Chapter 235: Chapter 235

Samantha had never had that much interaction with her stepfather and always tried to stay clear of him when she could. She squinted her eyes and rubbed it furiously, but nothing changed. Her father’s cold voice continued echoing in her mind.

’Why? This does not make sense!’ Her mind was telling her, but her eyes were seeing something that should not have been possible.

At that moment, Samantha did not feel like a grown-up. Nope! She was like a child being reprimanded by her terrifying parents.

She took another hesitant and trembling step back as her father continued,

"Do you think that the world owes you anything? As the eldest of you three, you should be the one who understands where you stand the most, but what do you do? You come back to my house drunk, at your age, and think you have the mind to think of my wife like that? Huh? Ha! Ha!" Ian could not believe it himself,

"Do you think you can hide behind the fact that you are intoxicated? Let the words sink in very well..." Ian said menacingly.

One would wonder what Samantha’s thoughts were in the latter part for Ian to get that angry at her.

Samantha whimpered and took another hesitant step back, falling back on her bum with a painful thump. She was shocked senseless and could not understand what was going on. From her position on the floor, Ian looked like a mountain, taking up the better part of the room. A huge mountain that gave her a foreboding feeling. He was nothing like the ’father’ she had been used to.

This time, Ian whispered, but it was more like a growl from a terribly ferocious animal.

"Think deeply about this before you start having stupid thoughts about your siblings and my wife...."

Ian’s words to her were like the adult she was portraying herself to be. Then he asked,

"Do you lack anything? Are you starved? Do you go about naked?"

Samantha shook her head so hard that she saw stars.

"I understand my responsibility, young Miss! It is one thing for you to be disrespectful, but do not think that you can cross that line and -"

Samantha’s heartbeat thundered so much that she heard nothing else again. She had blacked out.

Ian approached her and snapped, "Get her away from me!"

Without waiting, he turned back and headed to the sleeping trio, his eyes softening almost instantaneously.

He smiled at the same scene that had irked Samantha. It was indeed true that one man’s meat was another man’s poison. Ian leaned over and loosened the grip of the two kids so that Shelby could have some breathing room. The fondness in his eyes looked to extend to the two children this round.

He leaned down and kissed Shelby’s hair lightly and then straightened.

"How can you sleep so soundly.... Don’t you miss me?"

He whispered helplessly. Samantha was long forgotten. Afterwards, Ian could not bring himself to leave them, so he sat on the floor by the bed and waited patiently. He took in Shelby’s face, cheekbones, lashes that fanned her closed eyes, and small, pointed nose.... Ian could not have enough of her and sat like that until dawn before he finally left.

Ian tried not to think of that ungrateful girl who thought everyone around her was obligated to help and do her bidding. Such idiosyncrasy was beyond him.

Back in his room, he also made a mental note to have an extra eye on her, but he could not be bothered about Samantha even though Shelby’s words still rang in his ears: ’You should pay more attention to the kids as they are the only part of Aliya that is left.’

Ian still did not think he had to tolerate nonsense because his love was Aliya, not those brats! Even as these thoughts surfaced, Ian knew Shelby would be unhappy with him if she heard those bad thoughts.

He sighed and finally closed his eyes just as the day brightened.

Samantha was startled awake sometime that morning as if she had just experienced a really bad nightmare. Her heart was almost bursting out of her chest. She frowned and got out of her bed slowly, placing one foot on the floor and then the other. It felt as if she had had the worst nightmare ever, but because of the love of the heavens, Samantha could not remember. Sitting up, she noticed herself,

"Why do I still have my sneakers on?" She asked herself puzzled. She held her head at the slight pounding headache and groaned.

In fact, she was pretty much in all the clothes from the day before. It did not make sense one bit.

"Why would I get myself home and not even take off my shoes? Besides, I don’t even remember anything from last night! What is going on?"

’I did not drink that much yesterday, so why do I feel this way?’ She asked herself, and then as if coming to a realization, she bolted upright.

"Oh no!" She pushed the rising bile down and then rushed to her bathroom mirror, confirming her worst fears.

"I slept with my makeup on! Oh no! no! no! nooooooooo!"

She punched the sink in her anger, "ouch! ouch!" She wrung out her hands in pain, and tears glistened in her eyes.

Samantha immediately opened one drawer, picked out a makeup remover kit, and started working. She worked swiftly and fast!

Suddenly, she stopped and frowned. The makeup remover and the assorted makeup accessories in that drawer nagged at the back of her mind. There was a wide range of products in there, making it look like a professional makeup kit instead.

"Do you lack anything? Are you starved? Do you go about naked?

She flinched at the cold words and dropped the light-soaked pad.

’What the hell was that? Who sai-’

The ’memories’ came flooding back to Samantha, and then she frowned heavily, for it all felt like she had some sort of bad dream.

’Why would I dream of this?’ Samantha shivered and dropped to the floor, her body drained of all strength.

"I’m getting too paranoid! Samantha! Stop it!"

She lowered her head, and then the anger pent up in her, plus the fear from the supposed dream became so overwhelming that Samantha could not help it as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Just then, she heard a knock on her connecting door to Gabriel’s room.

She rubbed hard at the tears and then used her hand to cover her mouth so that the sobs would not be heard.

Shelby stirred awake that morning to see the two children competing for attention on her. She smiled and moved Gabriel’s leg and arms from her belly. At the same time, she reached for Ingrid’s head, which was on her chest and repositioned it from that awkward angle. She patted both of them while smiling.

’So cute!’ She thought

It did not take long before the two of them stirred awake.

Shelby knew that was a rhetorical question, so she did not bother answering. She just sat up and then leaned down to kiss Ingrid’s hair.

"Me too, Mama Shelby!"

"Hahahahahaha...." Shelby leaned down and did the same to Gabriel.

"Gabriel, go get yourself refreshed. You can manage that yourself, right?"

Gabriel jumped off the bed with his pillow and returned to his room. A knock sounded, and Suzie pushed the door open with a trolley. Shelby turned to look at her and couldn’t help but laugh.

"Why are you walking that way, Suzie?"

Suzie’s walking was way funnier on this day. Her muscles hurt, and she could do nothing about it.

"You can take some time to yourself if you to... okay?" Shelby offered as worry started to cloud her features.

"It’s okay, Miss; it’s nothing!"

Even by saying this, Suzie looked aggrieved. Shelby had learned to understand her maid and knew that Suzie was only jesting around to try to cover up what was really happening to her.

Shelby looked intently at Suzie, making her squirm. Then, all of a sudden, Shelby said,

"That smells nice! Can you get Samantha to join us? And check on Gabriel, too."

Suzie walked off to the other room, trying to hide her tense muscles.

In the room, Shelby turned to Ingrid, noting that the girl looked refreshed. She had slept for so long! About twelve hours, if not more but the little girl looked like her normal self that morning.

"Are you okay?" Shelby asked again when it was only the two of them.

"Do you hate me because of what I did yesterday?"

Shelby turned Ingrid to face her. She knew that Ingrid had been deeply ’hurt’ emotionally from her mother’s demise. The girl had very bad trust issues and longed for acceptance in any way.

"Look at me, Ingrid and listen well .... I will never hate you, Ingrid. Like I told you yesterday, you are my star and my saviour!"

Ingrid could not help but smile.

"Really? But I did something bad!"

".... For a good cause!" Shelby added while thinking to herself.

’I can’t believe I am telling a child that it is okay to kill someone .... Wait, it was something, so it should be okay, right?’

And then she added, "Let this be our little secret, but Ingrid.... You must...."

Shelby went ahead and explained the ’rules’ again to her. The children were really young, and they had to ensure that they were protected at all costs, even from themselves.

’When did I get to this stage?’ Shelby thought and then tensed suddenly. The hairs on her back rose, and her pupils dilated. She could feel a great threat, but she was unsure of where it was coming from, but it was enough for her to freeze in shock.

’Am I being targeted at home this time?’ Her fingers unconsciously tightened on Ingrid’s arms.

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