Love Will Keep Us - Book 5

Poor Explanation

"I swear it I got pinned. I swear it!" Corey continues to lie as his legs shake up and down while sitting across from both women. By this time Lena had really had it and Stef was at her wits end, for not only was she upset about what happened but also, she knew that Corey was not telling the truth. They knew they had to wait until they got home to talk to him, but it was now or never as they began to listen to the wild tale he was currently spinning.

"Yeah, you got pinned, huh? By flour? I mean how big was this bag? Must have been a pretty big bag, huh!" Stef asks sternly as she and Lena let go of their issues right now knowing they needed to handle this together. They did and Lena knew Stef being there was what they both needed. And her son.

"It was big Mama Dukes! I got stuck!"

"Corey come on!" Lena says losing patience. "Just tell us the truth. Julius buys big bags of flour, but you're not eight years old anymore! You've grown about six or seven inches and can sling those bags over your shoulder!"

"But I am! We ran out of flour for the rolls! We did! And this must have been a 50 pound bag, Mama!" He continues to lie as his ears turn red.

"Well, here's what I'll tell you, my love..." The blonde says leaning forward. "Your sisters are very upset and hurt and this could have BEEN A LOT WORSE!!!! A LOT WORSE!!! DO YOU GET THAT?! HUH!!! I will ask you again before I LOSE MORE patience and put your ass behind bars! WHERE WERE YOU??!!" She shouts as Lena doesn't even flinch glaring at her son. He could only look nervously back and forth between both women as he gulps from Stef's yelling. He couldn't tell them. Heck no!

"Even if I was there...it was still wrong for Uncle to leave us!" He deflects as Lena shakes her head and Stef lets out a laugh, her angriest of laughs.

"Ya know when I interrogated people? They often did that."

"Did...did what?" He continues to fold and unfold his hands as his ears are brighter red with each minute.

"What you are currently doing. Deflecting. Try to blame someone else when they didn't want to say what they were doing. But...the benefit I had over them was I was trained to know when I'm being fed bullshit. I was trained to know when someone is lying to my face. I was trained in all of that, my love. And the worse thing is someone uses someone else as a scapegoat. Usually doesn't end well in their favor."

"I'm not a scapegoat." Corey gulps again before taking a giant drink from his cup of ice water.

"I didn't say you were. But you surely don't have a hard time blaming your uncle. But ya know...maybe it is his fault. Because how dare he leave and make you all look after the bakery. Right?" Stef doesn't flinch or smile as she says this. Not at all, and Lena glares even harder at their son who won't look at her.

"Yeah! That's my point!"

"I get your point. Very irresponsible of him. I mean you guys are young and need to be watched and looked after. Right? I mean teenagers are careless."

"We are! We forget things! How can we be trusted?" He grins as he begins to relax some.

"Yeah, I know! And that's all the more reason why he shouldn't have left you all by yourself. I mean what kind of person does that. MM?" Stef asks once again as Lena glances at her almost in awe. She knew what Stef was doing but at the same time she also underestimated her cop skills.

"Mama Dukes, it was crazy how he just left us! Like he trusted us and gave us all this responsibility! He even let me man that giant oven!"

"Yeah I know. Allowing your sisters and cousin to man the front. Trusting you with the rolls. I mean, that's not really something he should allow you to do. Who knows what could happen or you know what you could have been doing instead. It's almost as if this entire fire is his fault. Man, I think I solved it. Thanks, Corey," She smiles as he smiles back.

"I know! I told him! But he gave me a specific time to take the rolls out! And I had it under control. So when I went to Steve's I thought I had time!" He blurts out as his eyes widen.

"Steve's?" Lena asks as Corey looks bug eyed now and quickly takes back what he said.

"Uhhhh, uhhh no, I mean the sugar! I had time to go get the sugar. That 100 pound bag of sugar was heavy and I was stuck under it calling for help!"

"Sugar. MM, I thought you said flour, Corey?" Stef smiles as the boy gulps knowing he's fucked up big time. Sure he was upset about what happened, he was really upset but it was no secret that he was scared of Stef.

"Yeah I mean flour! 150 pound bag of flour! Duh! Sorry, flour!" He laughs as he sits back in his chair, and Stef stares at him coldly just as the doctor comes to the door of the waiting room.

"Mrs. Adam Foster?" He looks between both women confused as they both stand and walk towards him. "Which one is the mom?"

"We both are," Lena smiles as Stef takes her hand.

"Oh...okay. Ummm," he clears his throat. "The girls are okay. But Stefanie? The...ummm, your daughter?" He looks at Lena who frowns.

"She's both of ours," Stef says firmly as he just nods.

"She broke her pinky finger of her left hand. I think the adrenaline rush of everything masked it, but she says she fell to the ground trying to protect her sister and must have fallen wrongly. Anyways, it's broken clear in half. We did x-rays, and sure enough it's broken. We have it wrapped pretty good, but you're going to have to take her to the doctor's within the next few days for her to get a cast. She's in a lot of pain. So just make sure you ice it and elevate it. Try to make her comfortable the best you can. She may run a low grade fever from the pain of it all, but it's nothing to be alarmed over."

Lena squeezes Stef's hand hard as her heart breaks hearing this. "How is Callie? Francesca?" Stef manages, and her wife looks at her to see her heart is broken as well.

"Francesca is the youngest, correct?" The doctor asks as both women nod. "She's doing well. No damage from the smoke. She's pretty shaken. Well, all of them are to be honest. Frankie was really worried about Stefanie. She hollered at one of the nurses for not letting her go down with her to the x-ray room. We almost came and got one of you, but Callie was able to calm her down. Ummm," he looks down at his clipboard. "They should be good to go here in a couple of minutes. One of the nurses will get you the paperwork to sign and instructions for Stefanie."

"Thank you, doctor," Lena puts out her hand, and he shakes it before shaking Stef's, and as he walks away, the women hug each other tightly while Corey covers his face in his hands trying hard not to cry his eyes out.