Filed to story: Leaving the Country After Divorce Novel (Lucian & Roxanne)
Povonne’s chest tightened at the sight, but with Lucian here and whatever happened vesterdav. no words of comfort could come out of her mouth.
“Thank Ms. Jarvis, then we’ll go home,” Lucian instructed frigidly.
Estella’s expression softened more as she heard that, and she stared at Roxanne expectantly, hoping that the woman would invite her to drop by again next time.
Yet, after all that waiting, she received not a single word of response.
The girl looked down dejectedly.
“Ms. Jarvis has to go to work. We shouldn’t bother her anymore,” Lucian urged.
Estella finally picked up her notebook and began to write in it again.
It seemed to take her a long time just to write “Thank you.”
Yet, when she was done scribbling, she raised her notebook at Lucian instead.
Daddy, can I come to see Ms. Jarvis again next time? I want to be friends with Archie and Benny.
Everyone saw what she had written.
Roxanne and her two boys felt sorry for her, but they dared not say anything due to Lucian’s sullen expression.
Noticing their reactions and seeing how clingy his daughter was with them, Lucian gritted his teeth. “No.”
Estella’s face fell the moment he said that. With her eyes reddening, she pursed her lips and began to cry silently.
Given that it was Catalina who always tended to Estella, Lucian didn’t have much experience dealing with children and thought his daughter was throwing a fit.
A look of panic flashed in the man’s eyes as he saw the little girl weep, but ultimately, he glared at her sternly.
“Stop crying,” he ordered, thinking he didn’t sound harsh at all.
Yet, he sounded especially fierce in the child’s ears.
With that, Estella began to cry harder. Tears gushed down her ashen cheeks like a river escaping a dam as she broke into an uncontrollable sob.
Lucian’s brows creased at the sight. He didn’t know how to react.
Meanwhile, Roxanne couldn’t watch how cold the man was toward his weeping daughter any further.
“Is that how you treat a child? She’s already in tears, and you’re still talking to her like this? Can’t you just talk to her nicely?”
Lucian froze at the woman’s sudden admonition.
Roxanne quickly strode over to Estella and knelt down to pull the little girl into her arms. “There, there, Essie. Don’t cry! You can come over to play whenever you like, okay? I’ll give you my number, so just let me know whenever you’re thinking of dropping by,” she assured tenderly. “Don’t cry anymore, okay? You won’t look pretty if you do.”
Meanwhile, Archie and Benny stood next to them with tissues in their hands. While coaxing Estella, Roxanne reached out for a piece of tissue and wiped the child’s tears.
The little girl slowly stopped crying and buried herself in Roxanne’s embrace.
Feeling her heart wrench, Roxanne held the child tightly and patted her on the back.
Archie and Benny were livid to see Estella having burst into tears like that, and they turned to Lucian indignantly.
“Why won’t you let Essie be friends with us?” Archie couldn’t help but question. “We’ve never been mean to her! For the past two times she ran away from home, my mommy’s the one who took care of her really well, and we’d play with her too. She has fun playing with us, and she likes us a lot, so why can’t she be friends with us? It’s not like we’re bad guys!”
Certainly not expecting to be reproached by two little boys, Lucian remained stone-faced, not knowing how to respond.
He didn’t want Estella to be friends with them just because he was being considerate, yet they were now blaming him instead.
“Essie doesn’t have many friends at school. Only Archie and I like her and let her hang around with us. When someone bullied her at school, we were the ones who helped her. If she can’t be friends with us, she’ll be all on her own! Is that what you want?” Even Benny couldn’t refrain from lashing out at Lucian.
The man felt extremely conflicted to be questioned like that.
Seeing him remain silent, the boys grew even more frustrated, thinking they had hit the nail on the head with their words.
After holding back for a while, Archie eventually said what was on his mind, “We protect her and play with her, but you’re being so skeptical about us. What kind of people do you think we are?”
Benny nodded in agreement, and the two stared at Lucian in disappointment.
This man was their father, but he had abandoned their mother before they were even born.
And now, on top of not liking them, he wouldn’t even let his daughter be friends with them.
Lucian was taken aback by the two little boys’ angry reaction and knitted his brows.
They outright reprimanded him, yet somehow, he felt sorry for Archie and Benny. He was even overwhelmed by a pang of guilt.
Roxanne, who was carrying Estella in her arms, was dumbfounded when she heard what her two boys said. She, too, felt a prickly pain in her heart.
Thank God they don’t know the man standing before them is their biological father. They might be even more upset if they knew the truth…
After keeping quiet for a while, Lucian looked away apologetically. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see you two as bad guys. I feel it’s inappropriate for your mommy to be in contact with her ex-husband. Your daddy might get upset if he finds out about it.”
Roxanne and the two boys froze for a moment when they heard that.
Archie and Benny exchanged glances. Oh, right! Daddy doesn’t know our relationship with him yet!
Benny spoke his mind. “It’s okay! We don’t have a daddy!”
The remarks the two boys made kept rendering Roxanne nonplussed. She wanted to stop her youngest son from spilling the tea, but it was too late.
She could only anxiously wait for Lucian’s response.
The man’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. There’s something fishy about the things he said and the pictures.
“What do you mean by you don’t have a daddy? Where’s he?” Lucian could not help but ask.
Benny looked at the confused man and explained, “Daddy didn’t want us anymore. He abandoned Mommy, and he didn’t like us. We grew up living with Mommy, so we have not seen our daddy before.”
Upon hearing that, Lucian frowned and gazed into Roxanne’s eyes. His eyes flickered with complicated emotions.
So all these years, this woman raised these two kids single-handedly?
He could not imagine the hardship they had to endure.
Besides, the woman had such an impressive résumé when she was abroad.
How on earth did she manage to juggle between the kids and her work? And how could that man abandon them just like this? Damn it!