Chapter 25

Erbao

Sitting on Milo’s bed, the babies stared down at the pages they had spread out over the comforter, trying to make sense of it all. They’d realized their daddy’s agency had sent over some paperwork with their offer email, which had to be signed and completed before the shoot the following day. After secretly printing everything off, the babies had dashed back into their room - pretending to be asleep as they’d gotten to work.

“My brain hurts,” Lottie complained, falling back on the mattress. “I’m tired of reading these big words. They don’t make sense.”

It was true - there were a lot of words in the contract they didn’t understand. They’d already spent ten minutes whispering about why the paperwork had included the word lawyer - not understanding why they might need one. However, they eventually dismissed the matter before moving onto another section.

“We’re almost done,” Ezra stated, his finger scanning down the page. Only, as he reached the bottom, he paused.

“Erbao,” the oldest began. “It says that we need mommy to sign. We can’t get her to do that without her finding out.”

“She can’t know!” Milo insisted. “Then she’ll be mad at us.”

“And she’ll never let us see him,” Silas finished, his little voice trembling.

“Shhh,” Erbao started softly, shooting Silas an easing look. “We’re not going to tell her.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Milo said quickly, worry lacing his words.

“We can fake her signature,” Erbao declared, determination in his eyes. They’d come this far - they wouldn’t let anything stop them now.

“Ezra has the best handwriting out of all of us,” Erbao continued. “He can do it. Besides, we used fake names - they won’t be able to figure out it’s supposed to be mommy’s.”

Ezra nodded blankly, taking the pen that Erbao handed over.

“Just make it look like swishy letters,” Erbao prompted. “Adults always do those swishy letters.”

Nodding again, Ezra lowered the pen to the page - all of his siblings watching as he began to sign over the line. The signature came out a little slanted, but it still looked believable from the spirals and bumps Ezra added.

“Is that okay?” he asked as he pulled away the pen, uncertain. However, Erbao nodded.

“Yes, that should work,” Erbao reassured him. “But you have to do it a few more times.”

Going back through, the babies found more lines where Ezra had to sign. They held their breath as he swept the pen above every line, thankful when their brother managed to make the rest of the signatures match the first.

“There,” Erbao said, gathering the pages. “That’s the last of them.”

“We did it,” Lottie said with a giggle of disbelief. “We actually did it!”

As she called out, her brothers quickly shushed her.

“Don’t spoil it now,” Silas scolded her quietly. “Mommy and Hannah could still find out.”

“Sorry,” Lottie whined out, annoyed.

“Does everyone remember the plan tomorrow?” Erbao began, reining them back in.

They all nodded in return.

“We’ll tell Hannah to drop us off at the back of the school because our teacher told us to meet at the playground,” Ezra started.

“When she leaves, we’ll sneak behind the bushes so you, Lottie, and Silas can run away,” Milo reported next.

“And then we’ll go down the block where we told daddy’s friend to pick us up,” Silas finished.

Erbao nodded back. “Great. We’re all set. Hopefully, mommy -“

“Erbao?”

The babies’ eyes grew wide at the sound of their mommy’s voice coming down the hall, muffled as their door was closed. They hadn’t realized she’d come home, and now she’d likely heard Erbao’s voice, proving he wasn’t sleeping.

“Go, go, go,” Erbao offered in a whisper as the babies darted back to their own beds. Swiftly, he gathered the paperwork before he ran to his own bed. There, he hid the pages under his blanket before he settled.

Finally, the door opened, lighting beginning to trickle in as the gap widened. Each baby blinked toward it, watching as their mommy popped her head in.

“What are you all doing up?” she asked with a frown. “You were supposed to be asleep hours ago.”

“We couldn’t sleep,” Lottie simply reasoned.

“Yeah, we’re…too excited to go swimming!” Milo tried.

“Oh, my love,” their mommy said with a sigh. “We won’t be going swimming for a few weeks. The water has to warm up.”

“Awww,” Milo answered, wiggling down in his covers as their mommy took a few steps into the room. She went toward Milo’s bed, looking as though she was about to take a seat. Only, she hesitated.

Erbao watched as his mother’s brows pulled together as she bent down. She then lifted something into the air, examining it as she held it at her eye level.

Oh no. The pen. He’d forgotten to grab and hide it, which wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it wasn’t one of their mother’s nicest pens.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything else you want to tell me?” she asked, lowering the pen before she lifted a brow toward Lottie. The little girl was always the easiest to fold.

Only, Lottie thankfully did not squirm under her mother’s questioning as she was too tired. She instead gave a yawn as she shook her head.

“I told Milo to put the pen back,” Erbao jumped in next. “But he said he wanted to take it to school tomorrow.”

“Did not!” Milo called out.

“Did too!” Erbao threw back, distracting their mommy with their banter.

“Okay, okay,” their mother began, gently shushing them both. “Milo, you can take the pen on Friday for show and tell, okay? But for now, we’ll leave it at home.”

“Okay,” Milo answered back softly - as if he actually liked the idea. He then tugged his blanket to his chin as their mother leaned down to give him a kiss.

“Get some sleep,” she said as she made her way around the room to each baby. Finally, she came to Erbao last, fixing his blanket as she gave him a heartfelt look. “Especially you, my little warrior. You need your strength.”

Erbao nodded, swallowing as he saw the slight sadness in his mommy’s eyes. But then she gave him another kiss before she pulled away.

“I love you,” she said as she walked back to the door. “Sleep tight.”

All the babies yawned back a response, watching as their mother left, closing the door and leaving them in darkness again.

That was a close one.

~

Despite his mother’s advice, Erbao didn’t get any sleep. At first, he thought it was due to his eagerness for the shoot, but he soon discovered he could hardly focus as he tried to go over the plan again. And then his muscles slowly began to cramp and ache.

By the morning, Erbao felt awful. His eyes were sore and puffy, his limbs weak and shaking. When Ezra had discovered him, he’d quickly run to get their mommy who had rushed back in with a worried gaze.

Only, Erbao reassured her that he was okay - determined to make sure his health wouldn’t get in the way of their plan. He insisted that he just needed to stay in bed, which his mother hesitantly agreed to. She then went to call Hannah, informing their nanny that their mommy would drop the babies off while Hannah stayed with Erbao.

“You’ll have to go in my place,” Erbao told Milo weakly as the quintuplets stayed behind in the room. “And Ezra will have to cover for us at school.”

“I’ll do my best,” Ezra said with a nod.

“And make sure mommy still drops you off at the back,” Erbao reminded them.

“We will,” Silas replied.

“But-but, Erbao,” Lottie said, her lips trembling. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” the boy reassured his sister despite his pain. “Just focus on the plan.”

Lottie nodded back, gathering herself.

“Don’t say anything about mommy,” Erbao said before his voice lowered, seriousness filling his eyes. “And if daddy isn’t at the studio…do whatever you can to get him there.”

~

Kadeem

“What?” Kadeem asked as he answered his phone, his hand tight on the steering wheel as he sped down the street.

“Uh…morning, sir,” his assistant stumbled out. “I was just wondering if you planned to come to the studio today?”

“Why?” Kadeem clipped out, taking a turn. “Is there a problem?”

The Alpha had assumed he’d left the first day of shooting in capable hands. In turn, he was supposed to be off to a day of meetings, and then he planned to drop in at the club. He hadn’t seen Chelsea since the day they’d kissed and that needed to change.

Kadeem huffed as he thought about her soft lips, still unable to shake the suspicion that he’d felt them before.

“Well…kinda,” his assistant began again, dismissing Kadeem’s thoughts. “You see…the kids, well, they’re kind of…rowdy. We can’t get them to focus.”

Kadeem raised his brow. Really? That’s why they’d called him?

He wanted to scoff, amused that his team couldn’t handle a few spritely children. He thought they were more thick-skinned.

“We figured they might respond with a bit more power around,” the assistant continued. “Would you be able to come over and just give them a little talk or something?”

Kadeem sighed, baffled by the whole situation. He wanted to remind the man that he had a busy schedule to attend to and advise they needed to handle it themselves.

Only…

He couldn’t ignore the slight prickle under his skin as he considered the babies. They still intrigued him. Not only because of their smarts or their own interest in him. But because…

The little girl. He still swore he’d recognized her voice in the background when he’d called Chelsea. However, he’d never been able to confirm his suspicions.

“I’ll be right there,” Kadeem stated firmly.

“Thank you, sir! We -“

Kadeem promptly hung up the phone, not letting his assistant finish. He then tossed the phone to the side, his foot pressing harder on the gas as he headed in the direction of the studio.