THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 129: It’s About Elvis

"Why don’t you drop the children off today, Janice?" Stacy suggested when she saw how reluctant Eleanor was.

"Ok Mom." Kathleen had no objections as she also intended to go to the kindergarten. She was sure that man might come there looking for her today since she couldn’t keep the appointment yesterday.

Just as she had predicted, when she got to the Kindergarten parking lot, he was already there waiting.

A deep scowl was instantly etched on Elvis’s face the moment he saw the all too familiar car.

"Why is he here again mummy?"

"Don’t be disrespectful, he is an elder. Now go ahead and greet him like the well trained children that you both are."

"Good morning Sir," Elvis obediently greeted, although his countenance seemed to be saying, "your presence has removed whatever good that was in the morning."

"Good morning, weird uncle." Eleanor greeted in her not too pleasant voice, which elicited a laugh from Steffan.

"You can call me Uncle Steffan, Princess." He bent forward and ruffled Eleanor’s golden locks which were tied in two beautiful ponytails. "That’s what your friend Sophia calls me."

Eleanor’s eyes lit up at the mention of Sophia. "Do you know Sophia?"

"Of course I do," Steffan answered, happy that he could finally have a proper conversation with the little girl. "Sophia is my niece."

Eleanor’s mouth rounded in a silent "oh."

"That’s why you were at Sophia’s party?" Eleanor asked.

"Eleanor," Elvis called out impatiently. "Have you forgotten that you will soon be late for classes? Why are you so interested in talking to a total stranger when you should be in class?" Elvis scolded like a grownup, a disapproving look on his face.

He wasn’t happy with the way the man was using his poor niece to get Eleanor to talk to him.

’Tsk! Isn’t he shameless using his little niece’s identity to achieve his aim? If he was my uncle I wouldn’t want such an incompetent uncle.’

"You have to run along, cutie," Steffan said and gave Eleanor a charming smile which made Eleanor think he was not such a bad person after all.

"Bye, Uncle Steffan," she waved and trotted off with her mother and brother.

"Brother, he is not a total stranger," Eleanor did not fail to correct when she got the opportunity. " He said he is Sophia’s uncle and I’m sure Sophia cannot have a bad uncle."

"You are still so childish and foolish," Elvis sneered. "How can you believe just anybody? He might as well be lying to you."

"Mom," Eleanor complained.

"No name calling is allowed, especially not your sister," Kathleen reprimanded.

Elvis hung his head "I’m sorry," he said.

"Better," Kathleen led them into the hall and handed them over to their teacher. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"I will be back after school hours to pick you."

"Really?" Eleanor chimed, her clear bright eyes peering into Kathleen’s affectionate ones.

"Mm-hmm," Kathleen affirmed, holding Eleanor’s two chubby cheeks in her palms.

"Take care of yourself and don’t look for trouble," Kathleen admonished, then placed a kiss on each of their cheeks before straightening up to leave.

"Do you have a minute, Ms Wyatt?" their teacher, Ms Roberts asked as Kathleen was about to take her leave.

"I think I do, hope there is no problem," she asked.

"Not at all ma’am. Can you please wait for a few minutes while I send them to the class first? I will be back as soon as I settle them in class."

"Go ahead, I will wait."

The teacher left with the children but not before leading Kathleen to a chair to sit while she waited.

She was back within three minutes like she promised.

"What can I help you with, Miss?" Kathleen asked, her tone as accommodating as possible.

She had observed that the teacher appeared a bit nervous around her, so she needed to make her relax.

Ms Robert drew a shallow, shaky breath, her words coming out in hesitant fragments: "I, um, don’t know how to, uh, say this."

"Are you sure everything is Ok? Kathleen asked again, her tone was encouraging and made it easier for the other person to speak.

"It’s about Elvis," she started hesitantly.

"Elvis?" Kathleen’s expression was deceptively composed, but her surprise was given away by a brief gasp. "What about Elvis? Did he do something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing of the sort," Ms Robert quickly corrected.

"I’m listening," Kathleen said and waited for the teacher to speak.

"It started a few weeks ago when they were given a group project to work on in class."

"His group was to talk about the members of their family."

As soon as that was mentioned, Kathleen recalled the episode in the car a few weeks back when she came to pick them with her dad.

The children were deeply affected especially Elvis, they had even asked of who their father was.

For the teacher to refer to it again, it means it didn’t end in the car like she assumed.

"Normally he is always the first to complete any assignment or project before anyone does," the teacher continued, "but for this particular project, he wasn’t enthusiastic about it at all and did not hand over his completed project in the long run."

"I called him to have a one on one with him as to why he didn’t hand in his project but he seemed offended and refused to talk about it."

"I let it go thinking it was one of those "down on the weather days" tantrums."

Kathleen waited to a "but" to follow and sure enough it did.

"But, I’ve noticed that whenever a topic that has anything to do with a father is brought up in class, he is always averse and on some occasions gets agitated almost to the point of using foul language.

"Foul language?"

"Yes, like "all dads are scum and one doesn’t need to have one."

Kathleen was stunned and even Ms Robert could see it from the way her mouth hung open.