The Broken Angel & Her Overprotective Brothers-Chapter 271: Going Out for Dinner (Daniel)

Daniel couldn’t remember how many times he had already driven past the bakery. He’s just stuck and his situation had started making him a little bit frustrated. Never in his life did he think that he would face such problems while facing the woman who had captured his heart from their very first meeting.

Looking up at the sky, all he could see were the dark clouds that had taken over. The weather forecast predicted a storm and heavy rainfall and since it was already evening, he needed to head home to his siblings.

He was about to drive past the bakery once again when he suddenly changed his mind. Parking his car, he climbed out of the car and started heading towards the bakery. The sweet sound of chimes greeted him as he opened the glass door and entered the shop.

What he didn’t expect was to see an empty shop with no one in sight. He looked around for a bit and finally heard some voices coming from the hallway leading to the back where the kitchen was probably located.

He immediately headed in the direction of the voices and soon noticed that it was Claire and her mother, Annika, talking. As he finally entered the kitchen, he found the two of them sitting on the floor against the counter.

His arrival pulled the attention of both mother-daughter duo towards him and he would be lying to say that his heart didn’t flutter when both of them recognized him instantly. But his happiness died soon as he realized that something was very wrong there.

-

"It’s you..." Annika whispered in a barely audible tone as her brown eyes settled on the very familiar figure of the handsome man who appeared to be quite flustered as he noticed the unshed tears in Claire’s eyes.

"Uncle..." Her little girl barely called him in her shaky voice but the man didn’t waste even a second before he was beside her, kneeling on the floor as he enveloped her in a warm hug.

"What’s wrong, Claire? Is everything alright? Why is she crying?" This time he looked at Annika with questioning eyes and just to see him so flustered for her baby girl, made warmth fill Annika’s heart. She had never seen anyone looking at her baby girl with such tender and warmth-filled eyes. And most importantly, he was a stranger who had nothing to do with either of them.

She was too lost to respond to his questions and that was probably why Claire decided to don’t on her own.

"M-mom... she... s-she’s hurt..." The girl said as she struggled to compose her emotions.

Annika noticed just how quickly that man’s attention towards her and his eyes moved all over her to search for where she had gotten hurt. "Don’t listen to her. It’s nothing big and I’ve already called for help. My neighbor will be here in some time. Claire is just..."

"Your ankle..." He gasped as his eyes finally fell on Annika’s ankle which had already started swelling and appeared like a huge riped tomato. "Let me take you to the hospital."

She didn’t even get the chance to turn down his offer as she found herself being whisked into his arms the very next second. She was too dumbfounded to speak for a couple of moments.

"Claire, darling, can you please grab your mom’s bag and coat. I’ll help your mom into the car before I’ll come back to get you. Okay?" The man guided Claire before he headed out of the kitchen with Annika in his arms.

It was not until she was already seated comfortably in the back seat did Annika finally found her voice. "That..." She muttered as the man was about to close the car door but stopped at her voice.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked while looking right back into her eyes, his dark emerald eyes gazing back at hers.

"Ah, well... C-can you lock the shop?" Annika finally mustered up the works.

She finally saw a hint of a small smile on his lips as he nodded his head and left to close the bakery and bring Claire.

*******

"Uncle, mom is gonna be alright, right?" Claire asked as she snuggled closer in Daniel’s arms. The little girl still seemed on edge about her mother’s injury.

Daniel pulled away from the hug to look into Claire’s beautiful eyes as he replied, "Don’t worry, Claire. Uncle is here with you and your mum. And the doctor is helping your mom. He’s a great doctor and trust me, your mom will be alright soon."

It had already started raining outside and it was already half-past seven in the evening. Taking out his phone, he sent a message in their family group about him being late before putting the phone back in his pocket.

It didn’t take long before Sam walked out of the hospital room and approached the two of them. "I have already healed her. You both can go and meet her. After all the formalities are done, you can take her home."

Though he didn’t voice out any questions about the identity of the mother-daughter duo, Daniel was aware that Sam wanted to know exactly what was going on.

"Thank you, Sam. Let’s catch a drink tomorrow evening?" He offered and found the vampire nodding his head in approval before walking away.

Daniel looked at Claire and took her small hand in his big one before they both headed inside the room. A nurse was helping Annika to rub a magical balm on her ankle that almost appeared fully healed.

"Let me do it," Daniel told the nurse who immediately handed him the balm and moved aside.

"You don’t have to..." Annika tried to stop him but her words faltered as his fingers came in contact with her skin.

"You should take care of your wife these few days. Even though Dr. Sam has healed her, the ligament in her ankle is still sensitive. She should not put too much pressure on it. Use this balm for two more days and she will be fully healed." The nurse advised and while Daniel nodded his head in understanding, Annika was terrified after hearing the nurse calling them husband and wife. She was in a dilemma if she should clear the confusion or stay silent.

As the nurse walked out of the room, she finally found the courage to speak. "I’m really sorry, Mr. Alessandro. You have to get involved in all this while you were just visiting the shop." She only found out about his identity a couple of minutes ago from her attending doctor.

Daniel was silent for a couple of seconds as he kept massaging her ankle. It was not until he felt Claire tapping on his arm did he look up. "Since you are feeling so bad... how about going out with me for dinner?"