After getting the doctor’s permission, Roxanne brought the children back. Meanwhile, Elias and Sonya were waiting outside the kindergarten after school hours, but they saw no signs of Estella. Soon, most of the children had been picked up, but there were still no signs of their granddaughter.
The two of them wanted to ask the teacher about what was going on, but they belatedly realized that they rarely sent and picked up Estella, so they did not even know which class the girl was in.
“There’s no sign of Essie around. I thought he said we could pick her up,” Sonya grumbled. Elias had a grimace on his face, and he immediately called Lucian to question, “Did you talk to Roxanne about this? We’re at the kindergarten entrance, but we don’t see Essie anywhere.”
Lucian was confused when he heard that. “Give me a second. I’m going to call Roxanne. She agreed to this yesterday, so maybe something popped up.”
Elias said nothing to that, and Lucian called Roxanne after ending the call with Elias. Roxanne was treating Benny’s wound, so it took her a while before she could answer the call.
“Where’s Essie?” came Lucian’s voice. “Did something happen?” It was only then Roxanne recalled that Elias and his wife were supposed to pick Estella up that afternoon.
Lowering her gaze to look at the girl, Roxanne then apologetically said to Lucian, “Something happened on my side, so I picked Essie up first. Please ask if your parents mind picking her up from my place. I can’t leave at the moment.”
Estella seemed to have heard Roxanne’s words, for her already-worried expression became even more obvious. Roxanne reached out to pat her head reassuringly. Lucian furrowed his brows and asked, “What happened?”
Perhaps his voice had a certain soothing quality to it as Roxanne did not realize she let some of her weariness seep into her tone.
“Benny was hurt this afternoon, and Archie and Essie accompanied him to the hospital. I wasn’t thinking clearly in my hurry, so I ended up taking Essie back as well.” A solemn look appeared on Lucian’s face. “Is it bad? Do you need me there?”
Roxanne’s heart melted a little at that, but she chuckled and rejected him. “No, it’s fine. Do remember that I’m a doctor, so I can treat him. I just need to trouble you to talk to your parents. If they want to come over, I’ll be waiting for them.”
Lucian was worried, but he did not insist after hearing her reassurance. After ending the call with her, he called his father to explain the situation.
Elias uttered no words of protest when he heard that it was because one of the boys was hurt. He was understanding, in fact. “I’m sure she’s very busy if he’s hurt. Let’s not disturb her, then. We’ll go another day.”
Lucian thanked his father on behalf of Roxanne and the children. “How can this be so coincidental?” Sonya was upset. “She must have done this on purpose. She’s just lying to us; she doesn’t want us to take Essie away. In fact, she must be thinking of marrying into the Farwell family as Essie’s biological mother!”
After hanging up, Elias turned to look at his wife in exasperation. “We’ll know whether the kid is. injured or not when we see him. Why would she make such a flimsy lie?”
“Who knows? You’re not even intending to go to her place. You must be on her side!” With that, Sonya whipped her head to the side, not wanting to look at him anymore.
