The Abandoned Wife (Lucian) novel Chapter 113

Chapter 113 Her Autism Was Triggered
Lucian watched in astonishment while his daughter chased after Roxanne’s car frantically.
She hasn’t even met Roxanne that many times, so why is she so attached to her?
While Lucian was mired in bafflement, the girl suddenly fell over, jolting him to his senses. He promptly hastened over to embrace her. “Are you okay? Let Daddy have a look at you.”
Estella refused to let go of the arms she had wrapped tightly around his neck, and while he worried about her plight, he heard the little girl break into a sob.
For a moment, Lucian thought his ears were playing tricks on him.
Even if she was merely crying, that was the very first time she had broken her silence growing up.
Estella bawled her heart out and clung to him so tightly that he really felt it around his neck. In spite of the emotional turmoil he was experiencing, he endured it quietly and directed his own attention toward comforting her instead.
“Ms. Jarvis… want Ms. Jarvis…”
Estella’s abrupt and stuttering enunciations of these words took Lucian aback, as he had never expected those to be her first words.
To think that that woman would matter so much to her.
The thought of that left a bitter taste in his mouth. In the end, he could only tell the girl the truth between gritted teeth. “Ms. Jarvis is gone, but Daddy will be right here with you, so don’t cry anymore.”
Estella’s incessant weeping took so much out of her physically that her tiny body started trembling.
Bereft of options, Lucian could only ask for her to be excused from school and take her home.
On the way back, the little girl settled down, slowly but surely, only sniffling from time to time while she sat in the back seat in utter silence.
Disregarding everyone when they got back in, she went straight back to her room and slammed the door behind her.
Lucian assumed that Estella must be on one of her usual tantrums, considering the frequency with which similar such outbursts from her had occurred before.
On top of everything else, his presence at the company was still very much needed that day.
After some deliberation, Lucian nonetheless asked Catalina to keep an eye on the girl before he drove over to the office.
When he was just about finished with his work in the afternoon, a call came in from Catalina. “Please come back home quickly, Mr. Farwell! I think that something might be wrong with Ms. Estella!”
She sounded almost panicky to him.
With his heart in his throat, Lucian immediately set aside whatever he had on hand and drove homeward like a bat out of hell.
“After you left, I tried to console Ms. Estella but saw that she had no reaction whatsoever no matter how I spoke to her…” Catalina was so unnerved that her voice was quivering.
With swift strides and a tremendous sense of urgency, Lucian made his way into Estella’s room. Sitting curled up in the corner with vacuous eyes, the girl did not respond to their entrance.
“Daddy knows how upset you are, Essie, but you will still get to see Ms. Jarvis in the future, all right? This, I promise you.”
In the past, the mention of Roxanne would at least elicit some sort of reaction from Estella, but this time, she was completely and unflinchingly immersed in her own world.
Lucian’s heart sank when he saw that.
From the girl’s reaction, it was evident that her autism had worked up.
That realization prompted Lucian to phone and request the immediate attention of his good friend, James Lann.
James was a well-regarded professional in the field of psychology and had been the one responsible for treating Estella over the years.
Very quickly, James came by to check on Estella. He, too, became solemn after assessing her condition. Turning to the other two persons in the room, he said, “Please step outside. I’d like to try talking to her for a while.”
Lucian and Catalina cooperatively did as asked.
Inside the room, James patiently spoke to Estella, but whatever he said was only met by her unfocused stares.
Compared to their previous sessions together, this situation was proving to be significantly more challenging.