Beyond All Rules ✔️

Chapter Ten

"How about this? You leave the planning to us. Thank you for telling me baby." Mom demands softly.

I nod and shrug because it doesn't matter to me if they are there or not. I've been playing basketball since I was able to bounce one. Mom has always supported me as best she can by buying me gear, paying for basketball summer camps and being my number one cheerleader even from a far. Her new job doesn't allow for a flexible schedule but I know it's not her fault. I'll not be the boy who cries and throws a fit just because mommy didn't come to one game. Life doesn't revolve around me.

Parker proceeds to tell us about all he will be up to for the week which is mostly boring stuff. He is so passionate about his work but only mom shares his enthusiasm about that stuff.

Watching the two of them together is a sight to behold. Mom is so in love with him and Parker worships her. After her marriage from hell to my father I thought she'd never move on but then Parker came along. I didn't like him at first, my father made sure I disrusted all men until they proved themselves worthy. Mom didn't want to settle down again either but Parker didn't give up. He slowly won us over and together they built the life we have now. He's been my mom's biggest supporter both in her personal and professional life. He funded her whole campaign and made sure she had the best team to guarantee a win.

The one thing he did to prove that he was all in for us was taking my mom's last name. After the nasty divorce, she reverted back to her maiden name, Carter and changed mine as well. She didn't want to change her name again even after marrying Parker so he took her name. Instead of my mom and I becoming Wendell's, my step father became Parker Wendell Carter. Though Cairo has two last names. Cairo Oak Wendell-Carter.

"Need a ride to school?" Mom asks as we finish up on breakfast.

"What about work?"

"I have some time this morning."

"Okay."

Cairo goes to a private school here in Manhattan so Parker always drops him off on his way to work. I take the subway or the bus but sometimes mom drops me off, like today.

We pile out of the house together knowing we won't see each other until tomorrow morning unless by chance. I slid into the backseat of my mom's bulletproof chauffeured car with her security detail is in another car behind us. Her chief of security Anthony is in the front passenger seat with Gage, her driver behind the wheel. I don't know them that well, only that they are mean, well-trained and good at their jobs.

The drive from Manhattan to The Bronx is a smooth familiar one. Mom and I lived in The Bronx for the first fourteen years of my life. We only moved to Manhattan when she was elected as Senator. I was joining highschool at the time and she offered to transfer me to a private school closer to our new home but I refused. It was already hard enough adjusting to being a prince after being a pauper for so long. I needed to clutch onto some sort of stability so I enrolled into Pine View instead of some fancy private Christian school in the city. I don't have any regrets. The commute is a bitch sometimes but I'm used to it by now.

"So campaign season is nigh, figure you'll get re-elected?" I ask mom when I see a bus with her face on it.

I have no idea how she deals with all the fame. She keeps her family, especially Cairo and I from the spotlight so not that many people know about us unless you're looking for us and I like it that way. I will never be the kind of son who takes advantage of her mom's new found fame and power to rebel.

"There's always competition especially because I'm a black woman in power in a field dominated by men but I am confident in my constituents. I've served them well these past three years and I know they will re-elect me so we can continue making this great state even better." She replies with that self-assured charming smile that got her elected last time.