3rd person pov
For days Xavier Spellman had been quietly preparing, watching and waiting for a chance to finally meet the grandchild his youngest daughter had so fiercely hidden. His patience, however, was running thin. Every night he replayed that confrontation where Amiriah had screamed her pain and anger at them: her warnings, her threats, the wall she had built around her "kid." Every time the family suggested giving Amiriah space, Xavier's frustration grew. He told himself he was being reasonable; after all, wasn't he only thinking of the child's safety?
Before dinner, as the rest of the Spellmans tried to return to normal—Amara baking, Lenna at her computer, Zuri and Zari recovering from a mission, Hayden at work and Tara with her newborn—Xavier's mind remained fixed on his plan. He'd put the drugs into Amiriah's tea and the child's juice through the maid's dinner tray, just as he intended. Now all he had to do was wait for the signal.
Upstairs, Amiriah had just finished coaching KeLani through another round of power practice when dinner arrived, and soon both were fed, clean, and snuggled up in pajamas. The last thing Amiriah remembered before darkness took her was tucking Lani in beside her and promising movie night.
Downstairs, the rest of the Spellman family was settling in at the dinner table when Xavier felt the subtle signal through his wards—the darkness barrier on Amiriah's room had dropped. His face broke into a rare, genuine smile. He stood up abruptly, startling everyone at the table.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Amara asked, fear in her tone.
Hayden and Kario both tensed, expecting news of danger. "Are we under attack?" Kario asked, hand going to the magic within his grasp.
With a sly confidence, Xavier shook his head. "No threat. But follow me." His tone brooked no argument.
Curiosity and worry propelled the rest of the family up the stairs, most of them still in their dinner clothes. When he stopped in front of Amiriah's door, Lenna felt a cold knot of dread twist in her gut.
"Father, what is this?" she whispered, but Xavier ignored her, opening the door and stepping inside.
They all stilled in the hall, horror widening their eyes as Xavier strode into Amiriah's private sanctuary. The room was dim, the usual storm of shadows gone. On the bed, Amiriah was sprawled on her back, dead to the world, her arm protectively flung across a small lump swaddled tightly in blankets. The darkness wolves that usually guarded the bed were missing.
Lenna moved in quickly after her father, her voice furious and desperate. "What did you do?" she hissed, staring at the runes on the windows, the empty space that should have been crowded with wolves. She turned on her father. "You drugged your own daughter? You broke into her room? You don't get to claim trust or family after THAT!"
Xavier shrugged her words off, fixating on the little bundle sleeping on Amiriah's chest. "You think I would wait forever? She was never going to let us meet the child ," he said, his voice low but hard. "I'll be damned if I go to my grave never seeing her child, never knowing she or he even exists. It's my right."
Lenna could barely breathe as her father reached out for the blanket, her voice escaping as a harsh whisper. "Don't, Dad. Don't . This is wrong!"
But Xavier pushed her hand away, pulling down the blanket with a practiced motion. There, beneath the soft layers, was a small child—tiny, fast asleep, dark curls splayed over Amiriah's arm, long lashes casting shadows on chubby cheeks. For a second, even Xavier stared in stunned silence.
He reached out, his hand trembling despite himself, to lift the child from Amiriah's chest. Lenna, panicked, tried to stop him, but the effects of the drug in Lani's system left her limp, heavy, unable to wake.
"Dad, please!" Lenna managed, grabbing his arm as he stood with the child. "Put her back! You don't know what this is going to do—"
But Xavier, flushed with triumph, brushed past her. He stepped into the hallway, proudly holding the sleeping child—his grandchild—where everyone could see. The rest of the Spellman family gasped softly, stunned, frozen in place as Xavier pronounced, "This is our family. You see this child? This is ours, no matter what Amiriah says."
Somewhere behind him, Lenna was still yelling, caught between rage and tears. "You had no right! She trusted you—she trusted all of us to leave this alone!"
Even Amara, standing in the doorway, had tears streaming down her face, her hand pressed over her heart. "Please, Xavier. Put the child back with her mother."
But Xavier wasn't listening. He cradled KeLani in his arms—unaware, or uncaring, of just how deep a fracture he had just created, and the cost of what he had done to win this moment of triumph.
And upstairs in her room, Amiriah's trapped in her own darkness stuck in the past.