Page 12 of Losing Faith

I smile at her. “No, honey. I’m sorry for making you cry. I was only kidding.”

She nods appreciatively. “I’m giving all my friends a nickname and I said I don’t want to be your friend, but”—she pauses for dramatic effect and puts a finger up—“You getonesecond chance. I have the perfect nickname for you.” She nods like she’s proud of herself and I bite back a smile.

“That’s very kind of you.”

“Yeah, I know. So, how do you likeLissy?” She smiles down at me hopefully.

“Okay,” I entertain her. “And what’s your nickname?”

“Well, my namenameis Isabelle Faith Carter, but Daddy calls me Belle or Faith when he’s mad or just Carter when he’sreallymad.” Her eyes widen a bit, and I bite back a laugh.

“Uncle Sigh and Titi Vid call me Isa and Grandma calls me Bella.” She continues.

I catch the way she saysBella, like beautiful or pretty in Spanish. “What doyouwant to be called?”

She turns her head to the side as she twirls my hair through all of her tiny fingers. “I like Belle ‘cause that’s the princess’s name.” She looks down at me. “You know Belle? With the Beast and—”

“Yeah, I know her. So you want to be called Belle?”

She nods, but it doesn’t seem like she was even listening to my question as she does something in my hair.

“Can I braid your hair?”

“No, thank you, kiddo. Go ask Titi V if you can braid her hair.” She’s cute, but I’m not letting her tangle my hair after it took so much of my energy to get out of bed and wash it today.

“Titi doesn’t want her hair braided.” Sire quickly saves his girlfriend from having a knot in her pretty curls. “Let’s finish reading, Isa.”

Sire wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him as she lets out a laugh.

At the reminder of the conversation I overheard the other day, I sit up and watch Isabelle sound out the words in her book.

After a minute of her trying, Sire reads it for her and that’s how theirtutoringsession goes for the next five minutes before the teacher in me can no longer take it.

“She’s not going to learn if you just tell her what word it is.”

When Sire glances over at me, it’s clear he’s about to mess with me and tell me to mind my business but he glances at Isabelle before clearly remembering something.

“You have an education degree.” He smiles as he hands me the book. “Help us.”

Vidia flops onto the couch, her brows slightly furrowed. “You studied education?”

I nod as I pick up the book. “I was a special education teacher.”Before I relapsed and got fired for going to work hungover one too many times.

I glance at Sire and he offers me a small smile. I naturally went to him when I lost my job, simply to vent, but then he said I didn’t need a job and he’d take care of everything for me. I didn’t want to let him do that, but heisa trillionaire or something, so I let him and he paid for my rent for the rest of the year before transferring me more money than I’ll ever need.

I tried to pay him back, but we made a deal: As long as I fight my depression and make myself the priority, he’ll help with everything else. So that’s what I’ve been doing.

Not having the stress from having to work has been a huge weight off my chest. I loved my kiddos, but I was depressed that I needed to work, then I was depressed because I got fired. Now I have enough money to not work for the rest of the year and somehow, life still sucks.

Pushing my thoughts away, I sit on the edge of the couch so I’m closer to Isabelle. Since I’m not sure where her standing is, I grab Sire’s laptop to do a short assessment.

I have her make letter-sound associations but after the first two, she turns to me as if I offended her. “I’m five, I know my letters. C-c-cat is with aC. This is too easy.”

I bite back a laugh at how annoyed she is but from what I overheard from her dad, her school thinks she’s really behind.

“Easy means you’re doing good. Let’s continue.”

She shrugs before she turns to the laptop. Instead of simply doing what I said, she cracks her knuckles and pretends to crack her neck before starting, as if this was a competition of a lifetime. Sire and Vidia let out a low laugh before she associates each sound with all the letters in the alphabet with close to no issue.

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