THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 64: Mom, Why Don’t We Have A Daddy?

Director Wyatt’s confused eyes alternated between the two children. From all indications, it was obvious Elvis didn’t want his sister to say whatever happened in school.

He was puzzled by their behavior and gently patted Elvis’s little head affectionately.

"My boy, remember what I told you before. You must never keep things that you are unable to solve, to yourself; especially from your family members that you know, sincerely love and care about you."

He stared deep into Elvis’s clouded ocean blue eyes and challenged, "Now, be man enough and tell us yourself, what happened in school today. Remember if you refuse to tell us, we still have our way of finding out, but it will be more honorable to hear it from you."

The confident and reassuring gaze from his grandfather seemed to have broken the ice as Elvis finally nodded his head,

"I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want mummy to be sad."

Kathleen sensed it had something to do with her. ’What could have happened this time around?’ She couldn’t help but think of several possibilities.

’Did someone speak ill of her and he couldn’t bear it and got into a fight? But if that was the case, his teacher would have notified her.’

Elvis has always been protective of her and Eleanor’s feelings and would do anything to defend them.

He believes that as the man in the family, he has a responsibility of protecting them from harm.

On many occasions Kathleen felt guilty for her son who was acting way beyond his age.

If there was anyone on earth that Elvis would concede to, it was his mother and sister.

She saw the way he was struggling and her heart went out to him.

"Baby, tell us what happened. I promise I won’t be sad"

Elvis’s deep gaze scrutinized her face to confirm that she wasn’t just saying so to coax him. He only started talking after receiving a reassuring nod from Kathleen.

"During the social studies class today, the teacher divided us into groups and gave each group specific tasks to work on." He paused briefly then continued.

"The task given to my group was to make a family booklet with everyone’s name under their drawings. But when the teacher saw mine, she said it wasn’t properly done."

"Why?" Director Wyatt’s forehead creased in a frown. "That’s an easy thing to do, why would my genius grandson not get something as simple as that right?"

"Because..." Elvis trailed off, and did something unusual with his nature; he looked down and started fidgeting with his palm, probably seeking the courage to continue.

Seeing this, Director Wyatt lifted his chin and with a slight nod of the head, urged him to continue.

"Mine didn’t have a name for the father," Elvis finished off in a small voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the car dropped and everywhere went quiet.

Elvis lifted his head and scrutinized Kathleen’s expression.

Apart from the initial "huh?" that unconsciously escaped her mouth, her expression was unruffled.

But if one were to stare closely, you would notice that her purple eyes have turned several shades darker and her knuckles that were concealed beside her side were tightly clenched.

Although nobody said a word, so many unspoken words floated through the quiet space of the once lively car.

The silence was finally broken by Director Wyatt’s light chuckle. "Is this the reason you were bothered?"

"Mm-hmm," Elvis responded, his gaze still fixed on Kathleen’s face. He was yet to see any reaction from her and wasn’t comfortable with her silence either.

Actually, today was not the first time the children had encountered a situation relating to their father but they have always kept it from their mother. If not for Eleanor’s slip, today’s episode would have also been hidden like many others in the past. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Kathleen, on the other hand, spaced out. ’I knew this day was going to come sooner or later. Now that it finally did, I’m not even prepared to face it. What should I do now?’

"Mom," Elvis gently called out, forcing Kathleen out of her train of thoughts.

"Yes baby," she answered and flashed Elvis a cool smile which revealed none of the emotions she was feeling.

Before Kathleen could say anything further, Director Wyatt’s deep voice cut in.

"You didn’t need to think too much about what to write my dear."

"But we don’t have a daddy. How would brother have written our daddy’s name if we don’t even know who he is?" Eleanor objectively pointed out the obvious.

"Who said you don’t have a daddy? You should have written my name," offered Director Wyatt.

"But you are not daddy. You are our grandpa and mummy’s daddy." Eleanor argued.

The same thought had popped up in Elvis’s mind but unlike Eleanor, he couldn’t say it out loud.

"I had already written your name as our grandfather, so it wasn’t right for me to repeat your name as our daddy," Elvis felt this was way safer to say.

"Mom, why don’t we have a daddy. Other kids have daddy’s together with mummy." Eleanor’s eyes had a longing look in them as she stared at Kathleen.

Her distraught expression tugged at Kathleen’s heartstrings and her nails dug further into her palms.

Elvis understood his sister’s desire to know who their father was, but his eyes had also taken in how uncomfortable their mother got after he finished speaking even though she tried her best to conceal it.

"Eleanor, As mummy’s father, grandpa can also be considered as our father and he has also been taking care of us all these while."

His face brightened up as he coaxed, "Come to think of it, not every kid has a family. But in our own case we have a wonderful grandpa, grandma and uncle Jason who loves us so much. We should be grateful for having them in our lives."

Eleanor was still curious about their father’s identity but decided not to probe further after hearing what Elvis said.