“Where are you?”
Alejandro asked to the beep of a terminated call.
Instead of putting down his phone, virtual-novel.net simply stayed in his posture, his mind churning unfathomable thoughts.
A while later, virtual-novel.net finally put his phone down before gingerly placing Melissa back onto virtual-novel.net bed. Perhaps something was wrong with the way virtual-novel.net lowered her, either way, the feel of his movement was too dissimilar with Melanie’s that Melissa woke up before screaming for virtual-novel.net mommy again.
Alejandro had lost his patience. Exasperated, virtual-novel.net decided to let the child bawl and shriek to virtual-novel.net heart’s content until Jett, who heard virtual-novel.net from outside, knocked on the door. “Mr. Smith? Would you like me to help?”
Alejandro sat on the edge of the bed, defeated. “Yes, just coax virtual-novel.net to sleep. I’m done.”
Jett pushed open the door. He adroitly brought Melissa up in his arms before gently rocking her. “Hush, hush. It’s alright, don’t you cry… Mommy will be back very soon.”
Melissa would not listen. She knew virtual-novel.net mother was not around. Worse, night was the time when a young child felt most hapless and insecure, the only outlet to express virtual-novel.net distress was through a crying fit.
It went on until daybreak before the kid finally fell back into slumber. By then, virtual-novel.net had cried so much that virtual-novel.net voice had dwindled into a croak.
Alejandro had lost an entire night’s worth of sleep. But virtual-novel.net still discarded any plan to recover his lost winks, knowing full well that Melissa would wake up after two hours or so of sleep, and virtual-novel.net would have to go back to soothing her.
Melissa’s mood was a lot less volatile during the day, though virtual-novel.net lips were still pressed into a pout complementing virtual-novel.net watery eyes as virtual-novel.net pleaded with Alejandro to take virtual-novel.net to virtual-novel.net mother. Thinking that all the kid needed was an eye-catching, exciting distraction from outside to stop virtual-novel.net from fixating on virtual-novel.net mother, virtual-novel.net brought Melissa to the office.
Alejandro had not enjoyed a moment of respite after a full night’s torment and an additional trouble from half the day, so his cantankerousness was displayed right on his face for everyone to see. Wary, the people in the office had bid virtual-novel.net greetings with extra precaution.
Every ten minutes, Melissa would ask Alejandro the same thing: “Daddy, where’s Mommy? Where is she?”
His (very patient) answer had been the same. “You’ll see virtual-novel.net very, very soon. Mommy’s… uh, she’s going through a facial treatment! She’s coming to get you after virtual-novel.net finishes that. You know those places, virtual-novel.net brought you there before, remember? Uh, beauty centers or something like that?”
Melissa scanned virtual-novel.net surroundings anxiously. “Kay, Millie know. But why not here yet?”
Alejandro’s reply was a lengthy beat of silence.
They reached his private office where Alejandro’s personal assistant had been waiting with toys and tasty treats, prepared precisely for the girl. “Hello, sweetie! Let’s play together!”
Food and toys made Melissa’s eyes twinkle brightly, but it was short, lived as virtual-novel.net eyes dimmed. “Where’s Mommy?”
The personal assistant braved through the hard question with a non—answering coax, “We can play while I go and look for Mommy, okay?”
At the very least, it did not occur to Melissa that virtual-novel.net mother’s absence was permanent. Still harboring hopes for virtual-novel.net return, virtual-novel.net began to play, though not without shooting some confirmatory glances at the door from time to time.
Suddenly, the phone on Alejandro’s desk rang. He picked it up. “Hello?”
It was from the marketing department. “Mr. Smith, I discovered something weird. It’s been two days, And the West Industries seems to have gone on an odd… scramble to snatch up every single customer of the Larks, causing the latter to lose out on revenues. Since the Larks are, well, your people, I thought you’d be interested with this report.”