Chapter 185
Before she even knew it, the surgery had already gone on for over seven hours.
By then, all the other kids in the kindergarten had already left, and only three kids remained.
Estella had moved out of their house, but Archie and Benny still treated her the same way they did
when she was staying with them.
The boys noticed that no one was there to pick Estella up, so they took her to the sandbox. All three of
them then built a sandcastle together and were having so much fun.
When Lucian showed up, he saw the three kids crouching in the sandbox. Their laughter filled the small
playground in the kindergarten.
“Essie,” said Lucian, who waited until all three had finished playing before he called out to his daughter.
However, Estella was reluctant to leave as she stared at her two friends, even though her dad had
already called out to her.
Lucian frowned and turned his attention to Archie and Benny. “Where‘s your mom?”
The boys didn‘t like him, but they still stood up politely.
Reluctant to answer Lucian‘s questions, Archie pouted and turned his head to the side to stare at the
tiny sandcastle they had built earlier.
Benny, on the other hand, had an innocent look on his face. He answered, “Mommy has an important
surgery to perform today. She is probably dealing with something troublesome, and that is why she‘s
not here yet.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and saw the look on Archie‘s face. That prompted
Benny to quickly add, “But, uh, she should be here soon. Bye, Mr. Farwell. Bye, Essie.”
Nodding, Lucian reached out to hold Estella‘s hand and leave but to no
avail,
Estella had tilted her head down and backed away a few steps. At that moment, she was standing
behind Archie and Benny, shaking her head at her father.
The boys realized that Estella refused to leave, so they turned around to coo her.
But no matter how hard they tried to convince her to go home, Estella stubbornly shook her head. She
even clutched onto their bags and insisted, “Stay together.”
Estella had been rather harsh to Lucian ever since he took her away from Roxanne‘s place. The kid
would cry endlessly at every trivial matter, and that made Lucian raise his white flag. At that point, he
no longer dared to force her to do things she didn‘t want to. Hence, he had no choice but to give in by
nodding and saying, “I‘ll wait here with you boys.”
With Lucian around, the kids couldn‘t play as freely as they did before. All they did was sit quietly on
the bench.
After they waited for about an hour, the sky was turning dark. Yet, Roxanne was nowhere to be seen.
Lucian frowned a little as he fished his phone out of his pocket to call Roxanne.
He made several consecutive calls, but no one picked up.
I guess she is still in the operating room.
Lucian checked the time before shifting his attention to the kids. “Are you hungry? I‘ll get everyone
some food.”
Hearing that, Estella turned to look at both Archie and Benny with anticipation gleaming in her eyes.
Archie, however, grabbed the strap of his backpack and shook his head with a scowl on his face.
“We‘re going to wait for Mommy. Mr. Farwell, please go ahead and take Essie home.”
When Benny heard what Archie said, he forced himself to ignore his hunger and nodded in agreement.
“I‘m sure Essie is hungry, so please take her home quickly, Mr. Farwell.”
The glint in Estella‘s eyes dimmed instantly. She stubbornly shook her head at her father and said, “Not
hungry.”
I will stay with Archie and Benny if they‘re not leaving. I want to keep them company.
Lucian couldn‘t help feeling a headache coming.
Even after he tried to talk some sense into the kids, all three of them remained adamant about staying
put.
..
Left with no choice, Lucian ordered Cayden, who was waiting right outside, to buy them some food and
deliver it over.
“Thank you, Mr. Farwell, but we‘re not hungry,” lied Archie as he stubbornly turned Lucian‘s offer down.
Meanwhile, Benny caressed his tummy pitifully and echoed his elder brother‘s words.
At that point, Lucian could more or less guess the reason behind that hostility. The incident from before
must‘ve left a bad impression on the kids and made them hate me. Ah, they are so frustrating.
“I specially bought these for the two of you. If neither of you will eat it, then I have no choice but to
throw it away,” said Lucian, pretending to look for a trash can after that.
The boys hesitated for a moment, but at the end of the day, they didn‘t want the food to go to waste, so
they accepted it.
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