Trust Isn't The Only Issue (Being Edited)

Trust Isn't The Only Issue (Chapter 9)

ARMONI POV:

It's been two months since our family trip to New York. I've just entered my fourth month of pregnancy and things have been hectic lately. Trying to balance everything in my life is damn near impossible. Being a single mother of five kids, working full time, being a wife, friend, aunt, daughter, sister, and being supportive of Jerome and Mike's home games as well as my kid's extracurricular activities and making it to church every Sunday is starting to take a toll on me. I'm always tired and constantly on the go. I rarely get a break or time to myself.

Andrea gave birth to Mileeya two months ago so she's able to help out more but I'm mindful that she has a newborn. She tries to help more than I allow but I carry most of the load due to the fact that I want her focus to be on nurturing her newborn. I didn't want her to overwhelm her because she dealt with a very bad case of postpartum during her last pregnancy and we didn't need that happening again.

"Have you talked to your mom this week?" I asked Austin, already knowing the answer. I was under the impression that Austin talked to his mom every day. It was until a few days ago that Sharla told me she hadn't heard from him in over a week.

It was just the two of us at home; Andrea had taken the kids for a walk to the park that was in our neighborhood. She was trying to get her body back in shape so she walked the kids to the park every night after dinner. I suggested Chris to her but Mike's cheap ass made it clear that he wasn't paying for a personal trainer. He claimed that he could train her himself.

Austin claimed that he had a lot of homework to catch up on so we stayed home. This was my time alone but I had paperwork from the office to catch up on before the weekend was up. "Nope!" He responded.

"Excuse me?" I spoke up, looking up from my laptop and raising my eyebrow.

"No ma'am." He corrected himself.

"Why haven't you been answering your mom's calls? She's been missing you and I know you miss her too." I stated, knowing that there was a reason why he was avoiding his mom. Austin was close to his mom before he moved in with us and now he's avoiding her completely.

"I just don't wanna talk to her." He stated. The paper work for Austin's guardianship had been filled out and filed, now we were just waiting to get a court date. We wanted to go about this the legal way so there wouldn't be any trouble.

"Why not?" I asked, pressing the issue.

"She chose a man over her child. She'd rather be with him, getting beat upside her head than to be safe with her child." He sighed

I sighed deeply, understanding where Austin was coming from. He didn't understand the severity of the situation his mother was in and he was hurt. "Austin; you have every right to feel how you feel because you're entitled to your feelings. You have a right to be hurt and I know you want better for your mom and I know you want to be with her. But, there are some things that you don't understand and it's not my place to tell you everything. Just know that your mom loves you very much and she did what she thought was best for your wellbeing and safety." I explained to him.

"I just don't understand how you could hurt a person that you love." He mumbled lowly. "My Mom does everything for my Dad and he still finds a reason to hurt her. If he doesn't want her, why won't he just leave her alone instead of hurting her." He was exactly right.

"Your father is a sick person. He's an alcoholic and he has problems." I answered simply.

"I wish my mom would've let you and Jerome help her." He sighed.

"I do too baby." I agreed. "But she's an adult and she has to make her own decisions, we can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to and we can't judge her for that. All we can do is pray for your parents. Prayer can do a lot of things we can't do and go places we can't." I told him, making him slowly nod his head.