Mona exercised her arm to exert dominance. Slapping the man earlier granted her a boost of confidence. Thaddeus smiled. He nodded as he tried to hold his laughter back. “Yes, madam.” “Sleep!” Mona covered her mouth and yawned. Then, she returned to the bed, crashed onto her pillow, and fell asleep. Thaddeus could hear her breathing calming down. Through the moon’s brilliance, he looked at the woman’s back, and a strange feeling aroused in his heart. If he could stop time, this would be the perfect moment for him to do so. He could watch her sleep, accompany her, and protect her without her resistance. The moon shed its brilliance into his eyes, adding a glint of glimmer to that deep gaze. She was the only woman for him, and he swore never to hurt her again. …The alarm clock rang at 7 am sharp. Mona instinctively reached out to turn the alarm off but instead touched something that felt like human skin. She opened her eyes. To her surprise, she and Thaddeus were h
Millie tilted her head, seemingly confused. “Then, what is bias?” Mona freed herself from Thaddeus’ embrace and took the comb and scrunchies away from him. “You’d better explain it properly,” she said. The girl was at the most curious stage in her life. The urge to know more was at its strongest. She opened her eyes every day and tried to answer every question that popped into her mind. Thaddeus patted the girl’s head affectionately. He explained patiently, “Bias means that Daddy only loves Mommy and will only think about her, not anyone else.” Mona’s eyes flickered. She glanced at Thaddeus and found it difficult to believe what he said. After braiding the girl’s hair, Mona carried the girl off the bed and went into the bathroom. The father and daughter conversation continued outside. Mona started up her electric toothbrush and listened to the girl’s meek voice outside the bathroom door. “Daddy, what is pamper?” Thaddeus pondered. He answered, “Pamper is the way I l
Mona patted Bobby’s head and intentionally avoided the question. Bobby looked annoyed. He tidied his hair that his mother had tousled, and grumbled, “Mommy, you messed up my hair!” Mona squinted. She looked at her son’s gelled hair and his handsome jacket. He looked like a tiny fashion model, which surprised her. Knowing something was off, she asked, “You’ve been looking strange lately. Since when do you care so much about your looks?” Bobby shoved two pieces of bread into his mouth, causing his cheeks to puff up. There was a dash of embarrassment on his expression. He answered vaguely, “Nothing in particular. I just want to change my usual image.” He then concentrated on eating his sandwich. Mona did not delve into the question as she knew the boy would not answer her. Pressing on the topic would only annoy him, so it was important to not startle him now. Thaddeus then came down with Millie to have breakfast. Seeing that Bobby had completed his tasks, he patted the boy
Mona recollected her thoughts. She went back to the table to clean up. A while later, the helper came to clean the house. Mona then prepared to leave for the hospital to visit Grandpa Gray. Right before she left, the helper came running with a piece of paper in her hand. “Madam, you have a note in your pants pocket. There’s something written on it. Is it important?” Mona took it. The piece of note had an address of a hospital on it. She had gotten this note from the mysterious man who claimed to be her father’s old friend. He wanted her to search for her mother at this particular hospital in case she found something. “Oh, thank you. I’ll take that.” Mona took the note and stuffed it into her purse before she left the house. She hesitated whether to go or not as she walked out, but when she arrived at the front gate, she decided to go and have a look since there was nothing to lose. She got into a taxi and told the driver the address of the hospital. The taxi brought
Jennifer sized Mona up from top to bottom with a frosty gaze. “That’s my question to you. This rehabilitation center is part of our family’s business. Why would it be strange for me to be here? You, on the other hand, are hiding behind the tree, looking all suspicious. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought you are up to no good here.” Mona was left speechless. “Mrs. Fontaine, the rehabilitation center is part of your family business but this land isn’t. Can’t I be here? I’m not doing anything wrong, and I’m here out in the open. You accusing me of doing something bad is slander.” Enraged, Jennifer’s expression turned bitter. She yelled, “Oh? Look at you now, talking back to me. What? Do you think that those two kids of yours with Thaddeus are your leverage against us? Are you trying to get back into the family?” Mona grinned coldly as if she was listening to a joke. "Mrs. Fontaine, you don't think I'm still in love with your son and want to use him for revenge, do you
Thaddeus drove the kids to kindergarten. Since he had accepted the task from Mona earlier, he had been paying close attention to Bobby along the way. Now that Mona had mentioned it to him, he also noticed that Bobby was acting differently than usual. Bobby usually wore casual and sporty outfits. He liked white shirts and jeans or just plain uniforms. Today, he wore a biker jacket and even gelled his hair, unlike how he usually dressed. Thaddeus tried calling him, but there was not much response. He peeked into the rearview mirror and saw the boy looking outside the window with his chin propped on his hand. The boy’s thoughts seemed to have drifted out of the window. “Bobby, Daddy is calling you,” Millie said and tapped on Bobby’s shoulder. “Bobby, you keep gazing out lately. What is that head of yours thinking?” Even Millie noticed Bobby’s unusual behavior lately, and alarms rang in Thaddeus’ heart. Bobby recollected his thoughts and looked at Thaddeus calmly. “What i
The girl, who was chewing on a piece of bubble gum, had pretty cool short hair. Noticing that Bobby was looking at her, she rolled her eyes and gave him the finger. Bobby averted his gaze and picked up a coloring pen to draw with pursed lips. Only Thaddeus took notice of the blush across his son’s cheeks. The moment outside gave Thaddeus all he needed to know. Turning on his heel, the man took long strides to the faculty office. Thaddeus got to know about how the kids had been doing in school lately and even filled the teacher out on the situation surrounding the girl. The girl was Megan Moore. Her parents had been killed in a traffic accident when she was one, and Megan had stayed with her maternal grandparents ever since. Her grandparents were in their advanced years and were out of touch with reality, so their idea of raising children was pretty backward, which contributed to Megan being withdrawn and rebellious. Nevertheless, it was hard enough for these senior citizens to
Thaddeus observed his son righteously taking full responsibility. For Bobby to have such cognition and accountability at his age, the boy showed the grace Thaddeus had once demonstrated in his younger years. “Alright. We’ll go with your idea. But I need to make one thing clear though: I’ll be the first to beat you up if you make Mommy sad.” Thaddeus caressed his son’s head.“Okay. Got it.” Furrowing his brows, Bobby took a glance at Thaddeus and mumbled under his breath, “Jesus, we all know you love your wife the most.” With his son grumbling, Thaddeus pulled on the boy’s ear. “What are you doing there, mumbling to yourself?” “Uh, nothing. I should get back to class, Daddy.” Bobby jumped off Thaddeus’ lap and waved his arm. Thaddeus put on a straight face and educated his son, “Go on. Although it’s good to help out a classmate, you can’t let it get in the way of your business. Got it?” “Yes.” Bobby turned to the side and looked in the direction of the schoolyard. The other