After work, Cheyenne drove straight home.
Today had been too much for her, leaving her extremely unsettled. She needed to see her two kids as soon as possible to make sure they were safe before she could relax.
Upon arriving at the old house, she found the front gate tightly shut. Once inside, the living room was tidy, luxurious, but deserted, with not a soul in sight.
Looking up at the wall clock, she noticed the hour hand pointing at “six.”
“At this time, grandpa should usually be at home with the kids. Where could they have gone?”
After searching both upstairs and downstairs, Cheyenne was about to call grandpa when she heard a voice outside the door.
“Great-grandpa, that spicy crayfish was so good… Let’s continue tomorrow… How about the next spicy one?”
It was Cierra speaking, with a mouthful of cola, causing her words to be slightly muffled.
Following closely behind old Mr. Foley was the cold and cool little prince, Oliver. Seeing his silly sister with a sesame seed stuck in her mouth, he felt a compulsion to wipe it off.
As soon as his hand reached out, Cierra dodged, looking at him with a guarded expression, blinking her big watery eyes.
“Bad brother! This cola is bought by my Great-grandpa!” she exclaimed.
Frustrated, Oliver pinched her chubby little face. “Silly girl! I wanted to help clean the dirt off your face, or else Mom will find out we ate junk food outside.”
So that’s the reason! Cierra, wanting to have delicious hamburgers and ice cream next time, willingly leaned her face forward and closed her eyes, letting her brother help clean her mouth.
With practiced movements, Oliver took out a small white handkerchief from his shirt pocket and gently wiped Cierra’s face. He then carefully cleaned her dirty little hands, especially wrinkling his nose in disgust when he saw dirt under her fingernails.
“Cierra, did you play with mud again?” the little boy expressed his disapproval.
Cierra, an honest and good child, nodded and excitedly acted cute to her brother.
“Yeah, Great-grandpa took me to the park, and I even caught a worm. Look, brother!” she said, proudly displaying her catch inside her water bottle.
Seeing that she used her drinking thermos to hold the worm, Oliver didn’t even want to talk to her anymore. He took a few steps back with the handkerchief in hand.
“It’s too dirty! Quick, get rid of it!”
He couldn’t stand the sight of that ugly and disgusting bug being held by her bare hands.
Thinking about other people’s clean and adorable sisters, Oliver suddenly wished he could trade his sister for someone else.
Cierra, however, refused to let go of the little worm. She held it like a precious treasure and angrily stated, “No! Great-grandpa said we can use it for fishing. I want to keep it!”
“What’s wrong with you? You’re such a dirty child! I won’t sit with you at the same table anymore, hmph!”
Cierra tilted her little head, a conflicted expression appearing on her face.
She wanted to eat with her brother, but what about the little worm?
Finally, the young girl placed her chubby little hands in front of her brother, wiggling them, and in a coquettish voice, she held onto his arm. “Brother, don’t be mad… I, I really washed my hands before eating.”
Oliver, who had a cleanliness obsession, couldn’t bear the thought of her touching him with her worm-covered hands. He wanted to immediately push her hand away but didn’t want to hurt his sister.
“Let go quickly!”
“No.”
… Cheyenne breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the three figures standing at the door. She walked wearily towards the two children, Cierra and Oliver.
“Cierra, Oliver… you’re back. Grandpa… why are you an hour late today?”
Old Mr. Foley still had Oliver’s small backpack on his shoulder. He was a tall, elderly man who appeared frail, yet the blue Superman backpack strangely suited him, almost looking adorable.
Cheyenne’s question was a mundane one, but it made the three of them tense up as if facing a great threat. Grandpa looked at Oliver, Oliver looked at Cierra, and Cierra sought help from Grandpa. They stood there, exchanging glances for several seconds.
Finally, they all answered simultaneously:
Grandpa: “We went to visit an old friend.”
Oliver: “There was a one-hour traffic jam near the kindergarten.”
Cierra: “We helped an old lady cross the road…”
Three people, three different answers. Cheyenne’s lip twitched… Did they really think she would believe them?
“Tell me the truth, where did you really go?”
Grandpa: “There was really bad traffic near the kindergarten.”
Cierra: “We went to visit Great-grandpa’s friend.”
Oliver glanced at the clueless faces of the other two and let out a subtle sigh before summarizing everything.
“Mama, Great-grandpa came to pick me up from the kindergarten, but there was a traffic jam. On the way, Great-grandpa said he wanted to visit a friend, so we went somewhere else. We happened to see an old lady fall while crossing the road, and Great-grandpa took her back home.”
Oliver expected his explanation to be believable. Instead, Cheyenne reached out and snatched the cola from behind Cierra’s back, both amused and annoyed. “Alright, you don’t have to lie to me anymore.”
“You just went to KFC, and what’s infuriating is that you didn’t bring me anything!”
Upon seeing this, Grandpa quickly coughed apologetically, “Well… Cheyenne, it’s not that Grandpa didn’t bring you any, it’s because…”
Oliver cut in, “It’s because Cierra ate it!”
Glancing at Cierra’s bulging belly, Cheyenne drank the cola in one gulp and said, “Fine, Cierra doesn’t have to eat dinner tonight. How dare she steal my portion!”
Cierra looked sadly at her diminishing cola and anxiously grabbed onto Cheyenne’s dress. “Mommy, can you leave… leave a little for me, please?”
“You greedy girl, if you eat too much, you’ll have indigestion. Mommy is just solving your problem.”
The little princess was visibly angry, thinking that Mommy was the one who was more greedy!
Once inside the house, Cheyenne immediately became serious. She decided to tell them about Sasha’s disappearance and to alert everyone in the family to be more cautious.
“Grandpa, from now on, when you drop off and pick up Oliver, maybe you should have a bodyguard with you. There have been consecutive cases of child abduction in Akloit, and I’m a bit worried.”
Old Mr. Foley thought Cheyenne was being overly cautious, as it really wasn’t necessary.
He waved it off, not taking it seriously. “Cheyenne, you must be reading too much news. There isn’t a day in Akloit without something happening. Don’t worry, as long as Grandpa is there, nobody would dare harm the kids. I’ll fight them tooth and nail!”
In his prime, he was a formidable figure in Akloit, so there was no reason he couldn’t protect his two little great-grandchildren.
Confidence was great, but Cheyenne still couldn’t shake off her worries.
“Grandpa… you might not know this, but today, Sasha… went missing. Kate got into a conflict with someone over our child and got seriously injured. I had to perform surgery on her myself.”