" I-i am here. What happened?" Samuel ran to the main house when he heard the distress call from Arthur. When he called, Samuel was taking a breath after an intense session with Mayra. He was trying to console her by giving her a massage that apparently he was good at.
" Please follow me; there has been an incident. I thought it was best if you handled it." Arthur didn't elaborate, only led him inside, where Elise, Grey, and Anya were sitting with angry faces.
His little brother was trying to calm down Anya, who was fuming while looking at Elise sitting a few steps away from them. He noticed that both girls were injured with a few scratches on their faces, and their hair was messed up like a bird's nest.
" Did they fight?"
" Yes, I don't know why but when I came in they were grabbing each other's hair while young master was trying to calm them down. I immediately separated them, since then no one said anything. I was asking Lady Laura and Miss Mary for help but they too were unable to get anything out of them."
" How can they give up so easily? Where is Aunt Karoline?" Samuel thought she would have helped.
" She was only here for a minute to drop Anya off. She said she wanted to see young master Grey and left after that, I don't know where she went."
" Forget it. I see what I can do." Samuel went inside and was finally noticed by the children.
" Uncle Samuel!"
" Sami!" Both girls came running through him, but they stopped when they saw the other one doing the same. They looked at each other for a second before turning their head away with a loud humph.
Samuel never thought leaving Elise here would cause something like this. he did have a talk with Grey to take care of Elise, but he never thought about Anya. But as far as he knew, Anya had a proud personality; still, she was not a bad girl. Why they fought was a mystery to him.
" Come here, both of you!" They slowly approached him but maintained an arms-length distance from each other.
" Tell me what happened from the start." They stayed silent; Grey was behind them, looking perplexed.
" Are you sure you want to do this? I will tell Uncle Oscar and Aunt Karoline, I am sure she would love to hear the details. Same goes for you, no snacks for a week if you don't speak!" He gave an ultimatum to them, which made them panic. They looked at each other for one more time before they started screaming their excuse.
" She said you are her father! I told her that was a lie! But she kept repeating it!"
" She said I don't have a father or mother! She said I was adopted!"
" She hit me first!"
" She grabbed my hair first!"
" She also bit me! Here!"
" That's because she tore off my dress!"
"Alright! Stop it!" Samuel understood the gist of it, but he failed to recall anything about him being Elise's father. But it was wrong of Anya to rub it to her face, too, and it was also bad of Elise to throw the first punch.
He was perplexed; both girls didn't have a tendency to fight. Anya was a snobbish little girl who often used her mouth; meanwhile, Elise was barely able to talk to strangers a few weeks ago but now she was getting aggressive to the point of hitting?
" Elise, why do you say I am your father?" He asked directly. It's not like he was against the idea, but what if he found out about her real parents in the future? It would only make things complicated.
" Um..I heard few people talk about it. Is it not true?" She asked innocently. Did she even know what that meant? Samuel had an inkling that she didn't!
" Do you even know what adoption means?" Elise tilted her head to his question. It looked like the way Anya said it made her mad; she acted on instinct.
" Don't overthink about it. It doesn't matter; just remember me, along with Mayra and Kayla will be there to protect you. Alright?" He rubbed her hair, making her smile. She could barely relish the feeling before Samuel hit her with a few stern words.
" But that doesn't mean you can hit someone alright? I will overlook it for this time but you will have a long talk with Mayra about it. Even if someone says something rude, it's not okay to hit them. Do you understand?"
" Umm..." She had her head down. It was the first time Samuel had ever scolded her for anything. She understood it was a big deal and itched it onto her heart.
" Anya?" He glared at her.
" Y-yes uncle!"
" You know I don't like to pester you even if you did something wrong but saying hurtful things to Elise who is a guest of the house? You have to know that's wrong right?"
" But it was her-"
" You are three years older than her! How can you bully her like this? What if someday your parents disappears and someone else say mean things about them? How would you respond?"
" No... I am sorry.." She said after a few seconds of silence. He didn't know if she was saying it from the heart or making it up, but at least she understood what she did wrong.
" Alright, hug it out. I don't want to hear any more bad things in the future." He urged them, but they hesitated. He stared at them angrily, which made them give each other hugs; Elise was barely up to her shoulder height due to her age and malnutrition, which made Samuel wonder how she fought against Anya, who was at least twice her size.
They hugged for a fraction of a second before they ran away in different directions without even looking at each other. Samuel sighed and knew it was not over, but he couldn't push them much. He turned toward Grey, who was about to follow Anya.
" You come here."
" Brother? Me?"
" Yes you." He ordered and looked at him sheepishly, walking toward him. Grey was a perceptive child and already knew what he did wrong.
" What did I say to you before I left this morning?"
" ..... to look after Elise."
" Why didn't you do anything before things get bad?"
" I tried, but-" He tried to make an excuse, but as soon as his eyes met Samuel, he knew it would never work on his big brother. He knew he could quickly stop them, but he decided to take a side in the end.
" You always told me about how much you love heroes and their stories. With how much you pester Granduncle Donald, I can say you admiration is genuine but when the occasion arose, you shy away from it."
" But brother, we barely know Elise! What Anya said was the truth, how could not support her over someone I just met!?" He shouted. Samuel was a little surprised to hear him raise his voice.
" But I said to protect her for a reason! Are you big enough to refuse my requests without even knowing the reason?" Samuel, too, raised his voice.
" But she is an outsider! Anya-"
" Forget it! I shouldn't have asked you to do it in the first place. If you can't even see what Anya did was wrong then we have nothing to talk about. Arthur, please arrange someone else to look over her." Samuel couldn't tell him why; how would a child know what abuse was? He was barely ten years old, shielded from the darkness of the real world.n(-O/(v))e.)L//b--I.-n
He was his big brother, but it was not his place to divulge these things without his parent's permission.
" Why are you favouring her so much!? Spending so much time outside, have you already forgotten about us-"
" YOUNG MASTER!" Arthur roared, dampening his following few words, but Samuel heard it.
" I am heading outside. I will be staying out tonight." Samuel said softly to Arthur as he made his way toward the exit. He thought about it and knew why his brother said it. He had been gone for months every year for filming, and while he was not on set, he was handling his expanding business.
Had he neglected his family? Had following his dream made him alienated from his own brother? He wasn't sure, but he felt stuffy staying in the mansion. After putting on a few spare clothes from his wardrobe, he pulled out his Ferrari and drove without thinking of a destination.
