My Son and His Wife Took Their Son on a $20K Cruise, Leaving Their Daughter Home — By Noon, I Was Standing at Their Table

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Chapter 34

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Leo didn’t say a word. He just stepped inside and slipped past me. He moved with a stealth I didn’t know he possessed. He went straight to the corner of the room furthest from the door and sat down. I locked the door again. I put the chair back. I turned to look at him. Leo was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chin.

He was rocking back and forth slightly. Leo, I said softly. What are you doing here, son? He looked up. His face was streaked with tears. His lower lip was bleeding where he had chewed it raw. ‘Mom is throwing things,’ he whispered. She threw the lamp. She threw the ice bucket. She said it is all my fault because I opened my big mouth in the restaurant.

She said I am a traitor. She said she is going to send me to military school when we get back. I felt a surge of anger so hot it almost burned my throat. Monica was taking her humiliation out on a 10-year-old boy. She was punishing him for having the moral compass she lacked. ‘You are not a traitor, Leo,’ I said, walking over to him.

‘You are the bravest person on this ship.’ Leo shook his head violently. ‘No, I am not. I am a liar. I am just like them.’ He looked across the room at Mia. Mia was watching him wearily hugging her teddy bear. The distance between them on the carpet was only 5 ft, but it felt like an ocean.

They had been raised in the same house, but in two different worlds. Leo, the prince and Mia the servant. Leo took a deep breath. He reached into his pajama pocket. He pulled out something small and wrapped in a napkin. He held it out to Mia. I saved this for you, he said. From dinner before grandpa came.

Mia hesitated. She looked at me. I nodded. She crawled forward and took the napkin. She opened it. Inside was a chocolate truffle. It was slightly melted from the heat of Leo’s pocket, but to Mia, it looked like a diamond. ‘Why didn’t you wake me up, Leo?’ Mia asked. Her voice was not angry, just sad.

That night, why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? This was the question. The question that had been hanging over us for 48 hours. Leo looked down at his hands. He began to pick at his cuticles, tearing the skin. ‘Mom told me that if I woke you up, we couldn’t go,’ he said, his voice shaking.

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