Hope

Chapter 20

Cindy's POV

Can today get any worse? First I wake up and can't do anything to tame the frizzy mess that my hair decided to be today. Then Mira's magic made her bottle explode all over me. After that I had to take my parents' place in a meeting because they weren't feeling good, and because Alice was already dealing with the other six, with the help of Karla, I took the twins to lighten the load. During the meeting, the twins were causing magic mishaps all over the place, making us have to end it early. Then to top it all off, when I went to see my parents before leaving, they were meeting with a doctor. Turns out they have a magical cancer that is just eating their magic away rapidly so won't be long till they're both dead. The doctor claimed that it had been my father who originally had the cancer, but because they are magically bound together, the cancer was able to spread through that magic bond to my mother. Either way though, they would've died together even if it had only infected my father because they had bonded their lives together, so when one dies so does the other. To top it all off, I now have to have my coronation bumped up to next week because my parents don't have much time. So I have to meet with planners, try and get one of my mates to adjust their already busy schedules to watch the twins, catch up on the transfer paper work my father was working on to get the genies taken out of the human government system for the move, make funeral arrangements, and find a moment to try and process all of this because I feel like I'm drowning. I just want to break down and be a big baby for at least five minutes because I'm about to loose my mommy and my daddy, and I'm not ready for that. Where do I even start with any of this? I need help. 

After getting home, I laid the twins down then went to Shelton's office. I know I could have gone to Alice because she would understand my pain. I could have also gone to Drake because he has always been quick to watch over one of us when things become to much and we want to break. I could have also gone to Nathaniel because he is always a quiet support that we all need. I went to Shelton because Shelton usually knows what to do, and I need to know. I feel lost at what I should do first. There is just so much and I have no clue what I should prioritize. 

"Everything okay Cindy," Shelton asked when I went in. He had large stacks of paper on his desk and I felt guilt hit me for making him divert his attention from it. "No," I told him, my eyes filling with tears as I went to sit in the lap he was offering me to sit in. "As you know I went to fill in at the meeting for my parents because they weren't feeling good. Well, I went to see them before I left. A doctor was there and he informed me that my parents have this magic eating cancer that is killing them very fast. So fast that it's less than a month. Instead of letting me get over the news that my parents are dying, they began to tell me what they need from me. They need to move my coronation up to next week, take over the paperwork of the genie transfer, go to all of the meetings they had planned over the next few days, and oh yeah, make their funeral arrangements. I don't know where to start with any of this. I haven't even had the chance to process what they told me because I feel like I don't even have that time. What do I do Shelton?" I wanted to cry. My eyes were filled with tears but they wouldn't fall. My emotions were fried at the current moment. 

He cupped my face, "Breathe Cindy." He spoke in a calm and soothing voice. I took a deep breath than let it out slowly, "What do I do? Where should I start?" "With yourself," he told me. "Let's talk about how you feel." "I feel over whelmed. My emotions feel so jumbled that I don't know what I should even be feeling right now," I told him. "What's the first emotion that you felt when you found out," he asked while tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. 

"Shock," I told him without hesitation. "My parents should have had another fifty to a hundred years at the least. I then felt anger not only for the fact that I was loosing my parents but that they were acting like it was every day stuff to talk about. They didn't show a single emotion for Goddess sakes. They talked business and my royal duties. Why didn't they talk to me like parents?" Now the tears were falling and the anger was welling up. "You know if I had to tell our children we were dying, I'd be crying and telling them that everything is okay, not throw a list of things at them that they needed to do. They wouldn't even let me hug them for Goddess sakes. Who knows if that was going to be my last chance to hug them and they wouldn't let me." Shelton hugged me to him. "Why now," I asked him. "I wanted them to see the end result of the future they were helping us create. I want those years I thought I was going to get with them." After that I couldn't speak anymore, I just cried and broke down in his lap. 

Shelton's POV

My heart cried out for Cindy. As she cried, I mind linked the others and told them what was going on. I pushed my chair further from my desk so I could stand with her. She clung to me, not wanting to let go and I didn't mind it at all. I carried her to our bedroom and I saw Drake was getting out of the suit he had worn for the meeting he attended with his father today. His eyes held sorrow in them for Cindy. I sat on the bed with her as Alice and Nathaniel came in. Cindy's cries were becoming hiccups and sniffles now. "It's been a day," Cindy whispered, her voice hoarse. She then listed all of the magical mishaps from the twins, to the disaster of a meeting she had attended, to the news she found out. I would've lost my mind at the large number of magical mishaps alone.  "I'm so tired." "Then rest sweetie," Alice said comfortingly. Drake removed her heels while Alice took off Cindy's earrings and took her hair down. I stood and Nathaniel got the bed ready. Alice used her magic to change Cindy's clothes. I laid her down and she curled up. We all changed and joined her. She laid in the center, with Alice directly behind her and Drake in front, with me behind Alice and Nathaniel behind Drake. I stretched my arm over Alice to rest over Cindy. I can tell by Cindy's breathing it took her a while to fall asleep. 

Goddess, what were we going to do?