Page 13 of Broken Prince

“How are you, buddy?” I asked him, running my hand in his silky hair.

He looked up, keeping his arms around me and I studied his face. The bruise from last week was gone and there weren’t any new marks on him.

“I’m okay; it’s not so bad here. School’s good. We’re doing a volcano in science.”

“Are you?” I asked, trying to put as much excitement in my statement as I could. I should have been the one helping him with his science experiments.No, it should have been your parents’ job, you know, the sociopathic killers.

He nodded, finally letting go of me, and I leaned down to kiss the top of his head.

“How is work?” he asked as we sat side by side. It was not a question that a ten-year-old should care about, but he knew what a good job meant for us.

“It’s good, really good.”At least not as bad as I thought. “Oh, I brought you something you’re going to love!” I reached for my bag and retrieved the three books I borrowed from the house library. I would be able to buy him lots of books once I got my salary. Fifteen hundred dollars a week! I could still hardly believe it. “I borrowed them from work; I’ll bring you others next week.”

“Cool!” He took them eagerly and quickly went through them.

My eyes filled up with tears. Jude was always content with so little. He was the best kid there was.

I looked up and blinked back my tears. I only had a couple of hours with him; I couldn’t waste them crying.

“Did you know that the infinity sign is called a lemniscate?” he asked, resting his hand on top of the books.

“No, I didn’t but now I do. Thank you.”

Jude beamed. My brother loved words, and everything that has to do with words. The doctors had said he was on the autistic spectrum, very low on it, but using words and word games were his coping mechanism. My parents had been angry at him when they’d found out my brother was ‘broken.’ It was rich coming from sociopathic killers.

I took a deep breath, trying to chase the thoughts of my parents away. I didn’t want to let them spoil one more minute of my life.

“So, what do you want to play with today?” I asked him, looking at the small brown shelves against the wall containing well-used board games.

“Scrabble?”

I smiled and nodded. Which ten-year-old would choose Scrabble? My little brother, lover of words.

We played for over an hour as I listened to him talk about his new friends and the school. It was somehow good to know he was not as miserable as I feared he was.

Amy just sat in the background silently, playing on her phone.

And once again my time with Jude finished much sooner than I’d hoped. Time always flew by when I was with him.

It was always so hard to let him go, putting my brave face on. I missed him so much.

“I love you, Cassie. Thanks for the books,” he said, hugging me.

I kissed the top of his head. “I love you too, Jude bug. Be good, okay?”

He gave me a wide smile, showing me the adorable gap between his front teeth before disappearing into the living quarters.

I sat back down, letting go of my bravado for a minute.

“I promise, he is fine,” Amy said reassuringly, coming to stand beside me, squeezing my shoulder. “I’m not saying he doesn’t miss you, because that would be a lie, but he is okay.”

I nodded. “He’s used to being content with little. Our parents never loved us, never doted on us.” I sighed. “Jude shouldn’t be used to that.”

“You’re making up for it, tenfold.”

“I hope so.”

“So, your job…”

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