"CJ. CJ. CJ? Where are you, my cute apo*?"I giggle softly while I hide under the table as Naynay searches around the kitchen. She looks at her feet and walks around, hearing her opening cabinets. I giggled some more until she stopped, and I covered my mouth from laughing."Where could that little one be?" She says in playful confusion. "Could she be in the closet? Or in this bag of rice?""I'm here!" I announced to her in a loud voice."Oh! I hear her but don't see her."I crawled out of the table and peered at her as she opened the upper cabinet. "I'm over here, Nay nay!"Naynay turns and looks down with a surprising look. "Oh! There you are. I didn't see you there."I ran to her from under the table, and she picked me up. The feeling of love coming from her always warms my heart. Although his skin was wrinkly and she smelled like crushed roses, it didn't matter that her warmth would be the same forever. I miss this feeling.Suddenly, the feeling of my grandmother's warmth turns we
Solomon ran fast but needed to be faster.Carrying two women weighing at least two hundred pounds is weighing him down. He may be built, but he isn't Superman. After thirty minutes of running through the woods, Eddie's men caught up to us. Solomon had to do whatever it takes to lose track of us. He had us in hiding behind a tree big enough for this oversized man while Eddie's men and dogs sniffed us out."Solomon, what are we going to do?" I whisper to him as I see moving lights from a distance and dogs barking as they close in on us. "We are about 5 miles away from our pinpoint location. The twins should be there waiting for us.""What about Don?" Worries kicked in my stomach as I touched my baby bump protectively. "I'm worried that he is already fighting with Petrov."I don't doubt Don can win against the most cunning and lustrous man on the planet. I worry that he will be killed."Don't worry about the boss," he says with a confident grin. "Petrov may be a monster, but no one me
"Then that means," I look at Sarah, sleeping in my arms. "Sarah, is your mom too?""Right again, my dear Claire.""But I thought Vera is your mom?""That bitch is no mother of mine. She had to treat me like one because she was infertile. My dad had raped Sarah when she was his nurse, my old man still can shoot his little army, but Sarah didn't love my father. A month after I was born, Sarah left me. She joined the army to be their nurse and soon had an affair with Don's father as she was later pregnant with Don. But because Don's father was already married, she had to let go of the man she loves and live with her brutal boyfriend raising Don."I continue to listen to this side story of Don's life mixed in with Eddie. "Don had all the attention with Sarah to the point where she had forgotten about me. At the age of eight, I hired someone to look for Sarah. Vera never loved me; I already knew she was not my birth mother. So I sought out my biological mother." Eddie let out a chuckle an
Half a year later It's months since the death of Sarah. After her death, Don brought her back to California for a proper funeral. Everyone was there, even those who did not know Sarah came to give them their condolences. Mourning and grieving about the death of a loved one, a mother who raised Don and his friends. To make things depressing, it also rained. I remember Leo tugging on me, his arms around my waist, unsure how to express myself. I told him after coming home that Sarah was his grandmother. He wanted to meet her, but she told him she would be in God's palace with his great-grandmother. Before the funeral, Don couldn't accept Sarah's death. He would be his usual self, but everyone in the house knows how much he is grieving. He would in his room not interact with his family and friends. I would take his food to him and bathe him even though he's a big man, even though he is acting like a manchild. I would occasionally wash with him, but I had no sexual desires, only closenes
I open the bedroom door to find Leo still sleeping. His legs and arms are spread apart, and his snores are soft but not loud.I chuckle and close the door behind me. I went onto the bed and kissed his forehead. He moves and groans in his sleep.My chuckles turn into giggles. "Come on, darling. It's time to wake up."He groans again and shakes his head on the pillow. "Five more minutes, Mum.""Darling, you need to get up, sweetie. I made your favorite."He popped his head and could see the sparkle in his eyes vision in a dark room. "Chocolate chip waffles.""Shaped like Mickey Mouse, drizzle with strawberry jam, whip cream, sprinkle with more chocolate chips along the side a glass of chocolate milk."It is unhealthy for any kid to eat sweets in the morning, but Leo loves his pancakes, which is my source of leverage to wake him up."Yay!" Leo jumped off our bed and went straight to the bathroom.I shake my head giggling.It's been two months and two weeks since I arrived at my cousins' h
"Hello, Mum," my son's laughs filled the house as if he brought warmth here.At first, he was shy and quiet with his relatives, but now he is open and gets along with everyone in the household."Ace, please don't drop your nephew," Athena scolded her brother."Leo and I are just having fun, right buddy." He rubs his knuckle on Leo's head, composing him to laugh more"Oh, Mum, Tito Aces is taking me to Disneyland this weekend. Can we go?" my son asks and sits next to Effie. Ares made himself at the table, already loading his plate with food."Disneyland? With what money?" I sense a hostile situation from Athena toward her brother. After spending time with the girls last weekend, Effie told me about Ares' Friday night activities and how Athena turned into a she-hulk learning about it. I can't hold back a smile."Hey, Grandpa made me the next successor to his company once he is ready to retire," Ares explains with his mouth full of food. "He wanted you to take over because you are the eld
I clean the dishes, then hear the phone ring down the hall, making my body flinch and the plate in my hand almost slip. "Hello?" Effie answered the phone. I listen. "Hi, Tita Helen. I'm good; the baby is good too. I just had a check-up the other day. Yes, he's with me 24/7. Don't worry." She chuckles. I can sense she is annoyed by my mother not liking the idea of her niece pregnant and eighteen, not ready for the real world. That is so like my mother. So judgmental. "Claire? Tita, I told you she isn't here. If she were, she would have called us. Yes, I will. Thea, Ares and I are out looking for them. Yes, yes, I will. Okay, yes, bye, Tita." I peer my head and see Effie sigh. She brushes her hair back and then finds me standing as she smiles. "Your mom called...again." "Just keep telling her that Leo and I aren't here." "She's going to keep calling." I lean against the wall and cross my arms. "I know." Since my escape, my mother quickly realized Leo and I were gone and probably
The next few days, avoiding my mother's calls, I finally dared to call her, and boy, she was wailing on the other side of the line that I could practically hear her from the other side of the world. She asked if Leo and I were okay. I reassured her everything was fine and that my cousins treated me with love and kindness. I didn't tell her I was also living with five other boys. She will send her ass here in a few minutes to bring me back home. After making her not worry, I told my mother why I left. The reason the engagement party didn't happen. I told my mother what Eddie did to me and Leo. For once, she stayed quiet on the line listening to me. She apologized and cried for the first time in my life. She blamed herself for not being a mother who was blinded by her high status. I couldn't agree more. Growing up with a helicopter mom wasn't easy. I attended pageants, went to good schools, graduated with honors in college, and; had a bachelor's in business, and my first choice was ope