Once Justin got downstairs, he saw Mary and Charlotte baking cookies together. When he turned to look at the washroom on the first floor, the door was shut, and the lights were turned on inside. However, there wasn’t any noise coming from the inside. Suspicion gathered in his eyes as he walked toward the washroom. “Are you in there?”
There wasn’t any reply. Justin knocked on the door twice. “Rachel?” There was still no reply. Justin’s gaze darkened. He seemed to recall something as he hastily reached for the door handle. Right as he pushed the door open, the flushing sound came from inside the washroom.
“Are you a pervert or something?” Rachel screamed as she hurriedly pulled her skirt down.
Justin froze for a moment before he turned to face his back against her. “Why didn’t you say anything if you were in there?”
“Would you talk to someone outside while you’re in the toilet? I don’t have weird habits like you! Aren’t you going to leave yet? Are you done looking?” she barked. Justin’s face turned pale as he reached his hand to shut the washroom door.
Rachel finally heaved a sigh of relief once the door was shut. She held onto the wall and slowly lowered herself to sit onto the toilet bowl. She looked down to remove her high heels before she gently touched her feet. A sharp pain shot through her legs immediately-it hurt so much that cold sweat began to form on her skin. She inhaled sharply in response to the pain. Not everyone could manage to climb down from the second floor, after all.
After washing her hands, Rachel glanced at the mirror and calmed herself down a little before she walked out of the washroom. Justin was nowhere to be seen when she passed by the living room, so she assumed that he had gone upstairs.
“Hurry up and come here, Mommy. I made a little duck cookie!” Charlotte’s voice came from the kitchen. Rachel came back to her senses. “I’m coming!” she replied.
Rachel had only been gone for a while, but Charlotte had already managed to fill the baking tray with cookie doughs that had been removed from their molds. There were all sorts of odd shapes that filled the tray. Rachel pointed helplessly at an oddly shaped pulp. “Miss Charlotte, can you tell me which mold you made this piece from?”
The young kid spread her lips into a wide grin as she held her fingers out to Rachel. “With this mold!! wanted to make a duck, but we don’t have any molds for ducks. That’s why I had to use my own hands.”
“You little rascal.” Rachel pinched Charlotte’s nose playfully. “Please get her to wash her hands, Mary. I think these biscuits can be baked soon. The previous batch should be done by now.”
“I need to make tea for Mr. Burton. Can you bring Charlotte to wash her hands instead?” Mary asked.
“It’s fine. I’ll make the tea,” Rachel offered. Mary hesitated for a moment as she seemed like she was about to say something. Charlotte spoke up before Mary did. “You can go ahead and make tea for Daddy, Mommy. I’ll go wash my hands.”
The young kid never missed out on an opportunity to bring both of her parents together. Justin had just returned to his study a while ago, and he was back to flipping through documents at his desk. Knock knock. Rachel came in with tea.
“Why are you the one sending me tea?” Justin looked at her. “Where’s Mary?”
“Charlotte dragged Mary over to wash her hands and change her clothes. You wanted tea, didn’t you? sent it over since I had nothing else to do.” Rachel lowered the tray onto the side of the desk while she spoke. She lifted the pot and poured him a cup of tea.
The fragrant scent of chamomile tea filled the room immediately. Justin’s eyes widened after he took a sip of the drink. “Were you the one who made this?”
“What is it? Is there any issue?” she asked.
“It’s nothing.” A series of complicated emotions filled his face as he lowered the cup. The taste of the tea was really familiar, and it seemed to remind him of something. It tasted even better than the tea that Mary made him-it felt almost as if this was the tea that he used to drink regularly. Could I have loved her before she left me? He was starting to doubt himself.
Rachel spoke up then. “You might think that I’m crossing your boundaries when I say this, but I’d like to say it anyway.”
“What is it?” He returned to his senses.
“It’s about Charlotte. I heard Mary telling me that Charlotte hasn’t been to school all this while,” she uttered.
Justin frowned immediately. “Why are you asking about this?”
“I’d like to know the reason for that,” Rachel said.
“The environment in the school is a little too complicated, and Charlotte doesn’t like it. I figured that she doesn’t have to go if she doesn’t want to,” he explained.
“Did you agree to her just because she doesn’t want to go? Are you going to make her stay at home forever? Is she not going to interact with the rest of the outside world? The only people around her now are the maids, the security guards, and people from the Burton Family,” Rachel protested.
He frowned. “Are you questioning my way of parenting now?”
“Don’t you feel like it’s an issue?” Rachel asked in return.
“No,” he muttered.
“You can’t be like this, Justin. Charlotte should have her own-aged peers, but the only people she interacts with now are adults. Don’t you feel like the way she talks and acts is a little too mature for her age?” Rachel had already realized this since the first time she saw Charlotte at the airport.
It wasn’t wrong to spoil a child, especially one like Charlotte, who grew up without a mother. However, Justin was too lenient with his love for his daughter-it wouldn’t be good if his pampering turned the child into a rude and arrogant individual. Children were never at fault-the blame would always fall upon the parents.
“If you truly cared for Charlotte, you would’ve come back to visit in the past five years.” Justin’s words felt like an arrow shooting through Rachel’s heart. His icy glare was like two sharp knives-it was just as stern as it had been five years ago. “You might have had a few meals with Charlotte, and she might like you, but that doesn’t give you the right to tell me what to do.”
Rachel stiffened a little. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I’m not interested in what you mean. You can leave if you don’t like what you see; you don’t have to disrupt Charlotte’s life from now on,” he uttered.
Before Rachel could continue explaining herself, a loud cry came from outside the room. “What’s the matter, Charlotte?” Charlotte was lying in Mary’s arms in the dining hall on the first floor, and her face was flushed and pink. The young child was gasping for breath, but she couldn’t seem to breathe at all. Her facial features were squeezed together.
“Charlotte!” Justin ran toward her. “What happened?”
Mary was nearly in tears because of how anxious she was. “I don’t know. I was with her the whole time, and we had just washed our hands. She became like this right after she ate a piece of cookie.”
“A cookie?” Justin glanced at the dining table. There was nothing else apart from the freshly-baked cookies placed on the table.
Rachel had rushed down the stairs by then. “What happened to Charlotte?”
“Daddy…” Charlotte clung to Justin’s neck. Her little hands were trembling, and she could barely speak. Justin didn’t have the time to think-he immediately lifted her into his arms. “Get the car!”
Rachel responded to his words immediately-she ran to the front door to start the car. Once they got in, they sped all the way to the hospital.
Both Justin and Rachel stayed with Charlotte after they arrived at the emergency room. The doctor lifted Charlotte’s eyelids and checked her pupils with a flashlight. “Does the young girl have any allergies?”
“Honey. She can’t eat honey,” Justin said.
