I MISS THEM, MUMMA BEAR

GABRIEL

"Yes, Adam! Daddy will be home early today. What do you want daddy to bring for you? Chocolates? Ice cream? Toys?"

I sighed, hearing his reply from the other side on a call.

"Adam! You have a cold. Didn't your doctor uncle told you to rest at home?! I will tell Bria that you miss her, okay? But you cannot meet her right now or King might get upset!"

The silence that fell on my ears, confirmed that my trick worked. Even Adam knew better than upsetting King.

I laughed heartily. "Okay. Bye!"

I cut the call, and when I looked up, I saw Bria in front of the TV and a bowl of butter popcorns in her lap. But she looked distracted.

I went to sit beside her and tried to cheer up her mood, but it didn't work as I expected.

"Butterfly, what's wrong?"

Watching her sad like that didn't sit well with me. And the way our friendship was blooming after the accident with Adam, I couldn't help but feel like helping her.

She looked at me with teary eyes, and I felt alarmed. Before I opened my mouth, she said in a thick voice.

"I miss them, Mumma bear! I want to hear their shouting, I want to listen to Benji's unstoppable lectures about being a responsible adult. I want to hug them all and laugh with them.

I want Benji to hold me and tell me how proud he and my parents are of me. I want their pampering, I want them to rant their demands and nonsense questions. I-I want my life back!" Her voice broke in the end.

My heart sank, seeing her hurting like that but the only thing I could do for her was just be there with her and listen to her. I wrapped my hand around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She placed her head on my chest and sobbed.

"I know you don't like how things are working and honestly I think you don't deserve all this. You are a good person, butterfly! You deserve the best in life." I finally confessed.

"But that's not how it's working. I am sorry that this is happening to you but it's not in my hands to change the things. I know, I or anyone here can never fill your family's place but I promise I will take care of you as much as I can! My shoulder is always there for you to lean on even though I am not good with dealing emotional things. Nora is here if you want someone to talk." I suggested.

She pulled away and gulped. "Why can't you help me get out of here?"

I sighed and started stroking her hair to calm her. "I have told you that it's not in our hand. I can't help you to get out of here, no one can! Even if you succeed in escaping, there is no place on this earth where you can hide.

You don't know how powerful is King! He will haunt you down before you know it. It's useless, so stop thinking about it. I know I am sounding like a jerk, but that's the truth, butterfly. I don't want you to get into any more trouble so, please just do whatever he orders you to do. That's the only way to keep your family safe." She needed to face the mirror of reality.

"Then tell him to kill me already. I will sign the papers of the property. You make sure that he will look after my family. Tell him to finish everything once and for all." She bellowed.

Bria had hit the right spot. I was actually thinking about it lately.

"No offence, but now that I think about it, it's weird that he is keeping you alive and taking the hard way to take care of your family. I don't know the reason but I know that there must be one behind his actions. King never do anything without reason!"

Soon I realised that I shouldn't have said that aloud, at least not in front of her. She got mad at me, and it took me a lot of effort to calm her.

"Look, butterfly. I can't explain everything because it's not my place to say anything. He does what he has to do. He has to control the strongest mafia group in the world. He has to prove that he is worthy of the title of the world's most feared and dangerous man. He is that way because.... he has been through many things in the past. He was not like this before." My eyes widened in the realisation of what I blurted out.

And the smart brain of hers picked on those particular words. Bria began nagging me to know what I meant by he was not like that before.

And when I refused to answer, she threatened me to spill the beans in front of King. I thought she was just kidding, but when she stood up and took a step towards King's office, I panicked.

I held her elbow and twirled her around to face me.

"Don't you dare!" I warned her. But the vixen had something else planned for me.

She hugged me, and I tensed at her sudden action. But it was just an act.

"Watch your words Mumma-bear, the cameras are watching us. Let's have a deal. I will not say a word to anyone about our conversation and in return you let me contact my family." She whispered in my ear while resting her chin on my shoulder.

"What?" I almost screamed in shock.

"Are you crazy? I am not going to do such a thing." I hissed.

"You don't have a choice here. You have to help me, Mumma bear. Please!" She begged.

"But-"

"Please Gabriel. You owe it to me for saving Adam!"

And that was when I knew I was in deep shit!

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CAMERON

I got ready for the day, and after checking myself in the mirror for one last time, I stepped out of my room and headed straight to the kitchen. I was hungry, and the smell of food that Nora had prepared made my mouth water.

I was climbing down the stairs when I saw King heading towards the kitchen too. But then I heard loud noises coming from the kitchen.

And there was only one person who had that liberty of creating chaos in this house. Fire!

Who she was scolding by the way when I hadn't met her since the morning?

"You are taking her side? You don't know what she has done to me, to my family. She is not my mother, never was and never will be. You know nothing. So keep that little mouth of yours shut or I know how to make it. Don't bother me again bitch."

Kyle? what the fuck had he done now?

If he has hurt his mother again, then I am going to distort his shape today! I thought in my mind.

Yes!

Kyle was Nora's only son and an ungrateful pig! The poor woman longed for his love all these years, but he was still angry at her and refused to move on from the past.

But what was Fire doing there?

I followed King into the kitchen, and as soon as we reached there, I saw Kyle pushing Fire hard on the ground. But she yelled in pain when her head hit hard against the corner of the table.

Though I imagined her yelling in pain for hundred times a day, I didn't approve of Kyle's action.

Before I could recover from that shock, I heard, Kyle's scream filled with agony. King held that idiot by his collar and was about to land another punch on his face when Nora ran to him as usual.

"King... please, don't hurt him. Please, forgive him for this time." She cried, pleading.

But King didn't look like he would listen to her this time. So I had to dare and step up to place my hand on his tensed shoulders.

Luckily, he let go of Kyle but not before the warning.

"Listen and listen carefully, Kyle. I won't repeat it again. Don't. Ever. Do. This. Again." King gritted his teeth and told in a deadly voice that even I felt shivers running down my spine.

"I-I am sorry King. I won't repeat this mistake again. I p-promise." Kyle stuttered in fright.

He should have thought about it before committing such stupidity!

"Apologise!" King's voice boomed in the kitchen, and I could only step away from him.

I didn't want to be the poor sheep and take his wrath on me for something that I had not done!

"I-I am s-sorry, m-mother." Kyle sounded anything but apologetic, but the poor woman looked satisfied with only that.

Nora and her blind love for her douchebag son!

"Now to Miss Maxwell."

My head snapped in King's way at a lightning speed, that I thought I would have broken my neck.

What did he just say?

"I am sorry," Kyle said, looking at Fire with distaste.

"Get out from here, Kyle." I gave him a chance to escape, and he ran out of the kitchen without wasting another moment. Nora chased after him, but we all knew it was only a futile effort.

King looked pissed and turned to leave when Bria forced herself to stand up and called after him.

"Wait! I- um"

And King stopped!

Was I hallucinating or something?

He turned to face her with a straight face.

"Thank you... for ... um- everything. Though I don't support violence, I enjoyed watching him cry in pain. The asshole deserved it anyway." She offered him a genuine smile.

King didn't say anything. He just stood there looking in her way.

Was there something between the two that only I could feel but couldn't see? Something invisible? Because all of a sudden, I felt like an intruder in something personal between them.

To cut that invisible thing between them, I opened my mouth.

"You are hurt. Though I would like to watch you cry in pain, I don't want the bloodstains on the white marble floor or this expensive furniture. Go treat it well."

"Camera... why can't you shut your mouth-" Before she gave me a snarky comeback, she lost her consciousness and was about to fall to the ground, but fate had another surprise for me up her sleeves.

King ran to catch her before she hit the ground, and I could only stand there watching him with my mouth agape!