Kim Kardashian: #BreakTheGame (COMPLETE)

Chapter 03: A Heart Worth Mining

Kim was hanging out with her daughter North, coloring and drawing and enjoying a quiet hour of mommy-daughter time. There were sitting at the polished teak table that Kanye had designed himself for Nori's gracious and well-appointed playroom. Frozen was playing for the 11 millionth time in a row on the TV in the background. The girl really freaking loved Frozen.

At one point when North seemed wholly engaged in coloring her picture of Anna, Kim had tried to quietly change the channel. North had noticed immediately, smacking her hand down on the table and staring coldly up at her mother. 

"Mommy. Frozen."

"OK, OK, fine," Kim said. "Let it go already. That was a joke, do you get it? Mommy's funny." Satisfied that Frozen was back on, North went back to drawing and Kim rubbed her daughter's back soothingly for a moment. She was so thankful for this time they had together, even if she never wanted to hear 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?' ever, ever again. 

It had been just a couple of months since Paris Hilton had cast a spell on Kim, trapping her inside her own game. Weeks had passed inside the game, as Kim learned new powers and leveled them up, took on missions, overcame challenges, and battled demons, before finally defeating her enemies and finding her way back home. 

When she returned, Kim had hoped to find that despite all her time away only moments or hours had passed in the real world. This is how it always worked in books. No matter how long you were away, it didn't disrupt your original life. But nope. Weeks had passed in the real world too, and everything was a disaster when she returned.

Kim had lost millions of followers with her Twitter and Instagram going un-updated for so long. Kanye was a wreck, almost a shadow of his former self, having all but torn himself apart with worry.

But worst of all, North barely even recognized Kim when she returned. Kim had only wanted to hold and snuggle her daughter for hours on end, wanted to cling to her and never let her go. But North screamed and cried and wrestled herself out of Kim's arms, refusing to allow herself to be held. She would run across the room and eye her mother suspiciously, as though blaming her for taking off and leaving her. 

In some ways, coming home had turned out to be worse for Kim than being away. 

But now finally, after a few weeks of routine, Nori had warmed back up, and things had returned to normal. Well, things were never "normal" for the Kardashians, but at least they weren't more insane than usual. Kanye was back to his former self, full of energy and enthusiasm about his new fashion line. North was perfectly content to hang out and color with her mother. And Kim was busily preparing for the launch of her new book, Selfish. In some ways it was the culmination of her life's work--a book of spells cast merely via the replication of her own image. She was sure it was going to be a huge hit. 

North turned her paper to color at a different angle. The corner nudged one of the crayons, causing it to fall off the table, plunk down onto the floor, and roll away. 

North paused in her coloring to note where the crayon had stopped, but made no motion to get up and retrieve it. Instead, she looked down at the pile of fluff that was asleep at her feet. Her dog, Wagston Irwin. She stared at him for a moment, and then went back to coloring.

Wagston then yawned and stretched and stood up. He padded over to where the crayon was, picked it up in his mouth, then clambered up to Nori's lap to deliver the crayon back to her. His eyes were barely visible behind the floppy layer of fur that hung down in front of them.

North took the crayon from Wagston's mouth and said, simply, "Doggy." She placed the crayon back on the table and went back to her picture. Wagston hunkered back down by her feet, closed his eyes and sighed.