Meanwhile in the room on the ground floor, Little Princess was still wide awake. She was there lying patiently for Uncle Oliver to start reading to her.
Not only did Oliver not start reading the book to the little girl, he also ignored her as if she wasn’t there. He just kept scanning the book that Alex gave him without a word. He didn’t know why the girl had picked him to read her a bedtime story when the other two were obviously more willing. He didn’t understand why this little girl wasn’t scared of him when children alway hide behind their mothers at the sight of him. Was this kid same as the fearless Luna girl?
“Uncle, Uncle, why are you not talking to me?”
“Uncle, you don’t like talking don’t you?”
“Can you read the story out loud so I can hear?”
”Uncle, please?”
Little Princess continued talking until Oliver’s hand that was flipping the pages finally halted.
“Stop calling me, uncle. I’m not your uncle,” he told her, his voice a little chilly.
“Then, what should I call you?” she innocently asked. “Big Brother?”
“I’m not your brother.”
“Then, shall I call you Oliver, too? She smiled and the man silently let out a sign. He didn’t have any tolerance for this kind of thing. He knows that Alex did this on purpose. That man just wanted to torture him.
“Sleep, kid. You are not a baby to still be lulled to sleep by a bedtime story,” he said blankly and Little Princess’s face became gloomy.
She didn’t speak anymore as she laid there next to him.
Oliver glanced at her again when the girl didn’t move or make sound, thinking that she finally fell asleep but to his surprise, the girl’s eyes were still wide open.
She was still staring at the ceiling and blinking occasionally.
Seeing that there was no sign of her going to sleep, Oliver pressed his temples and opened the book again.
“I will only read this once, kid. Listen carefully and sleep,” he suddenly said and the girl looked at him with big round, excited eyes.
The man then started, “Once upon a time, a princess…” he trailed off. For some reason, he couldn’t continue. His expressionless face seemed to have hardened in frustration. However, he still remained calm.
The girl looked at him with anticipation, waiting for what was coming next even though the man’s voice was so painfully lifeless and toneless.
“A cat and a mouse decide to live together and buy a pot of fat to get them through the winter. They decide to keep a pot under an altar at the church and to only use it if necessary. The cat makes up a story and says she became the godmother in order to secretly visit the church, so she asked the mouse to stay and watch their place. The cat comes home and eventually becomes the godmother two more times. Each time, the mouse asks the name of the godchildren and the cat’s responses are top off, half done, and all gone. The mouse doesn’t catch on until they go to the church and see the empty pot. The cat turns and eats the mouse. The end.”
Oliver closed the book and looked at the girl’s lips and her big eyes were still wide open.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” he frowned.
“Uncle… I mean Mr Oliver, that is not nice. You just summarized the story.” she rose and took the book in his hands. “You should do it like this, okay?”
She started reading the story so skillfully and it suddenly looked like the little Princess was the one lulling the big man to sleep..
The man pressed his temple again like an old man with the world’s burden on his shoulder and took the book from her hand.
“Fine, I’ll read it like that so sleep now,” he commanded and the girl at least listened to him. However, before she laid down she took the book and opened it to the page titled ‘Cinderella’.
Oliver started reading but he was nowhere near to the same level as little girls’ skills. His story telling skills were, in fact, not even on the scale and could even be considered as being below zero. But despite his monotone and bored voice, the princess still slowly fell asleep.
…
Back in Luna’s room, the atmosphere has become below freezing as the cold statue waits for Luna’s reply.
“Ah, this is nothing. I just tripped on the sidewalk.” Technically Luna told him the truth because she did a trip on the sidewalk but she knew well that a half truth was still a lie. She was not trying to hide what had happened but for some reason she did not know why but she didn’t want to mention that a car almost hit her.
But of course the cold statue saw it because she was very, very bad at lying. Her face gave her straight away so he just said curtly, “you trippes huh?” His voice was cold as steel.
Alexander’s eyes squinted at her. He then got up and grabbed the first aid kit. He sat down next to her and started cleaning her wounds.
Luna was surprised as she looked at him. She didn’t expect him to act this way. It almost looked like the beastly man was suddenly tamed as soon as she saw her scratches. This cold man being like this towards her made Luna’s heart flutter
She couldn’t believe that just a moment ago, this was the same man who looked like he was going to eat her alive.; same man who was just about to punish her.
However, just as Luna was thinking that the ice was starting to melt, Alexander suddenly pressed on her wound using the cotton ball he was holding.
“Ouch!” she winced. “Alex, it’s hurt,” she pleaded but the man didn’t release the pressure.
“Luna, are you really not going to tell me the truth?” he asked and Luna’s eyes widened. She looked at him and she was surprised at the darkness lurking in his eyes.