Mend My Heart

Chapter 18

Maya’s P.O.V

“Nice try, grandma but I’m going to have to say checkmate!” I screeched a little too over joyously and moved my rook closer to Ms. Duke’s king on the chess board. 

Of course, she wasn’t too pleased with my forwardness and exhaled in defeat. “Okay, so maybe you might be a tad bit better than me at chess,” she trailed off, miffed at the fact that she’d just lost to me. Aiden and Brianna were sprawled on the carpeted floor, playing what seemed to be a serious battle of the wits in poker. 

I’m still quite flummoxed that they can play a casino game like pros. They probably learnt it from their grand-ma.

There was an unspoken truce between the three of us; we weren’t exactly on friendly terms but there wasn’t any heated exchange taking place either. The past week had been filled with pranks from the twins, with my own mixed into there until Ms. Duke had decided enough was enough and had ordered us to stop. They drew up a treaty which we all signed and from then onwards, there was certain degree of diplomacy going on. We had even resorted to playing together in the park and watching television together. I was the only one shocked by this, as even the other members of the household were sceptical about our so called ‘friendship’.

“Grammy, when can we see mummy again?” Brianna asked, her eyes solely fixated on her cards, which I could see was a good hand from my angle. It was a sunny afternoon on a Monday, but it had rained in the morning. We were reclining in one of the lounges.

Ms. Duke’s lips pursed grimly before she glanced at the window overlooking the front yard. “Soon, my darling. You know mummy is very busy and she and daddy aren’t together anymore,” she voiced calmly and Aiden pouted.

“B-but I miss her. She said she misses us too and that she wants to see us more often,” he quivered in a trembling voice, his cards now on full display for his sister to see. She took advantage of this and laid out her cards with a smirk. Aiden noticed this and threw his cards in the air in aggravation. “Hey, you cheated!” he spewed angrily and she chortled.

Brianna stuck her tongue out at him. “No, you lost loser! You’re a L-O-S-E-R!” she hollered and made a run for it when Aiden lunged towards her. I giggled at their childish antics. It was adorable to say the least.

I turned back to the chess board and began to reset the pieces. “I know this is none of my business-,” I had begun and Ms. Duke shot me a fierce glare.

“It’s not up to me to say, and by now you must know Theo’s still delicate about the matter. My poor son suffered so much after what happened with their mother that he decided to shut himself off and find hideous ways to cope with the grief. He’s even been neglecting his children for quite a while now, and look at him now; he’s been gone for more than a week and hasn’t even called to check up on us,” she ranted emotionally and wiped a lone tear from the side of her eye.

I really ought to hate this old hag after how badly she had treated me till now, but my heart really went out to her. This was one mother who really cared for her child and was hurting because of it. I stretched out my hand and placed it over hers. “Don’t cry, Ms. Duke. I’m Mr. Duke is alright wherever he is and he’ll be back in no time. He should be happy that he has kids who love him still and a mother’s unconditional love.” The stupid bastard had no idea how much I’d kill to have a parent who loves me like that. I haven’t felt the love of a parent in such a long time…

She nodded her head and much to my surprise, placed her hand on mine. “I know we’ve had our differences,” Understatement of the year, “But you’re not as bad as I thought you were. It feels nice to talk about this to someone, somebody who understands,” she told me with a smile of relief.