Ruby marched to her bed and slowly crawled under the sheets. Her innocent tears immediately wet the pillow case. Regina, though, was satisfied. “Now you go to sleep while I go sit with daddy.”
“You leave Daddy alone! He’s my daddy, not yours!” Ruby shrieked, only pleasing Regina even farther.
“Your daddy doesn’t love you anymore. He loves me and only me,” Regina said, and not wanting the fun to end, switched the lights off. Before Ruby could begin to scream, Regina had her hand over Ruby’s mouth. “I do not want to hear a single scream you understand, little baby? When I remove me hand, if I hear a scream I will call the monsters in, you hear me?”Poor Ruby just nodded her head, not knowing that no such thing existed. Once she was able to speak, she croaked, “But I don’t wanna sleep with no light! I scary!”
“I don’t care if you are scared. Now sit tightly and watch out for scary noises. It could be the monsters looking for you.” Regina laughed wholeheartedly, and then left the room.
Two minutes later, Ruby heard a knock on her door, and it opened slightly. Two little heads popped up and they eagerly ran to the bed. “You wanna cake? We snucked you some,” Charlie announced as he presented her with the plate. The cake was missing a few pieces here and there, and it was evident where one of the two hungry children stole a bite, but Ruby did not seem to notice.
“Wow. For me? Thanks too much!”
“Don’t you want to come play with us?” Darcy asked eagerly.
“But the mean witch said no,” Ruby said, her heart full.
“”Oh,” said Charlie. “Well come on Darcy. Let’s go play!”
“Ok,” she said. “Bye Ruby.” Before she ran out after Charlie, she stood on her tiptoes until she could reach the light switch, which she flipped on the minute she could. Then, she gave her a small smile and left.
Ruby, grateful for the cake, ate quickly, not wanting Regina to come in and see her. Dropping the plate to the floor and not bothering to wipe her mouth, Ruby grabbed her favorite stuffed animal, Mousey, and sat down waiting for her dad.
“Looks like somebody’s ready for bed,” Thomas said as he walked into the room later on that night. After spotting the cake mess, he added, “And from the looks of it, you’ve had surprise visitors.”
“Daddy!” Ruby said. “The witch is so mean daddy! She closed my light! And she hit me! And she yells at me. And she said you don’t love me. Daddy, do you love me?”
“Of course I love you,” daddy told her.
“More than the witch?” Ruby asked, beginning to like this game.
“Don’t call her a witch. You have to say nice things. Call her mommy, okay Ruby?”
“But she’s not mommy,” Ruby complained.
“I know, but we don’t want to hurt her feelings,” daddy explained.
“What about my feelings? She maked me cry,” Ruby persisted.
“I’m sure she meant it in a nice way. Now just try to be nice to her. You want your real mommy to be proud and love you, right? Well then you have to listen to this mommy and never say anything mean to her. Can you do that, Ruby-kins?” daddy asked.
“Ok,” Ruby whispered, because she loved her mommy so much and wanted her to love her too.
“Now are you ready for a story?” daddy asked, and began to reach for a book.
Ruby clapped her hands and listened to her daddy’s beautiful voice as he read the story. Pretty soon, her eyelids became heavy, and she drifted off to sleep, not knowing that this was goodbye.
YOU ARE READING
Untying the Knot
FantasyRuby Henderson has lived her whole life working as a slave, but no one knew this. not even her best friend Charlie Baker. When things started to go bad, Ruby decided she had to put a stop to this. After revealing her secret to Charlie, Charlie joins...
