Forever In My LIFE (Book 4) 2nd Alternate

Part 62

Kirks eyes travel between the two of us before he grabs his plate and scurries to stand. "Well, I better get started bringing that stuff down," he says, almost knocking his chair over in his rush to vacate the room. With his plate dropped off in the sink, Kirk extends his hand out to Prince as he passes. Prince hands off the keys to the car, but remains standing in the same spot after Kirk leaves the room. I still haven't looked at him, and I busy myself by adding more food to Ramiel's tray. I take a deep breath, trying not to blow up in front of Ramiel, I ask as controlled as I am able, "Have you eaten?"

"No," his voice is low.

"Join us, please," the words come out with a slight edge to them, more as an order than a request. Prince comes around to the place setting on the other side of Ramiel, which is our norm, and eases into the chair. As soon as he's seated, Ramiel reaches out with a small morsel of scrambled eggs clenched in his slimy fingers, "Da," he offers the food to him.

"No, Ramiel," Prince says gently, "You eat." The offered food is brought back and placed into his mouth, he makes his 'yum' sound before reaching for more egg from his tray.

My facial expression is soft while I watch Ramiel, but I feel it tighten when I finally make eye contact with Prince. At least he has the decency to look ashamed, I think as he breaks my eye contact and casts his gaze downward. "You're mad," he states. I close my eyes and bite my tongue, it's taking every bit of my control not to fly out of my chair and slap him. Yes, I'm mad! He must sense my thoughts because when he looks back up at me, there's fear in his wide eyes, "Sugar. Say something."

I take a deep breath, then blow it out. Looking him square in the eye, "Oh, I am going to say something." I pause when I hear my voice quiver, I'm so mad I could cry, and that's not good. His eyes drop again, like a puppy about to get scolded for chewing a shoe.

"And you're going to shut up and listen..." the words surprise me as they come out of my mouth. Prince's eyes come up to meet mine again, registering shock with a bit of defensiveness, he bites the inside of his cheek, but nods a subtle nod of compliance.

"That stunt you pulled last night was uncool," I start as calmly as I can, glancing at Ramiel to gauge his reaction. He's aware something is going on, but he's still scooping food off his tray and into his mouth as he looks back and forth between the two of us. "I just want you to know that I was ready to get on that plane today without you." Prince flinches as if I had struck him, nodding again, he brings his curled fingers to his lips, and stares blankly while I continue.

"IF I didn't love you, I wouldn't care that you're in pain, but I do love you." He sneaks a peek at me.

"I'm just going to say one more thing, and then I'm done." He looks up and the hand drops, he looks worried as he waits to hear what else I have to say.

I push my chair back and stand, "If you don't care enough about yourself, or me for that matter, to have that hip looked at, maybe you could think about our child, hmmm?" I reach out and stroke Ramiel's head. He smiles up at me, "Ma," then looks at Prince. Ramiel's smile fades and his brows knit in confusion at Prince's stricken expression.

I place a kiss on the top of Ramiel's head before I look back at Prince, "Now, I have to finish getting ready. I've done everything else last night, and this morning. Please make sure he finishes eating," I say before leaving the room.

I hurry to the bathroom and manage to lock the door before giving in to my tears of anger and frustration. I'm glad I didn't get my makeup done earlier, I think as I sit on the toilet sobbing. When I'm finally able to calm myself, I spend the next several minutes splashing cold water on my face in attempts to conceal the fact that I've been crying. I do a bare minimum effort with my makeup, because at this point I'm just too emotionally drained to care.