Alex was stunned. He couldn’t believe that this girl turned around and used his own words against him. He just looked at her with disbelief written on his face while she looked up expectantly at him. Her eyes were full of so much hope that the stern words that he was about to say became stuck in his throat.
“You should be grateful that I am giving you time to heal your wounds,” was all he said. He didn’t deny nor did he agree, leaving it open for interpretation. So Abi, being the hopeful, innocent person that she was, looked on the bright side and inwardly celebrated that he didn’t deny her words.
“Okay,” she said cheerfully as she hopped up. She did her exercise routine on the way back home. She felt a little bit energised after that conversation but as they got closer to the mansion, Abi started to feel sad and her heart felt heavy, as if it was being weighed down by a ton of bricks. Abi didn’t know why but she suddenly felt incredibly sad.
—
Meanwhile, back in the mansion.
Betty woke up to find herself alone in the room. She blinked and looked around as she remembered that she was sleeping in the magical castle that Abi was living in. She slowly got up and called out Abi’s name but she got no response. She wondered where Abi was so she got off the bed and headed towards the door. She left the room and headed down the stairs, still calling out Abi’s name.
Luckily, Charles heard her and found the little girl before she became lost in the huge mansion. He told her that Abi had gone out to exercise and led the little girl to the dining hall instead so that she could eat breakfast.
She followed the nice old grandpa to the dining hall and her eyes immediately lit up when she saw Mr. Zeke sitting at the table. She quickly gave him a big wave as she ran towards him.
“Mr. Zeke! Good morning, Mr. Zeke,” she greeted as she dragged back the massive chair next to him so that she could climb up on it.
Once she was on it, she faced Zeke and started asking him questions.
“Are you having breakfast, Mr. Zeke? What are you eating? Is it yummy? Can I have some too?” Little Betty looked at Zeke with enthusiasm but Zeke didn’t utter a word. It seemed like he had tuned her out. Little Betty’s face fell a bit when she got no reaction from Mr. Zeke so she turned her attention to breakfast.
Little Betty then tried to reach for the food but she was too small to reach anything on the big table. She glanced at him as her little hand tugged his sleeve softly to try and get his attention and it worked. Zeke finally looked at the little girl before him.
Without wasting the opportunity, she quickly asked him, “Mr. Zeke, can you please put a pancake on my plate? I can’t reach it…”
She then stretched out her hands to show him that her arms were nowhere near long enough to reach the food on the table. In fact, they barely made it past the plate laid out in front of her, even though she was sitting on her knees.
Sighing like he was having to do a tedious chore, Zeke reached out for a pancake and placed it on her plate.
“Thank you, Mr. Zeke.” Little Betty then picked up her cutlery and started to eat the pancake but it seemed that she ate too fast and choked a little on a piece. She started coughing hard and Zeke immediately looked up to see the choking child in front of him. He immediately patted her on the back and then poured out a glass of water for her.
His heartbeat accelerated as a slight sense of panic washed over him, mainly at the thought of having to explain to Alex if something happened to the child while he was around, but there might also be a slight hint of worry for this little girl who didn’t seem to want to run away in fear of him.
“Here, drink this,” he told her as he held out the glass of water to her. Little Betty took it and gulped the whole glass of water down in one go.
Once Little Betty put the glass down, the blockage was gone and she could breathe again. However, in the next second, big fat tears started rolling down her cheeks and she leapt into Zeke’s arms. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck as she sobbed and sobbed. That experience was terrifying for the little girl.
Zeke sat frozen on his chair, his arms hanging in mid air, as if he was unsure of what to do with them. The girl’s sobs were loud in his ear and he felt his shirt getting wet from her tears but he didn’t know what to do to calm her down. He had never spent time with any children before let alone crying ones!
What was he supposed to do?! His eyes met Charles’ gaze and Charles mimed to Zeke to hug the child and pat her back gently. Zeke followed his actions without thinking about it. He wrapped his arms around the child and patted her back. This action, although it looked very awkward to whoever was watching, seemed to have worked because Little Betty’s sobs slowed and quieted down. After another minute, she had completely stopped crying.
This was the scene that greeted Abi and Alex when they finally got back to the mansion. Abi’s eyes were wide with shock while Alex’s expression was again filled with mischief as he smirked at Zeke with a taunting smile. Alex didn’t stay around and he headed up to shower and change while Abi walked towards the little girl and took her from Zeke’s arms. He gladly let Abi take the little girl before he too, immediately left the scene, as if he was a robber that was about to be caught on the scene by the cops.
