Chapter 214 I’m Here
Finished
He couldn’t help thinking of Jack–his best friend who’d died far too young and entrusted his wife and daughter to him.
In an instant, the irritation from being interrupted vanished, replaced by a surge of guilt.
He had promised Jack he would take care of Hannah and Isla.
But because of Amelia’s fall–even though someone else had ultimately taken the blame–there was still a hard–to–name resentment lodged deep in his heart toward Hannah and her daughter.
That resentment had made him unconsciously colder lately whenever he faced them–he’d even deliberately kept his distance.
And that distance, without question, had hurt a mother and daughter who were already sensitive and fragile.
“Switch the call to video.” Ethan’s voice sank without him meaning it to.
“O–okay, okay…” Hannah answered in a panic, fumbling with her phone.
A few seconds later, the video call connected.
What appeared on the screen made Ethan’s heart clench again.
In the dim bedroom, Hannah’s hair was messy. Barefaced, with eyes red like a rabbit’s, tear tracks crisscrossed her cheeks–she looked exhausted and pitiful.
On the bed behind her, the blanket was piled into a high mound, trembling faintly with the sobbing person underneath.
Isla had buried herself completely in the blanket, her cries leaking out through the seams.
“Isla, Isla, don’t cry–look, Ethan is calling you,” Hannah coaxed hoarsely as she bent down, trying to lift a corner of the blanket.
The crying paused, and then Isla’s distrustful voice came from inside.
“No! You’re lying to me, Mom!”
“Ethan isn’t here. He’s like Dad–he thinks Isla is bad, and he doesn’t want me anymore…”
Those innocent words struck Ethan precisely in the softest place in his heart.
He thought the reason Isla said that was probably because his recent, faint coldness had made
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Chapter 214 I’m Here
her feel unsafe.
A child who’d lost her father–how could she not be painfully sensitive to other people’s emotional shifts?
“Isla, sweetie–don’t cry.”
Ethan spoke immediately, forcing his voice to sound gentle but steady.
67
Finished
“It’s just thunder outside. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I haven’t left you–I’m just away on a work trip.”
Hearing that familiar voice, the sobbing under the blanket finally quieted.
The little mound shifted, as if hesitating.
Seeing that, Hannah quickly took the chance to move the phone closer.
After a long while, the blanket was lifted from inside–just a tiny crack.
A little face, covered in tears and flushed from crying, slowly peeked out.
Isla’s eyes were soaked with tears.
She stared at the familiar man on the screen, sniffling through watery eyes.
“Ethan, the thunder is so scary! Isla is really scared…”
A child’s purest need for safety crashed straight into Ethan’s heart through the screen.
The last trace of distance he’d felt toward them because of Amelia was washed completely clean
in that moment.
All he remembered now was that she was his best friend’s daughter–a trembling child in a storm, convinced she was about to be abandoned by the whole world.
Ethan’s gaze and voice softened on their own.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I’ll stay with you.”
That sentence seemed to give Isla enormous courage.
She bit her lower lip and blinked, glancing carefully at her mom off–camera before asking Ethan with a hint of hope.
“Then … can you tell me a fairy tale?”
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Chapter 214 I’m Here
She sniffed, her voice still thick with tears.
白
“Before, when I got scared during thunder… Dad would always tell me a story.”
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