Royal Prick(53)

“Everything would be better off without you around, since none of us live up to your expectations anyway. Why don’t you just leave? Forget about all of us and go find that perfect life you so badly want.”

She sniffled, pretending even further that she was hurt by the things we said.

“I should have aborted you like your father had told me to. My life would have been so much better if I hadn’t been stuck with your ungrateful ass.” I realized as soon as she spoke such hateful things to me that I should’ve been reeling with anger. That I should have been hurting. Crying even.

Her words should have stung at the very fucking least, but they didn’t. I knew that if a mother could feel that way about their child then they didn’t deserve to have them.

“Maybe you should have then.” I swallowed around the lump that had formed in my throat and the achiness that consumed the muscles in my chest. I wasn’t so much hurt at the thought of losing Viviana as I was with the realization that she never actually cared about me. She never actually loved me.

I just lost my mother. To me she would always be dead. From this point on I was an orphan. Sure I had Mark who I always thought of as a father, but in reality he didn’t owe me anything. He could up and leave me at any point and time and then I truly would be all alone.

I needed space away from it all, away from my mother and Mark. Away from the lies that seemed to be mounting. Each step I took away from them and up the stairs was a reminder that things had now changed. There was nothing else that needed to be said.

It was in these moments I realized what it must have been like for Royal growing up, and how that pain molded him into the man he was today.

Royal was right about everything.

Everything would be okay.

Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it would be okay. With him by my side nothing could go wrong. Right?





Chapter Nineteen

-Royal



“Mommy!” I pulled on her dress, wanting her to pay attention to me as she talked to the big man in front of us. He looked a lot like someone I had met once or twice.

“Just a second, Royal,” she whispered, her eyes smiling down at me. I knew she wanted me to be quiet, but I just couldn’t be. I was too excited.

“It’s how things have to be. I’ll come back for you and Royal, but until I get everything settled you will need to stay here.” I gripped the hold I had on my mommy’s dress just as the large man she was speaking to dropped down to my eye level. I wasn’t scared of him.

“I’m going to need you to be a big boy, Royal. Can you do that for me?” His voice was warm, and when he grabbed my hand I wanted to lean into him and give him a hug, but mommy told me never to hug strangers.

I nodded my head yes, afraid to talk.

“Good. You’re the man of the house now, which means you need to be a big boy and take care of your mommy? Be good and always listen to her, okay?” His eyes twinkled just as he released my hand from his so that he could stand back up, speaking to my mommy again. I stared in awe of him as he spoke to her. The way he watched her made me think he must have really liked her.

“I love you both, and I promise, I’ll be back soon to take you with me.” I released my hold on my mommy’s dress as I noticed the water that started to fall from her eyes. The man wrapped her in his arms and she clung to him like she didn’t want to let go.

“I love you, too. We will be strong for you,” she reassured him.

That was the last time I ever saw that man.

Up until a few months ago.

“He’s a liar. Nothing but a worthless fucking liar.” I slammed my fist down on the marble vanity in the bathroom as I caught an image of myself in the mirror.

He lied. He lied so fucking much. He promised he’d come back and he never did.

I hated him for it. I hated Viviana. I hated being here. It felt like no matter how hard I tried to adapt to living here, it would never work out.

“Royal?” Noelle’s soothing voice shot through me. Fuck!

There was no way I could let her see me like this, so broken, so worthless not when she was the only thing really worth staying here for. How could I let her see me like this after everything she has already been through? We were both products of fucked up parents. People that didn’t think before having us.

“Please just go away,” I begged. I was so defeated, and I didn’t want to hurt her, not when I wasn’t being myself. I would never be able to live with myself if I ever did, but I knew I wasn’t in the right state of mind to be alone with her right now. I wanted her in ways that I couldn’t have, ways that she most definitely wasn’t ready for, and if she stepped in this bathroom right now I knew I would ravish her. Claim her body, soul, and mind, taking the soft innocence that made her who she was and shattering it. There would be no saving her from the monster that was lurking right beneath the surface.