The Mafia Boss's s*x Maid

Chapter 4: The last years of Lilly's childhood

It had been three years since Caroline had found out she had cancer and been treated. Every one of her monthly checks up for the first six months went well as did her yearly check-ups for the last two years.

It was, however, a constant battle to push aside her fear that cancer would come back in the future and focus on the present, but her cancer nurses Susan and Jackie who were amazingly supportive over the last few years had told her that was completely normal and just to take it one day at a time and in time the fear would ease and then go away. 

Caroline had so many happy memories from the past three years, Making cakes with Lilly that led to her finding a new career as a baker was a highlight,  as she was finally following her dream and her new career paid the same as all three of her old jobs combined so she had more time to spend with Lilly. Her work even let Lilly come into the restaurant to spend time with her mum as she worked on holidays and teacher training days so Caroline was able to teach Lilly a few cakes decorating skills and Lilly was close to a professional level now despite her young age and it was so lovely to have a shared interest and passion with her daughter.

The cancer scare had made every second of life precious to her and she felt so incredibly blessed to be finally following her dream and to be able to see Lilly grow up over the last three years into a kind, sweet, beautiful and intelligent girl who one day would no doubt grow into an amazing woman she would be so proud of. 

Her son, however, was a lost cause.

 He at twenty-two was still living at home - which would have been fine if like other people his age who were still doing that he was at College, University or Worked full time, or was saving for his own place and whilst he was still at home he pulled his own weight and was respectful - unfortunately Jason was in none of those categories nor had any of those admirable qualities.

It was Caroline's fault she knew.

As when Lilly was only three months old and Jason was only twelve he and his father went out to the supermarket to get more nappies and sadly they were evolved in a car crash. Lilly's and Jason's father died before paramedics could arrive at the scene and Jason was in very bad shape.

Jason had to have life-saving surgery and was in a coma for near two months, it was touch and go for along time and Caroline who already lost the love of her life, her husband, was told by the doctors Jason might not make it either. When Jason finally woke up he had to get physiotherapy to learn to walk again but the worse injuries he had were how badly his mental health was affected. 

Seeing someone you love die right in front of you was traumatic enough without only being a child- Jason was never the same after the accident and Caroline not only lost her husband but she also lost her happy, kind and funny little boy who changed into a violent child who had a temper and was quick to lash out. 

Caroline took him to therapy and although it managed to help stop his violent outbursts, Jason never processed his grief properly and still had behavioral issues. He would lash out verbally and say hurtful things, never listen to his mum or treat her with respect and he would often despite his mum trying her best to stop him, truant from school and instead of attending he would hang out with kids from the rough estate around the corner and get into trouble.

Caroline had tried everything over the years to get him to deal with his grief properly and to stop wasting his life but the harder she tried the more he rebelled, and she wasn't tough enough she now realized. Now aged twenty-two he was still angry at the world and hanging around with the same bad crowd and she feared for his future.

She loved her son with all her heart but enough was enough, she would finally need to put her foot down and force him to grow up or to leave. As although Lilly, thank god had not copied his bad behavior Caroline knew it wasn't as nice of a home environment for Lilly as it should be when her big brother was around. 

He may never harm Lilly physically but Caroline could tell he blamed Lilly for their father's death, as stupid as it was how he felt and it showed every time he was around her as he radiated anger and hatred in his mannerisms, tone, and expressions.

 Enough was enough, she owed it to Lilly to make what was left of her childhood a happy one, especially after Lilly been forced to mature too quickly these past years to take care of her during her battle with cancer. When the last two weeks of summer break were done and Lilly was back at school (so she was out the house) Caroline would give Jason the ultimatum and this time stick to it.

Caroline was just drying her hair and dressing for work thinking about how to put her tough love plan into action when Lilly walked into her room.

" Are you ready mum? " Lilly asked as she walked into the room wearing her chef hat and chef apron, both embroidered with the restaurant's logo to match her mothers that Caroline's work had thoughtfully bought for Lilly for her birthday last year, seeing how much Lilly loved it at the restaurant and how passionate she was at baking.

Caroline smiled at her daughter who was dressed as a little mini-me. " Not yet, sweetheart, I won't be long I just need to dry my hair and button my shirt. " 

" Okay, mum but hurry! I am so excited I cant wait to start on the wedding cake today! I will go and pack our lunches okay mum ?" Lilly squealed with excitement as she ran from the room not bothering to wait on a reply.

Caroline giggled as she watched her daughter joyfully run out of the room, she loved her so much and every day she made her more proud, Caroline thought as she did the last of her buttons up and just as she was about to leave a dizzy spell washed over her and she had to brace against the wall to stop herself from falling. After taking a few minutes to rest the dizzy spell passed and Caroline put it down to not eating enough, she had been really busy at work recently what with it being wedding and prom season, and because of how busy she was exhausted and had not been eating a lot.

" Mum come on !! " Lilly shouted from downstairs and Caroline feeling tired still but no longer dizzy picked up her bag and headed downstairs to meet her daughter, vowing to herself she would after completing the big orders she had this week would take a few days to rest and sort herself out.

Caroline and Lilly made their way to work and Caroline smiled at the thought of the few days rest she had coming up- it was exactly what she needed.

What Caroline didn't know however was her tiredness and lack of appetite was not due to being busy at work, they were symptoms of cancer that were back in Caroline's body and this time it was untreatable.

Caroline as she would soon find out only had six months left to live.