“You got what you wanted seventeen years ago, Viv. I’m here with you and Noelle, but the next time I hear you speak to either of my children the way you just did I will take them both and leave you here.” It was Mark’s turn to lose his temper now, and in all the years I knew him I couldn’t think of one time I have ever seen him so angry over something, and especially not toward my mother.
Despite the fact that my mom deserved all the anger directed at her I knew I had to get Royal out of here before the shit storm got deeper.
“Enough!” I screamed at all three of them, feeling as deflated as a balloon. Royal didn’t even glance at me as I pulled him away from my mother and his father. The look of pure satisfaction that lingered on my mother’s face said she thought won this argument, even though Royal’s father came in and forced her to shut her yap.
“Hitting him where it hurts most isn’t okay, for fuck’s sakes he’s your stepson. Your husband’s child, and all you can seem to think about is throwing him under the bus and degrading him until he loses his shit with you. I mean, what kind of grown-ass woman treats a person that way?” I had to question her, because the question itself was burning a hole in my head. The fire that Royal sparked months ago was threatening to overtake me.
“Do you not see that this isn’t about him, but about the fact that you’re so fucking hard on me? You want me to be someone I’m not, and Royal being here threatens that precious hold you have on me.” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration and continued on with what I was saying. I needed to get it all out in the open and finally say everything that I have been holding in for the past couple of years.
“If you want to be mad at someone, make it me. If you want to hurt someone, lash out at me. But do not hurt Royal for bringing something to the surface that was already there. I’ve hated you for a very long time, he just helped me become more aware of it.” I could feel a shift in the air as I spoke. If you lit a match, everything within ten feet would blow up. I focused my attention on my mother, watching as her face contorted in anger, her cheeks growing red with embarrassment.
“You’re an ungrateful little bitch!” she growled, her hand reaching out and yanking on a few loose strands of my hair. I didn’t even have a chance to react because Mark stepped in.
“Let go of her right now!” Mark shouted, his large hand wrapping around her body in a firm grip, forcing her to release her hold on my hair. Royal took that moment to grab me, forcing my body behind his so he could get in my mother’s face.
“It’s you, that’s ungrateful,” Royal spat. My chest ached as I watched the raging inferno that was his emotions take hold.
“It’s you that will pay for hurting all those that I love.” The bleak look in his eyes scared me. “It’s you that’s wrong,” he growled, a rumbling forming in his chest.
My mother’s expression morphed into fear. She was afraid of him, and for some reason that made me happy.
“You will be going back to your whore of a mother. I refuse to allow a pathetic criminal like you to continue to stay in this house and around my daughter!” I couldn’t move, the air in my chest stilled as I waited for Royal’s response. Mark rolled his eyes, as if he was done with her shit a long time ago.
It was then that the words Mark spoke just minutes ago hit me.
You got what you wanted seventeen years ago…
It all made sense now, the reason why Royal hated me in the beginning had nothing to do with me as a person but more so what he thought I had caused. He thought I was the reason his parents were no longer married. The reason his dad left and he never had a father figure in his life.
“Good! Do it, because mark my words, Viviana, I will find a way back here. You’re nothing to my father. I’m his son, and I can easily have you replaced. In fact, I will have you replaced.” I’ve heard so much hate being spoken by a person. The anger and rage that was fueling inside of him terrified me. He didn’t just hate my mom, he completely despised her.
“If that were the case your father wouldn’t have left you or your mother all those years ago. Truthfully he doesn’t give a shit about you, or haven’t you realized that yet,” my mother mocked.
“Viv, that’s uncalled for. You know for certain that I tried for many years to contact him.” I could see the anxiety in Mark’s features, but it was too late. Viviana landed the last and final blow to Royal. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to walk away forever.
Royal looked as if he could murder someone as he whipped around, his body shoving past me. My mother’s words caused even more rage to radiate from him; his shoulder slammed into mine, allowing a spark of energy to transfer between us. It was a shock of heat, and flames of fire flickered in his darkened eyes.