Toxic Rose Thorns - Chapter 18: Chapter 18

"I like fish," Ayrie says looking up at us. "The pretty shiny ones are my favorite,"
"I like sharks," Aizen announces. "My favorite is the Mako Sharks because they're really smart. They don't rely on pulses to hunt, like dumb great whites. They can see well and smell. They're also smaller than great whites so it makes them harder to catch,"
"They're also pretty shiny and they have pretty blue colors," Ayrie nods.
"Do you have a favorite shark?" Knightly asks her.
"I love silkies. Their name is so cute and super pretty. They're I heard sent," she nods. He glances at me questioningly.
"Iridescent. It's her favorite thing," I explain. "She just can't say it yet,"
"I re sent," she tries to repeat.
"Iri des scent," I repeat.
"Like you," Aizen laughs. "Ayrie de sent,"
"That's a good one," I praise him.
"Ayrie de send,"
"A t, Ayrie," he laughs.
"I tea des net,"
"Ugh," he splashes her.
"It's hard," she complains.
"Ayrie de sent," he repeats.
"Ayrie de sent," she finally says.
"Now faster," Knightly encourages her. "Iridescent,"
"Iridescent," she gets it.
"Good girl, sissy," he pats her head.
"Stawp," she growls at him and shoves his hand.
He just laughs and sticks his tongue out. I reach out to try and pinch it. He hides it as soon as he sees me move to, I miss. The two of them break into a fit of giggles and splashes. I finish up their bath and get them ready for bed. We set them down on the bed when we're done.
"Why is everything so extra big?" Ayrie crawls over to all the pillows.
"Have you seen D.A.D.?" I laugh.
"You right," she nods.
She reaches under them to pull the bedding back. Knightly laughs watching her struggle to get comfortable. When she wiggles under the covers she looks like a baby doll. Aizen brings Chocolate Sprinkles and climbs up to the bed. She squeaks excitedly and takes it from him. She moves over as if they didn't have a bed fit for like six people to sleep in tonight.
I look around to see if there is anywhere I can put all these pillows so they don't slip under them. Ayrie has woken up between my mattress and headboard a couple of times with pillows and stuffies on top of her. She's a wild sleeper.
"In here," Knightly says lifting a hatch at the feet of the bed. We both laugh as he goes around to help me with them.
"So many," Ayrie giggles.
"Something has to fill the giant bed," I tease him.
However, I rather not think of the alternative. The twins both laugh. I leave three pillows and then climb into the bed with them.
"Mommy, you can sing my song?" Ayrie asks. "D.A.D.," she looks up at him and pats the bed on her right side. "It's sleepy time,"
He clears his throat and nods getting on the bed next to her. Aizen reaches for the tie on my hoodie and wraps his little fingers around it.
"You know, D.A.D. wrote your favorite song," I tell her. "You can ask him to sing it for you,"
"What's your favorite song?" he asks her.
"Pretty Phoebe," she gasps. "You do. You do sing Pretty Phoebe. It's you," she pokes his chest. It completely catches him off guard. It's her favorite lyric from the song. "Pretty please, daddy,"
He inhales sharply when she calls him that. I can't help but raise my phone to sneak a picture. The look on his face is something I'm never going to forget. Something that needs to be framed. I slip my phone into my back pocket. Ayrie is very easy to please. Everything makes her happy. Aizen isn't that easy. He won't hesitate to tell someone to back off or say that he's not happy with something. He really makes me work for it.
"Yes, I'll sing it for you," he nods and sneaks a glance up at me.
Her little excited squeak makes me laugh. Aizen is half asleep when he starts to sing for her. The first time I heard that song on the radio, I cried. It's not something that is written about a one-night stand. The song felt personal.
They were four months old when he released it. It helped Ayrie sleep the whole night through. Every radio station was playing it. Everywhere. It was the first time the weight of my choice flattened me. I've gotten a lot stronger since then because I don't feel what I did then.
I'm livid now that they're safe. I sit up when I'm sure they've fallen asleep. He watches me make sure the room is secure. He sits up and covers them both before going over to the door. I follow him out. His eyes sweep the room one last time before he motions me to follow behind him.
"How much trouble are we in?" I ask when we get to what I think is a family room. Again, this place looks like a lodge.
"Enough for you not to be able to go home without one of us going with you," his parents walk in.
"Am I allowed to ask why or what's happening?" I ask.
"Yes," Maria nods.
"Will you be honest with me?"
"To the best of our abilities," she nods.
"We need to tell her everything," Knightly says. "Come sit next to me, Angel,"
"Too much can be a little overwhelming for her, Knight," she says. I go over to him and take a seat beside him.
"It doesn't matter," I sigh. "I need to know so I have an idea of how far I need to go to protect my kids. I need to know everything so that I can set a perimeter around us. Please,"
"We've already set one," Knightly says. "I'm sorry, Phoebe. I didn't think we would need to do this so soon,"
"Okay," I nod.
"You're taking this well," his father says and sits across from us.
The man doesn't look old enough to be Knightly's dad if I'm being honest. Maybe he isn't. Knightly said he was his stepfather. But his mom doesn't look any older than him. I don't know. People age differently now. Especially those who can afford to look like them.
"My dad works for the government. He's a weapons dealer overseas. It's why we don't speak. This isn't the first time I've had to leave my house like this. I never would have guessed I would ever have to do that with my kids," I press my fingers to my eyes.
Don't cry, Phoebe. Nothing gets fixed just because you're crying. Also, you might want to shut the fuck up. You don't know these people.
"I want to promise that it's never going to happen again," his mom sits next to me and takes my hand. "It's not as bad as weapons dealing. I can promise you that. However, what we tell you requires absolute discretion.
"If it were up to me, I wouldn't tell you at all. But we can't exactly hide it from you because it will be hard to hide when the twins start to show signs,"
"What? Signs of what?" I look back at Knightly. I pull away from her to stand up.
"I think you should sit," he says.
"Tell me," I demand. His parents both try to mask their amusement.
"It's not something I can just blurt out to you, Phoebe," he shrugs.
"I need you to tell me or I will get in my car and you will never see us again,"
"There is nowhere you can go, now. I'd find you," he stands. His entire demeanor changes. It somehow becomes almost threatening.
"Tell me, Knightly. What is happening? Who are you? Why was the mention of you enough to turn the woman who has been helping me raise my kids for the past three years against us?"
I can hear myself getting worked up and usually, I try to keep it bottled up, but there's no way in hell I can reel it in. This involves the twins.
"All right," he nods. "But I need you to sit down because this is not going to be easy to hear, Phoebe,"
"Let's give them a minute, Maria," his dad stands.
"It's going to be okay, sweetheart," she says coming over to me to take my hand again. She hugs me before going over to her husband. The two of them look at him worriedly before they leave.
"I'm never going to be able to leave," I realize. "I should never have come back here,"