Chapter 57: Chapter 57

Sunday morning, Millie woke up earlier than usual. She was even the one who woke us up and said that we should attend the morning mass at the church.

And of course, we did what she wanted.

We immediately got up and took a bath. It is good that I told Enver to bring some clothes with him since he will be staying in our apartment for a couple of days. We ate breakfast together and while we were in the car, Millie couldn’t contain her happiness.

Well, she was always happy and excited whenever we went out even though it was just the two of us. But I never expected that she would be more happy and excited now that her father is with us now.

That is why when we arrived at the church, I prayed so hard and wished for our lord to guide our family. I plead to him and hope that there is no consequence to the happiness that we are experiencing right now.

I leave my marriage with Enver and my family’s health to him.

And after the mass, we decided to eat at the fast food restaurant near the church.

“Mommy, can we go to the park near our village?” Millie asked while Enver was feeding her. “I just wanted to introduce Dad to my friends there.”

I frowned. “Haven’t you introduced him to your friends at your birthday party?”

She shook her head. “Those kids that I invited to my party were all my best friends,” she said but she immediately averted her eyes. After that, she bit her lower lip.

And I know my daughter. This is her mannerism when she is lying about something. Well, not totally lying. Just when she doesn’t want to say things to me.

“Millie…” I called her with a warning in my voice so she would realize that I know she is hiding something from me. “What is it, baby?”

She scratched her head and sighed. “Those kids that I invited to my party, they were the ones who were nice to me even though I don’t have a father that I can introduce to them. They remained as my friends and never teased me with that.”

“And those friends you have in that park?” Enver asked.

“They were only kind to me at first but after they learned that I don’t have a daddy, they started bullying me.” He sighed again. “They said that I can’t be their friend anymore because I don’t have a daddy.” She lifted her head and looked at us. “But now that I have both of you, I can be friends with them again.”

Enver and I looked at each other.

Those kids are mean. But we can’t meddle with this kind of thing since it is just a kid’s fight. And Millie will not learn how to handle this kind of problem if we make these things matter in our hands.

I cleared my throat and looked at her. “Are you sure you want to be friends with them again?”

Without hesitation, she nodded. “They are nice to me and they all took care of me. But their parents are getting mad at them and said that they will get grounded if they play with me,” she said. “Being not rich is one thing and they can let that go but growing up without a father is not a good example for them so they don’t have a choice but to keep their distance from me. They only get mean to me whenever I insist on playing with them even though they do their best to ignore and avoid me.”

I massaged my temple after hearing that.

I didn’t expect that my daughter would experience that kind of thing. Just because I choose a simple life for the both of us even though I can put her in a higher status in life even though I am the only one working for the both of us.

“Then, we will go there,” Enver said, with finality in his voice, which made us turn to him. “Introduce me to all your friends as your daddy. And tell them that I am also rich so they don’t have to be afraid of their parents just so they could play with you.” He smiled and caressed her head.

“Really?”

Enver nodded. “Right after we finish our food here, we will immediately go there.”

“Yey!” Millie happily continued eating her food.

While I am still feeling bad about her experiencing those things because of my decision in our lives.

“Hey…” Enver turned to me. “Don’t look at her like that.”

“H-huh?” I turned my eyes to him. “W-what do you mean?”

“Don’t look at her with pity in your eyes,” he said. “You should be proud of her.”

“But—”

He shook his head. “And you shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened. No matter what your decision in your lives for you and Milie, those kinds of people will never cease to exist. People will always say something and discriminate against us, especially when our way of living is far different from theirs.”

“But those kids bullied her.”

“Yes, they were,” he said. “But they are kids. They were only doing what their parents told them. This is our daughter’s battle so we can’t just meddle with her decision.”

I harshly sighed. “She was just five years old.”

“And she will face more big problems than this in the future,” he added. “We should be proud of her for handling it like an adult.”

Again, I sighed.

As days pass, the evidence that Millie was indeed taken after her father is shown, especially how she thinks so maturely at a young age. The way they handled people who wronged them. The way they choose to look at the positive side of the situation rather than the negative.

The way they choose to fight the people who mean to them with kindness.

Well, if it was me who was in Millie’s situation, I would never be friends with those kinds of kids and maybe, I would take revenge on them for bullying me.

“I am sorry.”

He caressed my cheeks and smiled. “Let’s just support our daughter.”

Just like what Millie wanted, we immediately went to the park that she was talking about after we ate. And when we arrived, there were a lot of kids playing around.

Some women were talking to each other on the other side of the park. Some of them are wearing uniforms for babysitting while others are in casual clothes. Some really wear something out of the weather so I think they were with the kids.

When we got out of the car, Millie ran toward the other kids at the playground.

I saw some of them smile when we saw her but they didn’t dare to approach her and the others were stunned. Maybe because they didn’t expect to see her today.

“Really?” I heard a young man ask as we approached them. “You have a dad?”

“Yup!” Millie proudly said and pointed at Enver who was walking beside me as we went to them. “He is my daddy and that woman is my mommy. My family is now complete so we can now be friends again.”

The kids looked at us intently. There are amusement in their eyes as they stared at us but after a while, they all smiled and approached Millie.”

“Great! Mommy will not force us to avoid you!”

“We can finally play together again.”

“I missed you, Millie!”

I felt relief after seeing these kids' reactions. This is the purest thing I could ever see. There is no malice in their smile, just pure happiness as they realized that they can finally be together with her again.

Ah, being kids are surely nice.

“Hey…” A boy went in front of us and looked at us with a serious face. He put his hands in his pocket as he slowly averted his eye, maybe realizing how intimidating Enver was. “Is it true? You were Millie’s parents?”

“Hey! Reid!” the girl beside Millie shouted. “Why do you have to ask them? Do you really think Millie will lie about that?”

“Yeah!” the other kid said. “Millie said that they are her parents, right?”

“You should be the one to believe her!”

I crouched to level our faces and smiled at him. “What is your name?”

He looked at me and I can see his eyes slowly turning red. As if, any minute from now, he will cry but he was trying to hold it back. “R-Reid.”

“Reid, I am Milan,” I said. “I am Millie’s mother. And this man beside me is her father, Enver.” I pointed at Enver. “We are Millie’s parents.”

His eyes shifted to us and Millie. As if comparing our faces.

And after a while, he wiped her face and offered his hand to me with a smile on his face, “Nice to meet you, ma’am. I am Reid Almonte, Millie’s boyfriend.”

My eyes widened. “W-what?”

What the hell? We are just talking about their friendship earlier, and now? He introduced himself as our daughter’s boyfriend.

Take note, my daughter was just five years old. And I think Reid was seven or eight years old, based on the bracelet on his wrist that came from the school he attended.

I looked at Millie who was giving me a big smile.

“Millie?”

She innocently looked at me. “Mom?”

“What boyfriend is this young man saying?”

She nodded and pointed at Reid. “Yes, he is my boyfriend, Mommy. A friend that is a boy.”

I massage my temple while Enver sighed in relief and sat down in the grass.

“I have a lot of boyfriends here,” Millie added and pointed to her friends. “But Reid is my favorite boyfriend. He is the only one who protects me whenever the sitter or the parents are mean to me for insisting on playing with them.”

I couldn’t follow everything Millie said until they started playing at the playground together with the other kids.

I turned to Enver who was massaging his head. “Are you okay?”

He sighed and looked at the kids at the playground. “I just realized that having a daughter is not really easy. I need to protect her from boys.”

I laughed and shook my head. “We can just make someone that will help you with that job, right?”

His face turned red as he looked at me. “W-what?”

I laughed again and stood up while shaking my head. “Just kidding.”

Though, I will not deny that I really want to have another child besides Millie. Being an only child is not really that easy so I want her to have siblings that she will count on if ever we leave this world earlier than we can expect.

I don’t want Millie to experience what I have experienced when I don't have anyone to count on whenever I have a problem. I always take them on alone since I don’t have any siblings or even other relatives because both of my parents are also only children.

Well, having friends is good but having siblings is far better. And that is what I want to give to her. But I am not sure if Enver will agree with that since we still have a lot of things that we need to do in our life.