Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

17. The Best I Could Give

The second week of July, Raven and Rayan's babies were born. They came to the world a few weeks early, so the babies were placed in incubators, which was sad. I was unable to go to California, since I had summer school classes, which was sad. Raven's parents had travelled to California to visit them. And from them I was informed, because my mom had become friends with Farrah, so they talked on the phone quite a bit. Either my mom or Robin would catch me up on what happened with the twins from the information that Farrah and Fredrick gave them. Robin also had to stay in New York, since he was in charge of his family's publishing house.

Frederick and Farrah had come back after a couple of weeks. Mia, one of the babies, was released from the hospital, while her brother, Elijah, would continue to stay there. I wished I could have been there for Raven, but then again I was glad I could not go. I would not know what to say. I would be afraid to say something that would make things worse. So I stuck to sending messages and asking Raven how she was doing, and she told me how she felt. I would only tell her that I would pray for her children's improvement and that I loved her. The less I said anything, the less of a chance I had of offending her.

For Christmas they would be coming over to New York and they would be living there until February. I missed them, so I was really excited to have them home with us. Actually, everybody was excited that they were coming back to New York. There would be a family and friends reunion at the Lord mansion before Christmas, so the new additions to the family could meet each other, a.k.a. Raven's kids and Liam's son.

On another note, Tamonash and I were still together. I really was astonished that he had stayed with me for eight months and endured my complicated personality. Out of all the guys I had ever dated, Tamonash had gotten the hardest part of my life to date me. He not only had to deal with my sad family history, but also had to help me forget about someone I loved. But he tried his best graciously. Nash traveled a lot, so there would be times that I did not see him for months. The problem with that was not that I did not trust him, instead it was that I missed him. He was one of the people that I could trust the most. He was going to miss out on seeing Rayan, because he was in Canada filming something. That meant that Raven and Rayan would question me alone about my relationship with Tamonash. Great.

When my mom and I made it to the Lord mansion, Lucius was going up the steps. He waited for us and kissed us both on the cheek in greeting. At that moment I thought I was being paranoid, because Lucius raked my mom's body with his eyes, but I could have been mistaken. I shook off my bad thoughts and followed them inside.

Once inside, I saw Raven's grandmother carrying one baby, Raven carrying another, and Robin holding on to another. It was a picture perfect moment seeing clumps of people around each baby. It was like each baby had their own group of fans. I went around to greet everyone that was there. Robin was holding on to his niece, Mia, and he had the most loving look I had ever seen a person wear. He was going to be a great uncle.

"You're good with babies aren't you, Robin," I asked him.

He chuckled. "Well I did have three younger siblings," he answered.

"Lucky you," I muttered. "I wish I would have had younger siblings. The closest I got to that was Mike's younger sister."

"Here then, carry Mia." Robin offered the baby to me, but I shook my head vehemently. "C'mon, you know you want to," he said.

"I—I don't know how to carry babies."

He stared at me with horror. "You have never carried a baby before, Mackenzie?"

"Nope."

"Raven! Come here," Robin called his sister. Raven handed her nephew, Teddy, to David. She walked over to us and asked Robin what it was that he wanted.