Peppermint Omega

26

Lucian moved too quickly. It scared me. He grabbed me and shook me until I looked at him. I could barely focus on what he was trying to say. I begged over and over again, 'Please don't take my baby.. Don't take my baby away from me.. Please don't take her away from me..'

Over and over, I begged as I cried and clutched the front of his t-shirt, until my legs gave out and I slid to the floor, sliding down his still standing body. 'Please.. Please.. Don't take her..'

He squatted beside me, grabbing me by the shoulders to make me face him. My face red and ugly from crying. My vision was blurry. It was hard to focus. 'Is that why you were at the center?'

I nodded, sobbing.

'Who was she? Which one, Quinton?' His voice was urgent and had undertones of anger.

'E-estrella Mar-kus,' I muttered, thinking lying to him further would result in more trouble. His eyes widened at the realization. He had seen her. Feeling that she was familiar.. not that she was his child..

I felt him move and grasped his shirt again. 'What are you going to do?'

'Get up,' he ordered coldly. 'You will take me to her.'

My heart broke, and I sobbed harder, releasing my hands from him.

While he drove to Dim Sum Dim Nut-tin, it was totally silent. He never even looked my way. I cried the entire way silently, trying my hardest to hold it in. Trying to clear it up before I saw Moonie. She's never seen me actually sad, only crying at Disney - those were usually happy tears, except when Beast nearly dies, but that is another story.

'Here?' His voice was so cold. I understood, really I did. He needed to understand why I did what I did..

I nodded, not trusting my voice. Yeye was already poking his head through the blinds of the upstairs apartment. I got out of the car first with my head hung low and started to walk toward the back of the restaurant. The car door slammed. Heavy footsteps followed me as we got closer to a heavy metal gate.

There was a keypad next to the gate. After pressing in the code, we watched the metal gate slide back. It exposed a good sized patch of green space. The old restaurant used to a small cluster of apartments. Uncle lived above the restaurant. Kim and her family lived across from the resturant. They all shared the courtyard and ran the restaurant.

Moonie was already outside with her little cousin, Enzo. She was kicking around a soccer ball. The old man came out to stand on the balcony, overlooking us. He saw something wasn't right and started to make his way down. There was a loud clang of the metal gate closing itself, enclosing us in the small space. Little Enzo was chasing Moonie around on legs that were too short to keep up, but that didn't stop him from trying. I couldn't look her in the eye and kept my head down.

'MAMA!!' she squealed when she saw me and ran up to me when while she was giggling, little Enzo following her.

I moved down to my knees in front of her and hugged her tightly like I was never going to see her again.

'Mama!' she giggled again, trying to hug me back, but I had her arms pinned down in my hug. 'I can't breathe.'

I sniffed. 'I'm sorry, Moonie. I just love you so much.' I squeezed her again before I let her go.

She eyed the person behind me. Before she could say anything about him, Enzo announced, 'Aunny cry.. Moon, aunny cried!'

I used the sleeve of my jacket to wipe my face. 'N--'

Mooncake took it upon herself to enact justice and stood before her father and squarely kicked him in the shin.

'ESTRELLA LUCIANNA MARKUS!' I shouted at the angry little girl, while moving over to Lucian to check on him. He looked up at me with a mixture of emotions, none of which were anger.