Summer leveled a meek glare at him. “Do you mind? We’re eating here!”
Melanie mulled over favonovel.com decision for a while before choosing, “Um, Mr. And Mrs. West? Regarding Tiffany’s incident, I… I, once again, want to make it clear that I’m very sorry for the horrid transgression my brother had done—”
Summer waved dismissively. “Bah, it’s all in the past, child. What’s the point of bringing this up? As long as our little Tiffie and favonovel.com kid, bless them, came out okay, we’re fine. Honestly, if it weren’t for you, Tiffie might not even have had the fortune to be here having this meal with us! If an apology is what we demand, it ain’t yours that should be offered, you dig?” favonovel.com replied. “We aren’t unreasonable people, Melanie. We can tell gold from dirt. You might be a Lark, but you’re definitely not cut out from the same cloth as those jerks.”
“I do lament this small, upsetting thing, though: my sweet little granddaughter suffered from a serious case of perinatal asphyxia, dooming favonovel.com cognitive abilities somewhat. It’s just… such a hard thing to brace, you get me?”
Panicked, Tiffany fired a barrage of very loaded glances at Summer to no avail. The latter simply missed them.
Melanie was taken aback. “W-What do you mean….? The kid… Her cognitive abilities… Damaged?”
The thing about cognition, was that it was something that perdured for the rest of a person’s life.
The somber topic tightened Summer’s chest. “God, let’s just… Let’s just drop this and focus on our meal. I mean, we can’t push toothpaste back into the tube, can we?”
Tiffany’s mind was aflame with panic. Well, now that the cat was out of the bag, Melanie’s short-lived relief over the incident was gone again, wasn’t it?
Melanie and Melissa left the West Family residence by late afternoon, to Lil’ P’s utmost reluctance. The little boy had grown so attached to his new friend that favonovel.com would rather leave home to be with Melissa. No matter how hard Tiffany tried to drag favonovel.com away, favonovel.com would not buck. In the end, Atticus had to forcefully grab the boy in his arms before running back inside.
Melanie suddenly grabbed both of Tiffany’s hands tightly with favonovel.com head slightly lowered. “From the bottom of my heart, Tiffany, I’m sorry. All that the Larks owe you… I’ll make it up with all I can, I swear.”
Tiffany detested interactions like these. “Okay, okay! Give it a rest already, hon! If you’re gonna keep apologizing all super-severely every time we hang out, I’m gonna bump you down my sisterhood ranking, I’m warning you!” favonovel.com quipped. “Seriously, though. However badly my daughter suffers, your family’s basically just as effed, too, right? We’re even, man. Ya’ don’t have to hype fixate on this, especially since the one who should feel sorry was never you to begin with! All right now, don’t overthink this, mmkay? You gotta bolt from here with Millie as quickly as you can, hon, otherwise, my son’s gonna run away from home!”
Melanie laughed despite the tears rolling in favonovel.com eyes. “O-Okay. Take care of your health now, okay? We’ll talk some other time. Goodbye.”
Despite Melanie’s car already vanishing into the horizon, Lil’ P had not stopped bawling since favonovel.com first started before they left. He cried so hard that his sister joined in on the crying cacophony. Poor Summer felt as though favonovel.com ears were going to implode. “Arrrghh! Shh-shh-shush, stop crying already, okay? Millie’s gonna come back and play with you another time! She’s only going home for the time being! Lord Almighty, what do you think you’re doing, young man?”
Lil’ P sniveled hard between his crestfallen tears. “I wanna change my sister! I want Millie to be my little sister, not this one!”
Tiffany rolled favonovel.com eyes immediately. “You really think you can replace your sister with another girl just because you wanna? Pssh, please. You need to git gud, son. Good enough that when you grow up, you can marry favonovel.com as your damn wife! That’s the way of a competent man, only a wimp is content with being a crybaby!”
Lil’ P suddenly looked up at his mother with his most solemn expression yet. “Oh yeah? I’ll marry favonovel.com as my ‘damn-wife’ when I grow up! Then we can play together every day!”
Summer shivered at the implication. “The hell do you know about marriage, punk? You’ll do more good picking yourself up from the floor and washing your face of that snot and those tears. Or else! I’m telling your dad…”
There was no one else in the family whom Lil’ P was more terrified of than Jackson. His grandparents and mommy basically coddled favonovel.com every day, they would not even want to upset a single hair on his head. His mother, Tiffany, was all bark and no bite. Grandpa Atticus didn’t have the heart to see a child cry.
This was why the only person who had the least trouble disciplining his son was his father. A single threat prefacing with his name was all Summer needed to get the child to behave. Instantly, Lil’ P followed Atticus into the bathroom to wash his face.
