Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“I’m not a brat.” I pout.
“No, you’re not.” Daddy gives her a look, then grins at me. “You’re our good boy.”
“But Mommy called me a brat.”
“She doesn’t mean it. Right, Julia?”
Mom sighs, then turns around and gives me an open juice box. “You’re not, sweetie. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay, Mommy.” I snatch the bottle of juice and slurp while swinging my legs, bumping against Mommy’s seat.
“You’ll have friends in the place we’ll go to, champ.”
I nearly choke on my juice as my eyes bug out. When I speak, I draw the word out, “Really?”
“Really. We’ll all start anew. What do you think?”
“Okay!” I bounce in my seat, rocking back and forth.
Mom puts on anime soundtracks and I sing along with them while I drink from my juice.
Sometimes, Daddy sings with me and I giggle because his Japanese is so funny. Mom’s, too. I think it’s because they’re from America and learned Japanese when they were older, unlike me.
I don’t know America. Daddy said I don’t need to, because we’re never going there.
We drive for a long time, passing many people and tall buildings that look like ghosts. After a while, I’m tired of singing.
I think I fall asleep, because when I wake up, Daddy and Mommy are talking quietly, like they usually do when they don’t want me to know ‘adult’ stuff.
But I’m not so little anymore. I’m a big boy and I wanna know grownup stuff, too.
So I peek through my half-closed eyes and pretend I’m still asleep.
Mom is turned in her seat and faces Daddy while he focuses on the road. Beads of sweat cover her forehead and the hairline of her bright-like-the-sun locks. If she gets sweat on her hair, she’ll probably tell us she’s having a ‘bad hair day’ later.
Her shaky fingers run through her strands over and over again. “Maybe you should call your father, Nick.”
Daddy tightens his hold on the steering wheel. “I’m dead to my parents. I can’t just call them.”
“But this is a life or death situation. Surely, they’ll help their firstborn.”
“You were there when they said they’d only attend my funeral. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a hand in quickening the process.”
“They wouldn’t do that! You’re their son.”
“A son who not only refused to inherit his father’s political legacy but also married a commoner who doesn’t fit the Weaver image. Believe me, I’m no longer their son.”
Tears shine in Mom’s eyes. “So it’s my fault?”
“No.” Daddy takes her hand and places a kiss on the back of it while still focusing on the road. “I would choose you over all the socialites Mom arranged for me to date a hundred times over if I had to. What we have is real and I’m lucky to have you.”
She sniffles. “I’m lucky to have you, too, Nick. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through this mess without you.”
“We’ll be okay.”
“No one steals from them and gets away with it,” she whimpers. “They’ll hunt us down and hurt Sebastian… What if they take away our baby and…and…”
“Hey…we’re here. No one will hurt him or us.”
“But what if they do? I wish I’d never done it.”
“It’s useless to think about things that can’t be changed, hon.”
“I…I don’t know what the hell was wrong with me when I decided to take it… I just…just wanted to help pay off our debt. We were working so hard to make ends meet and…Sebastian needs to be in an international school, and…I stupidly thought one item in the midst of twenty others wouldn’t be discovered.”
Daddy grabs her hand tighter. “We’ll be fine. We have each other and our boy. That’s all that matters, right?”
“Right.” She smiles a little through her tears and I want to smile, too. I love when Mommy is happy after she cries. It means she’ll be better and spoil me and Daddy.
She leans over and kisses Daddy on the mouth. “I love you, Nick.”
“Love you, too, Julia.”
I’m about to open my eyes and say I love them, too, even if I didn’t understand most of what they said.
It’s okay if I don’t have my beautiful teacher anymore. I can just get another one. All that matters is that I’ll be with my parents and I’ll also have friends.
But before I can say anything, a loud sound of screeching tires pierces through my ears, and the last thing I see is a large truck.
Crash!
There’s impact, there’s Mom’s scream and Dad’s curse, and then there’s…nothing.
For a while at least. I’m thinking there’s nothing.
But then our surroundings burst into my ears all at once and it hurts. There’s a long buzz that I can’t get rid of.
A mixture of sounds erupt all around me. Sirens. Shrieks. Strangers talking.
Whimpers. I think they’re mine.
Mommy…?
Daddy…?
Where are you?
I want to search for them or at least hear their voices, but they’re not among all the strangers talking. They’re just not there.