Chapter 10
A week later, Famke entered her apartment and grimaced at the mess of the kitchen table. “Bram?”
“In here,” he called from down the hall in his bedroom.
“Why is there white stuff all over the kitchen table?”
“Because I’m stupid,” he grunted as he came back into the space tugging a shirt over his head. “Part of my midterm assignment for chemistry is to write about the reactions of certain products. I put a bit of vinegar into baking soda and instead of doing it in the sink, I did it on the table. I thought it would be a small reaction. I was wrong. It bubbled everywhere.”
“Great,” she grimaced at the sight.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s my mess. I’ll clean it. You got a parcel today. From New York.” He made wide
“Do you have an admirer I don’t know about?”
eyes.
“No.” She walked with trepidation towards the cardboard box and poked it.
“Do you think it’s going to bite?”
“No, but it might hurt.” She hadn’t told Bram anything about Royal’s relationship to Prince and Mindy. When Keshaun had confirmed he’d gone back to New York at her next shift, she had been relieved. She hadn’t heard anything from him at all. She’d been praying he’d heard her pleas for space.
She had done an internet search though. Now she knew their real names she had found out Royal Robinson was a thirty-seven-year-old billionaire on Wall Street running his own investment firm and hanging out with the rich and famous, in fact he was one of them. Everywhere he went, paparazzi stalked him and there were countless photos of him and Ambrosia. She wasn’t sure how it was he’d been able to come and go in Pittsburgh without issue, but he had.
She had sobbed reading the notification of Mindy and Prince’s death and there had been a short video someone had posted of the caskets being carried out of the church and the mourners all clearly devastated. It had been a joint funeral and the couple had been buried together.
Now as she stood tracing the name of Royal’s company on the return address of the parcel, she felt nauseated. She did not want to know what was inside.
“Who’s it from?” Bram asked curiously.
“Remember when I said the guy who got me my job reminded me of Prince?”
“Yeah.” The cloth he was using to wipe the mess into the garbage pail stopped moving as he looked up.
“They were brothers. Prince and Mindy died about three months ago.”
1/2
་ ་གཔ་་ ་་་
Bram sat down on the edge of the chair, his mouth agape. “No.”
“Yes. He was looking for me at the gas station and happened to hear me quitting. He got me the other job and said nothing but then a week ago, showed up with a child. Told me she was mine.”
“Holy shit, Famke. Now what?” Bram swallowed as if he was struggling not to vomit.
“I told him I gave her up. Mindy was her mother, not me. I know Mindy has passed away, but it doesn’t take away from the fact I was not ever meant to be the child’s mother.”
“Is he trying to make you take her?”
“He said she needs her mother and I agree but her mother is deceased, and I can’t jump into a role I was never meant to play.”
“I’m sorry, Famke. This must be hard for you. I know how much you cared for them.” He motioned to the box, “what do you think he sent you?”
“I don’t know.” She rubbed her forehead, “but I think I’d rather it be a rabid biting animal than whatever it is in there. He hasn’t contacted me at all since he showed up with her at the coffee shop a week ago.”
“Does she look like you?”
She snickered, “no. She has none of my Pennsylvania Dutch qualities I inherited from mom, let me tell you. She is a spitting image of her father.” She thought of the freckles and smiled, “right down to the freckles. He didn’t tell me at first. I didn’t know who he was, and I spent a couple of hours entertaining her in the coffee shop because his girlfriend was a first-class a-hole, and the kid couldn’t wait to get away from her. She’s a funny little thing.” She whispered suddenly, “I wish I’d paid more attention.”
Her brother’s arms wrapped around her, and she was surprised at how quickly he’d reached her. “I’m sorry, Famke. You should not be going through this. Why would he do this to you?”
