His Queen (18+)

Chapter III

THE CLEAN-UP

I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to save me.

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CHAPTER III

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THE WEEK HAD dragged on, but I couldn't help but wish it dragged on for longer as I sat in the same white Cadillac again in front of the same house I had visited a week ago.

She never gave me a day or time to come back, so I just decided to visit at the same time as last. This time, instead of being alone, I had Mateo waiting in the back of the car as I parked. He played with his green, stuffed alien and remained peacefully unaware of the fact that I was a hair's breadth away from freaking out in front of him.

I stared at the house in front of us, feeling dread creep up my spine. I didn't know why, but I was beginning to expect the worst.

I had never fantasised about meeting my dad because I could never remember him, but now I wanted to see him more than ever. A part of me was already preparing damage control in case I didn't end up seeing because it was like the more I wanted something, the higher the chances of it going wrong got.

And it was annoying.

With a sigh, I cut my rambling thoughts off and focused on getting up to the house instead. After slamming the car door shut behind, I walked back to Mateo's side and opened the door, taking him out of his car seat. I picked up his stuffed toy and threw it to the back of the car.

After closing and locking the doors, I made my way up the cracked pavement towards her front door. Learning from last time, I didn't bother with the doorbell and instead went straight to knocking my fist on the hard wood. Instead of alerting the homeowner of my want to enter, the door instead pushed open at the force of my fists, revealing to me my mother's unprotected house.

Warning bells began to go off in my head because who would leave their door unlocked in a neighbourhood like this? I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind and instead held Mateo close to me as he continued to remain oblivious of our situation.

I carefully stepped into the house, taking immediate note of the icy temperature inside even though it was burning up outside. An eerie silence surrounded the both of us and Mateo seemed to have taken notice of it because he clutched onto the sleeve of my shirt with one small hand and sucked harder on his pacifier.

I had half the mind to put him back in the car, but I didn't want to leave him alone and unattended in a place like this.

God, why did I even bring him?

I just wanted to know if seeing him in real life would make her more serious about it, but now it didn't matter anymore.

“Mom?” I called, peering into the kitchen and sitting room but seeing no sign of her. There was no shuffling in the house, not the slightest of sounds to let me know that someone lived there.

I carried on through, looking into the rooms I passed for any sign of my mother but coming up empty each time. There was one room left on the far end of the hall and this one was different from the others because the door was left wide open, giving me full, unprohibited view of it.

On the furthest wall from me in the room was a cork board and pinned to cork board were different pictures and articles of paper.

I could see that the room was most likely the master bedroom that still hadn't been set up and decorated yet. Maybe she had just run out to the store, but left the door open for me so I could wait for her.