Child of a King

Chapter thirty-one - One more moment

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" Dad asked once again, eyeing my empty plate.

Placing a hand on my tummy I shook my head in decline. The result of eating so much candy indeed gave me a stomachache. The mere mention of food almost made me want to puke.

"Okay", he sighed, picking up his fork. He allowed it to dig into his portion of scrambled eggs before he paused, narrowing his eyes at his eldest son. "What about you? Why aren't you eating?"

My eyes drifted to Nate who stabbed his own fork around on his plate, pushed his breakfast around. Under the scrutinizing attention from dad, I observed him squirm in his seat as he lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "Not hungry", he muttered.

If my tummy wasn't aching so much, I might have laughed at how much my brother was struggling too. I was debating whether or not it was worth it to eat so much candy.

Dad hummed, studying both of us for an extra time for good measure before he withdrew his attention to his own plate.

"Mr. Michael, someone is on the phone for you", Arthur announced, holding out the home phone to him.

"Thank you, Arthur". Dad wiped his mouth with his napkin, bringing the phone to his ear. He exchanged some words with the person on the line, mostly speaking in Spanish as he stood up, continuing the phone call beside the window.

"Liars", Ray hissed in a whisper from behind Nate and me when dad wasn't paying attention. Timidly peeking over our shoulders, we both looked at him. "I found the candy wrapper". He held out the evidence of our cozy evening, the sight of all the packaging making my stomach do a flip.

"What do you want?" Nate bargained in a low voice, keeping watch on dad as he was occupied with whoever he was talking to on the phone.

At this Ray smirked. "I want half of your stash".

"You can't have that".

"Is that so?" He mused, lifting an eyebrow challengingly. "Guess me and Slade have to go on a little scavenger hunt tonight".

"That's not what I meant, you idiot". Nate rolled his eyes, turning fully around to face his younger brother. "You can't have half of our stash because we have eaten it all. There is nothing left".

Ray squinted his dark eyes at us, not seeming to believe what Nate was saying. "No one has an empty stash".

"We do", I mumbled, rubbing my stomach soothingly. "And if we had any more, you could happily have my share. I'm not eating candy for the next two years!"

"Oh, so that's the reason?" Dad enquired; the phone no longer pressed to his ear.

I bit my lip as no none of us had noticed he was finished with his call.

"Was it worth it?" He added, sipping his black coffee.

We had such a good time last night and it was super cozy inside the fort. I might have a stomach ache now, but I will do it again.

"Yes". I smiled sweetly at him.

"Good", he grinned, proceeding to eat his breakfast. "Seems like I must up my game in the Cifuentes candy war if you have been eating sweets without me noticing".

Giggling, I sipped some water. Even orange juice was too sweet for me today.

"Ray, what's that you're holding?" Slade questioned as he, Marc and Embry entered the dining room, all sweating from their morning workout.

"What I thought would give me half of their candy stash, but the little morons ate it all". Rolling his eyes in annoyance, he laid our trash on the table before he sat down in his seat.