infatuated

50

☀ VIOLET ☀

"Excuse me?" I said, my eyes widening. "Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm Auden's mother." she said, narrowing her eyes. "I want to see my son," she repeated.

This couldn't be real. Auden's mother - my aunt - she couldn't be here.

"Vivi, who's at the door?" Auden asked, pushing past me. "Who the hell are you?" he blurted out as he stared up at the woman, a confused expression on my face as he glanced at me.

"Auden, watch your language," I said. "Audie, go back upstairs, okay?"

"No!" he yelled, shaking his head. "I want to know who this lady is."

"Auden, I'm your mother, baby," she said, reaching out towards him.

"First of all, don't touch him, whoever you are." I hissed, pushing him back into the house. "I don't know who you think you are. But if you're Auden's mother, you're not able to see him without-"

"Of course I'm able to see my son," she said, glaring at me. "He's my son, my baby."

"Yeah, well" - I paused to run my hand through my hair - "you left him a long time ago. How did you find out where we lived?"

"Who even are you to stop me from seeing Auden?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips as she glared down at me.

"I'm his older cousin and I've been taking care of him since he was born," I said, plastering a sarcastic smile on my face. "Maybe you should come back later, yeah?"

"Where's your mother?" she demanded, pushing past me as she forced herself into the house.

"What the hell are you doing? Get out!"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Auden, do you remember who I am, sweetheart?"

He slowly shook his head. "No, who are you?"

"I'm your mother."

"You are? You mean I have a mommy and daddy like Vivi?" he asked, his eyes widening in awe.

"Yes, of course, honey."

"Why didn't you want me?" he asked, his eyes welling with tears. "You left me here with Vivi's mommy and daddy."

"Baby, trust me. I did want you, I just had to get over some bad things," she said, crouching besides him. "I promise you, baby, of course I wanted you. But I wasn't able to because Mommy didn't have enough money to buy you food and things like that."

"Oh," Auden said, nodding. "Why did you come back after all this time?"

"Because, I just now found out where you've been living all these years," she explained. "I promise you, baby, Mommy's going to bring you with her at her house and we'll be a family again. Would you like that?"

"Excuse me?" I said, putting my hands on my hips as I picked Auden up. "You're not bringing him anywhere. Not until you get permission from my mom."

"What are you saying?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "That I'd seriously hurt my own child?"

"I don't know," I said. "But you could be an imposter or something. Things like that do happen these days, you know. And besides, I don't know you and neither does Auden."

"Vivi, I want to go with my mommy!"

"I don't care, Auden. You're not going with her right now." I said, shaking my head. "You can go wait outside on the porch or wherever until my dad comes home. Otherwise, I'll be forced to call the police for forced entry."

She scowled as she reluctantly agreed.

"Mommy, don't leave me!" Auden howled, tears streaming down his cheeks.

She shook her head and slammed the front door shut behind her.

I locked it for safe measures.

Auden glared at me. "I hate you, Vivi, I really do. I hate you so much. You're the worst cousin ever. All I want is to see my mommy after a lot of years and you won't let me because you're scared that I'll leave you and she'll take me away."

With that, he stormed upstairs and slammed his door shut behind him.

Good. I couldn't care less if he hated me. As long as he was safe, that's all I cared about.