Page 22 of Standing In The Sun

An officer yelled, “Ahvi Farooq! Hands where we can see them!”

Ahvi’s blood turned ice cold and her brown skin went pale.

Before she could react, doors flew open, and two cops rushed toward her with their guns drawn.

“Step away from the vehicle now!”

“The fuck?” Lunar groaned, confused as he raised his hands in the air, thinking ‘What the hell did he get himself into?’

Kamari started whimpering, squirming in her arms.

Lunar stepped up but was quickly backed down. “How she gon’ put her hands up with her baby on her hip?” His dimples were so deep in his face as he asked them passionately.

“Back the fuck up,” the officer yelled at Lunar.

“I…please, wait—” Ahvi’s hands shook as she lifted the one free hand she had because dropping her baby wasn’t an option.

Lunar’s jaw clenched as he stepped forward, hands twitching at his sides. His eyes burned with frustration as he watched them manhandle Ahvi like she was some sort of threat. His voice came sharp. “Let me get the baby, at least, damn.”

One of the officers agreed, feeling a little bad. Ahvi was being arrested for shoplifting but she wasn’t violent and didn’t deserve all this.

“We’ve been watching you, Ahvi. You’re under arrest for multiple counts of shoplifting,” he explained, grabbing the bag with her stolen items in them.

Her stomach dropped and embarrassment coated her face when she looked at Lunar.

Ahvi’s breath came fast and shallow. Her baby…they were going to take her baby.

One of the officers grabbed her arms. “CPS has been notified. Your child will be taken into custody.”

“No—please!” She fought against their grip, twisting toward Lunar, who stood frozen, eyes wide. “Get the fuck off me!” she wiggled. “Lunar, please - take him!”

Lunar blinked, still processing. “What—?” He held onto Kamari even though he didn’t know the little boy any more than he knew Ahvi, but something in his soul was telling him not to let CPS get her baby.

“Take him - Pleeease!” Ahvi pleaded.

One of the cops turned to Lunar. “You the father?”

Lunar hesitated for half a second before snapping out of it. “Yea...Yea, I’m his dad.”

Ahvi’s head snapped toward him, but before she could say anything, the officer nodded. “Alright, the child stays with him.”

Relief and panic crashed over her all at once. As one officer yanked her hands behind her back and cuffed her, she shouted over her shoulder, “Find my mama! She’s on the East Side…take him to her please!”

Lunar was still looking thrown off, his arms slightly out like he didn’t know what to do. “Wait—who? Where?”

Ahvi screamed her mother’s name. her voice raw while one of the officers yanked her arms behind her back and read her rights to her. She barely registered the cold snap of the cuffs because Kamari was screaming, his little arms reaching for her as Lunar held him with a shocked expression plastered across his face.

Kamari wailed, reaching for her, his little face red and wet like he knew what was going on.

Ahvi fought harder, her own tears blinding her. “Baby, it’s okay! I swear, it’s okay baby!” She forced a smile in an effort to calm Kamari down.

Lunar finally snapped out of it, adjusting Kamari in his arms just as the cops shoved Ahvi into the back of the squad car.

The door slammed shut, and all she could do was watch through the glass as her son cried, reaching for her. Lunar stood there, still shocked as hell, holding a screaming baby that wasn’t his.

* * *

Getting home happened in a blur. Lunar couldn’t wrap his mind around what just happened and why. Then to add onto the craziness, he was toting around a baby he didn’t know at all. Once the police pulled off, he went to Ahvi’s car to grab Kamari’s car seat and a bag he assumed was his diaper bag then locked her car. Being around babies wasn’t foreign to him but connecting a car seat was trickier than he expected. After fighting with it and a crying baby for too long, he just put the seat in the front and strapped him in as best he could.

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