Page 25 of The Defiant Curse

“How can you be a mom and a wife if you’re empty?” he asked. “Don’t you think that you deserve to refill your well too? Don’t you think that the baby birds need you to be whole and have that spirit back in you?”

She was silent.

So, he answered.

“Mom, as one of the people who loves you, let me be to the point so you can put that away. You deserve to have a break too. You deserve to have a few moments of your own joy without having to take care of everyone. NO ONE will be upset over you taking a well-deserved vacation, and honestly, if you think the kids are not happy as pigs in shit to be at the beach… I have bad news for you. They’ve forgotten parental supervision even exists. Wyler gave up parenting a week ago.”

She laughed and wiped her eyes. As she did, the one brown and white goat climbed up onto her lap.

“Wait until they come back and they’re feral. I have NEVER been sadder that I won’t be there to watch them terrorize the security team. God. I might fly home just to see that.”

She snorted.

“You’re sick.”

Oh, he was well aware. Because she needed it, he distracted her with another critter.

“The goat in your lap is Uriel.”

She was scratching him behind the ears as he licked her face and the tears there.

“DON’T EAT HER!” he warned. “He’s always chewing on someone or upside down because he’s clumsy as fuck!”

She found that amusing.

“Vegan my ass,” he stated. “We’re missing a goat, and I think we know where it went,” he joked.

Elizabeth rested her head on Michael’s shoulder. Honestly, she needed this. He wasn’t wrong about her being empty, and maybe, just maybe, she shouldn’t feel guilty.

Oh, she still would, but progress might be in small steps on this one.

Besides, how could she refill the others when she was bone fucking dry?

“Who is that?” she asked, pointing at the one goat in the corner.

“That’s Jet. He’s the quiet one, and sometimes, I come out here to talk to him. I miss my friend,” he admitted, as they both took that moment to mourn.

Yeah, they both sat there, and watched that goat. Finally, she spoke.

“He likely misses us too.”

He needed to know.

“Did he suffer?” he asked.

She shook her head.

That was her ONLY solace.

“No. The car pulled up, and it was one shot through the glass. It hit him in the side of the head. One in, one out,” she said, her voice hitching as another batch of tears fell.

He wrapped his arm around her, and together, they watched as another goat jumped off the hay, landing on Jet.

“He always was bad at ducking,” he said.

Elizabeth gasped.

“MICHAEL! Too soon!” she said, laughing. “God! You have the timing of…me.”