Chapter 22
Chloe sat with Nessa on the sofa just opposite her bed, she had been keeping herself with Vanessa’s cell phone while she arranged and parked her hair to a different style.
She kept feeling haunted about Xavier’s return having it in mind that he’s supposed to be at the time.
Chloe cut short her thoughts by handing the cell phone over to her again.
“I’m done playing games, would you sing for me?” The little girl commented.
She glanced at her and smiled. “I’ll sing for you, but not now. I’ll do that when it’s time to get to bed…”
Chloe nodded. She got on her feet and stood between her thighs.
“I didn’t eat again in the afternoon when I was back from school.” She stated.
Vanessa shook her head concluding everything to be a joke. She had known this little girl to be a type that plays a lot.
“You are not saying anything, ma’am Vanessa. Okay, I see now… you like it when I’m hungry right?” Chloe referred to her.
She shook her head again, this time amusingly. “Not at all sweetheart, but I’m quite sure that my baby jokes a lot.”
“Not this time, I’m being serious. I didn’t take lunch today like the other day…” she announced.
Nessa dropped the cell phone she had been scrolling just to hear her out. There must be something serious about her starving at noon.
“You just decided not to eat right? So you can prove to me how strong you are even when you’re starved…” Vanessa contemplated.
Chloe jumped on her body while grinning. “Ma’am Lilian ate our lunch and didn’t prepare another one. She insisted that Tracy would do that or we would rather starve…”
“And Tracy didn’t prepare another huh?” Vanessa asked, running her fingers in her hair.
She nodded and smiled. “Yes, she didn’t and we starved.”
Vanessa kept mute over the issue, she doesn’t want to say a word again about Lilian in order not to raise a quarrel again.
But she wondered. She wondered how the lady would have the heart to starve children that occupy her.
Gosh! Maybe she forgets one thing, that a day will come when she will have hers and the child will be treated just like she’s doing to the innocent children.
And then, one thing she must have forgotten. That the children occupied her in the building. If they want her to leave, she must vanish from their home even if Xavier wants her to stay.
But it’s kinda impossible to believe she’s treating them that way because no man plays pranks with his children… and therefore, if Xavier ever finds out that everything is true about her, then he won’t let her go just that way.
He will threaten her, and that’s the fact about it.
“Chloe, you should have come to me so I can give you something to eat rather than starving. I don’t want you to have issues with her, she’s gonna be your stepmother soon…” Lilian announced to the hearing of the little girl.
She lifted her face to stare at Vanessa so clearly. That sentence she made, at last, is wrong to her.
“That can never happen. Stepmother to hell. I can’t watch her be my stepmother, she’s so hostile, or don’t you get what I mean?”
She gripped Vanessa’s palm so tight and all her gaze was on her.
“She doesn’t have the quality of a good mother, she can’t even take care of my father. Ma’am Vanessa, you forgot that she left my father alone and left when he was so down… I don’t love her, and if dad insists that he will get married to her, then I’ll make this home uncomfortable for her…” she stated and relaxed on her body again.
Her lips circled out of anger. Vanessa continuously stared at her, this is the first day she’s seeing the little girl so annoyed.
“Don’t tell your father, I’ll speak to her myself…” she assured but she shook her head disagreeing with that.
“I’m so sorry, but I must tell dad.” She got down from her thigh and folded the long sleeve she had on revealing her ankle.
“She pushed me down and I hit my ankle on the floor. Yet you expect me to keep calm when I’m dying silently…” Chloe stated.
Vanessa couldn’t believe her eyes, she wasn’t comfortable seeing the little girl’s ankle swollen and reddish. She believes the pain might be much for her to bear.
“You must have done something before she pushed you down right?”
She nodded. “Of course I let her know how wicked she is for starving us. But that’s just the right thing to do… I hate her so much.”
Vanessa heaved a big sigh of relief, she was confused about what to say again. Probably, Lilian was wrong and that’s exactly what prompted the little girl to utter such words to her.
What she had hit neither her head nor chest on the ground?
Gosh! Such a thing shouldn’t happen again, she must talk sense to her.
This is getting out of hand. If she would be arrogant towards her, not to the children also… she must care for them.
“Chloe…” she called out.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.
She glanced at her and bent down again. “Do you wanna give me a kiss on my cheek?”
“I’ll do that when you’re asleep. Just want to tell you this, forgive Lilian okay. When you’re back from school and there’s no food… just come over to the bakery and Gabe your lunch.” Vanessa announced her hearing.
She nodded with a smile. “Okay ma’am Vanessa, thank you so much for everything you are doing for me.”
Nessa lifted her into her arms and got on her feet. “Your Dad must be back by now, you need to go welcome him.
She left the room to the sitting room, there sat Tracy and Ben busy with the television.
“Is your father back from work?” She asked them.
Tracy glanced at her and hissed very loud to Nessa’s hearing. The young lady stood watching and Ben didn’t say a word.
“You’re asking for me, Vanessa?” Xavier questioned from the stairs.
She turned to get him to come to the sitting room. “Yeah! I did. Good evening and how’s your health?”
He smiled and got seated. “I’m very strong now. Thank you so much for being a helper to me in my time of distress… you don’t get what you did for me.”
Vanessa returned the smile and dropped Chloe on the floor, she moved to her dad instantly.
“Chloe said she will sleep at her own time, so I’ll be leaving now…” she declared.
He nodded, grinning. “You’ve made her change in a big way.”
Chloe glanced at Nessa and then her father. “Goodnight ma’am Vanessa. See you tomorrow.”
She wished her a cool night and left the room.
“Now Tracy and Ben, tell me the reason behind you ignoring Vanessa when she asked about me,” Xavier asked his children.
Tracy chiseled her face the more on hearing the question. “I hate that lady.”
“You hate her more than the one that does starve you right?” Chloe cut into her sentence.
She glared at the little girl just like the father had been staring at her.
“What do you mean Chloe? Who’s the one that starves you?” Xavier asked.
She left him and sat on the floor. “The lady you want to marry.”
“And I don’t think that marriage will ever work, dad. Just let us be alone or you’ll regret it.” Ben spoke out for the first time.
He glanced at the three of them. “Is that the reason you ignored Vanessa? Do you know she’s the reason I’m sitting with you here?”
“I don’t care for any reason, she’s just the same as the others. Dad, she’s just pretending so you will love her, while the hell of a woman you kept here cannot play the role of a mother, talk more of a wife…” Tracy added annoyingly.
Chloe affixed her gaze on her father’s face, that look is so weird.
“She ate the whole meal again without preparing another for us, when we asked her she yelled at us… and when I approached her, she pushed me down and I hit my ankle on the floor,” Chloe announced.
Xavier’s eyes widened as he glanced at them all.
“She did what?” He asked again, just to make sure he isn’t deaf.
“Common dad, she pushed Chloe down.” Ben retorted.
Lilian pushed my daughter down. She starved my children again. And hasn’t said a word to me since I came back home. The sentences kept hitting his ear.
This is so ridiculous, but something else.
“What offense did I commit that Lilian is doing this to me and my children? I welcomed her here to spend days with us before our marriage, but she’s doing the unexpected.” He licked his lips and relaxed on the sofa. “She has always claimed to love my family.” He thought again.
Chloe tapped him but he ignored it. “Should I believe this so easily? What if they had insulted her because they never loved her? Must she keep starving them all the time?”
This question he wasn’t able to answer, he shook his head and got on his feet.
The three children watched him climb the stairs until he vanished from their sight.