Chapter 238: Chapter 238

Brad had only excused himself from their family meal after Ian and Shelby had left. He had been left to ’take care’ of the two brats, but Brad was unsure of what to do. His mind was chaotic with all the ’conversations’ that had gone on earlier at the breakfast table.

’How did I even end up in this state? I only wanted to gift my sister-in-law something, but how did it turn into me teaching these two?... or rather, the second brat as the third brat just invited himself.’

Brad grumbled to himself as he stood up, excusing himself from the table. Despite all these, he could not bring himself to dodge that activity, even though that would have been quite easy for him to do.

Ian had cornered him with those casual words, ’It looks like you were not sincere in your gift offer to my wife then,’

Brad still thought Shelby was the most unfathomable person he had ever met. From her outstanding looks to her casual attitude about it and then to how she had taught him a life lesson, Brad was totally convinced that whatever he had gone through was because of Shelby, but he just could not grasp how.

Besides, who in their right minds would reject his plush offer of even his inheritance just to give a chance to some unknown child that his sister-in-law hardly knew herself?

In Brad’s world, that just did not cut it. Selfishness was common to the extent that it was ’normal’. No one Brad knew did that for anyone, not even his brother.

The Ian that Brad had known from childhood was one who only did something if it benefited him, except for when this witch of a wife came into Ian’s life.

For that reason, Brad somewhat understood the ’hold’ that Shelby could exert on a person without doing anything, so his brother’s actions, though surprising, were still somehow understandable.

But anyway, Brad was stuck with two children whom he did not like. Brad did not like children in general, and these ones even more so because of their mother.

Brad did not understand what his brother had seen and liked about that Aliya woman, which had led him to consider adopting all her children.

’Ian is destined to be with witches.... But I one more than the last one though....’ Brad summarized. He then realized that he had walked past his room in his thoughts. He only got back to attention at the little voice,

"Tsk, tsk, Uncle Brad, how can you forget your own room?"

Brad closed his eyes and then turned to glare at the one who had spoken, Gabriel.

Gabriel was shaking his little head in disappointment, but he looked kind of cute.

"I wonder how Uncle Brad can teach anything if he cannot find the way to his own room and nearly even hit the wall, Ingrid." Gabriel turned to Ingrid, who was a few feet behind him.

Ingrid sighed but remained quiet. The boy looked genuinely puzzled, and Brad gritted his teeth in annoyance.

Brad turned back only to notice that he had really been an inch of the nearest wall and he would have bumped his forehead as he had not been paying attention. The two kids were standing far off him just in front of his room. There was quite a bit of distance between them, making it hard for Brad to refute Gabriel’s words, to his irritation.

"Hasn’t anyone told you that you are rude, brat?"

Gabriel looked up at Brad with wide eyes and then suddenly smiled. This took Brad aback.

He faltered and then quickly walked back, clearing his throat and then opened his door for the two.

’How do you even hate the kids for the mother’s actions?’ Brad chastized himself, shaking his head.

’Teaching should be easy, right? I can do this!’

Brad had never had the time to teach anyone anything in their life, and he was about to have his first lesson with a rascal and a painfully shy little girl.

’Sister-in-law did say that the little girl would love the music lessons, so let’s hope it’s easy for all of us.’

Brad finally entered his room and closed the door behind him, only to stop short.

Ingrid had remained by the nearest wall with her head bowed, so she was not the problem, but her brother was.

Brad was sure that it had not even been 30 seconds since the third brat had entered his room, but he was running at full speed around. Gabriel would stop briefly and flick a string on one of the displayed guitars on the many stands, especially the ones on the floor that he could reach.

"Hey what are you doing?" Brad snapped but Gabriel just moved on to the next one, his enthusiasm growing by the second. Gabriel dashed off to the adjourning room, and Brad took off after him.

"Third brat! You come here right now!"

Gabriel stuck out his tongue and dashed around, taking advantage of his little body to enter spaces that Brad could not get into.

Ingrid sighed back in the main room, shaking her head as she glanced at them both. She fully raised her head and pushed her glasses up her nose when she knew that she was alone. She looked around the room that just had a few guitars and a large semi-circle couch of a sort. She walked over and perched on the edge of it, waiting patiently.

Brad did not take long to return to the room with a very happy Gabriel. Ingrid took one last look at Gabriel and knew her younger brother thought he was playing a ’fun’ game with their uncle. She sighed again just as Brad spoke,

"Third Brat, can you not be calm as the second brat is?"

"We are not called brats!"

"Yes, She is Ingrid, and I am Gabriel! Just like the angel!"

"Pfttt!!!!! Hahahahahahaaa.... You think any angel would be as naughty as you are?"

"I am! Mama Shelby even said so!"

"Hmmmmm.... That’s interesting to hear. Anyway, Mr Angel and Ingrid.... Are you ready?"

Brad deposited Gabriel next to Ingrid, noting that the little girl flinched when he got closer.

He sighed and shook his head, creating some distance between them.

’Sister-in-law trusted me with the task, and I’ll do it to the best of my ability!’

However, with another thought, he started in a totally different direction. He hoped to ease the atmosphere a bit.

"I remember meeting your mother back in the day...."

Brad noticed that this perked up the two children.

"Really? You know Mum Aliya?" Gabriel asked excitedly.

Brad smiled and, against his better judgment, talked to the two at length about their deceased mother. In Brad’s view, Aliya was a decent person.

The only thing Brad did not like about her was that she had somehow still led his brother on... even with three children and a fiancé. Brad knew that if Ian had allowed himself, this would have never happened, but Brad could not bring himself to dislike his brother’s actions... not entirely, though.

Before long, Brad was playing exciting games with the two kids. Upon a closer look, Brad was enjoying himself even more than the children. A couple of hours passed without him noticing, and he actually liked the time spent with them.

’Who knew that I could be the best babysitter there ever was?’ he gave himself a pat on the back.

Brad’s room had a lot of ’fun things’ that attracted the two, and he indulged them very well as he noted anything they liked. Ingrid always hovered around the musical instruments, and Gabriel on his miniature cars and figurines.

As he was feeling generous, he even gave some of the limited editions to Gabriel, thinking,

’Who knew that I could be this generous?’

Brad did not forget about his main task, though. He walked into one closed room with Gabriel in tow, asking many questions animatedly. Gabriel had become like his shadow in that room, and Brad was okay with it then.

"Let’s pick one of the smaller guitars for you two to start learning."

As Brad had switched on the lights, Gabriel’s mouth dropped open.

"Uncle Brad, why do you have so many of the same guitars?"

"What do you know?!" Brad snapped, but his tone was doting. It had taken him mere hours to drop his prejudice against the kids.

He picked out two of the guitars, one a bright shade of red and the other which looked to be made in a plush wood of a sort.

He handed one to Gabriel,

"Whoooooaaaaaa!!!! It’s so pretty!" Gabriel danced around the room, holding it high above his head, and Brad shook his head, smiling. Brad kept an eye on Gabriel, anyway, for the last thing he wanted was for the boy to crush into anything in the room.

When the two returned, Ingrid was not perched on the couch like they had left her.

Gabriel was just enjoying his new guitar, stringing it to make out-of-tune sounds, which he giggled to.

Brad headed to the next room to find her as the door was slightly left ajar but then stopped short. Ingrid was by a grand piano that he had in an adjacent room. She stretched out her finger and pressed on one key and then the next.

She looked to be enjoying the sounds. However, it was not this that caught Brad’s attention; it was the melodious music that flowed from the girl’s mouth. Brad had no idea what the song was and at that moment, he wouldn’t have cared anyway.

He looked dazed as an eerie sensation zapped through him just from hearing the little girl’s voice. He felt a slight shudder ripple through his frame. The voice was so soothing, almost as if it was pulling him into a trance of a sort.

A small gasp left Brad. He seemed not to be in control of himself as Ingrid’s voice got stronger and sweeter by the second.

’Is this what the sailors say when they speak about the melodious voices that could make them lose their way in deep waters? I think that I am losing myself!’ The thought flashed through Brad as another more daring thought occurred to him that day,

’Like her beautiful witchy blue-eyed mother, Shelby, I think another witch is in this estate!’

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