17. When they reached the lions, Kai stood in the back right next to Hunter. Hunter was taller, but Kai was older by a few months. The same mother from before spoke to the kids.
18. “Since Ivan’s favorite animal is lions, I got us a surprise! We get to go on a walking tour called ‘Walking with the Lions’. It means we will be face-to-face with these adorable little cubs! And the parent lions, too! The next show is in a few minutes, so everyone must stay in this area!”. Kai wanted to strangle her before, but he felt like he was going to now. Thanks to her, now I get more trauma! I really wish Anna would take care of Malia like I do instead of helping herself, Kai thought. Anna was his stepmother who looked very, very young. He didn’t like her. Her cheap perfume was heavily sprayed all the time, and it mixed awfully with his father’s cigarettes. She always tried to put Kai with different girls in his classes, which led to Kai getting into fights. He figured that his stepmother wouldn’t last long - they never did. The longest one stayed for nine months, but she was so nice, her name was Angel - probably because her parents knew her soul. She wore a heart-shaped demisexual pin oh her jacket with pride, and Kai respected that. She was the closest thing Kai had to a mother since his real one passed. But…nobody could ever be her; Kai knew. Her perfume smelled like hibiscus and pineapple. Her laughter could brighten a room. Kai knew for a fact she wouldn’t be coming back, but the shrine in his bedroom helped. It held a small canvas of hibiscus flowers, a miniature pineapple paperweight, a real hibiscus in a cup of water that was near the same lake his mother was last on before her passing, and a photo of her. The day she died, he was devastated. All his dad did was tell him to shut up and go to bed. But he remembered the night before clearly:
19. It was late, and him and his parents were eating steak with a few guests. His sister, who was two at the time, was in bed already. Mason sat at the head of the table, his wife to the right. Kai sat across from his mother, failing to cut his own steak. His mother took it from him and began to cut it for him. His father shot him a glare, but neither he nor his mother noticed at the time. When she gave the plate back to him, he started eating. His father stared at the people at the end of the table, his elbows resting on the table as his hands were clasped in front of his mouth. The people on the far end looked nervous but tried to hide it. After a few minutes, he heard a small stamp on the ground. He dropped his napkin, and when he went to pick it up off the floor, he saw his father’s leg brushing against his mother’s. She moved her leg from where it was to right in front of her, and his father’s foot went back to its original position. When he sat upright again, the smirk on his father’s face had turned into a scowl, no doubt aimed at his mother. His father told Kai to leave the room, not even giving Kai an option to protest that he had barely eaten. He shut the door softly behind him, leaving it open enough to see what would happen next (a decision he still regretted to this day). When the other men left, he saw his father get up from his chair and slap his mother. Mason yelled at her for not giving him full control over her, something that he felt he deserved as husband. After he had shoved her to the floor, she hit her head on the chair and fell unconscious. Kai and his father made eye contact through the door, and Kai ran to his room, but no one went after him that night. Kai knew one thing from that night going forward: His father would do anything to get what he wanted.
