What did she mean by beat us up? Did she see when we broke the award?
Series of questions burgeoned through their little minds.
"I'm kidding, what's up with you two adorable angels?" Rachael laughed a bit and gestured for them to come over and get a kiss. Bruce watched this scene silently. For them to come here willingly meant something was wrong.
"We have a question to ask you." Leon spoke up after their mother had given a kiss on the cheek.
Bruce straightened up; their questions always come like bombs.
"Okay, what's it?" Rachael asked.
"Dad, what would you do if we broke your award?" Leon asked while holding his breath, he was ready for the worst outcome; he only worried about his sister.
"Which one did you break?" Bruce took a deep breath before asking.
"The one you won at the sports competition." Dorita replied with obvious fear written all over her face.
"You broke my 'highest goal scorer' award?"
Leon and Dorita exchanged a knowing look. This trend was extremely familiar.
"You broke that particular award?" Rachael gave them a heated look, "you know how much your dad loves that award."
The twins glanced at their father and lowered their heads again ready to be scolded or sent away from home.
"We're sorry dad, we were just fooling around!" Dorita was already in tears. Leon resisted the urge to pat her back.
"What I want to know is whose fault it was." Bruce showed no emotions as he spoke.
"It was me." Leon took responsibility for it. He didn't want to get his sister involved in any other punishment.
"What?" Dorita looked at him with a confused expression.
"I was admiring the award and was dreaming about when I'd win something like that, I don't know how it slipped out of my hands and broke." Leon ignored his sister and explained.
Dorita looked at him with mouth agape; that wasn't what happened.
She was the one who took the award and was playing around with it and Leon had tried to take it from her but she resisted which led to the fragile award falling to the ground.
Rachael decided to stay out of this one, let him handle his children.
"I'm sorry dad, it will never happen again. I can even give you my own sports award." Leon said hurriedly when he saw that their father wasn't speaking.
"Keep your award." Bruce spoke in the end.
He wasn't sure what to say. It was true he liked that award but he couldn't get mad at them for breaking it right?
"Don't worry about it; it's an old award anyway." Bruce comforted the two. Above all, he didn't want to punish little Leon, he was a boy after all.
Leon: "…"
Dorita:"…"
Rachael:"…"
They were shocked. This was an unexpected answer. What was going on?
"Really?" Dorita was overjoyed and couldn't help but pump her fist.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. Clean your eyes now." Bruce reassured. It was then that he noticed something. He had noticed it before but had dismissed it till today.
"What's up with the contact lenses?"
Rachael looked up from her book and glanced at Dorita with her lenses.
"All smart people wear lenses." Dorita answered with pride.
"Who told you that?" Bruce frowned a bit.
"Mom and Leon said so. Have you seen Professor Isaac?" Dorita repeated the most popular words she heard.
Bruce glanced at Rachael, who shrugged and smiled lightly,
"I might have said that without thinking."
Bruce sighed. Now who was the one with the high IQ?
"Who's Professor Isaac?" Bruce asked after thinking about the name for a while.
"He's the most popular professor with zero achievement, he's written five books and all five have been cancelled." Leon explained. He had forgotten about the punishment issue already and was back to his usual self.
"In fact, he's also bald." Dorita added as a matter of fact.
"And this is the person you want to emulate?" Bruce found it rather funny and ironic.
Dorita nudged her contact lenses and said, "You aren't smart so you wouldn't know."
"Oops!" Rachael covered her face and laughed comically.
Bruce was furious but didn't bother about it.
"You should talk her out of wearing that otherwise she'll end up needing it all her life."
"Why don't you do it honey?" Rachael declined and continued her reading. She had already tried to persuade her not to wear it but she was stubborn and at the same time so cute and she couldn't bear to force her to stop.
"This Professor…" Bruce tsked. It was probably all those years of failure that gave him a bald head and sight impairment.
On the other hand, Dorita and Leon were relieved; it felt like a huge stone had been rolled off their back.
….
Tracy looked at the key in her hand again as her mind was filled with lots of questions.
She was doing some small arrangements around the house. This key fell out of a book which was placed on the shelf.
Tracy looked at the book title again: "Child Custody: legal rights."
She had some few guesses about what the key was for.
The safe!
Tracy hurriedly went to the study which hadn't been used for a long time although it was kept clean.
She went over to the large compartment and opened it and inside sat the small safe which hadn't been opened since Christopher passed away.
She had tried opening the safe before but couldn't do it so she had quit trying even though she was curious about its contents.
She inserted the key and turned.
Click!
The safe opened. Tracy reached in and took out some sheets of paper and a document.
She looked at the pieces of paper and frowned gradually.
"So you took some precautions huh?" she said after reading what was written down with her husband's very own handwriting.
It was a letter explaining everything he did.
Why he did what he did and some other major secrets that could ruin the plans of the Organisation if anyone else knew about it.
So this was the reason he put the key in the book? So that Bernadette would read it and find the key?
So he knew that his daughter wouldn't accept the fact that Walter's custody was handed to her and hence, she would read books regarding child custody?
Too bad she read those books except this one. What a crafty man!
Tracy tore the letter into pieces and burned them. She looked at the other file.
"What Will Happen In 15 Years' Time?"
Tracy froze. This was when Walter would turn 18! So he wrote this before he died.
However, behind her, at the entrance of the study, stood young Walter with a confused expression on his face….