Rose Garden [book two]

Chapter One

Lately, she's been the complete opposite of her father when it comes to food.

"All right, all right," I sigh, picking the child up in which she quickly stops crying, laying her hot head on my shoulder, hiccuping, her curly auburn afro tickling my neck.

"Yeah, that's Rosemarie," Maura says, flipping the new pancake that she has on the stove. She usually makes a gargantuan amount of food to send down the street to my dad and Sophia.

Then my eyes slightly go big, as I realize whom she might be on the phone with. It couldn't be my dad, because he doesn't wake up until noon, and I'd just seen him two days ago for him to be asking about his grandchild. "Is t-that him?" I whisper to her when she turns to look at me.

Maura nods and says "Yes," as though she's both confirming my question and answering something that he might have said over the phone to her.

When she laughs a heart warming laugh, I can hear a minuscule ring of laughter that comes from the phone that I know for a fact belongs to Niall.

For one moment, I'm overwhelmed, not knowing if I want to demand to know what they're laughing at, or if I want to snatch the housephone from her to talk to Niall.

"That's exactly how she's reacting. She's about to have some sort of nervous break down," And she laughs again, and he laughs again, making my heart pitter-patter in my chest.

"Let me hand you over, before she has an heart attack of some sort," Maura says, and I don't wait a moment to snatch the phone away. I even almost click the 'end call' button.

"Hello?" I say simultaneously as Rosemarie slides down off my hip, and leads me to the living room by my index finger.

"Rosaline," is all he says to make me short of breath.

"Niall," I say while smiling, imagining him smiling back at me. I stumble over a toy as Rosemarie leads me to the couch, when I'm in front of the couch, she pushes at my knees indicating that I am to sit down. "How long do you have before you have to go?" I ask. This was a question I asked him nearly every time that we got on the phone so I could mentally prepare myself of how many minutes I would be allowed to talk his ears off.

"I've got as long as you want, baby," Niall says, and I've come to know that that means that it's late at night and he's willing to stay up as long as I'd want him to. "How's Marie? Is she still rejecting food?"

With hearing aids, I could hear the birds at the end of the street chirping as I could also hear the frown in his voice so well. I watch as Rosemarie trots over to the television, clicking the glowing power button. Even though it pains me that she's growing weaker, I smile at how intelligent she is. She reminds me of when Sophia was smaller, except Soph talked everyone's ears off in which Marie doesn't talk at all like nearly every two year old does.

"No," I reassure Niall, "she's just eaten a whole pancake." Lies.

Two days ago, he made me promise that if she continued to reject food, I had to tell him, and he would drop everything to be back home, but I couldn't bring myself to sabotage his career. He would be back home in about two weeks more for their tour break, anyway.

I would just continue to feed Rosemarie rice milk until her doctor's appointment. It's not like she was completely starving.

Rosemarie's small hands tugged at me to pull her up into my lap. Immediately, she crawled into my lap as some cartoon movie appeared on the screen of the television.

"I know you better than you think, Rose. And I just heard her screaming..."

I sigh, "Please, don't just up and leave. Hang in there for thirteen days more. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow!"

It's like I can read his mind from across the world, debating on whether it was worth it or not. I would rather him let Rosemarie and I down than millions of other people. The last thing millions of fans need is a three-man band. As it is, their struggling with the recent resignation from Zayn, so it's best if our handful was left aside.

Rosemarie snuggled up against my stomach in my lap as though she's going to sleep, her body very hot against my skin making me slightly sweat. She never sleeps with me anymore because sometimes she needs her inhaler in the middle of the night, and I never hear her wheezing so she sleeps with her grandma, Maura.

I caress her forehead as she stares up at me with blank blue eyes. Niall's eyes.

"I won't come home, only if you can assure that everything will be dandy between now and the thirteenth day."

Maura comes into the living room straightening up everything.

"Every thing will be fine between now and then, I promise," but how was I suppose to know that what I was promising was something that I was not in control of keeping?

"Okay," he mumbles through the phone, both groggily and exasperated. "I love you, Rosaline."

"I love--" then I notice Rosemarie staring up at me with the same blank eyes that she'd had for the last thirty seconds. Had she fallen asleep with her eyes open?

The phone slips through my grip and onto the floor in realization as I try sitting my child up, her body limp. "Rosemarie?!"

Maura's in front of me within a moment, crying out what has already appeared to me, "My God, she's not breathing!"

Her face was as pale blue as her eyes.

In the midst of the chaos of panic and anxiety, I could hear Niall's tiny voice calling my name from the distance.

-

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