Life Support {ManxBoy} | Mature Content

Chapter 08

Chapter Eight:

He stared down at her as she inspected the ring on his hand, they sat quietly in the living room his right hand tightly gripped between both of her smaller ones as if she thought the moment she let go he would disappear. It didn't bother him, if anything it made him happier than he'd ever been. It felt like suddenly he could forget all his selfish reasoning for adopting this child.

"So, what's your name?" She stared up at him and Cyro could tell her eyes were slightly lighter than her father's but her hair was just as dark. The only difference between them was their skin, color she was a bit more tan than Vance was but other than that she seemed to be a mirror image.

"My name is Cyro." He replied his eyes momentarily dipping to the ring she had been staring at just moments ago. He'd hardly gotten time to look at it, Vance had asked him to pick out a ring after they had settled all of his things into what was now their apartment just yesterday but Cyro had been quickly overwhelmed by all of the choices in the store. Originally he had decided that he'd just get a plain band as picking out a proper ring was too hard but Vance had decided otherwise.

The ring was a vintage blue topaz ring set, meaning it was two rings locked together to look like one. The jeweler had said something about it being set in fourteen karat white gold with sixteen or so blue topaz stones accenting the diamond in the middle but Cyro hadn't been paying attention. He'd been too confused by the amount of flashy stones on the ring, he had wanted to argue with Vance but he was not the easiest person to argue with. In the end all Cyro was able to do was convince Vance to get a band with the same color stones along the middle.

"My name's Maxine! Can I call you CiCi?" She squeezed his hand excitedly as he nodded smiling as she began to ramble on about all the important things she thought he should know. "I'm ten and my favorite color is orange, I really love painting but I'm bad with crayons, they just always go the wrong way, I've always wanted a pet cat but Mom said I wasn't allowed to have one because I'm not responsible, I think she just doesn't like cats but I never asked because I didn't see her much, I hope I'll get to see you a lot CiCi I really think we'll get along, we can be best friends, I don't have a lot of friends at my school most people think I'm weird-"

"Because you're damn evil." Cyro saw Maxine face change quicker than he thought possible, her smile dropped as she gritted her teeth in annoyance, her eyes dimmed to a tiredness no one only ten years old should be able to possess. Cyro gaze shifted towards the voice finding a woman standing practically right in front of them, her nails sinking into the arm of the couch Maxine and he were currently sitting in as she stared daggers into Maxine, who seemed to refuse to look at the woman in return.

The woman in front of him was about his height, maybe a few inches taller, she was just a bit thicker than he was too. Her hair pulled back in a tight bun away from her round face, Cyro could see her cold glare fully. He could barely see a resemblance between this woman and Maxine, though quite frankly Cyro found she looked a lot more like Vance. Maxine's hair was slightly darker brown than the woman before him but they had a similar tanned skin tone. Other than that Maxine looked like Vance, her dark eyes and her facial features all reminded Cyro of Vance.

"Shut the fuck up Renee. I don't know why you even came inside." Vance sighed walking into the room, an e-cigarette between his lips. He was carrying a few boxes all labeled with 'Maxine' in large sharpied letters. For a moment Vance and the woman stared at each other, seemingly have a silent battle before he turned to walk away talking over his shoulder at her as he went. "She's not your problem anymore and this is all her stuff so just fuck off."

The words took a moment to sink in and when they did Cyro could feel his heart lurch in his chest. This woman had to be Maxine's mother, Vance's words to her didn't make sense otherwise. It amazed and disappointed Cyro that any woman could speak that way about her child. He wanted to tell this woman how ashamed she should be of herself but he couldn't find the words.

"She may seem sweet now but give her some time to show her true colors she's nothing but a pain in the ass." Renee sighed looking at Cyro, she shook her head in pity. "I really just wanted to see the poor fuck who got tricked into this. I feel bad for you letting him con you into this, but don't worry I get it, he's slick with words like that. How do you think I ended up with that mistake."

"Don't call another human being a mistake!" Cyro gasped, subconsciously clasping his hands over Maxine's ears pulling her into a protective hug as he finally found his voice. He sighed suddenly exasperated by this woman, he'd barely known her less than ten minutes and she was far more exhausting than he could ever imagine anyone could be. "How can a mother talk so badly about her own child, didn't she come from you? How can you be so cruel towards someone you brought into this world?"

"Hah! That's hilarious, Vance really found himself quite the homemaker, huh? Little Stepford wife aren't you? You don't know anything, you're just some convenient hole he shoving it in right now and you just happened to get the unlucky bonus of having to look after his little bastard cause I refuse to do it anymore. Trust me you're nothing! And when he's bored of you and you've served your purpose you'll see that."

The grin on her face was something twisted beyond normal emotions. It almost made Cyro want to ask what she meant but he decided better, hopefully he would be able to ask Vance later. At least that way he wouldn't have to deal with this woman's condescending manner and unbearable hatred in her voice. Finally pulling his gaze away from the woman he looked back at Maxine pulling her back to look at him but her eyes stayed downward, just staring off as if she were lost in thought.

It was a while before Vance came back into the living room, Cyro watched him hand the woman a large envelope before saying something about not ever wanting to hear from her again and shoving her toward the door. As the door closed behind her a breath Cyro didn't realize he'd been holding flooded from his body, he watched as Vance locked the door before moving towards them.

"Hey, princess." Vance smiled kneeling down on the floor in front of Maxine. His voice gentler than Cyro had thought possible for him. Cyro wasn't sure what kind of father he'd pictured Vance as, in all honesty he wasn't sure he'd been able to picture him as a father at all but as Maxine slowly moved off the couch to hug him. Watching Cyro couldn't help but hope he was wrong.