~Later~
Later that day, Laura walked into Cal's room and saw Cal playing fence by himself, with his plastic play sword. Laura looked at Cal and laughed and shook her head.
"Son, can I come in and sit with you?" Laura asked in a warm tone.
Cal smiled at her and dropped his sword and sat down on his bed and blinked twice at her.
"Sure mommy—I mean mother." Cal said.
Laura sighed and raised her eyebrows and closed the bedroom door behind her and walked and sat beside Cal on the bed. She picked him up and sat him on her lap and he hugged her close.
"Mother can I ask you something?" Cal asked in almost a whisper.
Laura scoffed and smiled.
"Sure honey, what is it?" Laura said in a low voice.
"Can I call you mommy anyway, just between you and I?" Cal asked. "I don't like calling you 'mother'. I like 'mommy' more."
Laura laughed and hugged him closer.
"Sure you can, sweetie." Laura said with a smile. "It'll be our secret, okay?"
Cal nodded with a smile as he hugged her back closely. At that moment, one of the Hockley's maids came walking in the room. She was a tall, Hispanic woman in her late forties.
"I'm to clean this room, Mrs. Hockley." The Hispanic maid said with a somewhat thick Hispanic accent.
Cal scoffed and sucked his teeth.
"No!" Cal yelled coldly. "Can't you see I'm in here with my mother right now! Get out and do it later!"
The maid looked shocked and she quickly walked back out the room and closed the door behind her.
"Dumb gutter rat trash people." Cal said in a low voice.
Laura looked at her son with a deep frown.
"Son, you shouldn't talk to them or about them, that way." Laura said.
Cal frowned and stared at her.
"But father said I'm supposed to." Cal said.
Laura wanted to tell Cal that her father was wrong, but then she knew the consequences of that. She knew if she had, then Cal would go back to talking to the servants in a nice, friendly way and Nathan would pick that up and ask Cal why was he continuing to talk to them that way and Cal would tell him it was because Laura had told him to talk nice and friendly to them again, and then Laura would get beaten—again. Laura couldn't suffer through that again. Laura hugged Cal back to her closely again and frowned even more. She knew her son was doomed to be a monster one day, under the training of his father, Nathan Hockley.