Tu Es Ma Lumière

91 - Stepmotherhood *Modern*

The baby is crying.

Mary groans loudly, rolling over into a blanket cocoon. She hopes the thick, dark blue cocoon will silence the horrid wails. Turns out, they don't. The wails from the baby monitor continue to echo throughout the master bedroom of the Valois' estate. Irritated by it, Mary scrunched up her face and kicks a leg out of her caterpillar-like cocoon, hoping to rouse the childs' father.

We weren't together, Mary! Her husband had cried out, around eleven months ago, when Lola, the oh, so remorseful cousin had tearfully told Mary herself of a brief rendezvous between she and Francis, a couple weeks after the longtime couple had split up because of the drunken one-nighter with Olivia D'amencourt and the resulting drunken kiss with Sebastian, the recently single half brother of her husband. Of course, by then, they had patched things up and had even gotten married in an ultra quick engagement, making the shock so much worse. Her cousin had gotten pregnant with her husbands' baby! 

The shock and the shame had plunged the marriage into dissaray. Lola wouldn't abort and Francis wouldn't walk away. None of the future parents would consider adoption. As Lola grew and the baby was born, the young heiress of the Stuart dynasty -with a completley furious family, keep in mind- was plunged into a deeper and deeper depression. Three losses within the year of Lola's pregnancy and young Jean's little life had rendered the once puppy loved up couple practical strangers. Each loss had pulled Francis' beautiful wife further and further away from him, his sinful solace being his unborn child with his friend.

Mary hadn't had anything to do with the baby. She didn't go to the gender reveal party, she didn't go to the baby shower. She didn't go to the birth. Unless she was recovering from a loss, which honestly was rare since the young heiress never, ever followed instructions, be it from a doctor or a teacher. And as the child was born and Lola signed away her rights, citing a lack of resources to care for her baby, it was left to Francis to raise the child. By himself, Mary couldn't bring herself to mother a thing that had, in ways, ruined her marriage.

She kicked out of her cocoon, only to find cold bed sheets. She frowned in confusion. There was no way that Francis could have gotten up so quickly to go and get his son. He never moved quickly at the best of times.

Mary rolled over in confusion, looking over at his side of their bed. They still shared one, even if it felt like they were oceans apart after a bad fight about the baby and a lack of one of their own. It was clean and straight, unused. Mary frowned in confusion, running a hand through her messy, bed raggled hair. There was a note on his pillow.

She picked it up in the darkness of the room. The baby still cried.

Mary, 

Father called and told me that there's an urgent matter in Minnesota to deal with, so we had to fly out tonight. I'll be back in three days, Bash is with me. Kenna'll come around tomorrow to help out. Need you to look after the baby until I get back.

She groaned loudly in despair, throwing the note away. Leave it to Francis to resort to such measures for her to be around the child who she hadn't ever been in the same room with. Why couldn't he have waited until the staff and the nannies came back the next month? And, to look after a baby? She had no idea how to even hold one, let alone look after one for an entire night! Damn him!

Mary wined as she realised that she probably wouldn't be sleeping for the next few days. Stupid Francis. Stupid Henry. She huffed in annoyance, bumbling up out of bed. She slipped her black slippers on, pulling on her black fuzzy robe. For the end of Spring, it was surprisingly cold.

Mary reluctantly walked over towards the spiral staircase, walking downstairs towards the childs' nursery. Jean's nursery, she reminded herself bitterly. Her stepson's name was Jean.