I woke up the next morning to the smell of breakfast being made. Curiosity peeked in me as I followed the scent to the kitchen, since when did my kids learned to cook? How did they even reach the ingredients in the cabinets?

Turning the last corner, I walked in on Brunet taking bacon out of the pan and onto a big plater. Oh...him, I forgot he was here.

"Your up! How was your sleep? Wait, never mind that, go join Ant and Zain at the table." He said cheery as he pointed the spatula thingy towards the dining room.

Even after I pricked his little heart with my words last night. Brunet is still all happy and gleeful, that makes me mad. He should be upset that I practically ruined his perfect expectations of his wife overcoming this deadly cancer.

What is wrong with him? He's a doormat, letting everyone walk over him. As much as my old self would love to see him fall, see him fall now will just make me feel guilty. I give the credits of my softness to my kids.

Having kids made me soft but at the same time tougher. The small lessons that my kids teach me, change me day by day, and the constant worrying about their safety brought me to become more cautious and vigilant.

I'll be honest with myself, if I really hated Brunet then I would've killed him a longgggg time ago. But no, I didn't, instead I tolerate him and help him even after he blew up my whole mission with the Alphas.

So if I want Brunet to learn to stand up for himself, then I'll be his bully. I'll leave my stained footprints all over his mat until he's had enough and decides to become clean.

I left the kitchen to the direction Brunet was pointing at, my dining room. In it I saw Zain entertaining Ant with funny faces. Ant's adorably contagious laugh echoed straight to my ears, it made me smile, seeing my boys happy makes me happy.

I took a seat at the head of my 4 seat table, this brought my son's attention to me. They smiled upon seeing my, "Good Morning, mommy." Zain sweetly said, whilst his brother mispronounced those words.

"Good Morning, my eatable kids." I said joking with them. Zain laughed and quickly told me how he was the one to set up the table. "Good job, the table looks nice." I said

As usual his big smile spread all across his face in pride, my praises really do bring out those beautiful smiles I love seeing on him.

Finally, Brunet came out the kitchen with the last plater of breakfast, the bacon. "Ok ok, so let's get to eating." He said happily before putting the plater down on the middle of the table.

I started placing food on Ant's plate with pancakes, fruits, bacon, and eggs, while Brunet did the same to Zain. Eventually we were all eating.

"Did you look over the file I brought of the case we're working?" Brunet asked.

"Nope."

He frowned, "His latest victim is Casey and he's had her for 4 day now, we can't wait any longer." He said urgently.

I rolled my eyes after taking in a bite out of a strawberry, "Ok..and? How is that my problem?"

Brunet was taken a back by my snarky remark, "You and I are partners-" he started

"Imma cut you off there, there is no 'we', your working this case this alone. The only time I'm involved is when you want help, why can't you get help elsewhere? Why can't you just leave us alone?" I said, getting riled up a little.

Brunet paused, he contemplated on what he was gonna say next since he knows how I get when I'm mad. "I come to you because there isn't another person I know that can solve and have a better understanding on situations like this. I can't just leave you alone because regardless if you like me or not, I'll make it my mission to stay by your side."

Scoffing, I took a drink out of my orange juice, "You really think too low of yourself, it can get contagious you know. It's a bad influence around my kids." I said

Brunet looked at Zain and Ant as they were eating their food, minding our conversation. "You don't know how much I love these kids, I wouldn't do anything to harm them. You on the other hand are the opposite, they'll take after you and grow to hate those that don't good in their lives. You cage them in a big expensive house with all they can ask for but one day they'll ask for something you can't give them, something everyone needs and that's the ability to care and help others. The ability to love and trust others, you won't be able to give them that since you lack it."

I looked Brunet dead in the eye, he has no right to say I can't love, care, help, or even trust people. Does he really think I'm some cold monster?! I've done all I can to make my family accept me, fuck I even killed off more Alphas than the whole gang has ever killed! Yet they never loved me back! They never cared for me! They fucking hated me!

Everything about me just made them hate me more. "Brunet-"

"You don't even call me by my name, you criticize, you smile at the weak, you even call yourself the victim, when in reality your the problem. Do you wanna know why you still believe your family hates you? It's because your self centered, you string onto the past and don't look forward. You think everyone isn't trustable, when we should be the ones thinking your not to be trusted."

Deep breathes
Deep breathes

I took a calculated breathe and slowly collected my thought before spitting them out to the man sitting across from me.

Ring
Ring

Grrrrrrrrr

Stay calm, Nunu. Stay calm. I picked up my phone and answered the call without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello." I said.

H-Hello?"

Monique. She's got some nerves calling me.

"What" I said rudely.

Monique's breathing hitched before she shakily answered me, "I-it's U-unique." She said on the brink out crying.

Gosh this needs to go faster, I'm already on the verge of killing Brunet right here in front of my sons. This slow/cry talk is getting me annoyed, "Speed up what your trying to say, I don't have all day." I said nonchalantly.

"She's gone Nunu! Uni is gone!"

Is this a joke? Are they that desperate to have me come back home? They've finally gone mad, using Unique as a cookie to bring me back is soo childish.

I let out a scoff as I tore the phone away from my ear, not wanting to hear anymore of this charade, I said my last remark before hanging up...

"Not my problem."