Prince with Benefits

Chapter Ten

Do it. Ask her. You have every right to know.

I watched my mother out of the corner of my eye as I spread some butter over the English muffin she put on my plate a few minutes ago. We were having breakfast and although we had been courteous with one another, we hadn't talked much. She had been kind enough to get some coffee from Anya, I presume, so the strong smell of coffee had woken me up.

I wanted to ask her why she had left. I was trying to let the words burst out of my mouth without sounding harsh or angry. She had been more than considerate to me. She didn't even ask about Scott, even though I think she had a pretty good idea who he was. She did look at the flashy Ferrari that had dropped me off.

Still, I had no idea how to address the matter...

Gosh.

Just do it already!

"Mom?"

"Yes honey?" I could only see her back as she was still taking some bread out of the toaster, but her voice seemed care-free.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, Emily," she turned to look at me smiling.

Ugh.

My stomach clenched. I knew this subject wasn't going to be easy for either of us. It was the big white elephant on the room. That's why we needed to talk about it. To let it go...

"Why did you leave?" I didn't look at her. I was still glancing intently at my now cold breakfast; my hand was still moving on its own accord. I didn't need to see her to sense that now the tension could have been cut with a knife. It was such a sudden change in the environment that it couldn't go without notice.

She turned to look at me. Warily, she asked, "What did your father tell you?"

That's the thing.

He didn't tell me anything.

He just stayed in his office and took more work. More than he had ever handled. He copped that way. He withdrew from everything and everyone for over a month. When he started seeing Anna, he came back. He was himself again. I'll always be grateful with her for that. Losing one parent was hard; I didn't want to lose the other...

Shrugging, I left the knife with some butter in it on the side. "He never told me anything, Mom." I glanced at her and noticed that her eyes brimmed with tears. She took one step at a time, slowly, until she came across from me, and took a seat.

I felt bad for asking, but I really needed to know...

After a few minutes of uncomfortable and awkward silence, Mom managed to calm her heavy breaths. She looked at me for a long minute before saying, "he cheated on me."

My stomach clenched in a really bad way.

My heart plummeted inside my cage and my breath came out ragged.

"How-?"

"I found him."

I frowned and looked at my bread as my hands clenched in fists under the table.

"I went to his office earlier than what we had planned. I wanted to surprise him," I was gazing at her. She smiled sadly as she fidgeted with the beige tablecloth beneath us, "I found him having sex with-"she eyed me warily, "Anna."

My eyes widened. This was shocking...

Anna? How could that be possible?

It was pretty much the same thing that happened to me...but with her daughter, Sonya...