Slave

34

Jennifer's POV

"Emma, be careful!" I called out as Dylan throw her up in the air, she let out a fit of giggle. Dylan put her down, grinning at me. "Relax, babe. Let your sister have fun." I shoot him a look. "Fun? That's what you call fun?" I said, glaring my eyes at him. Emma continued laughing at us as I pull her closer to me and kiss her cheeks. "God, you're getting so big. I feel like I've missed out a lot, which is true, but- I mean look at you!" I mutter, tapping her nose. "Can you take me with you?" She says with a hopeful look in her eyes. Dylan looks at me and raises his brow. "I would if I could, but who's gonna take care of mom?" She let out a sigh and played with her bracelet. "Don't be sad, we're gonna visit you at least twice a year, hmm?" Dylan butt in making me frown. "I'll make it happen." He assures me. "Really?!" She laughs and hugged Dylan instead of me.

Then mom suddenly walks in carrying a tray of glasses filled with lemon juice. I grabbed one and take a sip. "So when's the wedding?" My wonderful mother asks causing me to choke a little. I covered my mouth and glared at her. "Ma!" I groaned. Dylan grabbed my hand and kissed it, not saying anything, which is good. "What? I wanna be a grandmother-" she said bluntly, "Okay, enough about that. Let's just talk about something else, please." I said emphasizing the last word as she shakes her head at me. Leaning against the couch, I rolled my eyes at her.

I knew this would happen, she doesn't know when to stop or say anything that would complicate matters. Dylan and I never even talked about that and bringing that up simply jeopardize certain things.

"You better treat her right, mijo" She grins, shifting her gaze to the both of us. "Of course, Ms. Lopez. You're daughter's safe with me." Dylan, grabbed my hand and kissed it making me smile. "Allllright-" I said but quickly  interrupted by Dylan's phone, ringing.

Oh, thank god.

"Excuse me." He mutters, fishing his cell inside of his pockets.  When he left, it was just us hanging around in the couch. I looked around the house and it seems like not even a bit has changed, which I'm glad because I grew up in this house. "I'm proud of you, Jennifer." My mom bluntly says. I stare into her face and she has tears welling up on the corner of her eyes. "Ma, why are you crying?!" I laugh quietly, reaching out to touch her face. "Because, you finally got your life figured out. Emma will be in high school in a few years and it's all because of you." She says and my heart was touched but I was also frowning.

"What do you mean, ma? You are nothing like this when I was married to Leah." I blurted out. She looked at me and shakes her head. "She will never give you a child, Jennifer! This is what you want. A man who can support you and build a family with!" She exclaimed. I rolled my eyes and fight the urge to talk back. I stayed quiet until I hear some noise on the patio. I narrowed my eyes and stood upset to find Dylan and go see if everything's okay. And when I did, he was touching his fist while closing his eyes.

I glance down and there was blood. "Baby- what the hell?!" I muttered and walked to him seeing a red spot of the wall, giving me a full hint of what happened. "Fuck" he hissed. "Stay here." I said and went to the kitchen, finding some ice pack which I filled with cold ice from the freezer. When I got back, he was sitting on the hammock looking down at his feet.

There's obviously something wrong but I don't know if he would tell me about it. It's hard to push Dylan, he's gonna end up not talking to you at all, that has happened many times before. I grabbed his hand and gently pressed the ice agains this skin. I did this for a couple of minutes and we are just quite. "You wanna talk about it?" I whispered, cleaning his wound with a cotton. He just sighed deeply. "No." He replied. I closed my eyes and tried to be understanding for us not to cause unnecessary fight.

I assumed it was about work. Because that's all he worries about. Later that day, we got home with no one uttering a word.

Great.