I have brought enough with me to be away from home for a month. My family is headed out on vacation. I will join them, but I have things to get in order first. I have come prepared.
“Come with me. I show you your rooms and then we talk.”
I nod and pick my bag back up, grab my rolling suitcase Maldonado brought in as I follow Uncle Misha through his house. I’ve been here once before with my father. I know my way around.
“I can train with you while I’m here,” I say as I walk beside him.
He sighs. “Da, you can.”
LaSalle
“Sammy is where?”Tasha growls after she drags me into my office, away from the kids.
She’s hot, having just called all the kids down so we could head out for our flight. I was so exhausted when I received Maldonado’s text that I hadn’t realized what he was telling me.
I thought Sammy was heading to Uri’s, not to Russia. Now Maldonado’s confused reply after I told him it was fine makes sense. Clearly, I need to give those texts way more attention.
“He’s in Russia. He went to see Misha.”
“He went to see Misha,” she mocks. “How can you be so calm and cool about this? He’s eleven. It’s time to set boundaries.
“Waking up and jumping on a plane isn’t okay, not after all that has happened. Maldonado should have known better. A simple text isn’t enough in circumstances like this.”
“Tasha, I’m calm because Maldonado is with him. Misha wouldn’t allow anything to happen to our son and it’s Sammy. He knows how to handle himself.”
“He’s eleven,” she growls.
“This is what he needs to do. I thought we agreed to support his journey to finding his way.”
“When I say I want to support him, I don’t mean giving him access to a private jet and the freedom to travel the world all willy-nilly. He took his passport from my purse. We were all on our way out for a family vacation.
“We’ll be gone for a month. This is not okay, LaSalle. We have a wild, unpredictable bitch out there gunning for us all and God knows who sent those assholes. Maldonado shouldn’t be the only one with him,” she says.
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. She’s pissed. I get it; she’s not entirely wrong, but I’m trying to trust my son’s judgment here.
“I will talk to him about taking things out of your purse. I’ll also set some new protocols for Maldonado to follow. However, Sammy has saved our lives by taking action. I don’t want to place restrictions on him that will hinder him and cost a life.”
Tasha sighs as she frowns at me and places her hands on her hips. I love how fiercely she protects our son. She has nevertreated our children as hers and mine; they’re ours. All our children are as much hers as mine.
“This isn’t right. I understand he’s different, but what kind of example are we setting? Would we be this okay with this if it were Elijah or Karen? Lord knows, if Paulie was older, he’d be driving us crazy right now because Sammy doesn’t have to be on vacation with us.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes, you know I do.”
“Then trust me with this. I will make this right. This isn’t a normal parenting situation. We’re going to have to learn to pivot and set boundaries as we go.”
She sighs in frustration and purses her lips. Walking over to her from my perch on the side of my desk, I wrap my arms around her.
“Baby, the last thing I want is for us to constantly be at each other’s throats. We have to face this as a team, or it’s going to tear us apart. Sammy needs us together. I need us together.”
“I know. This is just crazy. I wasn’t expecting to wake to find one of my children missing right before leaving for a family vacation. I feel like a bad mother. How did I miss him planning this?”
“You are not a bad mother. You have six other children who require your attention as much as Sammy does. You can’t do and see everything.
“This is as much my fault. I was too focused on business and trying to handle everything before we needed to head out. We will take some time to relax while on vacation so we can be refreshed when we return.”
“LaSalle, I’m not going on vacation without our son. We’ll just have to postpone and go some other time.”
