"Five months already," Nai sighed, rubbing on her rounded belly. It was like a perfect little ball. "How're you doing in there, preciosa? Good I hope. Mommy's tired, daddy's still sleeping," she mumbled to her stomach, getting a short kick in response. "I should wake him up, shouldn't I?" she giggled.

As far as progress, Nayeli was improving by leaps. She saw her grief counselor once a week now, and started back in therapy every other week. It was helping her to really express all her issues and communicate her feelings more freely. She was getting back to herself step by step.

She, of course, wasn't completely healed. She still had some
down days where she'd much rather stay in bed than work, rather sleep than eat. Days where she'd just cry on her lunch break.

But she had an obligation to her other kids, she had an obligation to her own child and her husband and she was working on it. She was strong for them, and every morning when she saw Mani sleeping on her baby bump, and she went and visited her kids everyday, she was reminded of her reasons to stay strong and her reasons to get better.

Testifying for Hailee also helped tremendously. Seeing those people go to prison for what they did to that baby girl was a big weight lifted off her chest, and she felt it immediately. Overall, the past two months had been extremely taxing on her, but she was making it out successfully. A few scratches, but she was making it.

She and Mani decided to do some couples therapy when Nai was off for maternity leave, just to get some extra time to recoup from what the last months had to offer, Armani was actually the one who suggested it, and she loved the idea, she was glad he was willing to go through those extra hours with her to make sure they'd be okay.

"Stop talking bad about me to my child," she heard Armani rasp out, shocking her.

"I wasn't," she giggled. He sucked his teeth, turning over to lay his arm across her body.

"Lay yo ass back down, this baby got you up early for what? Come here," he pulled her. She laughed and laid back down, allowing herself to be pulled against his chest. "Now go to sleep," he said.

"It doesn't work like that," she stifled another laugh.

"Make it work like that today," he muttered, already half sleep again.

"Mani, please, we're gonna be late," she whined, trying to shimmy into her white dress. For some reason he could not keep his hands off her today, she didn't know if he had some type of hormone spike too, but he was very handsy.

Today was their baby's gender reveal. Nai was officially 20 weeks today, and ready to find out what the baby was. Armani was ready two weeks ago when Samara and Duck found out.

Her friends—and Nadira planned it for her to keep her spirits up, they knew she was struggling and wanted to see her smile more often and they felt like this was the perfect way.

As it pertained to her baby, Nayeli could say she felt completely at utterly attached to them now. After her 15 week appointment, and all her therapy, she found it much easier to be openly excited about her baby. She was so glad, she was scared it'd never happen. She and Mani talked about the baby so often, she could finally see just how excited he really was.

"Just one more time, please baby," he groaned, wrapping his arms around her. "One more and I promise we can go," the look on his face had her about to crack, literally two seconds away from giving him what he wanted, and their phones rang, making him groan loudly while she laughed.

"We gotta go papa," she giggled.

He sighed loudly and nodded, lacing their fingers together and making their way to the door, not even answering the calls.

Once they made it to her granddad's house, they were greeted by their close friends and family with smiles and hugs, and lots of belly touching.

Nai thought the 'What Will Baby Bee' theme was so precious. She couldn't get enough of all the yellow and the decor. It made her feel warm inside.

"Hey favorite daughter," Dallas smiled, holding his daughter. Aurora and Aurelia were now about 5 and a half months old and gorgeous. They had his eyes, his nose and Luna's full lips. "You sure it ain't twins?" he smirked. Everyone was still betting on Nai and Dallas to be the twin carriers of the family.

"I'm sure, Dally," she giggled, taking Aurora from him. "Mani said to tell you 'next time I got you'. So if we have more, I'm sure it'll work that time," she assured him. "Remember, Uncle Gio didn't have the twins until he had three kids already. Daddy didn't till after thugga was born," she pointed out.

"You right. Lemme be patient," he chuckled. "I still want a boy though," he shrugged.

"I just bet you do," she chuckled. As they day went on, she greeted more and more people, and ended up sitting with Samara and Bri.

Bri was eight months pregnant with a little girl. Her name was going to be Brooklyn Giselle Carmichael. They argued over naming the baby Brooklyn or Bronx, it changed frequently, so by the time she was born, nobody knew what her name was really gonna be.

Samara and Josiah were engaged now, and so were Duck and November. Everyone fully expected Tripp and Bri to get eloped and piss everybody off, they were trying to prepare themselves now.

"I want a nephew, Nayeli," November said, after joining the group. Nai laughed loudly, seeing as so many people said that to her. The boy board was winning by 8 votes, and her uncles came in blue. It was all very funny to her.

"Aht, we want a niece Noon. We discussed this," Bri pointed. Samara didn't chime in because she and Duck were truly the only ones who knew what she was having.

"I changed my mind, pooh. My bad," she laughed.

Nai continued talking to her friends until her mom, who of course decorated everything, called her to the front.

"Okay! So it's time to find out what Nai and Mani are having!" Dira squealed excitedly. "This js my first grandchild, can yall tell I'm excited? I'm the cutest Mimi ever ain't I?" she joked, making everyone laugh. "And look at papa G over there," she pointed at Gionni, who just shook his head, laughing at his wife's typical antics.

"I just wanna say I'm so immensely proud of these two. They have overcome a lot to be standing here with smiles, and they did it very well. Let's give mommy and daddy to be a big round of applause!" Dira said, and everyone clapped for them.

Both Mani and Nai were so glad they had the type of family who rallied behind them in their time of need and held them close, they'd forever be appreciative.

"Okay, so we have two balloons here, they're huge. Y'all can bring them in," Dira waved her cousins over to help hand each of them one, and they really were huge. "Were gonna count down, and y'all are gonna pop these bad boys, okay? Let's see what's in that bump!"

They both nodded eagerly, and Dira stepped back into the crowd to see with everyone else.

"You ready?" Mani asked, excitement clearly written all over his face.

"I'm ready," she nodded, cheesing. "Are you?"

"Absolutely," he laughed.

Just as the countdown got to 1, Nai and Mani lifted the needles to pop the balloons, and pink confetti rained down everywhere, causing everyone to cheer and scream loudly, including Armani, who immediately picked up Nai off the ground.

She was in shock. He was in shock.

They were having a little girl.

"I can't believe I'm gonna have a daughter bro!" Armani laughed giddily. The gender reveal had since ended, but Nai, Mani and their friends just relaxed in her granddad's backyard. He was happy to have them.

"Dawg. This is gonna be so fun," Duck laughed. "My lil nieces finna get treated like princesses," he smirked, looking between Bri and Nai. "Uncle Duck gon be their favorite,"

"Aht aht! Teedy Lea is gonna be the favorite, stop them lies," Samara immediately argued back.

Nai just laughed, watching them going back and forth with each other, rubbing on her belly, Armani doing the same. "That's daddy's princess right there," he grinned. She knew he wanted to be a girl dad so badly, and he was just over the moon.

"Mommy's little broke best friend," she cooed, poking her belly, making baby girl kick back. "Aw hi mamas!" she said excitedly.

"Doesn't it feel so crazy? Like when the baby moves and stuff?" Bri smiled at her friend. She was so happy they got to experience pregnancy together even if it was for a short time.

"Yes! It's like oh damn, you really are in there huh?"she laughed. "Brooklyn and babygirl are gonna be best friends, oh my gosh I can't wait," Nai pouted.

"Bronx!" Tripp interrupted.

"Brooklyn and babygirl are gonna be inseparable, sis. They're gonna be literally the same age in the same grade all their lives! Well maybe. Since you're due in September,

"I hope so! Since Samara and Noon are refusing to have babies, ours have to be friends," Nai joked. Noon wasn't against having kids, but Samara was. She was fully dedicated to the rich auntie role.

"Ya damn right, y'all better sync the next pregnancy too, cuz Teedy ain't have not naan one," Lea chuckled.

After their friends decided to all go their separate ways, Nai and Mani decided to go home too. They were relaxing—well Nai was. She wanted some brownies and instead of just buying her some, Armani was committed to making her double fudge brownies from scratch.

"Baby, you know you didn't have to—"

"Nope, my princess and my queen get what they want," he shrugged. She could already see how this was gonna go. "But really baby, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a dad, man. This really means the world to me," he stopped, and kissed her lips slowly.

"Thank me? Thank you for being so happy and excited since day one. You really have been rooting for babygirl since we found out, and I admire you so much for that because Lord knows I needed an extra push, I'm a work in progress. I know your daughter loves you already," she grinned.

"Baby don't worry about that, aight? You were and still are dealing with something really traumatic and I don't want you downplaying that. I know our daughter loves her mommy too. My daughter. That's crazy! Our daughter. We havin a baby, mamas," he chuckled in disbelief. He said it at random times during the day. He'd remember she was pregnant and call her just to remind her, just in case she forgot. He would wake up out of his sleep and feel around till his hand landed on her bump, and he'd just smiled.

She knew the love in their house was about to be amplified by a hundred when their daughter was born.

issa princess 🥰🎀

don't kill me, they're having more. but!

im so happy for them, truly. nai isn't completely healed from her ordeal but she is improving so much.

all of us who read kismet know Nayeli Gianna is resilient. she's not beaten down easily. she gets knocked down and hops back up, we love that.

anyway! she's bonded with her baby, and she is feeling the love and excitement for being a mommy like mani feels about being a GIRL DADDDDD! girl dad mani is gonna be so fun.

i have her name picked 🥺 i love her already lol.

leave some thoughts!

till next time.