Hiding Place || Tori Kelly

Colossians 3:14

1:45 AM

Beads of sweat dripped from Tori's forehead as she sat up in the queen-sized bed from a nightmare and decided to turn her phone back on. She watched her phone start to jump with notifications from her brother about going to a new local club when she got back, Alexa asking about her health, Kamari liked some of her tweets, and Kirk was checking in from earlier. But, there was nothing from her husband. Seriously? She thought. Quickly she decided to shoot her mom a text back, which caused Laura to call her daughter. "Hey, I talked to dad. He said you were a little off the other day," she started. Tori rolled her eyes and put her phone on speaker then laid it on her chest.

"Yeah, I'm just going through something right now. It's nothing," Tori downplayed. She knew that her mother was going to push her, but Tori honestly wasn't in the mood.

"Nothing? Remember what happened last time something was nothing?" Laura asked. Tori shook her head and thought back to the scariest moment of life on the bathroom floor at 17 years old.

"Yeah, mom. I remember and this is different. It's actually nothing," she lied. Laura started to lay into Tori about opening up and not holding stuff in causing the 27-year-old to run her hands through her hair and groan. "Look, mama, I have a long day tomorrow. I gotta go back to bed," Tori excused. She didn't even give her mother a chance to finish her thought, before hanging up and throwing her phone under the covers.

4:59 AM

A knock on Tori's hotel room pulled her out of bed at the ungodly hour. The singer glanced at the clock on the wall to see that it was almost 5 AM. Slowly, she unlocked and opened the door to see a face she did not expect. "André?" Tori asked, rubbing her eyes. She stepped aside to let him in and finally saw the bouquet of flowers in his hands and a suitcase. "Murillo, what are you doing?" Victoria sighed as she shut the door and relocked it. André dropped his stuff in the corner of the huge room and set the flowers on the TV stand.

"I came here for you. After the FaceTime, I realized that we need to seriously talk and move through this. I don't want any more strife between us. So, I'm here. Let's talk," André replied. Tori once again rolled her eyes and headed into the bathroom to freshen up since her husband was clearly serious.

5:08 AM

The room was still dark with the sun still on the other side of the world, but André and Tori were wide awake. "You wanna talk? Let's talk," Tori said, getting back into the bed and sitting crisscrossed with her back against the plush headboard.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I messed up. I didn't take your feelings into consideration at all and I did what I wanted. I wouldn't trust me either and I get it. But, I'm asking you to truly forgive me. God is working on me and I definitely know what I did was terrible. I never meant to hurt you and never meant to make you feel unheard. You are my world and if you aren't happy neither am I," André apologized. Tori saw some sincerity, but wasn't fully buying it.

"You still haven't told me why you did what you did," Tori said, folding her arms over her chest.

"I guess I was hoping that once you were pregnant, you wouldn't be mad. That you would get over this fear and be excited. I was so wrapped up in all the fun things that Addison and I do that I didn't even consider all the things Michelle has to do that we don't. I just got caught up," André finally answered. Tori placed her head in her hands for a quick second and shook her mane.

"I," Tori said, feeling her blood pressure rise as she thought about everything. "I want nothing more to go to bed wake up and pretend like we are back at the night when you asked me about a baby. I would love to go back and say 'you know what Dré, let's make a baby right now', but I can't. I didn't want the added stress of carrying a child while in the middle of trying to get my third album up and running. Do you remember how stressed I was doing the last album? Don't get me wrong I had fun, but it took a lot out of me. And you know my past. You know what I— Now, I have to do it all over and this time—" Tori abruptly stopped, realizing that André didn't know about the pregnancy. Or so she thought.

"This time what?" André asked, hoping Tori would say what he already knew. Right before Tori answered, the covers started to shake and a dim light flashed through the sheets. Begrudgingly, Tori grabbed her phone and checked the message. It was from Scooter. She read the long-winded message about how unprofessional she was in front of Kirk and how she had to do better at the next session with JoJo. André watched Tori throw her phone to the end of the bed.

"I don't know how much more I can take of this! I try, Lord! I really do!" Tori groaned as she got off the bed. André watched unsure of what to do. "I pray and I study! But these people and these situations keep coming! Lord why?" Tori prayed out of frustration. "You said you'd never put more on me than I can bear, but this feels like too much. Why did there have to be two lines?" Tori broke down on her knees. André moved quickly to his wife and cradled her in her arms. As Tori broke, the only verse André could think of was first Peter 1:7.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

He recited in his head. He couldn't help but think that all of this was a test. Tori's stall for kids. His ludicrous actions. Scooters attitude. And then getting pregnant anyway. All of these things happened during what was supposed to be a season of growth for the couple. And clearly, they had some things to grow from.

André cupped Tori's cheeks in his muscular hands and lifted her face to his. "We're having a baby," André whispered. Tori nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. Tears streamed down her face. Her hair was a mess. However, with her husband under her, her life wasn't.

8:22 AM

Tori and André sat outside the studio in the rental car before Tori's session. They'd gotten maybe an hour of sleep after their talk, so both of them were exhausted. Tori scrolled through her phone looking for nearby clinics that could take her within the next couple of days before New York. As she scrolled, Tori looked down to see André's hand on her stomach, but his eyes glued on his own cellular device. "Babe," Tori sighed. This was the third time she'd had to remove his hand. Once while they slept and the next while she did her makeup. It was cute at first, but she was slowly getting over it.

"Sorry," André sheepishly apologized, taking his hand off of her abdomen.

"Hey," she said, turning the music down and turning towards her husband. "Can we not tell anyone about this? Apparently, anytime before the 12-week mark, something bad could happen," Tori asked. André bit his lip and forced a smile. "Who knows?"

"Michelle," he squealed, "but only because she told me. She was there when we were on the phone and she figured out what you were saying," the basketball player defended. Tori narrowed her eyes and dropped her phone in her lap.

"Make sure you tell her not to tell anyone!" Tori said as a black Range Rover pulled up next to them. "Alright, let's go. JoJo is here. And remember, no one gets to know," Tori reminded before they got out of the car.

11 AM

André watched Tori and JoJo mess around with riffs and runs in the booth. He hadn't seen Tori this genuinely happy in weeks, and he couldn't pinpoint why. Maybe it was the joy of a new singing partner/old friend or maybe it was the fact that she finally got the stress out of her system. André started to take pictures when his bible app sent him his daily scripture. It was Colossians 3:14. "Above all, clothe yourselves in love, which binds this all together in perfect harmony," he whispered. That's what put joy in his wife's heart and a smile on her face. Love. But was it a love for the music or the baby?

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To Be Continued...