Chapter 20
Famke entered the house and Royal was watching her facial expressions. If she was impressed by his home, her face betrayed nothing of it. She was blankly looking around as if lost. Bram’s expression echoed the one his sister had. These two guarded themselves well and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was him, they didn’t trust or if they were distrustful of everyone in general.
He motioned in the direction of the guest rooms, “Bram, I’ve put you on the main floor. Third door on the left. There’s a television in the room and your own private bathroom.” He pointed to a room, “living room is in there and if you can think of a gaming console, it’s in there. Why don’t you drop your bag off and
then meet us in the kitchen over there.”
“Cool,” he walked off in the direction Royal pointed.
“Come on, I’ll show you your room.” He waved his hand up the stairs.
“Why am I upstairs and he’s down?”
“Because Precious is upstairs, and she has nightmares. I don’t want her waking up Bram.” He watched her frowning as he followed her up the stairs, unsuccessfully trying not to look at her rounded ass as she climbed two steps ahead of him. She was not a big woman, in his opinion, slightly underweight, but her butt filled her jeans out perfectly and he wondered if she did squats routinely. He cleared his throat as he realized she’d asked him a question and he’d been focused on her physique. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
“Why does she have nightmares?”
“She was in a car accident where her parents both died?” he intoned sarcastically frowning at her. How could she not know this would cause the child to be scared and have trauma?
“Wait, she was in the accident?” Famke paused at the landing and turned to face him. “You never told me this.”
“Yes, I did. I told you she was in the accident and needed blood. It was how we learned she was not Mindy’s biological child.” He watched the emotions flit across her features as understanding hit him. “You thought she’d been injured elsewhere. You didn’t realize it was the same car accident?”
“No.” she was breathless. “You only told me she needed blood. You didn’t say she was in the car,” she was turning a mottled red color under her pale skin. She tugged her blonde ponytail around her fist nervously.
“We almost lost all three of them to a drunk driver. A shard of glass hit her thigh and punctured it. When the hospital removed it, it had to be done during a very controlled surgery as it was embedded in her femoral artery,” he watched as she stumbled on the stairs before reaching the landing. “She made a full physical recovery of her injury. She has a scar on her leg. It’s her mental health which is the problem.”
He watched her reaction to his words and admitted she was shaken up. Good. He needed her to have an emotional response. He needed her to stay. His mother was on his ass constantly about making sure Famke
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Chapter 20
understood how much Precious needed her. The minute he’d confided in his mother about what he’d learned about his brother, she had been hellbent on giving his daughter her biological mother. He had to admit, he wanted it more than his mother did.
Guilt consumed him constantly for not being a better brother. His brother had alluded more than once in his letters to Famke he could not rely on Royal to not be a judgemental asshole. His ridiculously hard stance on marriage, trust and loyalty had left Prince with nobody to turn to. He felt strongly he needed to give his niece the mother her father wanted her to have. Even if it meant sacrificing his own life, and moving Famke in with him to do so, he would do it. He owed his brother this much.
He reached for her hand and squeezed it, “I’m sorry, Famke. I thought I had explained better. She was in
the car.”
“What exactly happened?”
He felt the bitterness of what they were still piecing together three months later seep in. “My brother had a security team which typically drove them everywhere. They were taking Precious to kindergarten. She had just started. According to the security detail, Mindy and Prince were arguing in the house and Prince asked his security agent to put Mindy in the car. It was a town car. He had buckled her in when Mindy jumped into the driver’s seat and started backing down the drive. Prince barely got into the passenger seat before the car started moving.”
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The Surrogacy Secret
