Loved

General p. o. v.

She hadn’t eaten at all as the unease filled her stomach, leaving her mother quite anxious but mostly sad.

Honestly, Louisa couldn’t ignore the jabs of hurt and pain from advertising on her face when she saw Mr Hunter prepare and leave for work early this morning.

At some point of trying to eat breakfast, her eyes pricked with tears on the embarrassment she would face when she goes to school with Edward driving her once again.

Immediately, her food was discarded because Cheryn noticed it wasn’t going to be touched.

Her mother sat across her and slowly yet sadly ate her cereal while she watched Louisa with fear in her eyes.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

To be truthful, she had never seen her active and brave daughter so downcast and broken to the point of seeing it clearly through her glistening eyeballs.

She couldn’t help but think of worst scenario cases which could have led up to that.

Louisa too observed her mother but had unusually nothing to say to her.

Even if she wanted to speak her mind was only going to ask one question.

Why did my daddy leave me?

And that’s why she never asked, because she felt the answer she would receive would be far worse than anything she was about to face in school.

Not long after, she was hurdled up in the passenger seat of a red Audi with Edward taking position to drive.

” Baby please talk to me soon okay?” Her mother cooed into her ear through the opened car window and kissed her softly on her forehead.

Louisa only responded with a nod and braced herself for one of the worst days of her life.

Edward revved the car engine and bade a hearty goodbye to Iris then ensured to get Louisa to school safely, like he normally did before they took off.

Before today, Edwards gesture made her feel special. It made her feel like she was loved and her safety mattered to everyone.

But now that she looks at it from another perspective, it’s a biting fact that her father had never for once called to know if she was safe.

At a point in her life she assumed he was dead and her mother didn’t want to tell her but she could remember a night months ago when her mother assumed her to be asleep and said a few words that gave her a second thought about his whereabouts.

I can’t believe your father’s pretending like he’s the best person to ever exist.

Her mother had been playing with her hair and she felt her mother’s gaze on her the night she said those words.

They were watching the news that night and then a party came up.

Louisa was actually interested from the beginning but the fact that she had no idea about who was who and there was no splash of color, only purple in every corner detached the little girls interest.

As she laid her head on her mother’s lap and tried falling asleep was when her mother whispered those words.

She wasn’t supposed to hear them.

But she did.

Louisa only knew then that her daddy was alive and was at the party and probably their parents weren’t on best of terms.

But she never knew who he was.

Even if her parents had had a disagreement, she has known her mother to be a lady of forgiving nature so she couldn’t have held anger for so long.

The car ride to the school suddenly became longer than usual and Louisa turned to look out the window.

” Sweetheart you look so down. Are you okay?” Edwards concerned voice reached her ears.

She wanted to reply with a yes, but her voice failed her so she opted for a nod instead.

She didn’t care if he saw her response or not as she was still regarding the outside world but it seems like he got the message that she wasn’t willing to engage in a conversation.

She willed herself to stay strong when she gets to school and no matter what was said, she would carry her shoulder high.

But her words of encouragement to herself did nothing because she found herself crying once more.

Meanwhile…

Hunter was on the highway to the four seasons and he had never felt so bothered in his life.

Surprisingly it wasn’t anticipation for the meeting that was killing him but rather something so little.

A little girl who needed his help and he let her down.

It wasn’t his fault. If he was told earlier he might have been able to solve both issues easier but he wasn’t informed on time.

Hunter was a very calculated man and he makes his plans strategically so he could accomplish all he had, so when Louisa piped up something that hadn’t been in his schedule, he couldn’t just see himself fitting it in.

He ran his hand through his hair and immediately regretted it because gel stained his five fingers and palm.

He groaned out loud in frustration and tried using his left hand to control his steering while his stained hand went for the pigeonhole to search for any stray serviettes.

To his luck, there were and he wiped his fingers clean.

That only served as a distraction for a few seconds before his thoughts drifted back to Louisa.

Louisa.

The look of defeat in her eyes when she saw him leave this morning was haunting him to this moment.

He didn’t intend to hurt the girl or leave her stranded.

He only hoped she would understand and forgive him.

Infact he hoped he could forgive himself.

He had gotten fond of the little girl and seeing her cry was a sight he never wanted to see again.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed a car so dangerously close to him but he swerved away quite quickly and just in time to save his head.

He sighed and blinked twice before glancing at the clock.

6:49am

He still had time to make it for the meeting. His conscience wasting no time in judging him.

You could have dropped her off then come for the meeting.

It wasn’t possible. Time wasn’t on his side and he wasn’t a fan of late coming either.

He tried to brush every thought of guilt in his head with excuses but with each excuse came up another reason.

He started to imagine Louisa getting laughed at in school because she lied about who her father was when she had never set eyes on him.

He imagined the fingers pointing, all sixteen sets of teeth from children bared, all those who might go to the extent of shoving her and calling her name’s because of her falsification.

And Louisa would be crying.

He couldn’t take his mind anymore.

Within the next couple of seconds he picked up his phone and knew exactly who he wanted to call.