The Untold Story of Prince Charming (Book 2 of Cinderella Series)

Chapter 9

"Hi, Mom," I said when I walked into the house after my father drove off to go somewhere, and I made it back to the house. I walked over to her and placed a kiss on her cheek while I gave her a side hug.

"There is my handsome young man," she teased and placed down the dishes she was cleaning. She turned toward me and gave me a big bear hug, a wet stain on the front of her shirt, transferring itself onto mine.

"Mom," I groaned and tried to shove her away. "Why did you have to do that?" I patted her back before I tried to gently push her away from me because I did not want to have a wet stain on my shirt.

Mom didn't get the hint and hugged me tighter. "Because I love you," she said. "And I want you to feel the love that I have for you." She reached up to kiss my cheek, and I craned my head back away from her. "So, come here, my handsome son, so that I can give you a kiss." She puckered her lips and started to make kissing sounds.

I groaned again and looked at my friend to see if he would help, but all he did was shrug his shoulder and watch, amused. I made sure that she didn't reach my cheek, but she started to kiss my neck instead. "Mom," I complained. "Stop."

My mother laughed and pulled away from me, ceasing her assault on my neck. She released me from her grasp, and I scowled and rubbed my shirt, trying to get rid of the wet spot that appeared. "I'm not sorry," she said, and I could hear a smile in her voice. "I hope you know that."

I huffed, but a smile appeared on my face while I shook my head. "I know," I said, kissing her on her cheek again. "I shouldn't be surprised that you had done that, even though you know that I don't like it."

"Hey, you are the one that allows her to do it," Ryan said, and I rolled my eyes at my best friend and scowled. "If my mother did that to me, then she would ha-" He cut himself off when he saw my mother scowling at him with her hands on her hips. His face grew pale, even though you wouldn't have been able to see it, and he cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

"Excuse me?" she asked and raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to call your mother? Do we need to test this?"

Ryan shook his head and cleared his throat again. "No, Ma'am," he said. "You do not need to call her. We do not need to test this."

She raised her eyebrow further. "Are you sure?" she asked. "It seems to me that you wanted me to call her just so that you can be proven wrong."

Ryan looked at me, silently begging for my help, and if I didn't need his help back, I would've let him suffer. He stayed silent and didn't meet my mother's gaze, pleading with me to help him.

"Mom," I groaned and placed my arms around her. "Don't call his mom. You know how she can be, especially when she had a long day at work. You don't want her to talk your ear off, do you?"

Mom grimaced and shook her head. "On second thought, I think that I will leave it alone." She smacked my chest, and I released her. "Go ahead and go eat," she said. "Your food is in the oven." She went back to doing the dishes, and I walked over to where she said my food was. "Did your father tell you where he was going?"

I shook my head, no. "No, Ma'am," I said. I grabbed my plate of food and went over to the kitchen table. "He didn't say where he was going, and I didn't bother asking."

My mother stopped doing the dishes and nodded. Her whole body grew stiff, and she set her jaw. "Of course, he didn't," she muttered under her breath. She went back to the dishes, but this time, she scrubbed them harder than she normally would otherwise.

Ryan and I looked at each other but stayed silent. We had no idea where he goes when he leaves, and both of us had a feeling that he was unfaithful again.

That was one reason we had moved from LA back to Kentucky, and the other reason was because of me. It was because of me being in the limelight and not for good reasons, putting a black spot on my family's name.

Mom sighed and shook her head while she tried to relax her body. "We shouldn't think the worse," she said, and she stopped scrubbing the dishes hard. "He might not be doing what we think he is doing."

I didn't reply and shrugged before I tucked myself into my food, even though I wasn't hungry. I didn't know what to say, to think. I hoped that he wouldn't be cheating on her again, but I couldn't be sure.

"Why don't you leave him?" Ryan asked, and my mother and I looked at him. He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, lowering his gaze. "I am sorry I didn't mean to bring it up."

Mom sighed and shook her head. "No," she said. "It's fine, Ryan. You could ask." She smiled, but this one was sad. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and she cleared her throat. "To be honest, I don't know why I haven't left him yet." She shrugged her shoulders and looked away, turning her attention back to the dishes she had left to wash.

Ryan and I looked at each other. We didn't say a word to each other while we waited for my mother to finish talking, telling us why she hadn't left.

She shook her head again and cleared her throat. "I want to say it is because I love him," she said, not looking at us. "And I do. I've loved him way before he had inherited the business from his parents. I've loved him since he was a scrappy young boy who used to pull my pigtails when we were children."

She sighed and looked at us, pausing in doing the dishes. She had tears in her eyes, but there was this fierce determination in them that I had seen only a few times before. "But, sometimes love isn't enough to keep the loving faithful. If he didn't learn his lesson, then I am gone. I don't care what his love says for me to do."

Mom set her jaw so hard that it started to shake. "Once I am done, I am done. I will leave him and never come back; not even my love for him can bring me enough reasons to stay."