THE BILLIONAIRE'S CINDERELLA WIFE

Episode 6

EPISODE 6

My feet can’t carry me upstairs fast enough, I almost trip and fall along the staircase, “Mattie...” I call out softly as I push open the bathroom door that was not shut closed. “Mattie...are you okay...can I come in,” I ask while standing outside the door, not wanting to invade the little boy’s privacy but when I get no response, I bolt inside and there is no one inside and it doesn’t seem like anyone was ever in there. Without wasting time I rush to Matt’s bedroom and I’m puzzled when I find it locked, it’s weird, Matt never locks himself in, so now I’m more worried than ever, what did mom do to the poor boy and why? “Mattie...let me in,” I ask after knocking softly but he doesn’t respond. “Mattie come on...open up...it’s me...Becca...there is no one else,” I plead and a few seconds later I hear his little feet shuffling towards the door and in a jiff the door knob turns and I let myself in and close the door behind. “Matt...what’s wrong...what did mother do to you?” I scan him thoroughly looking for any signs of physical assault. “What makes you think mom did something to me?” He asks with puzzlement as he crawls back to bed.

“Well...you didn’t come out for dinner and you locked yourself in your room, of which you never do that, so I figured something is wrong,” he pouts and doesn’t say anything, his fingers get busy playing around with the edge of his sheets. “Matt! Are you not going to tell me what the matter is?” I sigh, losing my patient and wanting to head back downstairs to finish my meal before it gets cold. I’m beginning to regret not listening to mother, maybe dad was right and I was hoping to find a fault with mother again. I honestly thought that she spanked Mattie for some reason, even though that’s something that has never happened, he has never given her a reason to do that. “Okay Matt...I’m heading back downstairs and I expect you to follow me, you can’t go to bed without eating dinner,” I pretend to leave to get him to hurry up and say what’s bothering him because I’m not interested in begging him to open up to me.

“Its father,” he shouts as I draw nearer to the door, I freeze for a second then I quickly turn around and march back to his bed side. “Dad?” I stare at him quizzically as I ask myself what dad could have possibly done to upset him, he is the last person I expect to do or say something to upset anyone. He is just this perfect man in my eyes.

“Yes dad,” Matt says with a punch in his tone, “What did he do?” “I called him a few hours ago and asked if he could buy me a new pair of running shoes so I can participate in the soccer game this Friday at school and he said he can’t because he has a lot to take care of,” he mutters with a sullen face. “What happened to the running shoes you had?” “They...I...I lost them,” “you lost them? Matt! That was so irresponsible of you, no wonder dad refused to buy you new shoes,” “Of course you would take dad’s side...you always do...he is always right,”

“This isn’t about dad Matt...you are the one in the wrong here because you lost your shoes,”

“But they were no longer in a good state,” he protests.

“That is not an excuse,”

“Fine!” He pouts and crosses his arms over his chest, his face fallen and his dark eyes filling up with unshed tears. I know how important it is for Matt to play with his team on Friday, although he must be taught a lesson for being irresponsible, he is still young and he should be forgiven. I cannot ask father to buy him new shoes because he already has a lot to cover, I will have to take care of it even if that means I’m no longer going to the hair salon or buying myself a new outfit to wear. “I will buy you the shoes Mattie,” I offer. “Really?” his face brightens up like never before. “Yes,” “Oh thank you Becca,” he jumps on top of me and his arms wrap around my neck a little too tight. “Matt...you are now choking me,” I giggle as I pull him off.

“Mattie...I need you to promise me one thing,” I peer at him with a serious glint in my eyes. “Anything,” he responds.

“You will not act out next time you don’t get what you want...we don’t want you becoming a spoilt brat who can’t take no for an answer,” I warn. “I wasn’t acting out Becca...you know how it’s like to want something badly and be told you can’t have it. So my heart was just broken, my appetite went out the window and I just wanted to be alone,”

“Is your appetite back now?”

“Yes...I can eat the whole pot now,” he laughs. Seeing him happy fills me up with joy, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for this little boy, I adore him so much. I hope one day I will have a child of my own and he will be as sweet and adorable as Matt.

Now that we have taken care of what was troubling little Matt, we head downstairs to eat.

“I told you he was okay...didn’t I?” Mom says after seeing Matt with his usual bright face.

“Yes you did but I just had to make sure,” I respond, not wanting to prove her wrong.

Matt and dad exchange greetings before we all get back to chewing and drinking in silence, I notice my father giving mother an adoring look, it pleases him when his woman acts like a wife and cooks for the family but this is not something he should expect to happen again. I’m sure we are yet to find out the reason why she decided to grace us with her cooking today.

“Becky...tell us...did your baking tutorial go as well as you expected?” She asks and I gaze at her with lifted brows, I wasn’t expecting her to ask, she never bothers to ask about my work. Okay, let’s just assume she miraculously turned over a new leaf so I will go with the flow, “It went pretty well...Pamela’s house is breath taking, you would have loved their garden dad and wow the kitchen and oh my goodness their pantry! I have never seen anything like it, you would think it’s a grocery store,” I blurt.

“You do know that you have only told us about Pamela’s house and not the baking tutorial,” my father laughs. “I know...well...Pamela was very impressive, she was attentive and did everything right, she was really determined to learn because she wanted to impress some boy from her school,” I mention, keeping my eye on my father’s face anticipating his disapproving reaction. He never wants to hear me talk about boys even though I’m a fully grown woman now, I’m still a little girl to him.

He slowly gets up from his chair and grabs his plate to throw into the sink, “oh you don’t have to worry about that my love,” Vivian says before snatching the plate away from his hands and putting it back on top of the table. Father staggers a bit and tries to reach the chair to hold for balance but before he could grab it he falls on to the ground and passes out. We all jerk out of our chairs and rush over to him, “dad!,” I yell while shaking him hoping he would wake up. “Is he dead?” Matt frantically asks. “No!” my mother and I yell out at the same time. “What’s wrong with him, why is he not responding?” I stare at my mother with dread glimmering in my eyes. “Why are you asking me? Am I a doctor? Don’t just kneel here doing nothing, get up and call an ambulance,” she snarls. I jump to my feet in a flash and dial the emergency service number. I pace around back and forth, hoping and praying that dad will be okay, my head is spinning, we cannot afford to lose him, we just can’t. I have always worried about how my father’s over working can affect his health, if he makes it, I’m going to make sure he lessens his daily load even if it means the queen of the house has to start lifting a finger around the house or getting a part time job.

I have no idea what to do as I wait for the ambulance to arrive but my mother seems to know exactly what to do, I watch with amazement as she begins to act like a paramedic. she loosens his clothing before moving him to lie on his side and then tilting his jaw up. “What are you doing?” I ask with blinking eyes. “It’s called opening airways to allow better breathing,” she answers without looking up at me.

“Where did you learn that from?” Mattie questions with his eyes widened.

She hesitates to respond for a long moment, “I have a nurse assistant certificate,” she quirks her lips.

I’m astounded to hear that, I guess there is a lot I don’t know about my own mother, “You have a nurse assistant certificate and you never thought to get a job so as to help out around the house?”

“Do you have any idea what dirt nurse assistants have to deal with on a daily basis? What kind of a child would want that for her mother?”

“So why did you bother training for it then?”

“Because...” she pauses and gazes at me with a thoughtful look on her face, her expression changes and a frown begins to appear. “I don’t have to explain myself to you, especially not now when my husband is in this condition,” she scoffs.

“As if you care about him,” I cross my hands over my chest as I whisper not intending for her to hear me but she does, “excuse me! What did you just say?”

“If you cared about dad you would have done something to help him out, this is all your fault, the reason he has been working so hard is because you didn’t bother to help him,”

“Shut your mouth young lady before I rearrange your face, it is a man’s job to provide for his family,” she grumbles, she is about to add on to her words but the paramedics burst inside and quickly move father onto the stretcher. Mother and I hastily follow them outside, “there is only space for one person in the ambulance,” the paramedic informs us after realizing that we thought all of us could hop in.