Ghosts Don’t Knock (Andrea’s Point of View)

 It happened two days after Doc slipped the ring on my finger.

I haven’t told anyone yet. Not Kay, not Joe. Not even Anthony really understood what the shiny new thing on Mama’s finger meant. It wasn’t a secret, but it didn’t feel like something to shout from the rooftops. Not when everything in me still felt... unsteady.

Doc understood. He moved through the days like he always did—steady, warm, and patient. He didn’t ask for more than I could give.

But I could feel it in him: hope.

And I wanted that hope. I really did. I just wasn’t sure I trusted it yet.

Then the knock came at the door.

I was home alone with Anthony, trying to get him to nap, when I heard three short knocks. Calm. Measured. Not the frantic pounding of someone desperate, or the friendly rap of someone familiar.

When I opened the door, it was like the air left my lungs.

Tio.

He looked good. Too good. Like he hadn’t spent months on trial for ruining our lives. Like the weight of what he’d done hadn’t aged him. His shirt was pressed. His smile was soft.

He looked like the man I once trusted. The man I almost loved.

I didn't let him inside.

“Tio,” I said flatly.

“Hi, Andy.” He had the audacity to look... relieved. “I heard you were home. I wanted to see for myself.”

“How?”

He smirked. “Kay still talks to my sister. You know how things travel.”

I crossed my arms, heart hammering. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I know.” He sighed and glanced past me, as if he could sense Anthony’s presence even through the walls. “But I had to try. I wanted to talk. About him.”

My entire body stiffened.

“You don’t get to want things,” I said quietly. “Not when it comes to my son.”

His mouth twitched. “Our son.”

That was the moment. The fuse. The match to dry tinder.

I stepped outside and pulled the door nearly closed behind me. My voice dropped to ice.

“Anthony doesn’t know you. And after what you did, he never will. I gave you a chance once. You threw it away.”

“I didn’t hurt him,” Tio snapped.

“No. You just hurt me. And when I was gone, he could’ve been left in the wind if Doc hadn’t stepped in.”

He flinched when I said Doc’s name.

“That’s what this is about, huh?” he said. “He’s playing house with my kid? Pretending to be the man you need?”

“He’s not pretending,” I hissed. “He is the man. He’s the one Anthony runs to when he falls. The one who sang him back to sleep when I couldn’t. He’s the one who earned that place.”

Tio’s voice was sharp now. “And what about me? You kept my son from me. That’s not your decision to make.”

“It was,” I said. “Because it was about safety. About love. About protecting him from chaos—and from you.”

Tio stared at me. “So, what now? You just erase me from his life?”

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I held up my hand. Let him see the ring.

His face changed. Hardened.

“You’re marrying him,” he said, low.

“Maybe,” I said. “But that’s not your business either.”

He stepped closer, and I felt something shift. His calm cracked.

“Don’t think this is over, Andrea.”

I didn’t flinch. “It is for me.”

He walked away, just like that. No threat, no scene. Just gone. But something in his eyes told me this wasn’t finished.

Not even close.