Tayvin | Better Than This

23 》 It would ruin everything

Leah smiles after deciding it was finally complete.

"One day I'm going to live in a castle."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. And I'm going to be the princess and I'm going to have horses and a prince!"

"I'll have to approve of this Prince too..." Adam mumbles. I can't help but let out a small laugh.

"Am I invited to come and stay in your castle?"

"Course mommy. And kitty cats too!" She exclaims as Meredith makes an entrance. Leah picks her up in an uncomfortable way on the cat's behalf. Meredith seems to not enjoy Leah's love and jumps out of her arms, scratching her in the process.

"M-M-Mommyyyyyy." she wails. I comfort her and pick her up, placing her on my hip. The scratches on her arm were bleeding a little.

"Let's go get this cleaned up, shall we?" I say. She nods and rests her head on my shoulder, still crying.

We walk into the bathroom and I set her on the countertop by the sink. I dab on the scratches a little and put two band aids over them. They're pink with yellow flowers.

"All better?"

"All better." She replies, admiring her pretty band aids.

As I lift her back onto my hip and turn around, I see the plastic bag lying on the floor. The thought makes me panic so I try and brush it off.

"What do you wanna do now?"

"I dunno..."

"We can paint, play dress up, make cookies..."

"COOKIES!" She screams. She claps her hands excitedly as I carry her into the kitchen. I pull out a stool and place her on top.

After helping her wash her hands, I get out the ingredients. I let her mix things together and add chocolate chips to some of the mixture, leaving some aside for some of my favourite chai sugar cookies. They remind me of the secret sessions and as I think of it I realise just how much I miss my fans. I make a mental note to check up on them later, and maybe like some posts and reblog a couple.

I try to avoid making a big mess, but when baking with a toddler not making a mess is an impossibility.

-----

Leah's POV

Usually mommy tucks me in bed but today daddy did. Daddy said mommy was a little sick so she was already asleep. I don't think it's true because I can hear mommy and daddy talking. Mommy can't be sleeping and talking! I get up and out of my toddler bed. I walk over to the door and just about reach the handle. I'm a big girl but I'm not very tall yet.

I walk out my room and into the corridor. Mommy and daddy's room is just two rooms away from mine - the play room separates them. I used to sleep where the play room is but mommy redid my new room because it's bigger and mommy said it works better with the furniture we picked.

I lean up against the closed door. I knew it! Mommy isn't asleep! She's talking to daddy! She's crying!

I can hear daddy trying to tell mommy that everything's going to be alright but mommy gets angrier when daddy tells her that. She starts to raise her voice and soon enough they're both shouting.

I don't like the noise.

Loud noises do bad things.

I start to run and I go down the stares. I run right up to the door and open it. I start to run down the path outside but I get picked up by a man. I start to scream but I calm down when I realise it's just one of the big men which stand outside our house to keep us safe.

"Leah, what're you doing outside? I'm sure it's past your bedtime, does your mommy know you're out here?" He asks softly. I shake my head and try and stop more tears falling. "It's ok. How about we go back inside? You just wanted a bit of a night adventure, didn't you?" He says. I don't reply, I just stay in his arms as we walk up to the door. It slammed shut with the wind as soon as I walked out, so we knock and wait for mommy or daddy to open up.

Neither of them come so we just stay there and wait for a long time.

It must have been an hour before the security guard decided we should leave.

"I've got a couple of your mom's friends' adresses.  Do you know Karlie?"

I nod and he takes me to his car parked on the street. He explained what's going on to the other people that keep us safe and waved goodbye to them.

______________________________________
A

bit of a longer chapter for you Xx

Thank you so much for 3k reads - that's insane! When I started this book I didn't think I'd even get 100 reads, let alone 3000!
All my love and thanks,
Sara