Wicked Princess - Ashley Jade Page 0,1
Liam’s meltdowns before they happened.
She untangles one arm from around me and places it around him. “We’ll get you some pancakes too, baby. Okay?”
Pancakes were Liam’s favorite. But only the first two in the stack.
According to him, the rest are never as fluffy and they don’t taste as good. Weirdo.
Fortunately, Liam agrees. “Fine.”
Mom stands up. “Let’s haul these bags out to the car and head to the waffle house down the street.”
I start to protest, but she adds, “They serve ice cream there too, Bianca.”
Yeah, but not the soft serve kind.
Whatever. I’d deal.
We start walking, but she pauses abruptly, glancing at her watch. “Shi—shoot.”
“What?”
“I need to stop at the school first.”
Liam and I eye one another.
“Why?”
“So she can sign Cole up for football,” Liam declares with a sour expression.
“But I thought you told him no?”
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “He really wants this. I’ve never seen him so—you know what? I’m the mom and what I say goes. I’m signing your brother up for football.”
Liam snorts. “You know he’ll be bored in a week.”
Liam was right. Cole had a tendency to drop out of things quickly.
Mom ruffles his hair. “Well, if he does, maybe you can take his place.”
Liam looks at her like she sprouted another head as we make our way to the car. “Never. Sports are the worst.”
Mom laughs. “They aren’t so bad.” There’s a gleam in her eye when she looks at me. “Who knows, maybe you can be a cheerleader one day just like your mama.”
Huh?
“There are cheerleaders in India?” Liam and I ask at the same time.
She laughs again. “Of course there are. Granted, they don’t dress like the cheerleaders in America, but—”
The sound of her phone ringing cuts her off.
“Hold that thought,” she says, bringing her cell to her ear. “It’s your father.”
I make mock kissy noises.
My dad might be gone at work a lot, but there’s no denying how much he loves her.
He had flowers and chocolates delivered to her almost every day last week.
Liam pouts. “I wish Dad would let us go to India.”
“Mom’s taking me one day,” I tell him smugly as we climb inside the car.
Liam’s mouth drops open. “No fair.” He looks at Mom. “You have to take me to India too.”
Mom shushes him as she peels out of the parking lot.
“She can’t,” I inform him. “We’re going on a mother-daughter trip. Girls only—”
“What the hell is this?” my father’s voice booms over the car speakers.
Liam and I exchange another glance. Dad never yells at Mom.
“You can read, can’t you?” Mom says curtly.
“Rumi,” he says, his tone somber. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on…why you want this.”
“I can’t right now, Jason. You’re on speakerphone and I have your children in the car with me.”
“Want what?” Liam whispers in my ear.
I was just as confused as him. “I have no idea.”
“I’m in Texas for a meeting,” Dad states. “But I’ll fly home right after, okay?”
“Fine,” Mom tells him. “But it won’t change anything. My mind is made up.”
“Rumi,” Dad pleads, like her name is his lifeline. “Please don’t do this. I love you—”
“Sorry, Jason. I’m driving through a tunnel. Gotta go.”
Eyebrows pinched, Liam looks around. “What tunnel?”
“What was that about?” Liam hisses.
Mom told us to wait in the car while she ran inside to sign Cole up for football.
I repeat my earlier statement. “I have no idea.”
I was only eight. How the heck was I supposed to know what our parents were arguing about?
Liam juts his chin. “Mom’s on her way back.”
I shoot my gaze out the windshield where sure enough, she’s walking back to the car, cradling her cell phone against her ear.
But from the looks of her glassy eyes and tense face…it’s not a happy conversation.
“She’s fighting with Dad again,” Liam says, stating the obvious.
“Should we do something?”
“Like what?”
Suddenly Mom stops walking.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve given up for you?” she screams, snatching the ends of her long dark hair.
My stomach drops.
“India,” Liam and I say at the same time.
Mom left her family—and her career as a Bollywood actress—in India to be with him, and she never went back.
The last time she saw her family was their wedding day.
Liam’s eyes narrow. “I don’t know why Dad won’t let her visit them. They’re her family.”
I had an idea as to why, but I wasn’t ready to share what I recently overheard just yet.
“Maybe he’s protecting her from something?”
“Protecting her from what?”
Here goes nothing. “Last week I overheard Dad—”
A loud sob cuts me off