The War General

42

"Daddy." Eden looks over at me when she sees me entering the room.

"What's wrong bunny?" I asks as she lets Akeno's hand go and runs over to me. I bend over slightly allowing her to jump into my arms. Picking her up I push her wild curls out of her eyes so that she can see properly.

"I miss mommy." I feel her tiny body vibrate and it takes everything in me not to break.

"I know baby, I do too."

"When will she come back?" She signs no longer wanting to speak.

"Mommy... is to a better place, I promise you one day you will see her again."

Eden cries, silent tears stream down her cheeks and it tells me that she and her brothers understand and that they know she's dead and she won't be coming back.

I rub Eden's back lightly bouncing her, "come on we still have to celebrate her life. She would be devastated to know you were hurting like this."

"Mommy's been hurting for a long time." She whispers.

I frown lifting her head so that I can look into her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"She's been hurt by many people. Her good days were rare. You were her good days."

~~~

I couldn't stay at the funeral for long, mentally and emotionally I was broken. I had yet to cry, I wasn't a man that cried often. Twice in my life had I done so but right now I could feel it was coming.

After the funeral which only a handful of people attended, I took my children and headed to Unity.

Right now I was standing outside of a set of double doors. Outside was the remainder of Unity's people waiting for me to make my speech.

Only I couldn't even think about becoming King when all I had ever thought about was Ivy. This hurt so much more than when I told her I hated. How she ran away because of me, it felt like I was losing my mind.

I was trying to keep my sanity together but it was in a fragile state. One small thing could knock me all off balance and that sane part of me would shatter. So before I went out, I thought about what Leon had told me.

Think of the memories and the good times, even if they were small. So I did.

~~~

I was sitting at my desk working, there was hardly a day that went by where I wasn't doing so. Ivy decided that she would come into my office and read a book. I didn't understand why she wanted to do that anyway. None of what I was doing was entertaining and I hardly wanted her in here. She was a distraction, a fucking beautiful distraction.

I hated how she talked about herself and I hated how she treated herself. A tiny little thing, curvy and soft in all the right places with a large curly mane that sat on top of her head like a cloud. Her looks were ethereal, so much that it was hard to put into words how beautiful she was.

She had been talked down on for so long that she didn't see it. Too oblivious to see how the women she walked passed envied her and how the men lusted for her. But she was mine, all fucking mine and I was happy for it.

I would sneak glances at her because it was hard not to do so.

I tear my eyes away from her for the tenth time today and scribble on my paperwork trying to refocus back on work. Like I said before it was hard to focus when she was around.

"Juko." Her melodious voice reaches my ears. I love the way she says my name.

"Mhh." I hum looking up at her, finally allowing myself to take her in. She wore a tiny silk dress that did nothing but compliment her curvy body and golden brown skin with a gold chain that added to her glowing complexion. Her lips were coated in a layer of lipgloss and her hair had been pulled up into a sloppy bun. Small pieces had fallen from her bun and the coiled whisps frames her soft angelic like face.