Chapter 110
FREDA WHITLOCK
“What happened?” She asked, sitting across from me. I took a piece of bacon from the dish I had prepared for myself earlier. “Kaiden came… And he started yelling about the letter I sent to him. I knew it was s**, and I shouldn’t have sent it. I wish I had listened to my intuition,” I said and she nodded, looking over at Francisco.
“He came here and he attacked Cole because Cole asked him to stop yelling at me. I… I don’t know how to feel, because I feel bad for him. I understand how he’s feeling and I feel terrible for sending that letter, for keeping…” I paused my words and looked at Francisco, hoping that she would understand. She nodded, telling me that she did.
I looked at Francisco again. He had a frown on his face.
“Let’s talk about it later,” she said in a low voice and I nodded. “Why?” Francisco said randomly and we both looked at him. He had tears in his eyes and I started to grow worried. “What do you mean?” Lyra asked and I bit my lip, watching him with anxiety that seemed to be growing so much and so fast that it would fly out of the roof at the rate it was growing.
“You don’t want me to hear that Harper’s dad is my dad?” He asked in a small voice that broke towards the end and my world seemed to stop. He had heard. He had heard everything. Every single thing. How could I have been so careless. “Why do you look surprised? Everyone was yelling and I heard,” he said and
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tears ran down his face. I stepped towards him and he took a step back.
“Francisco…” I called and Lyra watched both of us with a
worried look on her face. “I don’t want to talk to you, Mom. And you too, Aunt Lyra.” He said and walked away towards his room, sobbing.
I was falling apart. I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab Francisco and tell him I was so sorry. I wanted to tell him that I had been keeping it from him to protect him. I wanted to hate. Kaiden for coming here, for making Francisco find out this way.
I buried my face in my hands and started weeping as I fell to my knees. This was the worst. It was by far my worst nightmare.
I spent the rest of the day crying, lurking around Francisco’s room and then pacing like a crazy woman. I was losing it and Lyra was starting to get very worried. “Freda, you have to eat. He’s upset, he’ll speak to you when he feels better,” Lyra said for the hundredth time.
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me aggressively, shaking me out of my thought reverie. Whenever I was not lost in thoughts, I was crying. At this point, I was feeling better while staying lost in my thoughts.
“I can’t eat,” I said. My voice was broken from crying so much. “You can. You have to.” She said in a sad voice. “He hates me. I was trying to protect him. I was not going about it the right way but I was doing it to protect him. I don’t know if I should be mad at myself or at Kaiden or even at Cole,” I said and tears started streaming down my face again.
“He doesn’t hate you. He’s been asking for his dad and you
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never really said anything about it. He is upset and he is right to feel that way because you kept the identity of his real dad from him. And you have showed signs of not liking his dad,” she said, turning my face to look at her.
“He’s a child, Freda. Give him time. I’ll make sure he has dinner. Come in, don’t make me worry about you having dinner too,” she said and a small smile broke out across my cracked lips.
I took a deep breath and looked in the direction of his room. “I’ll try to make sure he eats but you have to give him time. He needs to sort out how he’s feeling and then come to you himself,” she said and I nodded, heading towards the dinning table.
She had prepared mac and cheese. In all honesty, I was starving but I could not bring myself to eat when my sweet son was upset with me. “Go on. I’ll take care of him,” she said and I nodded. “Okay,” I muttered.
I settled down in my favorite seat and took a bite of the mac and cheese she had prepared for me. It was already lukewarm, on its way to turning cold. This was the perfect temperature. After the first bite, I started to rush a couple more and I could only hope that Francisco would agree to eat. He had not even come out of his room after he went in earlier in the day.