Namiko rubbed over Naia's freshly deep conditioned hair, moving it out of her face to get a better look at her. She looked so calm while she slept on the side of her; even with her bottom lip that hung to release her snores. Her baby snored like a grown man but she loved it.

She smelled of Johnson's fresh baby scent because Namiko bought the whole package from Walmart yesterday. The lotion, baby oil, baby powder, and shampoo all contributed to Naia's bath routine last night.

That wasn't all Namiko bought, either. She stocked up on pull-ups, hair products such as barrettes, rubber bands and bows, every toy that Naia touched and some educational children's books. Isaiah took her to Children's Place and Justice to shop for a ton of outfits and underwear, and even swiped his card for the bill.

They also went to a place where one of Isaiah's friends worked and the friend gave them a discount on children's shoes in his boss's shoe store. They bought twelve pairs and Namiko would've bought more but Isaiah had to remind her that Naia would grow out of them within the next year or two.

She spent all day yesterday being in her baby's face even though she could tell that it annoyed her. She was just so obsessed with the little girl that came out of her. It was like Namiko couldn't believe that she actually existed.

Now, it was going on four in the morning and Namiko laid in between Naia and Isaiah in her hotel room. She had yet to get any rest because she was too busy admiring Naia. This little girl had the most perfect face she'd ever seen.

"You still up mama?" Isaiah's grip tightened around her waist, pulling both her and Naia closer.

"Yes."

"Why? What's wrong?" He asked.

"I know that when I wake up, we'll have to take her back. I'm not ready." She said in a quiet voice. He didn't know how to respond since that was true, so he just rubbed her hand to let her know that he was there.

He got out of the bed to go brush his teeth, and when he returned, Namiko grabbed his arm to put it back around her torso. He left a few kisses on her back before resting his head on top of hers to join in on watching Naia sleep. Namiko was such a good mother already.

Seeing the two of them reunite made him happy but it saddened him at the same time. He wish he'd gotten the chance with his own daughter.

"Thank you so much. For everything." Suddenly, Namiko turned around in his grip to give him a full hug, and he let go of his necklace that he rubbed to hug her back.

"This means so much to me Isaiah. I can't even begin to think of what I can do to repay you." She tilted her head back to look at him, and she held his face as he gave her a few kisses.

"You welcome baby. I'ma make sure you get her back permanently. Just give me a lil' more time." He kissed her forehead, and Namiko gave him another bear hug. She was so appreciative.

"Can I ask you something?" She scooted up in the bed to be eye level with him, watching him nod his head.

"Why do you always rub this?" She picked up the heart pendant on his necklace, and he looked down to see how gentle she was being with it as if she knew that it meant something to him.

"My father gave me mine when I was a little girl. I rub it now when I need him. Is t—is this from someone important as well?" She asked.

"Yeah." He could feel himself get choked up over such a simple question.

"Who?"

"My daughter." He said, and Namiko looked up at him with confusion etched in her expression. It went silent between the two of them for at least three or four minutes, but Namiko remained patient and didn't rush him into talking.

"She died six years ago when she was five. The heart is an urn. It got her ashes in it." He opened the heart to show the picture of him and a little girl on the left side, and dark gray ashes on the right.

"I ain't wanna put my baby in the ground so I had her cremated. Me and her mom split the ashes. I always need her wit' me though, so," he gestured to the necklace as a lone tear slid down his cheek.

"I'm so sorry." Namiko grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it to comfort him, and then she reached to hold his face when he laid his forehead against hers.

"She looks like she was full of so much love. She's beautiful Isaiah." She looked at the picture before focusing on him again, now feeling bad. She wished she could help him get his daughter back like he did for her.

"Seeing you with yo' baby—man...I'd give my life to tell my baby I love her one more time. You really gotta cherish that shit Namiko." His voice trembled for the very first time as he spoke, and she watched more tears roll down his cheeks.

"I will. I'm sorry baby. I know nothing I say can make it better.. I can't even imagine—I'm so sorry."

"They say this shit 'posed to get better wit' time but that's the biggest lie I ever heard man. I feel like the more time that passes, the closer I am to forgetting about her. That shit kill me to think about." He sat up in the bed to dry his face, groaning in annoyance at the fact that he was crying.

"This shit so embarrassin'." He chuckled to himself, trying to stop his tears by rubbing the inner corner of his eyes.

"No it isn't. Don't be silly. Only the strongest can get the courage to talk about it. And you are the strongest man I know. Literally." She pointed to his muscles, earning a genuine laugh from him in response.

"I know you were the best dad. You were so worried about my baby all day yesterday with me and you don't even know her. I'm sure your daughter thought the world of you." Namiko lifted his arms to hug him from behind, and he pulled her hand up to his mouth to kiss it.

"You drive me crazy Nami."

"I'm sorry. Is that a bad thing?" She swiveled her head around him to see his face, furrowing her eyebrows with confusion.

"Nah. It's a good thing mama. The best thing."

Isaiah walked inside of the house where Naia's foster family lived, closing the door behind himself. The woman from yesterday didn't let him in today, instead, it was one of the younger twin girls who was clearly left unsupervised.

"Ashley's in there." The girl pointed to the kitchen before running off with her matted hair flopping over her shoulders.

"Where's the kid?" She coughed up what sounded like mucus as she removed the cigarette from her mouth.

"In the car. How much you want to let me keep her 'til court?"

"She gon' be dog tired out by then, ain't she? You tryna send me to jail boy?" The foster mom asked, and Isaiah immediately scrunched his face up at the insinuation that he was using her for 'favors'.

"I told you I was the attorney for her biological mother. It ain't safe for her here. Just let me take her off yo' hands until we get the signature from a judge." He pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket, and he could smell her vile walk-by air as she approached him.

"Court isn't for three weeks. A thousand bucks per week." She coughed again, making him take a step back. He was sure the state didn't even pay her that much for Naia, but he began to count the money out anyway.

"You need her stuff boy?" She was so obese that she waddled side to side as she walked—and not the cute type of waddle. She looked like a colorless elephant.

"Nah man." He literally had to cover his nose as he passed her the money, then he turned around to walk out. He would definitely be getting this home shut down as soon as this case was closed. This lady was insane.

Isaiah got back in his car, now three thousand dollars broker than he was five minutes ago but it was worth it when he saw Namiko's face light up after he drove away from the house with Naia still in the backseat, meaning that they were able to keep her longer.

"What did she say?" Namiko asked.

"She wanted $3,000. We can keep her until court." He told her, and her mouth dropped in awe at him footing the bill she could've paid.

She unlocked her phone to go their message thread and clicked the Apple Pay icon that he'd shown her how to use after she voiced wanting to pay by tapping her phone like he did. She typed in 3,000 and sent it to him before turning her phone off.

When Isaiah heard his phone ding in his pocket, he elevated himself in the seat a bit so that he could grab it. Then, he frowned at Namiko as soon as he saw that she'd just paid him what he spent to keep Naia.

"Namiko I—,"

"It's fine. I can do things for you too. I don't really understand the value of the dollars here but I know that the number three thousand is a lot. So just keep it and don't give me a hard time please." She leaned over the center console to give him a kiss when he stopped at a red light, holding his face in her hands.

"Thank you. We appreciate you." She then kissed his cheek before sitting down again just as the light turned green. This is exactly what he meant when he said that she drove him crazy. He was still going to send the money back though.

"You can stay with mommy now. You don't have to go back." Namiko tickled Naia's stomach, and she laughed the cutest laugh ever while trying to push Namiko's hand away.

"Ugh. When I was on the way over on the plane, I was so afraid that it wouldn't work out. I thought that something would've happened to her or that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to live amongst the people in this country because I know that we are so different where I'm from. I'm so glad I went through with it anyway."

"Can we get ice cream?" Namiko asked, switching topics as fast as she always did.

"Yeah mama. We can do whatever you want." Isaiah grabbed her hand to hold it, glancing over at her.

Since they were already in the Bronx, Isaiah decided to take them to Chuck E. Cheese. He took into account that they were both autistic so the loud noises and rowdy kids could possibly overwhelm them, but thankfully this location was old and rarely ever had any customers.

Proving his thoughts correct, when they walked in, there was only two other families inside and three very bored employees that he could see. He carried Naia in his left arm and held Namiko's hand with his right, leading them up to the counter.

"Hey can I get two All You Can Play passes?" He asked the woman behind the counter, looking down to see Namiko staring in amazement at the wall of toys, merchandise and candy prizes behind the lady.

"Yes sir. Would you like to add any food or drinks to your tab today?"

"Yeah. One large stuffed crust pizza, half cheese and half supreme with no pepperoni or sausage. And can I get two of those sampler appetizers with the cheese bread, buffalo wings and fries. Actually, make one of the samplers lemon pepper and the other buffalo." He said, looking at the menu poster.

"And can I get some dippin' dots and the giant warm cookie for dessert." He finished, looking down again when Namiko nudged his side. "Please." He added for her, making a smile grow on her face.

"Of course. Your total comes out to $78.92." The small tablet in front of the register lit up, and Isaiah reached down in his pocket to grab his wallet. Before he could get it out, Namiko tapped her phone on the tablet and pressed the tip option for 10%.

"Wow! Who ever could've done that?" She brought both of her hands up to her face and formed a circular shape with her mouth in pretend shock.

"Cancel that. Refund the c—,"

"Don't listen to him. He's sick." Namiko cut him off by covering his mouth, and the lady at the counter laughed at the two of them.

"Ya' have such a beautiful family. Here you go. We'll deliver the food to your table when it's ready." She gave them the two loaded cards, and Namiko thanked her before pulling Isaiah away from the counter. Knowing him, he'd actually make her refund the order so that he could pay.

"Why would you do that?" He looked down at her with a frown on his face.

"Wow! Look at that! Distraction." She pointed to the animatronic characters on the stage and then laughed at the way he rolled his eyes.

"Oh my goodness, it's a bounce pad!" She accidentally distracted herself when she seen the new trampoline zone, pulling Isaiah in the direction of it.

He watched her excitedly remove her Ugg boots and climb up onto the three foot tall platform to get on the trampoline. He was surprised to see her do an actual back flip, making her laugh at the expression on his face.

"I used to do gymnastics. Look at this." She cartwheeled to the next bounce pad and landed in a handstand instead of on her feet.

"Namiko this sign say you can't be taller than five feet." He pointed to the height requirement at the entrance of the trampoline zone.

"Well I guess you definitely can't get in, giant." She continued bouncing, then she hopped over to where he was to get her baby.

"Come on mommy. Bounce with me." She removed her matching boots and gave them to Isaiah before grabbing her out of his arms.

"Wow. Are you serious?" She put her hands on her hips after Naia tightened the hold around Isaiah's neck, laying her head down on his shoulder.

"You guys are so boring. It's a trampoline for Christ's sake." She gestured to the bounce pads with a roll of her eyes, and now it was Isaiah's turn to laugh.

After leaving the trampoline zone, Isaiah showed Namiko how to use the play pass to play games. It took a long time at each game because she preferred to listen to the instructions rather than him, even though he was telling her how to do it quicker.

Her favorite game ended up being flappy bird while Naia only wanted to play the big bass wheel game where you pulled the lever as hard as you could and watched the wheel spin until it landed on a ticket amount. She was also the designated ticket holder because she loved the ridges on the edge of them.

They stopped playing the games after about twenty minutes when their food was brought out, and of course Namiko was flabbergasted at all of the greasy foods she'd never seen before. Almost everything she ate back home was organic and overly fancy for no reason. She would much rather eat this much simpler American food!

"It's hot mama. Be careful." Isaiah warned her of the spicy buffalo wings, watching her pick one up.

"It tastes like my hot chips. I love this stuff!" She licked the sauce off of the wing, and he shook his head at her with a smile.

"I think she like it." He did a head nod in the direction of Naia, who sat on top of the table with a plate of cheese pizza in front of her. She was tearing the cheese off little by little and dipping it into the tomato sauce underneath it but seemed to be enjoying it that way.

"How is she eating it like that and still not making a mess?" Namiko watched her as well, tearing the meat off of her wing with her acrylic nails.

"Who you think she got that from?" He smirked at how she was using her nails and not her actual fingertips, and Namiko only shrugged since she hadn't put 2 and 2 together yet.

Isaiah glanced down at his phone when it dinged with a message, and his smile faded away into his natural scowl as he texted back.

He muted the thread and swiped out of the app, deciding not to block her. He still had love for her as a person and would even be her friend if she was open to the idea, but from the looks of things, that would never happen.

Isaiah was just thankful that she wasn't the crazy type that would stalk him or cause unnecessary problems and drama in his life. He didn't have time for that and both of them were entirely too old for that anyway.

After checking the cameras of his house to make sure that she was actually gone, he saw that the place was still clean and that honestly surprised him. Her sisters came to help her pack and those two were the craziest of crazy. It was a miracle they didn't purposely trash the house before they left.

"Namiko," he called, and she looked up from the celery stick she was dipping in ranch to give him her attention.

"Do you want to spend the night at my house?" He asked.

"Do you have a television in the bedroom?" She asked a question that was silly to him but serious to her which made his smile return.

"Yeah baby. I do."

"Ok good because I hate sleeping in the dark. Do you have a bathtub as well?" She bit into her celery, and Isaiah chuckled, shaking his head at her again.

One chapter today, two tomorrow 💝