In My Life I Love You More

Chapter Forty-Seven

Unedited.

When they returned to their hotel suite at the Plaza, Emilia was waiting up for them, watching television. She got up to greet them with a smile, that fell once she caught sight of her youngest child, with her mascara running down her cheeks.

"What happened!" She cupped Josephina's face and the latter broke down again, crying into her mother's blouse.

Supporting her daughter, Emilia looked at John questioning and he sighed, shaking his head as he shrugged off his coat.

"She got hit with the shitty truth." Was all he said before walking past the two and over to the drink cart.

Once Emilia managed to get her daughter to take a shower and change into her night gown, Josephina sat on the king size bed legs crossed as her mother brushed her hair.

"I don't even know where to begin picking up the pieces of my life......." Josephina's spoke and Emilia paused in stroking her hair.

Josephina turned, looking into her mother's eyes, "He was my everything at one point." She touched her heart, only to be taken aback by her mother's scowl.

"God, is your everything. Don't you know he's a jealous God! He don't want no man before him." She narrowed her gaze as she resumed brushing her daughter's waist length hair but paused, setting down the brush.

"I was thirty two years old when I had you. Not even two years after I had your sister. I always dreamed I'd have daughters and there you were, my sweet innocent bundle of joy," she touched Josephina's cheek, the latter smiling slightly, "I knew how hurtful this world could be, and I think I tried to shield you and your sister way too much." She pursed her lips and Josephina smile fell and she looked down at her hands, "But you're a married woman now, with a child of your own. I can't protect you from the dangers of this world anymore, as much as I would like to. You have to stand on your own two feet."

"Oh no, Ma, I'm not strong like you." Josephina shook her head in denial only for Emilia to take her hand.

"Sure you can. You've got the strength God gave all women, to survive! You tapped into it once, when you were in working in that horrible club, you've just forgotten how to tap into it." Emilia stated and Josephina bit her lip, contemplating her mother's words.

"What's worse though Ma, is that I let John see me like this......" She get a fresh wave of tears up in her eyes but her mother was quick to stop them.

"Now you stop that crying. Self pity gets us nowhere. John loves you, if he didn't he wouldn't have stuck by you all this time. Neither would he have hired a private investor. He did that for you, mi amore. Because if I know anything, it's that man would move heaven and earth for you."

The next morning, Josephina laid curled up in bed, even to the point where John had long gotten up and she could hear him and her mother conversing in the dinning area for breakfast.

She forced herself out of bed and into the bathroom, splashing water on her face and tying the white bathrobe as she shuffled out of the bedroom with zombie-like movements.

She found her mother and John, both smoking cigarettes, chatting over something mindless, both pausing once she made her presence known. Her mother offered her a warm smile as John stood to pull out her chair, kissing her forehead as she sat down, Grayson in a high chair next to her and she leaned over to kiss his plump cheek.

"So, what's going on in the land of the living?" she asked dryly and her mother put down her smoke, stubbing it out.

"The movers are setting up your apartments today, I thought I'd go do a little shopping, take Grayson to the park afterwards just in time for a late lunch. Do you want to come with me sweetheart?" Emilia asked kindly and Josephina took the coffee pot, pouring herself a generous cup.