Twelve months later..
Katherine's POV
A strong cry coming from down the hall is what wakes me up for the first time in the night. Heaving a sigh, I get to my feet and scurry down the hall as quickly as my worn down body will allow me and stop in front of my son's crib. He stirs in his crib, the glow of his nightlight illuminating his face and showing his distress while he wails. I instinctively reach out for him and scoop him up into my arms, tucking him into an awkward cradle.
"Shh, baby boy.. Mama is here." I coo, swaying back and forth and rocking him in my arms in an attempt to sooth him. When his cries don't start to die down, I check him for any sign that he may need a change and come up with nothing. I sigh, bouncing up and down on my heels and struggling to hear myself think over his loud screeching cries. "What the hell is it this time?" I hear Lucas growl from the doorway with the distaste clearly audible in his tone. If I don't sooth my son soon then this will end very badly.
"I think he's just hungry." I reply, casting a sideways glance over my shoulder at my husband, his glare is focused on Rory this time and my heart sinks into my stomach in fear from his foul mood. What my husband still fails to realize is that children are needy in this period of their lives and can't care for themselves. "Give him here." He grunts, making a cradle with his arms but I hesitate, not wanting to entrust a twelve month old to him in the mood that he's in.
Lucas has been struggling with being a father since we brought Rory home from the hospital, complaining on almost every occasion that Rory cried from needing a change and or feeding. I've already been reprimanded at least three times since Rory turned three months and the last punishment nearly put me in the hospital a couple months back, the cause was my talking on the phone with my mother about a visit sometime in the following months. Lucas walked in on the conversation and I haven't dared try to communicate with my parents since, leaving the tension building between him and myself.
It's like I need to pacify two children and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't getting to me. When I hug the baby against my chest, his glare turns on me and I recoil on yet another instinct. "I-I got him. Don't worry." I mumble, slipping past Lucas and heading for the kitchen from the bedroom. He doesn't make any further attempt at swiping the baby, much to my relief.
I rifle through the drawers of the fridge in search of some of my bottled breast milk and exhaling a breath of relief when I find one. Shifting a still crying Rory onto my hip to free up my arm, I pick up the bottle and take it to the microwave to heat it up. It's warm enough within a matter of minutes and I check the nipple for clogging with urgency. Finding that it's clear, I coax the nipple between my son's lips and am rewarded with the sweet sound of suckling and then the silencing of his cries.
I look over my son's face with a small smile curling on my lips. He stares up at me with chocolate brown eyes much like my own. His face is flushed with a glowing light pink, soft blond curls hanging down over his cheeks and framing is pudgy round face. He truly is a work of art. I jump again but at the sound of Lucas clearing his throat, turning around slowly to face him. His eyes are burning with anger seething beneath the surface and I cringe, this won't end well for me.
"Why don't you finish feeding him and then lay him back down in bed?" He asks sweetly, his lips curving up in an almost painful grimace at a burp that escaped from Rory's mouth. I nod, returning my gaze back upon my son and finding that his bottle is empty, pluck it from between his sealed lips. He opens his mouth in a wide yawn, revealing new front teeth that had recently broken through his gums. Poor boy was a total mess when those suckers started coming in, crying for hours and hours on end and biting me when I tried to feed him with my breast. Those new teeth are the reason I've been needing to pump milk instead of giving it to him directly from the source.
YOU ARE READING
Love's Sins (Sequel to Silent Cries)
General Fiction"He's cheating on me I know it.." I say, my voice shaking along with my body as I wipe my blood shot eyes in front of the bathroom sink. It's been precisely ten years since Bryan and his lover Rory moved out of their hometown in Ohio and into the bi...
