Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) (2 page)

Chapter 3

Zayden

I made it to Seth’s door with a swift knock.

“Go away.” He said from inside.

I opened the door and walked in despite his request. “I will not.” When Seth realized it was me, he sighed and looked away. I got closer anyway and sat down in a chair by his bed. Rift came to me then and let me pet him while I tried getting somewhere with my son. “I thought you’d be glad that I’m home.”

“Why should I be? You’ll just be leaving again, probably tomorrow.”

“I won’t. We’ll be here for a little while. Maybe even a few months.”

He quietly laughed. “Yeah, you always say that.”

“No I don’t.” There was a pause as Seth continued to lay there and look away from me. “Well, happy birthday. Ten already?”

“You’d have to ask.”

“That’s almost a man.” I tried to ignore his rude behavior so this wouldn’t turn out badly.

“Not even close.”

“Did you at least have fun today? I see you’ve used your mother’s gift.” I looked to the right at the golden rod sitting on the night stand.

“That part I enjoyed.”

There was another pause and I stood up but Seth kept his gaze in the other direction. “Come downstairs. I just came home and would love to have some cake with you.”

“I already ate.”

“Oh, well, come down anyway and we can just hang out. I’ve been running to get here. I should relax.”

“I’m tired. I was just going to go to sleep.”

“Okay. Of course. I’ll see you in the morning then.”

Seth didn’t reply as I made my way to the door. I was hoping that he would change his mind but he didn’t and so I left. I closed it behind me with a sigh and started down stairs at a normal pace.

Everyone was still sitting down in the lounge together but I went straight into the kitchen, hitting the door hard with my hand to swing it open.

I didn’t know what I should be doing but I couldn’t sit out there.

Adele was behind me moments later and wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her head on my back without a word.

“My son hates me.” I muttered.

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just upset.”

“He wouldn’t even look at me.” I was a little frustrated and turned to her. “We should have never agreed to stay here. It’s not how we thought it’d be. We see a lot less of each other.”

“We can’t change that now and I know that deep down, Seth loves you. He’s just upset because it’s his birthday and you missed most of it.”

“It’s more than that. I miss everything. He feels like I’m never here so he’s making it seem like I’m not even when I am.”

“You’ll fix it.” Adele assured me as she touched my face. “It won’t be like this for long.”

I sighed and took her hand in mine. “Maybe. I’m just going to go up to bed, I guess. It’s late and I’m tired.”

She smiled and turned towards the door with me. “And I think you could use some company.”

“I’d like that.” I put my arm around her shoulders and we walked out of the kitchen together, heading for the stairs.

Chapter 4

Jaylyn

Zayden didn’t even look over when they went up the stairs together. I felt sad for him.

“I guess he doesn’t want any.” Darius said, taking a bite of cake.

“He can have some tomorrow.” Ruby replied. “They’ll be plenty left. I’m not going to let you eat it all.”

“I’m not the one you have to worry about.”

My mouth dropped and I let out a low laugh in return. “Hey! She doesn’t have to worry about me either. We’ve been here all day. I’ve had enough.”

“Then don’t worry about it.” Darius smiled, turning his attention to Dirk on his right. “From what I hear, it’s turned out to be a pretty good day.”

Dirk shared a look with his mother and smiled. “Oh, it was! You have to come see what we got!” He got right to his feet with a high eagerness to show his father his new toy. “It’s just the greatest!”

“All right.” Darius smiled, slowly getting up to his feet. “Then show me.”

“You coming too, mother?” Dirk asked.

Ruby just smiled. “No. You two go ahead. I’ll take care of stuff down here.”

“Okay!” Dirk didn’t waste another second and ran right for the stairs with Darius following behind him at a more normal pace.

“You have to come see mine too, father.” Bryce said, getting up to his feet.

“I think that’s an excellent idea.” I smiled, standing up too. “It’s starting to get late anyway.”

“Come on, father!” Bryce said, reaching for Troy’s hand and starting to pull on him.

“Okay. I’m coming.”

They headed for the stairs after Darius and Dirk and started to head up them as well.

“Glad they’re home.” Ruby smiled.

“Me too. I like seeing them like that together.”

Ruby smiled again and walked into the kitchen with me, carrying a few plates and the cake back inside.

Chapter 5

Dirk

I made it up to my room on the third floor first and still showed my enthusiasm with every step. “Come on! It’s right here!”

I picked up the golden rod and held it out to my father.

“Wow. This is nice. How’s the difference in weight when you train with it? I would have assumed that you tried it out already.”

“Of course! I find it to be a lot better. For me, holding one of those sticks is nothing. I hardly even feel it.”

He laughed. “With our strength, I suppose so.”

“Look at what else it does.”

I took it back and twisted the middle. My father looked impressed as it shot out an extra three feet and I twisted half of the other end and it formed the look of an ax head.

“Look at that!” He took it back and looked it over for a second time. “Never had anything like this when I was a kid. This is truly something.”

“I like the way it handles this way.”

“Think you could handle something like this for real?”

“We’ve already figured that they were shadows of what was to come. Every type of weapon has their own skill involved. Time to get used to a certain one.”

My father returned the smile and handed it back to me. “That’s a very wise way to think. Perhaps you’re right.”

“I’d like it to be. I really like this.” I closed up the rod with ease, now that I knew how it worked.

“Well, looks like we’ll have to test it out and see how good you are at it.”

“Really? You’ll practice with me? Seth and Bryce can make it fun but I can only get so rough with them.”

He laughed. “Of course I will. We haven’t gotten to do that in a while. I’d like to see if your skill is improving.”

“So, when?”

“That will have to wait until tomorrow.” Mother stood in the doorway. “It’s getting late.”

“But mother—”

“Dirk, don’t talk back to your mother. She’s right. It is late.”

I stood disappointed with a long sigh.

“You don’t have to go to sleep.” Mother said. “If you’re not tired, you have a paper you could be working on. Deadline is in three days.”

I sighed again. “School work, really?”

“Is it done?”

“No.”

“Then you should work on it. Your father needs his rest if he’s going to have a chance at surviving a lesson with you tomorrow.”

It got a smile out of me. “All right, mother. Then he should go rest.”

Father smiled back. “I’ll do that. Just make sure you get to bed at a reasonable hour as well.”

“I will, father. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

They left but I wasn’t the least bit tired. I was too excitedly awake, thinking about what tomorrow would be like. I knew I couldn’t do anything about it now but sleep wasn’t an option yet.

I decided to work on my paper at my mother’s request. It was about global history and the changes that tore the world into war.

Books were laid out in front of me and papers were scattered everywhere but the more I sat here, the harder time I was having answering questions I couldn’t find. I sighed and hated to have to disturb mother but she has always been willing to help and I just had to make sure that father wasn’t disturbed.

I left everything where it was and took a single book with me out of the room. The halls were quiet like everyone was already asleep and I took the stairs up to the sixth level. My footsteps became cautious when I heard a light commotion coming from my parent’s room but I was curious and got closer.

I reached the door and recognized mother. She wasn’t speaking but the sounds coming from her lips sounded of pain. “Mother?”

I couldn’t reach for the door knob. I wanted to but something was stopping me. Instead, I bend down and looked through the key hole. I couldn’t see much but from what I did see, mother was wearing her gold silk robe and she was being pinned down to the bed by my father. His muscles were tense and looked as if he was using a great force to keep her there. Mother’s breaths were heavy and I got worried when I saw her red eyes.

I got right up with my own heavy breath and started backing away. I’ve never felt this fear towards father until now and just had to get away. As soon as I reached the stairs, I bolted down them until I got back to my room and closed myself inside. I simply threw the book down on the desk and got right into bed, throwing the blanket up over my head.

I was feeling shaky and couldn’t get the image out of my mind that father was abusing mother. It worried me in the easiest of ways and kept wondering how long it’s been going on.

I stayed exactly the way I was and tried going to sleep through all the thoughts running around me. It was the only thing I could think of doing at the time and sleep finally followed. My dreams were none and calmed me in the peaceful rest.

Chapter 6

Ruby

Dirk laid asleep in his bed when I came in the room to wake him up. “Morning, sleepy.”

I walked over and opened the curtains, letting in the sun. I knew he was excited last night. He should still want to get up.

He started to wake from it but pulled the blankets up over his head instead of rising.

I laughed because he must have stayed up late and I walked over to him, sitting on the empty space next to him. “Hey, time to get up. You can’t stay in bed forever. You have plans with your father today.”

Dirk sighed and turned over. “Go away.”

I sensed something different in his tone and leaned over him. “Dirk, honey, are you okay? Are you not feeling well?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, mother. Okay?”

“All right, mister.” My voice was serious now. “Spill. Now.”

Dirk just sighed and took the covers off his head, sitting up in bed. “Why are you with him?”

I was confused. “With who?”

“Father.”

“Because he’s your father and I love him.”

“You don’t have to pretend and you don’t have to be with him for my sake.”

“Dirk, what has gotten into you? You’ve never asked these questions before.”

He paused for a long moment and looked down. I was hoping he would tell me. “I know he hurts you.”

“Hurts me? Honey, your father would never do anything to hurt me.”

He sighed and took my hand, pushing up my sleeve to show bruising around my wrist. “He doesn’t? And that’s just from him being here for a few hours.”

I felt embarrassed and pulled my hand back to cover my wrists. “That was unintentional. How did you know about that?”

Dirk hesitated to say anything at first but he’s always been able to talk to me about everything and went on with answering my question. “I saw it happen.”

I got a smile and touched his hand. “Oh, honey. It wasn’t like that. Your father wasn’t hurting me.”

“But I saw you. Your eyes were red and—and I was scared.”

I let his hand go while my smile remained and started getting up off the bed. “You don’t need to be but I think this is an explanation you need to hear from your father.”

“Why?”

“It just is. Why don’t you get yourself ready for the day and I’ll see when he has time.”

“Mother, I don’t think—”

“Dirk, I do. This is obviously something that’s bothering you and you need to hear it from someone you can relate more to.” Dirk just sighed as I walked to the door and looked back. “Come on. Get up.”

I left the room, leaving Dirk to take care of things on his own and went upstairs into my bathhouse.

Darius just got out of the shower and was standing in front of the mirror with a towel around his waist. “Hey, beautiful. Thought you were going to join me?”

“Well, that’s going to have to wait a bit. There’s something else I need you to do first. Something important.”

Darius took the tone in my voice as serious and nodded. “Okay. What is it?”

I sighed as I walked over and leaned up against the sink while he started shaving. “You have to talk to Dirk.”

“What about?”

“This isn’t exactly how I planned it happening but he needs to hear
the talk
from you.”

“The talk?”

“Yes, Darius. The big talk. Sex.”

“And what brought this on?”

I sighed again and turned my body to him. “He saw us last night.”

Of course, he laughed. “Really?”

“This isn’t funny, Darius. He’s under the impression that you hurt me.”

“Well, you asked for that!”

His attitude towards this problem only made me sigh again. “I know but that’s not the point. He just doesn’t understand it and I need you to talk to him, explain. He has to know these things and I don’t just mean the basics. He needs to know what he’ll someday be capable of in a situation like that. Risks and dangers. All of it.”

“I don’t want to give him the wrong idea. It’s not bad.”

“But he still needs to know.”

“All right.” He sighed, reaching for the hot towel to clean off his face. “I’ll see what I can do but explaining your side of the gift is really your thing.”

“It would be weird for him to hear it from me. I’m a woman. You know it well yourself. Tell him. I have him getting ready right now.”

“Okay. Let me go get dressed and I’ll find him.”

“Thank you.”

We left the bathhouse and Darius got himself ready so he could confront our son, all the while I hoped he’d understand.