Page 55 of This Is Law 3
One month later
Creed Crawford
“Happy birthday to my babiessss, happy birthday to youuu,” my mama couldn’t even get through the damn song because she was too busy taking breaks every couple of seconds, crying like this was the first birthday that me, and Legend ever had.
Legend and I made it downstairs, and our parents were standing out in the foyer, singing happy birthday to us.
Both of them were carrying a baby in their hands.
My mom had Empress, and my dad was carrying Dynasti.
My dad was carrying Dynasti like she was a football, cradling her little body in his right arm, and she was knocked out.
Empress was wide awake though, with her nosey self, eyes dancing all around the foyer, scared to close her eyes like her sister, thinking that she was going to miss something.
“You do this every year. It’s our birthday, ma. Not our funeral. Dang,” I fussed, coming down the stairs with my brother on the side of me, who was laughing.
My dad laughed too, pulling her to him, and he just casually wiped her eyes like he was used to it by now.
I went for him first, where he slapped it up with us, and then I went over to my mom, hugging her, kissing her, and then I bent down, so that I could kiss Empress on her cheeks. Legend came over, doing the same thing.
They had the foyer decorated for us. I had no idea when they had the time to decorate this, but it was nice what they’d done.
It was nicely decorated on my side with baseball as the theme.
It’s like they paid attention to every little detail having some of my favorite MLB jerseys hanging, balloons that were shaped like bats, and there was even a cut out of me from one of my games last season.
On Legends side, his decorations were everything dealing with STEM, and science.
The balloons were in shapes of molecules, microscopes, and robots.
We each had our own cake, and gifts were surrounding the area, taking up so much space.
Legend and I were in our junior year of high school now, and so far, I had been a beast out there on the field.
My coaches told me that this was the best I’ve ever played.
Crazy recruiters were coming to each of my games to watch me play, and so far, so many colleges wanted me, that next year, it was really going to be a tough decision for me to make on which school I wanted to attend.
With all the love and stuff that I was getting, that was really the only thing that I wanted for my 16 th birthday.
All I wanted was for people to stop talking about that past shit between me, and Vivian, and focus on my talents on the field, and that’s what I’d gotten.
“What’s the best gift? I want to open the one ya’ll think we’re going to like the most,” Legend announced.
“Then open the small square shaped one. Both of ya’ll,” my pops called out, phone in his hand, recording the moment. For him to pull his phone out and start recording, that could only mean that it was something really nice inside.
Legend and I picked up the square shaped boxes, and we tore through them.
It was a box that I had to take the top off, and when I did, I was holding a set of keys in my hands, and the brand was Mercedes.
I damn near broke my neck getting to the front door, and Legend was racing too. He had keys of his own as well.
I was able to get the front door open, and right there in the driveway, there sat a beautiful black, Mercedes GLC 300, with a red ribbon on the front, that read, ‘happy 16 th birthday Creed’. Right next to it, there was a Tesla model S, with the ribbon that read, ‘Happy birthday Legend’.
Like it was Christmas morning, my brother and I were jumping up and down, excited about our new whips.
Man, I was so happy, that I raced over to the car, opening the doors, crying.
I loved this car. I would be telling my parents that this was one of my dream cars, and half the time, they were acting like they weren’t paying attention to me, but they obviously were.
It had a red interior inside just like I wanted it.
“First fuck up, I’m taking them motha fuckin keys,” my dad talked shit, still with the phone in his hand recording.
Legend got to them first, hugging them both, and thanking them. I was next.
“I didn’t think ya’ll were going to get me a car. I know I made some bad decisions last year, so I felt like I didn’t deserve one,” I released.
“You did fuck up last year, but you redeemed yourself. You gained our trust again, and that’s all that matters.
We not going to punish you for what you did in the past. We raised some good boys.
Ya’ll deserve a car. Plus, me, and your mama tired of running ya’ll around everywhere.
Take care of these cars. Yeah, me, and your mama got money, but that don’t mean that ya’ll can handle these cars any kind of way.
I’m dead ass serious when I say that one fuck up, and I’m taking away them keys.
Go head, and check it out,” he finished.
I raced to get back to the car, and I sat in the driver’s seat, starting it up.
Not going to lie, in this moment, all I could think about was Quay for some reason.
I knew that if we were still friends, he would have been the first one that I called on facetime, showing him my new whip.
That relationship was a thing of the past though.
That nigga really tried to kill me. I remember the day it happened, and my dad came home.
I asked him if he’d killed him, and he assured me that he didn’t.
Till this day, my dad won’t say what he did to him, but whatever he did, he’d scared Quay’s ass straight.
I attended our school’s football game last Friday, and to my surprise, Quay was there, and he was playing ball for the other team.
He was at a new school, balling out, and even though he tried to take my life, I can’t help that there was this piece of me that was happy to see that nigga doing something good.
He never reached out to me or anything, but I’m sure my dad told him not to.
It was fucked up what he tried to do to me, but it is what it is. I wasn’t dwelling on that shit.
Right now, I was going to enjoy these last two years home because after that, it was off to college, and then off to the MLB. I had work to do. I had to make my parents proud.
Remember the name Creed Crawford. That name was going to ring some serious bells one day. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll get my own spin off, and you all can see all the good that I’m doing. We’ll see.
Soraya ‘Yaya’ Crawford
“Déjame ver a mis bebés,” my dad said to me over the facetime call the second that the call connected. ( Let me see my babies).
My papi has been calling me for a month straight, every single day, just to lay eyes on his beautiful granddaughters.
He was so obsessed with them. Times like this, I would feel so bad that he didn’t live here because he couldn’t simply drive to me like everyone else did when they were missing the twins and practically steal them from me.
Right now, the only access that he had to them were the photos, and videos that I would send him, along with these facetime calls.
They were still fairly new, only one month old, and I wasn’t ready to put them on a plane just yet, but once I was comfortable enough in doing so, I was going to round up my family, so that we could be on the first thing smoking to the Dominican Republic.
My papi had to meet these girls and hold them before he lost his mind.
“?Y yo qué, papi?” I asked, as if I was jealous. ( What about me, papi?”
I swear, these days, when people call me, they are only calling me to see the girls.
Usually, when my dad would call, he would quickly breeze through asking me how I was doing, and then he would quickly tell me to go wherever the girls were, so that he could talk to them.
I didn’t take it personal though. I just looked at it as if everyone loved these babies so much that they were constantly worried about what they were up to.
“Como estas hermosa?” he asked me, with a smile on his handsome face. (How are you, beautiful?)
I assured him that I was fine, and then I flipped the camera, showing him both the girls that I had resting on the bed on the side of me. They were each sleeping in their little boppy newborn loungers, chilling, without a care in the world.
These twins were so good to Law, and I. We’ve only had them in our lives for one month, but they were already so perfect.
Back when Legend and Creed were babies, all they used to do was cry.
Empress, and Dynasti were the total opposite.
They were chill, relaxed babies, only crying when they were hungry, or needed to be changed.
Empress was the one that I could tell was going to give me a run for my money, though.
She liked to me in the mix. She wanted to be carried around, and she was so damn nosey, always wanting to see what was going on around her.
They loved their mommy, but God they loved their daddy so much, just like I knew they would.
Law was the parent that would walk with them around the house all day, and he would put their tiny bodies on his chest, and they would be in total heaven whenever he would do that.
Law was meant to be a father because he really took on that role with his eyes closed. I never felt like I was alone in motherhood because he was always right there, helping me get through this journey.