Claire
As I carried James inside, he didn't say anything and he didn't try to get away from my grasp. That was until we got to his room's door, then he jumped out of my arms and went in, shutting the door to my face. I was a little hurt though, but I knew how he must be feeling; finally meeting his Dad and his sister separated them again.
But it doesn't work like that, he can't just come back after four long years and think he can easily whisk us off to his side. I don't want to know whatever made him leave, the fact is that he left without a goodbye, without a note and he didn't even try to call.
I walked off to my room and buried my face in my pillow. I didn't want to think about him at all. My only regret was that James saw him and now he doesn't want to look at me.
I wasn't that lucky though; I couldn't stop thinking about him, about the past and about how much better it'd be if we're together again. A part of me wanted to run into his arms and forget the nasty past, but another part of me wanted to kick him to oblivion and blame him for my mother's death, my messed up childhood and the deep hurt in my heart.
I fell into a dreamless sleep.
*****
I had just got out of the shower the next morning, and was in the middle of putting on my top when my door flung open and James came in, clearly upset.
"James, you have to knock be..."
"I want to be with Daddy." He cut me off impatiently. I secured my top on my body before I answered.
"We can't. He abandoned us, remember?"
"Yes and you also said that he is such a good Dad that it felt wrong that he'd do that. He's back now, we can be with him."
"It doesn't work that way, James. He shouldn't have left in the first place; we needed him most then."
"I need him now."
"We don't need him. Uncle Mark..."
"I said I need him." He scowled, very near tears.
"James..."
"I don't believe that he abandoned us! Maybe Mom lied, she didn't love us anyway."
"That's not true!" I defended, moving closer to him. He backed away.
"It is. She never said she loved us and she didn't want to come with us because she doesn't want to be with us."
"Stop it, James. That is not true."
"You don't know that! You just want to believe what you think is true." He wiped his tearstained face and ran away.
I didn't even have the strength to call out to him. He's just so little, yet he understood that our Mom really didn't want us. Yes, she kept us with her, but she wasn't really interested in our lives; she rarely spoke to me and she always dumped James on me. Whenever James went to her for something, she'd always reply with: "Go to your sister." As soon as he no longer needed to be breastfed, I became his stand in mother; I was the one taking care of his every need and our mother couldn't even care less.
It was confusing to me because when my Dad was still with us, she was the best mother in the world; she cared for me so much that I thought she changed because my Dad left.
What if she has always been that way? What if she really didn't love us?
"Claire...?" Aunt Miriam came in through the open door, a hand on her big belly and the other held a letter. There's no one else who'd write to me except my Dad. Since I refused to listen to him, he must have written a letter to explain himself.
"A letter for you." She outstretched it to me and I took it, looking at my Dad's handwriting that spelled: "To Claire". It was as I remembered, neat and bold.
I crumpled it in my palm.
"Claire!" Aunt Miriam began, clearly surprised that I did that.
"I don't want to read his letter. I'm ready to go back with him." I said to the ground. She didn't reply right away and I felt her stare burning my skin.
"Are you scared of what you might find out? You really don't want to know the truth about what happened?" I nodded slowly.
"James wants to be with him, a part of me wants to be with him. I know the right thing to do is to go back to him and that's what I'll do."
"Oh, dear. Claire, you need to know what really happened..." She reached over to lift my chin up, so that I looked at her.
"One day, you'll get to know what really happened. Why don't you find out now and get it over with?"
"I'm not ready yet. You're right, I'm scared of what I might find out. I already know what the truth might be but I don't want to hear it yet, not now. It will completely shatter me if I find out that my Mom..." I choked on tears and didn't complete it. Aunt Miriam just gave me a comforting hug, dropping the subject.
It's fine if I can just forget the past for a while and try to be happy; James deserves to be happy and if my Dad tries to leave again, I'll be there to protect him from hurt.
Dad arrived almost immediately, so excited that he couldn't keep his hands off James. He tried to include me in their many hugs, but I gave him a hard stare, letting him know I'm only going home with him for James's sake. I didn't trust him; not one bit. Whatever his reasons were, the truth remains that he left his heavily pregnant wife and didn't care to even send child support. Did they even get divorced? Did he think about me? Did he miss me? Even if they got divorced secretly, he could have tried to reach out to me somehow. I couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened but I still wasn't ready to find out yet.
Let's see how it works out this time. One thing is for sure, I'm not putting my heart out there only to be crushed again. It's all for James, it's all for James.
Claire I only had one word to describe my Dad's house: "Whoa!" Of course I didn't say it out loud, I couldn't let him know I'm impressed, but God! I was deeply impressed. I mean, it was somewhere between a mansion and heaven. The good news is, it's so big, I won't even have to see my Dad's face at all! Talk about a win-win, huh? There were rows of people in uniforms, men and women who stood to welcome James and I. It felt like a castle where the Royals are being welcomed from a trip. Dad introduced us to everyone but I was barely listening, I couldn't wait to find out what my room looked like. There was one person I did get her name though; she was an older woman, probably in her early fifties and Dad introduced her as our Nanny. "You know I'm fourteen right? Not ten. I don't need a Nanny." I objected, trying not to sound offensive to the Nanny. "I know, but..." "No buts, I don't need
"Hurry!" James was whining as I made cookies for him. He had woken me up just to bake cookies for him and he was so impatient. Who knew he missed my cookies so much? It took us some time to find the kitchen as Emma and Reggie were nowhere to be found. "Almost ready." "Quickly!" He whined again. "What are you? A pregnant lady? Why are you suddenly craving cookies." I asked as I placed my creation on the oven tray. "I don't know, I just love your cookies." "They are the best, right?" "Uh-huh!" Reggie and Emma came into the kitchen then. "There you are! What are you doing?" Reggie asked. "Making cookies. Where were you guys?" I asked. "Around. Mrs Wagner arrives today, so all hands were needed in preparing the house for her arrival." "Do you have any idea when she will be here?" "Claire?!" James fussed. "Sorry." I hurriedly put the cookies in the oven and set the timer. "Just give it sometim
ClaireEmma came in almost immediately, followed closely by a few other staff as they carried shopping bags."What are those?" I asked as I sat up."Starter clothes and accessories for you. Mrs Hart will be here later today to help you shop for your preferred clothes.""I don't understand." The other staff put down the bags by my huge closet and left without a word."Someone is coming here to help me shop? Is there a mall inside here?" That cracked her up; it took her two long minutes to compose herself."No, you'll select on her magazine and tablet, then she'll deliver them to you. If you choose something that isn't in her boutique, she'll order them. The point is, you don't have to go anywhere, whatever you want will be handed over to you."I didn't like how that sounded; it made me feel like plastic... Ugh, it's hard to explain. What's harder is being a rich man's kid."I'll get you your breakfast, do you want
The bath was oddly less embarrassing, probably because Emma had her eyes closed to make me more comfortable. I was almost done, just to wash my hair was left when Jacey came back but stood at the other side of the bathroom door."Hurry up! They'll be here soon.""In a minute." Emma answered. She quickly washed my hair, rinsed it up and gave me a towel before she finally opened her eyes."Better?" She asked with a smirk."Yes, thank you.""Any century now!" Jacey said from the other side of the door.A few minutes later, I was in my denim shorts as Emma helped me dry my hair."Remind me to add hairdryer and body lotion to your shopping list." I nodded to Emma; she had to borrow a hairdryer from one of the staff that lived in the mansion."They're here!" Jacey suddenly sprung up from her position on my bed."How can you tell? Do you hear voices?" She rolled her eyes at my questions."Will you just come already?" She
MattI couldn't tell what my Mom was thinking; trying to call Doris names in front of the kids. Sometimes, she can be really hard to understand, it's no wonder James stayed away from her. Just when Claire's beginning to warm up to me, she wants to ruin it and take me back to square one again.I wasn't even one to vent my anger, I always leave the arguments and the harsh words to Luciana."Could you be any less impossible, Mom? What was that back there?" Luciana began as soon as we got into the green house. Abigail and I sat down at the tea table and watched Mom and Luciana yell at each other; it was getting old."Can't you at least buy a heart? It's barely two weeks since those kids lost their mother and now they are turning to their Dad's family for support, you want them to find out that you hate their mother? How terrible is that?""Luciana please be quiet, I'm not going to argue with you right now." That was new! Mom never misses
"How's that possible? He's so little.""Well, that's what the doctor said." Claire snapped at Abigail. I could see that it was a hard topic for her, hell; it was hard for me too."It just started one day; he had a fever so I went down to the pharmacy to get him some drugs, when I got back, Frank and Mom were fighting, right in front of him. When I took him away to his room, I noticed that he wasn't moving at all, it was as if he paused in time." She stopped and looked at me. "That was two years ago. The doctor said it's really rare for kids, yet here we are."Damn! Why does everything have to be so wrong? Schizophrenia? Isn't that just too much?"He's coming back." Claire muttered under her breath so that only we heard her. James blinked twice, then stretched."Claire!" He sounded cheerful. "There are so many pictures of you here and none of me.""Sorry, Buddy. It's just that Dad doesn't have any of your pictures.""What about t
ClaireAs much as Jacey couldn't stop talking, Antonio couldn't even say a word. All day, I've tried different ways to get him to talk to me but it was as if I was talking to a rock. He never responded and I couldn't take it personal because he didn't speak to anyone else either. Maybe it was his thing, the deep melancholy. But I couldn't give up on being great friends with him; it made more sense since he's only a few months older than me.The next morning, after I had gotten ready to leave for my old home, I decided to ask Antonio to join me. Even though I told my Dad I would go and was very stubborn about it, it spooked me out to go back there. I would have easily asked Jacey but she's just ten and she mentioned going somewhere with Grandma. Dad had insisted that I take a bodyguard or he'd ask some cops to escort me but I turned him down flat; I made him promise to let me do it myself.He would have kept pestering me if Abigail hadn't interve
I put my hands over my mouth to suppress the frightened cry that left my lips. I was looking at him, I was looking at my mother's killer. I pressed my eyes closed to calm myself down, and when I reopened them, Jason was already making his way towards Frank with a kitchen knife. I didn't know what was going on in his head; was he about to commit murder? I turned to Antonio, he had his eyes fixed on Jason but he made no attempt to stop him."Jason, stop!" I screamed, going after him. Frank opened his eyes immediately and in a flash, he went for the knife, fighting to get it out of Jason's grasp. I stopped in my tracks, unable to do anything. I turned to Antonio, only to find out that he was gone! Gone to where?! I just couldn't imagine Antonio running away, more like fleeing and leaving me to deal with the situation myself.Jason successfully pushed Frank away from him as he stood beside me, reaching for my hand."Clary? Who's this brat?" Frank was panting hard, m