His Runaway Queen (Effie and Leo) novel Chapter 17

Chapter 12-3

Claim

We locked up the house and then headed out to my car. I had an SUV, and both of the boys had used it when they’d been down here before. Archie knew his way around the area, so I let him drive us to the aquarium. As we were pulling out from behind the bakery, I saw Leandro heading inside. I was really hoping that he didn’t see us leave because I didn’t want to have to deal with him today.

Both of my brothers knew what had happened with Leandro and would probably kick his ass if he showed up while they are here. They know what he looks like, so the instant that they see him, they’ll go after him. So I tried to keep him from seeing me in the car and hoped that he didn’t.

It didn’t take us long to get to the aquarium, and when we got there, I got the stroller set up and Veer strapped into it. I put my crossbody bag over my head and the diaper bag into the bottom of the stroller. Henrie pushed it, while Archie threw his arm over my shoulder, and we headed inside.

My little nugget loved the aquarium and all of the bright colors that were in there. We walked around to all of the different tanks, looking at the fish. We got to pet sting rays. And we even caught a dolphin show. It was awesome to watch. We saw different kinds of fish, puffins, frogs, jellyfish, turtles, eels, snakes, sharks, macaws, crocodiles, alligators, sloths, stingrays, starfish, manatees, seals, penguins, and coral.

Veer would squeal and laugh with every new animal that we saw. I was really thinking about getting a fish tank to set up in my living room for him. As much as he seemed to love the ones here, I know that he’d love it. We walked around the aquarium for hours, looking at everything. We even had lunch in the little dining room that they had.

It was so magical. It was surrounded by glass, and you could watch as the fish swam beside of us or over our heads. Veer was more interested in watching the fish than he was in eating. But I finally managed to get him to eat. When we were done, we explored the aquarium some more and even stopped at the gift shop. Veer ended up with three new toys from there. I got him a dolphin, Archie got him a set of little animals, and Henrie got him a manatee. I got stuff for the boys and for Dove. I even picked up stuff to

send to Dad and Grandma.

When we finally left, he was one happy but tired little boy. As soon as we got in the car and headed for home, he fell asleep. And he slept all the way home. When we got back to the bakery, Henrie got Veer out

of his car seat, and he didn’t even wake up,

The next day was spent at the zoo, but this time, we went to a different one from the one we went to

before. Not only did Veer have fun, but my brothers did as well. And today, Dove was able to come with us. We spent the whole day at the zoo and had lunch there.

On both days, I took lots of pictures of Veer with my brothers and even with Dove at the zoo. I laughed and had so much fun. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had felt so free. It was probably before I was forced to leave my dad and go live in a new country with my mother.

At the zoo, Veer was trying to roar like the lions and was meowing at all of the cats. He squealed and laughed when he fed a giraffe a carrot, and it wrapped its tongue around his hand. We bought a bag of

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NVhapter 17:3

feed so that we could feed the different animals. And Veer would squeal and laugh every time.

Claim

We had lunch at the zoo and then visited the gift shop to buy more gifts. Veer ended up with more toys, but this time, he got an elephant, a lion, a hippo, and a huge giraffe. I got the boys and dad all a coffee cup, keychain, and a hoodie. And I got grandma, Dove and I all coffee cups with lids, key chains, and hoodies. I got pretty much the same things yesterday.

When we left the zoo, we stopped on the way home and grabbed burgers for dinner for us and nuggets for Veer. After two days of doing a lot of walking, I didn’t want to have to stand forever making dinner. Thankfully, I didn’t see Leandro anymore over the weekend. But I knew him and knew that he wouldn’t give

1. up.

He would keep watching and waiting for us. He was determined to get me back. And he wouldn’t believe me when I told him that I was someone else. I know that I’m going to have a fight on my hands, but I’m not going to give in to him easily. I’ll fight him every step of the way. Because I won’t go back to being the other woman. The one that was stupid enough to believe that he actually loved her. The one that was so much younger than him. I’ll work out a visitation schedule for our son with him. But that’s as far as I am willing to go with him. I refuse to be hurt again or to watch him with her. I also plan to make it know that she’s to be nowhere near my son because I don’t trust the bitch not to hurt him. If he can’t deal with that, then he can leave us alone, once and for all.

Mandy O