NOVEL WEB Chapter 271: Paint.
"So… where are they?"
"Ohh, your mother is currently sleeping, Bella is in the city and Charlotte is in the back playing." She said but saw a switch in James's eye for a second. "Don't worry, Bella went out with protection and your mother is sleeping because she has helped with the gardener all week, while Charlotte has a guard looking over her."
"Good." He said but once again he was visibly… stressed as his legs started to shake.
"So… should I escort you to the back?" She asked.
"Yeah." James said then glanced at Mike. "You and the other get comfy until I finish with this." He said as he made his step into building following Christina.
"Comfy?" Arine asked from the back. "I never heard him say that word." He chuckled.
"Nervous, of course he is… we are all humans after all." Mike chuckled too. "Let's get in, boys and settle down until the boss is ready." He said and with it, everyone got in the house, while James himself was already going through the house following Christina.
He didn't even look around, he didn't even care about anything else, just followed her to the back to the beautiful and mesmerizing garden.
It was just breathtaking scenery… a huge ass garden with a second bigger lake, with a glass building in the middle of it, with wooden bridges and of course the willow trees, all the greenery… but what caught his eye in this beautiful scenery was her.
Charlotte.
She was in a little hilly area and in front of her a big canvas, painting.
"Now then, we will leave the two of you, enjoy your time." Christina said and she gestured toward the guard under the trees and they were off, while James himself just stood at the door looking at Charlotte just thinking what is the right thing to say once again.
But there wasn't, just go and adapt to the situation as much as he can.
His steps were not deliberate, were not determined but he seemed like somebody who didn't want to face what he had done, didn't want to face a child… his child. Like it was something so strange that a killer, a murderer, a boss is afraid to look at a child and to talk with her… and to be honest, he had all right to be worried and to be cautious because a child's words are something that can hurt more than anything.
They do not care about anything, they do not care about what's right or what's wrong, they say out loud what they feel, but in Charlotte's position that is hundred percent more true… she is a little demon on her own with Lucian blood in her veins.
But it was clear to even himself that what he feared was the way she would look at him, the way she would behave… yeah, the look in her eyes that looked lost, all trust lost, everything she believed in… the man who saved her, the man who took him in and she could call father… betrayed her.
When life seemed to be the best, full with joy, full with love… turned into something that was worse than being in the Augustus family.
Just blood and blood. Death all around that following her, lingering around her, the thing that is helping her… no… the thing that's pushing her to grow up too fast, to understand the world too quickly, to know what death and life means.
She is too young but already fears death.
Just say what you need to say… she is a child, just a child… James thought as he was getting closer and closer, trying to be as silent as he could with his cane, trying to control everything in him, calming himself down.
So with all of this, he just steadily walked up to her and, to his surprise, she didn't even notice him, not the noise of the cane, nothing and she was just painting with the greatest calmness while some music which he didn't even know the language of, was playing… though what she painted was, from a parent's eye, alarming, to say the least.
It was a basic child painting with green on the bottom representing the grass with the sun in the corner, and there was a family in the middle. Two women and a child who was obviously Bella, Erica, and well… the dark figure was him. Yeah, a black figure with red eyes like it was a demon, though she painted it in a way that still all of them held their hands like a family… which was just a strange situation.
Like him standing over Charlotte while this playful song was playing, while she was trying to sing the lyrics but couldn't, and painting something obviously traumatic to her, something that will stick with him, something that is causing sadness and pain to her.
"Is that me?" James finally and suddenly asked her from the back.
"It is." She said back… but it was more like she didn't even realize he was standing behind her. She just continued painting like nothing happened, like the voice was just in her head, not even turning around for a bit.
"So I am a monster in your eyes… I thought I'm just James or dad."
She finally realized what was happening… that the voice of James was not in her head, but it was coming from her back as she stopped painting and for a moment was frozen down as the music played on for some seconds and then… the brush just fell out of her hand as she turned around and there he was.
Towering over her was like a giant, the man stood that she was hurting so much for.
James, a father, a stepfather. The man who took her in when she had no one. The man who made her feel safe….someone she could trust, someone she could call family.