KING
After another hectic day in the office, I returned home. As soon as we entered the house, Adam ran to meet his father.
"Daddy, you are late! I was waiting for you!"
I heard him complaining to his father, which Gabriel only ignored in reaction and followed me to my office. I noticed Fire watching the interaction between the son and the father with curiosity.
The look in her chocolate brown orbs was tender as if she wanted to go to Gabriel and tell him that everything was going to be okay. I didn't know why she had that look in her eyes.
But as soon as she saw Gabriel ignoring Adam, that tender look was replaced by only anger.
How fast her mood changed?!
At the dinner table, we all sat in our chairs after an hour or so.
I don't usually eat much. It is not like I don't feel hungry, but over the years, I have grown this habit of eating little that no matter how delicious the food is, I couldn't get myself to eat more than what my body needs to keep on going.
So the time I spent at the dining table was only for Cameron. Though we don't talk much while eating, I knew that my presence comforted him a lot. So to make sure he eats well, I have to sit at the table even if I don't want to.
Of course, nobody knows about it! Not even Cameron!
"You are doing good champ! Who taught you to use the cutlery?" I heard her amused voice in between Cameron and Gabriel's talk.
"Cu-cuter?" Adam fumbled with the words, and she smiled with that dreamy look in her eyes.
What was wrong with her? The boy was almost four and yet he couldn't pronounce some words properly, and she found it adorable?
Ridiculous!
"Cutlery. Fork, spoon and knife are called cutlery." She explained him with great patience and interest.
That must be because of her spending all her life with the kids.
"Who taught you to use it? Daddy taught you?" She asked innocently.
Adam shook his head before replying in a small voice. My nanny."
"Oh. But I am sure your daddy must have taught you many things, right?"
She stole a glance at Gabriel, and that was when I knew what she was trying to do. And I also knew where this thing was about to go.
"He... he ..."
"Hurry up Adam. We are getting late" Gabriel said in a straight yet commanding voice.
But she was not ready to give up just yet.
"Adam, you were telling me about this function in your Kinder garden where parents will perform with kids. What is you and your daddy going to perform?"
'"We... we are not going," he mumbled.
"Why?"
And with that question, she just crossed her boundaries.
"Daddy said he is not coming." Adam looked at his father with sad eyes.
"Enough!" Gabriel's loud voice ran into the room as he abruptly stood up. Marching toward his son, he pulled him from the chair harshly.
"Nora, thank you for the dinner but please take him to the car. I will be there in a minute."
My jaw ticked, foreseeing another drama in my house.
"You asshole!" She stood up angrily from the chair and faced Gabriel.
Cameron was about to stand to mediate the situation, but I stopped him. It was the issue between those two, and thus they had to deal with it on their own.
Besides, I was quite interested in knowing why she pushed that topic too much.
"Shut up you bitch! Do you think I don't know what game you were playing? What was that? Were you trying to make me a bad guy there, in front of my son?" Gabriel matched her heated glare as his voice rose by an octave.
It was rare to see him lose his cool, but this time Fire had opened an old bleeding wound, and thus she should face the consequences.
"Aren't you the one Gabriel?! You are such a sorry excuse for a father. And you know that!" Her voice rose with anger.
"Don't you dare to talk to me like that! Like you know everything when obviously, you don't. Stay away from my son butterfly or I will break your wings, permanently!" With that, he stormed out of the room.
She stood there staring in the direction where Gabriel had disappeared. That look of hurt and disappointment on her face was so intense that I couldn't help but look at her a moment longer than necessary.
I blinked only after hearing the sound of a chair screeching against the floor. Cameron walked towards her, clearly upset with her actions.
"Put your nose where it belongs and stop middling in things which don't concern you!" He walked past her towards his room.
I watched calmly as she picked up a nearby statue and threw it in his way. With his sharp instincts, he dodged the attack at the right time. Cameron's face told how shocked he was at her aggressiveness. He was about to open his mouth when she beat him to it.
"You both are shitty friends or colleagues or partners or whatever the heck you are to each other. You know the way Gabriel treats Adam is wrong. So fucking wrong! He is just four for god's sake! Adam needs his father more than anything else. And you know that. But what you guys do? You just sit there stuffing your face with food from morning to the night." She pointed at Cameron then she turned to me.
"And you... you sit there stuffing your face in that god damn phone and that laptop of yours. But you haven't once told him to change his behaviour towards his son, did you? Adam is a small child. He needs love and care. I know about his mother. You can't imagine life without parents or having someone to love us or care for us."
Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared at me. I was taken aback by the amount of pain that surged in those brown orbs.
Since the day I heard about her, I wanted to see her broken and weak. I tried everything to bring her to that point, yet she always surprised me by fighting more vehemently than the previous time.
But now that she speak looking at me, I saw her right where I wanted to see her.
But why I didn't get any satisfaction?
She looked at me with hope. How could she keep hopes from someone like me? The monster? The devil as she called me?!
I was no source of hope nor was I able to reciprocate her any hopes. And I certainly was not willing to try so!
She must have realised that by my silence.
"There's no point talking sense to you monsters as you could never understand feelings like love. Your hearts are dead! You people only care for money and power. Everything else is just nuisance for you. I don't think you have ever cared for someone let alone love them. You are ruthless bastards!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, accusingly.
My eyes shifted to Cameron to see all the anger fading from his face and his body tensing at her last two lines.
"Say something damn it." She urged again when we both remained silent.
"Fine! If you pigs are not going to do anything about it then fine. But I promise you that I will try my best to give Adam what he deserves... his father. And if you don't want to help me with that then okay! But don't you dare to oppose me!" She warned.
Cameron didn't stay there any moment longer and stormed out of there.
She was confused, I could tell that.
And even after receiving disappointment before, she again had that same hopeful look in her eyes as she stared at me.
That girl was foolishly stubborn!
There was no reason to waste more time with her. I stood up and walked away without sparing her another glance.
*
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BRIA
I didn't understand why I overreacted today. I didn't know if it was right for me to interfere in Gabriel's personal matter.
I was confused and my emotions were all over the place. My chest felt heavy as I cry sitting in the corner of my room.
I missed my kids and I needed Benji. Every time I looked at Adam and that sadness and longing on his face for his father's love, it just twisted my heart in pain.
I saw my kids and my childhood in him.
I had also longed for the same love all of my life. I didn't even remember my parents' faces. Benji had no photopgraph of them. He lost them in an accidental fire when I was too young to remember it.
The only memory I carried with me of them was the necklace around my neck. I picked it up and kissed it, closing my eyes, imagining that it was my mother's cheek.
I wish I could meet her even once, see her, touch her and tell her how much I needed her.
But fate is the cruel thing that nobody can fight.
But that only sparked another question in my head.
Where were the devil's parents?
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