Leaving It All Behind (Teresa and Cameron) novel Chapter 7

At 1:30 pm, Cameron was in a meeting with senior executives at the company.

The moment his personal phone rang, he instinctively thought it was Teresa. He was about to reject the call when he noticed it was a call from East Street Kindergarten.

Worried that something might have happened to Rosalie, Cameron paused the meeting and stepped outside to take the call.

"Is this Rosalie Langdon's parent?"

"Yes, this is."

"There's a parent-child event at the kindergarten today. Why hasn't Rosalie's parent arrived yet?"

The teacher's question made Cameron pause for a moment. He was surprised. "Hasn't Rosalie's mother come?"

"If she had, I wouldn't be calling you," the teacher replied. "Parent-child events may not seem very important to adults, but they matter a lot to children.

"The event is about to start, and all the other children's parents are here. If Rosalie is the only one without a parent, how do you think she'll feel?"

There was a hint of irritation in the teacher's tone, and Cameron wasn't an irresponsible parent.

He had assumed Teresa would see the text message and accompany Rosalie to the event.

But he hadn't expected her not to show up at the kindergarten at all.

At this point, there was no time to try contacting Teresa again. Left with no choice, Cameron said, "I'll be there right away."

He ended the call and had his secretary inform the executives that the meeting would be postponed.

The parent-child event ended at 4:30 pm.

Rosalie had worn a long face all afternoon, clearly unhappy.

After school, Cameron took Rosalie to the car.

They sat in the back seat, and Cameron asked her gently, "Are you upset today?"

Rosalie's eyes reddened with frustration.

"What's going on with Mommy? The kindergarten said we were supposed to come early. Everyone else had their moms there—only I had my dad. If it weren't for Ms. Cece's performance, I wouldn't have let her come at all."

Cameron held her hand and reassured her softly. "That was my oversight today. It won't happen again."

Even so, Rosalie couldn't cheer up.

Everyone else had their mothers with them, and only she had her father. And in many of the activities, having a dad gave her an edge simply because he was male.

She liked winning first place, but she wanted to win it fairly.

Cameron knew Rosalie was unhappy and wanted to comfort her, but just then his phone rang.

It was Julia Lindt calling.

After he answered, Julia said, "Tomorrow is your dad's birthday. A few elders are coming over for dinner tonight. Bring Rosie and come pick me up at Lacey Mall."

Cameron was momentarily taken aback, but then he recalled that the following day was William's birthday.

Once it registered, he replied, "Alright."

After ending the call, he looked at Rosalie, who was still scrunching up her little nose. He reached out and gently touched her cheek, his voice soft and affectionate.

"Tomorrow is Grandpa's birthday. Your mommy didn't come today because she's probably busy at the Langdon estate preparing dinner. Don't you remember? Every year on this day, she cooks a lot of dishes there."

Rosalie thought about it seriously for a moment. It did seem to be true.

With that thought, her mood lifted a little. She tilted her chin up and said proudly, "Well, that's better. Otherwise, the other kids would make fun of me and say I'm a kid whose mom doesn't love me."

Cameron chuckled at her words before saying, "Next time there's an event like this, I'll have Ms. Cece go with you."

In an instant, all the gloom vanished. Rosalie squealed with excitement, "Yay! Daddy, you're the best!"

Cameron ruffled her hair and asked gently, "Then shall we head to Grandpa's place?"

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