Seeds of Tomorrow

27

Victor did his best to put on a brave face for Sergio but damn if it wasn't hard. When he was asked where Mommy was, he simply said she just needed a few days to herself but she would be back. Close enough for the truth he supposed.

Madison and the girls had left for the day, they'd taken Gwen down to Corvallis for that cheer camp, riding along with Atira and Audrey. Nando had gone over to hang out with Gabe and Rocco so it was just Fernando, Victor, and the young ones.

The boys had gone down for a nap while Fernando was out having his afternoon smoke and coffee while Victor sulked on the couch.

"Aye, Victor," he heard his pops whistle and call for him.

Begrudgingly, Victor pulled himself up to his feet and made his way out to the door. Outside was Raquel, accompanied by two uniformed police officers. Immediately his legs went weak, "Can I help you?"

"Are you Victor Hernandez?" one of the officers asked.

"Yes, is there a problem?" he asked cautiously, the presence of his son's mother was a dead giveaway.

"Where is your son?"

Victor's heart was pounding, "Inside, he's taking a nap."

"I'll need you to bring him out," the officer told him, handing him a piece of paper. It was an emergency custody order.

"Aye, aye," Fernando interrupted, "What is this all about?"

He bit his bottom lip, fighting back tears, and handed his father the paper. Not only had this bitch torn apart their family but she was taking his son from him? Why? So she could go play house with this new fucking dude?

Fernando looked over the paperwork as Victor disappeared into the home to retrieve his son, "Aw hell naw," he could hear his father exclaim, "Man, you got a lot of nerve, f'real!"

Victor prayed his dad didn't make a scene and make shit worse for him as he scooped Sergio up out of bed, kissing the top of his head.

"Your momma is here," he said softly, trying to be strong for his boy.

"Momma?" Sergio mumbled, his head drooping against Victor's chest. Slowly, he walked outside to pass his son off, praying that bitch didn't see his tears.

"I love you, mijo," he told him, kissing his round forehead, "Be good ok? I love you so much."

Raquel took their son from his arms, the hatred in her eyes made her unrecognizable. Victor fought so hard to not break down but the last twenty-four hours had taken its toll.

"So that's it?" He asked the second officer, "She just takes him."

"You're going to want to get an attorney and request custody," he was told flatly.

"So can I see him before then?"

The officer shrugged, he didn't give a fuck, "It's all in that paperwork."

And with that, his son was loaded into Raquel's SUV and the officers left. Everything was gone.

"Aye, don't worry, we get you a good lawyer, aight?" Fernando said.

Victor looked at him, hopeless. "If they gave her emergency custody, why would they care about some lawyer?"

Fernando swallowed noisily, he really didn't know much about that shit but from what he did know was that the emergency order wasn't an end all, be all.

"It's just temporary, we don't even know how she got it. You can't be giving up though, you got to fight with all you got, understand? And don't be doing nothing stupid, everything you do or say they gonna use against you."

He knew that's how she had been able to get the emergency order. His texts, the gun. He'd been so much in his emotions that he hadn't thought about how it could be turned on him.

"Pops...I pointed a gun at them," Victor said solemnly.

Fernando looked as if he had been slapped in the face, "Say that again?"

"When I went over there, to catch her. I grabbed that gun of Grandpa Antonio's before I went into the bedroom. I don't even know what I was gonna do," he confessed, "well. I do. But I couldn't."

Stroking his mustache, he processed what had been said. Shit, Fernando had been in the same boat as that sancho, so he got where Victor was coming from.

"So what you gonna say is that you had it because you thought there was an intruder or some shit, you was tryna protect your lady," he told him.

Victor shook his head, "That ain't gonna work."

"Stop being so negative, you ain't use it. And fuck it, we gone find you the best, shadiest lawyer who can find a good explanation for you. That hoe ain't gonna take your boy from you because she can't keep her legs together," Fernando said confidently. He'd been trying to refrain from comments like that about Raquel but taking Sergio like that, hell naw. That didn't sit right with him.

****

"Can I confess something to you?" Madi asked Atira as they waited in the In-N-Out burger drive-thru.

Atira smiled, "Of course."

"When I first met you, I thought you were..." she hesitated to search for the right word but decide to be totally blunt, "Kind of a stuck-up bitch."

"Why does everyone think that?" She asked, it wasn't the first time she had heard that about her.

"You're pretty and well put-together, I feel like it's just the assumption you can't be that and not stuck up," Madison admitted.

"If it makes you feel better, I wasn't super fond of you either at first," Atira told her with a chuckle.

"Trust me, I could tell," Madi chuckled, "I don't think any of you did. To be fair, I can't say I don't blame you, I was kind of awful back then."

"You were going through a rough time."

Rough was an understatement. When  Madison entered their lives, she was in active addiction and pregnant. That alone was enough to make most people side-eye her. Madison proved to everyone she was determined to change her life for the better, completing inpatient drug treatment while staying strong in her sobriety despite Gwen's father relapsing following his release from prison and then savagely attacking her.

Madison was a survivor, she wasn't going to allow herself to be a victim. Knowing all she had overcome had allowed those around her to see her in a new light as well as get to know the real her beneath her shame.