Please do not spoil this for those who do not want to come here and read this. I'm posting the chapter here first, so it maybe a couple of days before it is on wattpad. Thank you for coming over and giving my sad little website a chance. lol. I do hope you discuss it here, since doing on wattpad would be spoiling it for those folks. Tell me what you think. Without further ado :
Gia spread the thin, brown blanket across Becky’s legs before she sat the tray of food in the woman’s lap.
“You’ve only met him once the whole the whole five months he’s been here, Jeffery! You need to come home and get to know your son!” Becky screamed into the phone. “I don’t care that you don’t like the Ukrainian! You need to man up!” Becky face twisted in anger. “You said you weren’t afraid of any white man – only here you are avoiding a whole fucking country because a couple pieces of trash hurt your feelings!” The fist holding her fork shook. “Yes, I am talking to you this way because you’re not being worth anything right now!”
Gia bent back to the basket in the grass at her feet and dug through it until she found a few napkins – she sat them on the tray as well. She hid her amusement over Becky’s ‘issues’, but it was hard to bite back her smile.
She looked off towards the sky – Becky had wanted to have her lunch outside today – so here they were in the sun-drenched field behind the house. It was nice, unlike the room the first time she was here, the room she shared with Holiday and Aleksey didn’t have windows. She and Holiday really only got real, direct sunlight when they went to put the clothes Becky wanted sun dried on the line outside (or take them off). It wasn’t ever for very long though, just long enough to do their job.
So, this was nice, even though they wouldn’t be enjoying a nice avocado sandwich like Becky – it was still nice. Even with the two-armed guards lingering just off to the side.
Gia let the sun warm her face and nearly smiled. Her peace was shattered by a shrill cry off to her left. Her jaw gritted and suddenly the sun felt cold.
“What in the hell are you doing? Feed my child!” Becky snapped at her. “I swear I have to tell you the most basic of things, ape!”
Gia ignored the woman and bent back down to the basket and removed the baby spoon and a jar of baby food: peas. She moved over to the blanket where Holiday and the infant – propped up in a little plastic chair – sat. Holiday hugged her knees and looked up at her as she approached. She smiled at her daughter gently to show she had been doing to good job with her job – making sure the infant didn’t tip over or something.
The flaxen haired child didn’t look anything like he had come from her. She didn’t mind, it made it easier to remember and tell herself, this was not her child. This child’s curls so blonde, his eyes so blue, and his skin so pale, one could easily mistake this biracial child for a fully white one.
Aleksey had bragged after seeing him that his Viking blood was too strong to be tainted by anything else. She hated when that man spoke.
Gia’s smile faded when she settled down in front of the child. The infant watched her with big, wet eyes, his cries subdued, bottom lip poked out and trembling. Gia focused on getting the jaw of smushed peas open. The baby watched her intently and she knew it wasn’t because he wanted to be fed so badly, he always did it. Maybe he could sense aversion and just simply couldn’t understand or maybe he could even sense she was his birth mother; she didn’t know or care.
Becky continued to yell in the phone in the background. Gia dug out a little bite of food from the jar and held it up to the child, who turned his head away and waved his arms around, nearly knocking the spoon from her hand. Gia tried again, but the child remained difficult, whining and turning his head away.
Gia was getting frustrated.
“Mommy, can I try?” Gia looked over at Holiday and let out a breath. She knew her daughter sensed her frustration and she always stepped in when she got frustrated with the baby. Holiday knew how to change diapers, she knew how to entertain the baby, and she knew how to feed the baby; all because Gia simply couldn’t deal with him sometimes.
She knew that made her shit.
Holiday scooted closer and Gia handed her the baby food and spoon. Holiday smiled at the baby – she loved him. Holiday loved to play with the baby, watch the baby, and even call him her brother even though Gia told her not too. She said the baby reminded her of Collin, she said she would be nicer to him then she was to Collin and that when she got to be with Collin and Elle again, she would be nicer to them too.
“привіт, братику,” Holiday cooed, “hi, Sullivan, hi…” The baby babbled and smiled a gummy smile at her. He seemed to love Holiday too. “Yum yum…” She said as she held the spoon in front of his mouth, “yum yum” The baby took the food in his mouth and beamed. “Mmm mmm!” Holiday giggled as the baby ‘chewed’.
Gia let out a tiny breath as she sat back and watched her daughter feed Becky’s baby. She rubbed the bridge of her nose before she leaned forward and plopped a kiss on the topo of Holiday’s scarf covered head. “Thank you, Hols.”
“No, problem, mommy! I like feeding Sullivan!” Holiday glanced at her as if she had more to say but decided not to say it. She frowned; Holiday had been doing that a lot lately – keeping things to herself. Gia didn’t like that at all.
“Its nice to be outside again, huh?” She asked the child. Holiday smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, the sun feels so nice!” Holiday responded. She got the baby to eat another bite. “It smells good out here too.” She sucked in a deep breath to prove her point.
Gia laughed a little. “It does.” She agreed. She hadn’t realized how much their little prison smelled until they returned from the fresh air of outside.
Holiday leaned closer to her and whispered: “Do you remember the picture we took back before Sullivan was born?” Gia nodded, unfortunately she did. “Why did we have to take it. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I can’t figure it out…”
The month the baby was born – a couple days before she gave birth actually – Becky had made them take a picture: she, Aleksey, and Holiday. It was like a morbid family photo – a lie – not one person in the photo had cracked a smile. For some reason and somehow Aleksey had gotten his hands on a copy and he showed her the miserable looking photo when he was trying to convince her they were a family and they were his (he kept it hidden on him most of the time, knowing she would tear it to pieces if she got her hands on it). She had no doubt that another copy had been sent to Isaac. It wasn’t surprising at all – Becky hated them – she wanted to hurt them.
She didn’t want to think about what Isaac likely thought when he saw the photo – a photo where she was swollen so heavily with another man’s child. He had probably given up on them at that point, he had already been half-way there when they were taken (given up on her anyway).
Pain sparked alive in her chest, but she forced herself to shrug at Holiday. “No idea… There’s no telling with her…” She whispered the last part with a small smile.
“Fine then, Jeffery, stay there and don’t come see me or your son! Fucking deadbeat!” Becky screamed loudly and tossed her cell phone as far as she could throw it and pushed tray of food off her lap in a rage. She caught them staring at her. “What in the hell are you looking at?”
Holiday bumped into Gia’s side in fright. Gia hated when Becky scared Holiday, absolutely loathed it and the woman.
“Are you okay?” Gia asked in feigned concern. She couldn’t help herself. Her control over her anger and overall self-control had been waning. “Seems like you and Jeffery are having issues.”
Becky’s face darkened, but then she smiled a cruel smile that made Gia regret her lapse in judgment. “Yes, we are…for right now. His priorities are just messed up at the moment, but he’ll get his head on straight and come crawling back – he always does. You see, that’s because I’m desirable, you wouldn’t know anything about that though, would you?” Gia bit her lip to keep from saying anything. “In the meantime, while he’s getting his head on straight, I have a slew of other men just waiting for me to bless them with my presence.” Becky’s smile grew bigger. Gia barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “You see, everywhere I go I attract men – most of them are black. What can I say? I just dazzle them. They would do anything for me once they’ve fallen for me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “A few years back my husband and I got suckered into hosting a month-long workshop for up and coming small business owners.” She scoffed. “It was such a waste of time most of those lazy bums wouldn’t have what it took…but one good thing did come from it – his name is Nathan Reese.”
Gia’s blood ran cold and she couldn’t hold in the gasp that escaped her. Her shock must have amused Becky greatly because the woman threw her head back and laughed like a witch.
“Mommy?” Holiday questioned, likely noticing the shaking her mother was doing.
Gia didn’t want to believe it. “Mrs. Reese wouldn’t –“
Becky scoffed. “Of course, that obese gorilla wouldn’t betray another ‘sista’.” Becky mocked. “I wouldn’t be bothered. Nathan on the other hand is a black man who loves white women, wisely more then he loves his manly, ashy counterparts – black women. He especially loves me and all I had to do was promise him a bit of my time and he did everything I told him. It was just luck that he already knew you in some compacity. He was my eyes there the moment you two stepped back into that town. He’s not too smart, but he was smart enough to come up with the plan to reintroduce you to his mother, therefore bringing you closer to him – I may have had to help a little with that plan.” She shrugged. “You didn’t really think he was interested in you, did you?”
Gia frowned. “I didn’t think he was interested in me at all.” Was that what the man’s friendliness was all about? Making her think he was interested? She had just thought he was being nice because his mom liked her.
“Sure…” Becky said clearly not believing her. “Anyway, we had this whole plan mapped out…but who was I to know that sister of yours –“ Becky barked out a laugh again. “Would come along and speed things up. With family like that, who needs enemies, am I right?” Becky shook her head. “Maybe I should have approached her and asked her to help me – seems like she would have agreed easily if it would have gotten rid of you.”
“So… Beth didn’t have anything to do with this?” Gia asked slowly. She couldn’t help it; she had thought it. She had thought her sister could have been the reason she ended up back here. She had thought maybe Beth was still in contact with her mom in some way and arranged this.
“Afraid not,” Becky shrugged again. “I didn’t even know your mother that whole first arrangement was handled by my husband.”
Her sister wasn’t directly responsible for her ending up back here for a second time – Gia still hated her for what she did anyway. She still blamed her.
“Clean this mess up and bring me my lunch. First, get me my phone. My husband isn’t the only man who wants me and I’ll show him that!”
Gia bit back a sigh as she stood. Sullivan began to cry and reach for her as soon as she took a few steps away even though she hadn’t been interacting with him at all. She paid the baby no mind as she got Becky her phone and gathered the mess she had made onto the tray.
“Holiday, stay here and watch the baby.” She said to Holiday who was trying to get Sullivan to stop crying by waving a toy in his face. “Finish feeding him, please.”
“Okay, mommy…”
Gia headed towards the mansion and was nearly at the doors when Aleksey rounded the corner of the house - his two guards flanking him. He grinned when he saw her, while she sneered and picked up the pace; she squeezed through the glass doors and into the kitchen. She hated when she had the misfortune of seeing him outside their room.
He caught up to her, the guards yelling at him in their language because he had sped up to catch her. He ignored them as he spun her around to face him. “Are you being a good mother to my son?” He nodded over his shoulder where Becky, Holiday, and Sullivan were.
“Becky needs another sandwich,” Gia said to the cook who was staring at them with annoyance.
Aleksey shook her a little until she looked up at him. “You heard me.”
“I’m not his mother…I’m his nanny.”
“Delusional. Treat him how you treat your other children, or you’ll make me angry! He needs his mother.” His finger was pointed in her face.
Gia brushed her his other hand off her shoulder and stepped out of his reach. She sat the tray with the broken plate and soiled food on the island. The guards said something, and she looked back up at Aleksey just in time to see he was reaching for her – likely her scarf – he liked to yank her by that when he thought she wasn’t listening to him.
He gritted his jaw, but his hand did drop. “We’ll speak on this later, woman.” She didn’t know why he bothered. He and the guards left, lifting a weight from her chest she didn’t know was there.
She acted as if she wasn’t still afraid of the man, but she was. She was so afraid of him sometimes she was afraid to sleep when she knew she had pissed him off earlier in the day – just in case he decided to attack her while she was asleep.
She fought him back the only way she knew how, biting, scratching, kicking even though she knew she was no match for a grown man who even while starved was one of the most solidly built men she’d ever met – and let him get some drugs in him, he was like the hulk. If she didn’t fight back, he would beat her longer, when she fought back it tired him out and it didn’t go on for as long. Besides, he seemed to get a sick kick out of when she fought back and actually hurt him. It was like he respected her for it.
She hated him.
When the cook remade the food, she took it back out to Becky.
Discuss this chapter here: https://kaylasimpss.wixsite.com/website/forum/reader-s-chat/wistful