3rd person pov
In the living room, chaos simmered just below the surface. Lenna paced and wiped angrily at her tear-streaked cheeks, unable to keep her voice steady. "This isn't right! You had no right to do this, Dad!" she yelled, her anguish echoing off the ornate walls. "Nothing about this is okay!"
Xavier sat heavily on the sofa, pride all over his face as he cradled the small sleeping child—his first physical contact with the granddaughter he'd been so desperate to meet. One by one, the rest of the family filed into the living room in a mix of confusion, disbelief, and growing horror.
Hayden and Kario hovered uncertainly at the edge of the room; both looked torn, glancing from their father to the tiny girl and back again. But Xavier waved them over with a triumphant command: "Come, get a good look at your little niece. Family."
Zuri and Zari stood behind the sofa, arms crossed, eyes glittering with disbelief and something close to disgust. "Father, have you lost your mind?" Zari demanded, her voice sharp. "Amiriah is going to freak when she finds out what you've done."
Zuri nodded, cold worry threading her words. "Breaking every ounce of trust she might have started to build. Was it worth it?"
Tara, sitting across the room with her own son asleep in her arms, watched with a heavy heart. She looked between her baby, whose soft breathing pressed warmth into her side, and the stranger-child cradled in Xavier's arms—her heart aching for Amirah, for the loss, for everything that might have been different.
Xavier ignored the protests, turning instead toward his wife. "Honey, come meet our granddaughter," he said, his eyes bright. "I know how eager you were to finally meet the child Amiriah was hiding from us."
Amara remained a few feet away from the sofa , tears streaming silently down her face. "I didn't want to meet my grandchild like this," she said brokenly. "I wanted Amiriah to trust me, to introduce her child to me. Honey, this is wrong. How could you do this?"
Lenna stepped forward, her anger eclipsing her earlier shock. "You drugged Amiriah, broke into her room, then took her child. What the hell have you done, Dad? You need to put her back in bed with Amiriah, now!"
On the sofa, the little girl sleep in Xavier arms began to stir. Kelani's brow furrowed as she tried to nestle back into whatever arms were holding her, but it didn't feel right. The arms were too big, too strange, the heartbeat beneath her ear unfamiliar. She whimpered quietly at first, then started fussing more, her body twisting as she searched for her mother.
Xavier, confident he knew just what to do, drew her closer and attempted to soothe her. "It's okay, you're okay," he murmured, patting her back awkwardly.
But Kelani was not comforted. At the foreign touch and voice, her eyes shot open—wide, dark, and full of panic. Confusion filled her face as she took stock of the roomful of strangers, the absence of her mother or the comforting darkness wolves she'd always known.
She recoiled instantly, scrambling out of Xavier's arms. With surprising agility for such a small child, she ended up on the sofa, shrinking away and pressing herself against the cushions as she flicked her gaze wildly around the living room.
The entire family froze, breath collectively held as they saw the spell break—the realization that whatever tenuous hope of seeing Amirah's child happily, peacefully introduced into their midst had just been shattered.
Kelani's lips trembled, and the frightened, high note in her voice rang through the stunned silence: "Mama?"