Vasili peeked into the dining room and smiled in satisfaction as the girl finished his pancakes. Chleo sips the vanilla milk until it runs out, leaving a white, mustache-like trail above her lips.
Chleo noticed that her mouth was sagging, so she took a tissue in the middle of the table and wiped her milky lips. After that, she licked her lips to enjoy the remaining sweet taste in her mouth.
"It's yummy!" exclaimed Chleo, raising both thumbs in praise of her savior's cooking.
"I am honored to hear that, princess," Vasili replied, bowing like a prince, followed by witty laughter. Vasili moved toward Chleo and held out a hand. "Come on. I'll take you home now."
Chleo took the helping hand, not knowing Vasili snapped his finger once. A second later, they were in a very different place. A wide field of grass spread around it.
Where are they? Chleo pondered in her mind.
Vasili could see a questioning glance in the girl's eyes. He could have brought Chleo straight into the villa. But... Vasili wanted to be selfish one last time. Even for a little while, he still wanted to be with the child before undergoing ten years of separation.
They walked hand in hand toward the villa where Chleo's family awaited her return anxiously.
The adult man and little girl duo talked about trivial things, and Chleo often lifted her head to look at him. Somehow they never run out of topic to talk about. Chleo became more enthusiastic and excited whenever she spoke of her baby brother. Even though she loved to tease her brother to the point of making the poor baby cry, Chleo loved him as much as she loved her parents.
Vasili remembered in the past life, Chleo was indeed closer to Diego than her parents.
"Oh, I wished to take Diego mounting a whale like yesterday. But he will surely cry in fear. Mommy said Diego is not as adventurous as me."
Vasili chuckled in disbelieve as he knew better than no one what kind of adult Diego was like. Even though he only had met his brother-in-law a couple of times, he knew Diego Regnz always be ready to defend Chleo and got revenge if someone harmed his beloved sister.
When he brought his dead wife to the Regnz residence, Diego welcomed him with a lot of punching as if he was a punching sack. The young man even cursed him and wished he could kill Vasili for stealing his sister away.
Vasili became dejected when he reminisced, but soon he controlled his emotions before responding to Chleo's remark.
"Trust me. Your brother would grow up and more manly than he is now. He will have no fear once he reached adulthood, and he would do anything to protect his family."
"How do you know? Ha!" Chleo clasped her mouth with her free hand suddenly, making Vasili confused. "Could it be you can see the future?"
"What?"
"Can you travel and see me in the future? What will I become? Am I going to be beautiful like mommy?" the girl was too excited, and her eyes filled with the expectation to make a burst of hearty laughter escape from Vasili's mouth.
Really. His wife had an extraordinary imagination when she was a child.
"No, I can't see the future nor travel time to a specified period."
"Then how do you know?"
'It's because I came from the future itself.' Vasili kept the real answer to himself.
And now that a lot has changed, Vasili no longer knew what their future would be like. "Let's just say I have a good insight." was his answer with a mysterious knowing smile.
"That's so awesome!"
Vasili laughed out loud, hearing the cheerful exclamation of the little girl. Really. He never thought he could laugh easily when he chatted with Chleo. He wished time would stop at the moment and their precious time would last forever.
His laughter stopped when he recalled something.
"Chleo, there are many evil people who desired to bring down your family. After all, your parents were no ordinary people and stood out in the entire business circle. I want you to promise me one thing."
"What is it?"
Vasili stopped his steps to crouch down so Chleo wouldn't feel the pain in her neck from looking up.
"No matter where you are, don't ever get out of your father's supervision. As long as you're in America, you'll be fine. That is your father's territory, after all. But if it's outside America, don't ever refuse your father's protection. No one would know what dangers lurk because you are the weakness of your parents. You remembered what happened to you yesterday, didn't you?"
"Is there a lot of people out there like criminals yesterday?"
Vasili nodded firmly to answer her question, causing the little girl to pout in a gloomy heart.
"What are you thinking?"
"I just remembered Aunt Meisya. That evil guy knocked her out because she tried to save me. I hope she is alright."
Vasili smiled at the concerned tone that escaped from the little girl's mouth. "Don't worry. She is fine. You know what, you will meet her once you arrived at your villa."
"Really? You're not lying" Chleo's voice was cheerful again when she heard that the wife of one of his favorite uncles was fine.
"I never lied to you, princess."
"Okay. I will promise if you also make a promise to me."
Vasili chuckled in amusement hearing the proposal. He never knew that Chleora Regnz had such an intelligent side.
"Alright. What do you want?"
"I want you to come to my sixteenth birthday."
Vasili was speechless at the request. He wanted to come, of course, he wanted to come. Unfortunately, Vasili could not possibly set foot in America because of that damn requirement.
He wasn't allowed to go to America for ten years, which meant he couldn't possibly attend the girl's sixteenth birthday.
Ugh! If the violet queen could transfer him in the past before the tenth of October, maybe he could come to Chleo's sixteenth birthday. Alas, he came in early November last year, a month after the girl's birthday.
Hence, Vasili could only set his foot in America a month after the girl celebrated her sixteenth birthday.
Now, what kind of answer should he give?