Sincerely, Millie

Chapter 14 - Apologies and A Reunion of Sorts

"Since I'm not actually family, can I leave?" Wren asks hopefully, starting to get up from his seated position, lifting Alex with him

"No." I say sternly, ordering him even "Sit your ass back down"

Rolling his eyes, muttering something along the lines of 'royal pain in my ass'.

"So, this is how it goes" I start "We go around in a circle and have to answer one question per go, got it?" I ask, looking around to see faint nods.

"We're starting with you then" Seth says mischievously, Rolling my eyes at his tone, I reply with "Fine."

 "Why do you look like shit?" He says, then continues with "Don't even try lying"

Giving a tired sigh, I run my hand through my hair, "I had a lovely conversation with Chris" I start, "and it didn't go too well" 

"Does that mean I don't need to apologise?" imputed the small voice of my son

"No, you're apologising Alex, that's final" I say sternly, as he rolls his eyes, I don't miss the looks of pity and sorrow directed at me from everyone else.

Family time went on for what felt like hours, we asked each other questions about our lives, questions I know they only asked for my benefit because they all already knew the answers. Out of all the questions, every single one of them, only one of them stuck with me

"What happened with Uncle Cole and Mia?" Alex asks, looking at me curiously, as curiously as any clueless four year old could.

Cole was the one to respond, "Uncle Cole and Mia are getting a divorce" He answers simply, taking most of the room by surprise and causing Belle to stand up and storm out of the room.

The room is shocked into silence. Most of us saw it coming but I was the only one who knew it was coming now thanks the revelation an hour ago. Cole pondered going after Belle, I knew he did, it was like seeing him go to war with himself, "Just give her some time, C, she'll come through"

Twenty minutes passed and Belle still hadn't came back and I knew the internal battle Cole had going on was getting worse and worse. It wasn't until he sees her come through the door, held in somebody's arms that he relaxed. I didn't pay attention to whose arms she was in until he said "Looks like I'm not completely horrendous with kids after all"

Wren is the first to speak up, "Yeah, you always were good with snobs" causing a few of the kids the erupt into subtle snickers and the adults to look at him with widened eyes, his eyes meet mine and he questions, "What?" with a shrug, "She ain't my kid"

"You cant call a six year old kid a snob, Wren" I say sternly, not expecting what came next.

"But she is a snob, mommy, and you always tell me that lying is bad" Alex speaks up in a small, childish voice, covering up a smirk. The very smirk I knew he inherited from his father.

I look at him for a second in shock, "Circumstantially, yes" 

"What does that mean?" He asks with furrowed brows as he.

"It means that sometimes, if a persons feelings are on the line, you can lie" He looks at me with a mischievous smile.

"Is that why you're making me apologise when I don't want to?" 

"Alex..."

"Does that mean I can lie and tell you it was the cat that broke the vase on the kitchen counter last year?"

"We don't have a cat, you're allergic" I outsmart him. Damn, if I had been told in high school that I'd be trying to outsmart a four year old 7 years from then, I'd have looked at them as if they were stupid.