Three months. She hadn’t contacted the children once, yet she could smile so happily at someone else’s child in a strange city?
“Can we go find Mommy?” Leo tugged at his suit jacket. “We miss Mommy…”
3:51 pm
<
The child’s voice was like a dull knife, slowly carving into his heart.
Dominic looked at the three happy figures in the photo and suddenly sneered.
“Prepare the jet,” he told his assistant, gently wiping a tear from Mia’s face. “We’re going to bring Mommy home.”
He refused to believe that Elara genuinely liked that doctor.
This must be to provoke him-
After all, she had loved him so deeply, loved him enough to endure six years of neglect.
If he went in person, with the two children, she would surely soften.
After all, Elara could never bear to see him or the children upset.
Meanwhile, at “The Clay Canvas Studio” in Havenwood, Elara was engrossed in shaping a lump of
clay.
Little Lily lay on the workbench beside her, her small face smudged with several streaks of mud.
“Auntie Elara, look at the bunny I made!” The little girl proudly held up a wobbly creation.
Elara leaned in to look, then suddenly reached out and dabbed a bit of clay on Lily’s nose.
“It really is a little bunny, but shouldn’t a bunny have a round nose?”
Lily giggled, then grabbed a handful of mud and retaliated.
As the two played, Julian approached with three cups of hot tea, his glasses also splattered with a bit of flying clay.
“You two,” he shook his head helplessly, though a smile tugged at his lips, “are you treating this like a battlefield?”
Sunlight streamed through the skylight onto the table. Julian pulled out a handkerchief and naturally wiped a speck of mud from Elara’s cheek.
His fingers paused when they touched her skin. Realizing how close they were, his ear tips involuntarily flushed. Lily giggled at the scene, then suddenly put down her clay, blinking her big eyes
:52 pm
<
at Elara:
Es
D
“Auntie Elara, I’m so happy. I wish I could stay with Uncle and you forever.”
Elara’s heart stirred. She looked up, meeting Julian’s gentle gaze behind his glasses.
That gaze held careful anticipation, making her heart tremble.
But then, she thought of Dominic, and those two children…
Her
gaze dimmed involuntarily, and she remained silent.
