Finding Her

C H A P T E R - T H I R T E E N

Kindergarten

V A L E R I U S ' P O V :

"Baby, wake up.. it's school time." I shake Ellie softly.

September first rolled around and I've been preparing Ellie for school all week. I've tried my best to make it sound exciting but for some reason, Ellie just still isn't very happy about it.

Ellie hates mornings, she always has but she's never passed up a chance to have chocolate cereal. She's been faking that she's asleep for ten minutes now.

"Okayyy.. since you're sleeping I guess I can go drink all the chocolate milk for breakfast." I say, sitting up from to bed to leave the room.

"What!" Ellie whispers in pure horror. She sits up quickly and snaps her head to me. Her hair is all over the place and her mouth is hung open in disbelief. "No."

I smirk fell on my face. Got you. "You little devil! We're you lying to me?" I mock shock. I pick her up and start tickling her which makes her giggle loudly. "Pretending to be asleep!?" I blow a raspberry on her stomach and she giggles harder.

My mouth can't stop itself from curving into a wide grin, completely overjoyed at the melodic sound.

I stop and she gives me an innocent smile. I shake my head playfully and carry her downstairs.

Ellie sits in her chair and went to the pantry to get her cereal. I pour her a bowl of Coco Pebbles and grab her chocolate milk.

Should I be going her this much chocolate in the morning? No.. probably not, but she's my baby so she gets anything she wants. She deserves anything she wants.

I get my coffee and sit next to her as she eats. "Are you excited for school?" I ask her, taking a sip of my black coffee.

"No."

She shoves a scoop of her cereal in her mouth.

"Yeah.. I figured." I mumble under my breath with a slight smile playing on my lips. She already sounds like a teenager.

I wonder where she gets all this attitude from.

• • •

I let out a huff of air when I finish her hair tie. It snaps into place and I look at my work. A single braid down Ellie's hair. It felt like it took hours to do but it only took twenty minutes

I've been practicing.

I slip her into an satin emerald green dress and turn her toward me so I can place a small gold clip in her hair. Ellie picked it out herself. She has good taste, real gold and diamonds. What my princess deserves.

After, I leave her alone to brush her teeth, I go to get dressed myself.

Today is the first day in four months that I'll be going back into our mafia base. Enzo is my underboss, he's been there since my departure. I trusted him to watch over everything while I was attending to much more important things.

I need to make a good appearance so I slide into an all black tux with an emerald green tie to match Ellie's dress. I wanted to have a reminder of her even through we'll be apart. Plus, Ellie enjoys it when we match.