I like you."

Obviously, I'm not too good at the 'motherly' stuff yet.

"I know. I like you too. That's why I want you to be my mom. Dad says he's working on that. I wish I was in your stomach."

"I wish some food was in my stomach. What do you want?" I say, nodding towards the large drive through menu. She looks out the window before asking for some fries and chicken nuggets. I give the lady our order before asking if she wanted a drink. She asks for lemonade, which I alert before saying my order.

Driving up to the window, I get my card out.

"Wait, are your parents making a lot of money? Daddy's parents are rich because Nana was a model and Pops is in the military. He's really high so he makes a lot of money. My Uncle Tony and Drew play sports and they get paid for that. Daddy said maybe one day I'll get paid to play sports like them but right now he'll pay me."

I ignored the question since she was just rambling. "What's your brother like?"

"He's really nice. He's just like me."

"Will I meet him?"

"Maybe. He's coming to visit me soon."

"Wait, really?" She perks up as I grab the food, thanking.. Barbara as she closes the window. When I turn my attention back to Maya, she's nearly bouncing out of her seat. "Am I going to get to see him?"

"Maybe." I pass Amaya her food and shortly, we are both at my apartment while finishing our food. 

-

Maya lays on my bed, napping while I sit on the phone with my brother.

"Ill tell you when I come over there." He rebutts.

"Why can't you just tell me when the wedding is?" I whine. I asked him thirty minutes ago when the wedding was and all he had responded with was 'I'll tell you when I see you'.

"The wedding is March 30th. We ask that you be their the 14th because we know that you like to arrive late, plus you need to get sized for your dress since you're... pregnant." Quincy whispers the last word.

"It's not a disease."

"Have you told Mom or Dad yet? Or even better, Jamal?" He retorts. I could almost imagine his expression now. His eyes were probably in the back of his head while his lips demonstrated a straight line.

"I'm going to!"

"You're not going to have a choice but to! You're going to have to see them at the wedding.. Two weeks before the wedding!" As he finished the sentence, he pulled the phone away from his mouth and was talking to someone else.

From the tone, I already knew who it was.

"Yeah, this is Sophia." I could practically feel him smirking.

"I want to talk to her, give me the phone." My Mother instructs. I had been dodging her calls lately, not for any particular reason, but because I knew she would want to FaceTime me.

"f**k you." I said before hearing him laugh and give the phone away. I quickly attempted to act like I'm doing something, just Incase I needed an excuse to hang up. 

"Hey melon," Stephanie Matthews greets me, a condescending tone already in her voice. I shut my eyes quickly before speaking. "Hi mom." I glance back at Maya, who I swore I saw moving out the corner of my eye.

God, I have been a good person practically all year.

"So you can call Quincy back but not me?"

I knew it was coming.

"I'm just so busy, I barely even have time for this call,"

"Sophia, don't think just because your in New York you can't get in trouble. You're a round trip away from coming back here."

"Mom," I say, dragging it out so she's knows just how exasperated she's making me. "I'm just.. busy."

"That's your mom?"  Of course, Maya chooses this time to wake up and make her presence known.

"Who's that?" My mom immediately asks. "I haven't spoken to you in forever so i wouldn't be surprised if you got married and had a child by now."

"No, I'm babysitting for a friend." I say, just as Maya swing her feet off the bed and stares at me.

"You have friends?" Mom jokes, laughing while I roll my eyes. "Hahaha, Mom. So funny!" I say in my most sarcastic tone.

"How old is she?"

"She's three."

"Your friend, stupid."

"He's 20 something."

"He? Your boyfriend?"

"No! Mom, you're doing the most."

"Sorry. You're flying over in a couple weeks though, right? Quincy is packing for his flight now. He's only supposed to be there for three days but he needs two suitcases full of stuff.  His flight leaves tonight, you're picking him up, right?" My mom rambles, asking questions she already knows the answer to. Either way, I was still going to try to get out of having to pick him up.

"He cant take a Uber or something? I live in New York. Taxis are practically everyw-" I'm cut off before I can even finish speaking.

"Sophia Brooke Matthews." Her voice is stern. I look back to the bed before frowning.

"Okay, I'll pick him up." I give in, just as Maya slides off the bed. I watched as she searches for her bag, which I placed downstairs near the door.

"It's by the front door." I say, just as my mom mumbles more nonsense into my ear. I agree without hearing a word she says. Maya exits the room just as I hear "So you'll be down here by the beginning of the month?"

"What?"

"You just said yeah, youre going to come down a couple weeks early."

"I'm already coming two week early!"

"From what I've heard, you've gained weight. You have to get a dress fitted. Do you know how long that takes?"

"I'm not the bride."

"You better be over here by March 8th at the latest." My mom hangs up the phone before I can even speak. She wanted me to come 24 days before the wedding. That's almost a whole month that I'm going to be forced to spend with my family. If I wanted to spend more than a week with them, I'd move back in with them.

It's not that I hate my family.. it's just that there's a lot of them. My mom let practically her whole family move into the guest house while a few of my cousins, brother, parents, and uncle live in the main house. I hadn't live there in a while but I still had my room, just in case. But I love my family, I do. Sometimes, they can just get loud and obnoxious.

Please, do not let somebody pull out a pack of cards.

When everybody gets to playing Spades, it's over. We will be up all night, extra loud, attempting to win.

Also, if anybody pulls out a bottle of alcohol, it's over. They aren't alcoholics, but they drink, and when they drink it's like jokes, noise, laughter and all to the max.

"Sophia! Somebody's at the door!"

-

Alexander's POV 

"We look forward to expanding with you again, Alexander." Mr. Creadl says, firmly shaking my hand as we walk out of my office.

The tall Sicilian man and I had been in a meeting practically all day, debating deals before we finally came back to the deal that we've had for the past five years. The only difference was that this time I didn't have to hang out with his daughter for the publicity.

"Neither can I. Our next meeting will be a week from now, in your main offices, correct?"

"Yes. We had our main base moved, but we are still in Italy. I will forward the address to you. See you next week."

"Tell the wife I said hello."

"Will do." He says as he takes a step on the elevator and it closes. I nod my head at him just as the door completely closed and I look back at the desk manager for this floor.

"Anything else for today?"

"No sir. I pushed your 3:30 until tomorrow at 12. Is that good?"

"3:30?" I questioned. I don't remember having a 3:30 scheduled.

"She attempted to do a walk-in. Woman named Crissy Knight. Short black lady."

"Cancel that." I say before thanking Melly. I wanted absolutely nothing else to do with Crissy after all that s**t she's pulled with Sophia.

I go back to my office and gather all my s**t before practically running out of the office. I was tired and just wanted to go home to Maya and Sophia. I hadn't spoken to either since we parted ways this morning and I couldn't wait to.

Twenty minutes later, I find myself coming home to an empty apartment. It was almost like nobody had been here at all, all day.

I change from my suit and tie to some sweatpants while calling Sophia. She didn't answer. I then go to Maya's contact, looking at her location. She was at Sophia's house.

Maybe they were sleep.

I decided to tidy up around the house, quickly. It was already clean for the most part, but just a few stray items here and there. I also decide to take stuff out for dinner, Alfredo with broccoli. Afterwards, I call Sophia again. Still no answer. This time, I try Maya. She picks up on the first ring.

"Hey daddy." She whispers.

"What's wrong?" I immediately ask, seeing Maya look uncomfortable. "Crissy and Sophia are yelling, really loud. Then, Mr. David came over and now they are yelling even louder."

Crissy?

I could have sworn I told Sophia to not go near Crissy and now not only is she near her, but with my daughter.

"I'm coming. Stay put." I instruct my daughter as i make my way to my car.

All I wanted to do was come home to my beautiful girl and daughter, but of course nothing ever goes my way.

In the 8 minutes it takes me to get to Sophia's apartment, I just pray that Crissy does something wrong so I have a reason to have her arrested.

I also pray that she's gone by the time I get there and Maya and Sophia are fine.

Now, I'm on an elevator to Sophia's floor.

I can hear Crissy yelling from here.

She's loud, louder than usual, talking about how someone, either Sophia or David, can't call the police on her.

I raise my hand, knocking, hearing the other side of the door get silent. The noise immediately starts back up and the door swings open.

"- like I said, you need to leave."

"What are you doing here?" I immediately ask. Crissy looks at me before rolling her eyes.

"Of course you called him."

"I'm calling the police." Sophia says, turning around and grabbing her phone.

"I don't know what the hell your problem is, but you need to stop. This is getting ridiculous." I say, closing the door before calling for my daughter.

For whatever reason, my words flip a switch inside of Crissys mind. She turns around, her short figure stomping up to, almost making us chest to chest.

"My problem is that that f*****g bit bc over there gets everything she wants! I want her f*****g dead!"

I visibly tense as Crissy begins spewin words out. Sophia turns around, her phone Fallon from her hand. "What did I ever do?"

"What did you do? First it started with Jace, you c**k sucking b***h. You just had to have him? I loved him! You know how many times I tried to hook up with him? He always turned me down because he had a thing for you! You just danced around like a fairy and slept with him! No matter how much I tried, he said 'no Sophia' f**k Sophia! I was in his life before you-"

I glanced at Sophia, her eyebrows furrowed. She looked as confused as ever and her hand was on her stomach, protectively.

"I'm calling the police." I see david mumbled before heading up the stairs. I look up at the stairs as he dash's up them to see Maya stand there, a frown on her face. Before I can say anything to her, David instructs her to come up the stairs.

They disappear into a room and my attention zones back in, at the wrong time.

"Too bad I had to f*****g kill him and now, I'm going to kill you too." In slow motion, I watch as Sophia goes into shock and Crissy chucks her phone at her. The phone doesn't hit Sophia, instead goes over her head, barely skimming her head.

I grab Crissy by her arms and she begins to buck wildly. "I'm going to f*****g kill you! I hope they kill you and those stupid babies." She shouts as Sophia snaps out of it, tears streaming down her face as she grabs a few random items.

"I hope you burn in f*****g hell." Is all she says, picking up her phone. She stutters her address into the device, I assume she already had someone on the line because she didn't even dial a number but instead just talked.

"I want you to die!" Chrissy breaks down in my arms, thrashing against me as I hold her back from Sophia.

A couple minutes later, police is knocking at the door and Crissy is detained. We watch as Crissy is dragged out and a officer stays behind to talk to Sophia and I.

David and Maya are still upstairs when the officer leaves and Sophia still hasn't spoken.

"Sophia, come on. If you don't want to talk right now that's fine but let's get to my place." I offer, looking at her warily. She shakes her head no before standing.

"What?"

"I can't. I need to clean. My brother is coming."

Perfect.

"He can stay at my place."

"No, it's fine just let me-"

"Sophia, you're not okay right now. It's not a request. Your well-being isn't something to be taken lightly." I say, grabbing her wrist as she stops and pushes herself onto me

"She killed him," she gasps, sobbing into my chest. I don't know what else to say so I rub her back while hugging her. "I wish she dies. I hate her. I hate her."

"I know, baby."

"I befriended her and whole time she wanted to..." Sophia doesn't even finish her sentence before grabbing her phone. "I can't be in here. I'm suffocating."

Sophia grabs a bag that sits next to the door before stepping out, breathing harshly.

"Maya, get your stuff and cmon." I instruct. Not even a second later, Maya is flying down the stairs with her bag on her back, a mess.

Two upset woman to deal with tonight.

All I wanted to do was go home and relax.

-

Four bags of cherries, two movies, and a tub of ice cream later, Maya and Sophia are now both fine. I'm squeezed in the middle of both of them, on with a leg over my left thigh and another with their head on my chest.

Wanna guess which is which?

Yes, Maya is the head and Sophia is the leg.

Maya is falling asleep. I can tell by the way she keeps laughing and attempting to make jokes. A habit she has. She also keeps humming and playing with her thumbs.

Sophia is wide awake, not speaking but her eyes trained on the screen where Infinity War played.

After we got home from her place, Maya went to my room, starting a movie. Sophia and I stayed downstairs and talked. We talked for all of the first movie and a good half of the second movie before she finally got everything she needed to say out and, as she said, felt better.

She was heartbroken, not only because she found out someone who she thought was her best friend had completely beanboozled her and admitted she killed her friend, but because this whole time she didn't connect the dots.

I remember when Sophia told me the story about Jace, how she said he had three foster siblings, none who liked her.

And I hate to say it.

I really do.

But.

I told you so.

Of course I didn't say that to her, that would be like kicking her when she's down.

I just subtle suggested it.

So now, she lays, staring at the TV while Maya falls asleep against me.

"Alex."

"Yeah?"

"Let go of me." She demands, pulling against me.

"Why?" I question. Wow, I almost sound like Maya.

"I got to go." She says, sniffling as she pulls away.

"Where?" I question, although I already know where.

"I have to pick up my brother." She whines, trying to roll against my arm. "Are you sure you're fine with him staying here?"

"Yeah. He can take the guest bedroom and you can sleep in here."

"How about he sleeps in here and I sleep in the guest bedroom." She says, smiling at me as she pulls on a pair of pants over her shorts.

I seriously hope she's joking.

"How about no?" I retort. She sticks her tongue out as she slips a hoodie over her. I recognize it as mine, the one I wore earlier today.

"That's a nice hoodie."

"I know right! I bought it off sss for 19 dollars!" She says, a sarcastic tone in her voice that makes me smile. She looks around for her car keys before looking at me. "I'll be back."

"Wait!"

"What?" She turns around, a frown on her face.

"Give me a kiss." I smile