47

At work, Macy had been given a two day’s off then Cassy happened and she took more days off to stay with Mel. She had overstayed her off while the others continued working.
She was lucky that the investor insisted on having her in the movie.
When she resumed, she had a lot of work pending.
The director had shot other scenes and hers were remaining and she was thus working day after day morning to evening. It was like binge watching a series for days.
This is having in mind that she was the second lead and she had a lot of scenes.
Thus, she had gone for almost a week without seeing Mel. Not that she wanted to but the situation waranted it.
When Richard got home that evening, he found a sulking Mel at the living room.
Nurse Lin was trying to talk to her asking her to eat something.
She wasn’t saying anything. She just sat there at the corner of the couch just pouting.
Anyone could see that she was sulking.
Richard was worried for a while because it wasn’t like Mel to behave that way.
So, the first thing that came to mind was that she was unwell.
“What’s wrong? Why is she like that?” I asked Richard asked the maid who was holding the food and nurse Lin.
“She has been okay. We were even playing with her and then she started sulking all over a sudden.
She won’t say anything and she won’t eat,” nurse Lin said and Richard went to sit with her.
“Mel, darling, what’s wrong baby?” I asked Richard asked in that rare soft voice that was only used on Mel.
She didn’t answer and just moved away from him.
“Baby? Are you in pain?” Nurse Lin helped but she still didn’t say anything.
Then an idea came to Richard, “I was thinking of visiting aunt Macy. Anyone wanna come with me?” He pretended to ask the two adults.
Mel shot up from where she was seated and looked at her father.
“Yes daddy. Let’s go,” she said and that was when they realized why their little miss was pouting.
“First, you have to tell me why you are sulking,” and her father said.
“I miss auntie Macy.
Does she hate me now? Why doesn’t she come to visit me?” Mel asked and Richard realized what was going on.
Given what had happened to Mel recently with her mother, it meant that she knew that her mother never loved her.
That made her insecure and thus, Macy’s absence made her think that Macy hated her too.
“Oh, no silly. Autie would never hate you.
I told you that she’s busy with work.
She still loves Mel so much but she has to work,” Richard tried explaining but little miss just pouted more.
“Can’t she come? Let’s go visit her daddy,” she said.
“No Mel. Of we go now, we will be disturbing her.
It’s already evening and I am sure that she’s just from work.
She’s tired and just wants to sleep.
Can’t we wait until she finishes her work?” Richard tried and that made Mel move back to where she was when he walked in with the same expression.
Richard seemed to think for a while and decided.
Mel was a good girl and unlike other children, she seemed to have matured early maybe due to the lack of a mother figure and Richard was never there to spoil her because he was always working.
Also, it could have been due to the fact that she dealt with a major sickness for a long while.
She thus was never unreasonable like other children and Macy was the first woman Mel had got attached to after Cassandra.
Thus, he wasn’t going to punish her for being unreasonable, as he called it, this one time.
“Okay, let’s go,” I he said as he looked at her.
She didn’t move just looked at him with hopeful eyes.
She didn’t seem to believe that he had just agreed.
“You don’t want to?” He asked when she didn’t say anything or move.
“Really daddy?” She asked in that small cute voice of hers.
“Yes. Let’s go,” he said.
She jumped from the couch and hugged him.
“Thank you daddy,” she said and then looked at nurse Lin.
“Nurse Lin, can I take the cookies?” Mel asked.
“What cookies?” Richard asked.
“Mel baked cookies for her auntie Macy,” nurse Lin said as she indicated to the maid to go bring the cookies.
The cookies had been already packed in a cookie jar and Richard knew that he had been played.
It was like all along, Macy had been planning on how to convince him to take her there.
He didn’t call her out on it though. He devised to play along because he also wanted to see Macy.
Why? He had no idea.
He just felt that it had been long and it was like he was getting used to see her around.
She was fun to be around because she played with Macy and she had at least stopped being afraid of him.
The even talked sometimes although she always cut their conversations short but he didn’t mind.
He knew he wasn’t the people easily got comfortable with like his brother.
He was the type someone had to understand first before getting used to.
For example, one had to understand that the quietness was a personality and not anything sinister.
The aura was because he had been used to not trusting people.
Being an assassin and doing what he did, he knew not to trust anyone and so, it also took him long to take someone in and break his walls.
Macy had proven beyond reasonable doubt that she could be trusted by how she treated Mel.
The way she protected Mel without a second thought made Richard pause and reevaluate his view on women.
Richard drove upto the Royal Gardens Estates where they had placed Macy and he let his bodyguard talk to the receptionist who was at the lobby to let her know which room they wanted to visit.
She tried checking who it was who wanted to go there but Richard had worn a disguise and having in mind that he wasn’t a social person and had almost no photo on social media, no one would recognize him.
But the reason why he wore a disguise was for Macy.
He didn’t want people to start gossiping about her at a time when her career was struggling.
He had a cap on and huge sunglasses though it was at the evening.
He was carrying Mel who also had a baby cap and huge sunglasses with stary eyes and tiny bunnies printed on the rims.
When she heard that they wanted to visit the VIP suite that had been vacant for a long time and then rented for the new actress, she didn’t question.
She knew that these must be important people.
She gave a visitor’s ID to the guard who in turn gave it to Richard.
They were to keep watch out there as Richard and Mel went upstairs.
The two took the elevator and went towards Macy’s room.
As they were walking on the corridor, they heard noises as the last room near the elevator opened.
Several girls were speaking loudly and excitedly.
Richard didn’t give them any heed as he co tinued walking to the last room at the far end of the corridor and rang the bell.
He knew he could have asked for a spare key to the room from Asher but he didn’t want to.
He didn’t want to intrude on Macy’s privacy and having the key would be doing exactly that.
This apartment complex was one of the many real estate properties owned by the Armstrong group and the suite where Macy now lived had been left vacant by Asher, who was in charge here, for himself.
He would use it whenever he needed to get away and for his sexapades.
Thus, when they gave it to Macy, he didn’t return the key card he had.
Macy didn’t know this though. Macy just thought that the two brothers just rented a suite for her and she didn’t know that it actually belonged to them.
Richard rang the bell again and Mel started getting worried, “daddy, isn’t auntie here?” I asked she asked.
“She’s is. Maybe she was sleeping,” Richard answered as he rang the bell again.
After a while, they heard the lock click and as he thought, a disheveled Macy in light blue pajamas that had huge bears printed on the shirt and on each pant leg appeared at the door as she yawned.
Her hair was everywhere on her face except her head.
It took her a while to realise who was at the door as she seemed to be disoriented.
It wasn’t until a little bunny jumped on her shouting did she fully wake up.
“Auntie!”
“Baby?” Macy thought she was dreaming.