Hiding Place || Tori Kelly

At Last

A Month Later
(Jan 15th)

Tori, Iriella, and André walked into their quiet home. All the lights were out and the house was still...for five seconds. Busker wasted no time coming up from Irie's room in a sprint to see his family. Tori sat down the diaper bag and flicked on the light, shutting the front door. "Hey, buddy. Did you miss us? Look what mommy and daddy brought us!" Irie cheered, dropping to her knees and petting the big puppy. André and Tori did their best to move around the child in the middle of the walkway and sat on the couch. André gently sat the car seat next to Tori and watched her start to take the newborn out of her seat. Busker noticed a change and sprinted to the couch, jumping onto the cushion next to his owner.

"Busker! Calm down," Tori whined, praying that their dog wouldn't wake their baby. Abiah cried the entire way home, and only fell asleep in the driveway. "Babe! Can you get him!" Tori groaned, pulling Abiah into her lap, but using one arm to push Busker back. André quickly grabbed at Buskers collar and pulled him off the couch

"Busker! Pillow!" He commanded. Irie watched her parents situate her sister before running to her father with her arms up.

"Daddy!" She called. André glanced down at her, and decided to pick her up, so she didn't start to feel left out.

"What's up, baby girl? You ready for bed?" André asked. Irie placed her head on André's shoulder and shook her head with a giggle.

"No, daddy!" She squealed causing Tori to heavily sigh as Abiah started to stir.

"Irie, please," Tori said a bit harsher than intended. Irie bit her lip and sank into André's shoulder.

"How about we go start lunch so mommy can sleep a little?" André suggested. Irie agreed and squirmed down from fathers grip. Without thinking, she ran to the kitchen and started to pull stuff out which was loud. A lot louder than Tori was prepared for.

"André! Seriously?" Tori yelled, getting off the couch and making her way up to her bedroom to put Abiah down for a well needed nap.

Once out of sight, André and Irie shared a look of fear. "Is mommy mad at me?" Irie asked on the verge of tears. André picked up the seven year old and sat her on the counter. He watched Iriella burst into full on tears, causing anger to swell in him.

"Hey, Hey," he cooed. "Mommy, isn't mad at you. She's just sleepy. Don't cry, baby. Do you want me to talk to her?" André asked. Irie nodded and buried her head in her fathers shoulder, soaking her tears into his shirt. A part of André wanted to match up the stairs and lay into his wife, but he couldn't. She'd spent a week in and out of the hospital seeing their baby girl grow. She hadn't spent more than an hour asleep in the past week, so he couldn't exactly fault her. "Okay, go get your pajama's. I'll talk to mommy," André agreed.

8 PM

In huff, André came up the stairs to see Tori lying her freshly changed baby in her crib. "Are you out of your damn mind?" André asked in all seriousness. Tori whipped around to her husband and folded her arms.

"This ought to be good," she muttered. André ran his hands over his face and sighed.

"I don't know if you've forgotten that we have two children. One of which is downstairs a mess because she thinks her mommy is mad at her. You need to go downstairs and fix this. I know you're tired, but that's the life now. Figure out how to balance it," André sternly said. Tori dropped her attitude and sat down next to her husband.

"How bad is it?" Tori asked.

"I don't think she ready to move out just yet, but she's distraught. Please talk to her," André pleaded.

—

Tori walked down to the basement level and softly knocked on the familiar pink door that read Irie in flowers. "Come in," a small voice called. Tori slowly entered to see Irie cuddling her pillow.

"Hey baby, can mommy come in?" Tori asked. Irie nodded and sat up in her bed. "I'm sorry about earlier. Mommy never meant to hurt your feelings. Can you forgive me?" Tori asked sitting next to her child and pulling her into her lap.

"It's okay, mommy. I know that you like Biah better than me cause she's your real daughter and she's littler than me," Iriella sulked. Tori rocked her child, making sure to shush her in the process.

"Iriella Grace. You are my real daughter. Remember, in this house we are one name, one family. You are just as much my daughter as Biah is. I may get mad at you sometimes, but that's not because you aren't my real daughter and this definitely wasn't your fault. Mommy is just trying to adjust to a new way of life," the singer shifted. She wanted nothing more than for her child to feel as loved as possible and snapping at her probably wasn't the best.

"Mommy, can you sleep in here with me tonight?" Irie asked. Tori looked down at her sweats and shrugged, pulling them under the covers.

"I guess daddy could handle the baby tonight, right?" Tori asked. Irie giggles with a nod and cuddled into her mother. These were the moments Tori was going to cherish. Just the quiet times with her babygirl, cuddled up. No distractions. No fans. Nothing. She though her hiding place was the stage, but as it turns out, it was her family all along.

🔐🔐🔐
The End...