By your side (Rúben Dias)

Chapter Thirteen

Running around the apartment and getting things ready was a daily occurrence for Maddie after Ingrid's birth. But on that specific Sunday, it was even worse.

"I think we have everything".

"It'll be fine", said Rúben, who had a sleepy Ingrid in his arms. He was trying to make her fall asleep before they got inside the car.

"You always say things will be fine, Rúben. I'll trust my triple-checking instead".

"Come here".

"I'm checking...".

"Madison, come here".

She rolled her eyes and walked towards where he was. While he held Ingrid with one arm, Rúben put the other around Maddie to bring her closer to him.

"It'll be fine. I'll make sure of it, ok?"

She nodded and stood on her tiptoes so she could kiss him. "It's just scary, you know?"

"I do".

Rúben had kept Ingrid a secret this whole time. No one knew he had a partner to begin with so that helped. And when Ingrid was born, he was extra careful. He was so worried about people trying to hurt her to try and hurt him. But he finally was going to show her to the world. His little 4-month-old daughter was wearing the tiniest City shirt and she would be his little mascot as he captained the team.

Even though she was called Ingrid Carter Dias, her little shirt had Dias on the back. It would help with protecting Maddie too. And everyone expected kids to have the dad's last name anyway.

Holding her in his arms while he led the team out to the pitch was a moment of pride like nothing he had ever experienced. Trophies were good but Ingrid was his biggest accomplishment. And she looked so cute with her noise-cancelling headphones on her little head.

Rúben grabbed her arm to say hi to the people in the stands and she just kept looking around. It was such a shame she wouldn't remember that moment. But Rúben knew he was never going to forget it.

"You go with this nice lady now, Ingrid. She'll take you to mummy, ok?"

"I'll take good care of her, don't worry. Go win the match for her", said the City worker who was going to bring Ingrid back to Maddie, who was waiting in their private box.

It would have been special to score to make the day even better but he had a good match. And the team won. So captain Dias was more than happy. And perhaps not ready for interviews but he had to do some. He spotted the Portuguese journalist who had interviewed him many times before and joined him in the media area.

"We saw you had a baby with you before the match with a Dias shirt on. Is that your niece or something?"

"No, it's my daughter", he said, surprising the journalist and everyone listening to his words.

"Oh, we didn't know".

"I didn't want you to know", he laughed. "Her mum and I want to protect her as much as possible. But I wanted to show her off too. It's hard to find a balance".

The guy nodded.

"Can we ask her name?"

"Ingrid".

"Ingrid Dias", you almost got it, mate. "I guess she's the one you dedicated the goal to a few weeks ago".

"I don't score many but all of them are for her from now on".

"Well, congratulations on the great match and on becoming a father".

"Thank you".

Maddie and Ingrid were waiting for him in the parking lot, already inside the car. But Maddie was too busy looking after Ingrid and didn't see him approaching them. He started to dance and make silly faces and Ingrid laughed at him. Maddie was laughing too, not knowing why her daughter found her so funny all of a sudden. And then, a knock on the window.