Third Person POV
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Emma let the travel bag slip through her hands when the maid barged in the room with a look of fear covering her face and soon after the name of her little girl came from the maid's mouth in a pant.
She sprinted out of the room without letting the maid finishing her statement. Adam and Giuseppe hot on her tail.
"What's wrong with my daughter?" Emma asked when she entered the kitchen where the commotion was coming from.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I left the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came I found her like this, she wouldn't let go of it and we couldn't pry it of her hand afraid it may worsen the injury." One of the maids apologised when she saw Emma. Emma assumed she was the one who screamed moments ago.
The trio was shocked when they saw the little girl standing next to the sink with a hot pot held firmly on her right arm just above her wrist with inches, with her left hand. The skin under an ugly shade of red and some parts intensely burned. The five years old seemed as if she was holding her screams in but couldn't do the same with her tears, she was glaring at her father and brother fiercely.
Emma came running to her daughter, and knelt down so she was her height. "Sweetheart, what are you doing!" Emma exclaimed horrified at the little one, she tried to lift the pot of her arm but the little girl refused to let it go.
"Baby girl-"
"Don't come near me, papa is a meanie. You hurt momma." The little girl screamed at her approaching dad, stopping him dead in his tracks. "You too, Giu!" She screamed again when her brother tried to come closer.
"Let go, sweetheart!" Emma was preoccupied with prying her daughter's hands of the pot gently so that she doesn't worsen her injuries that she didn't notice the look that the little girl was supporting at the moment.
When she didn't respond, Emma looked up. "Gisela Ingrid Knights! Let go of the pot this instant!" Only when Emma used that reprimanding tone did the little one look down and let go of the pot that seemed to be glued to her skin.
"CALL A FUCKING DOCTOR!" Emma screamed at the staff when she saw how the pot was stuck to her daughter's skin.
The staff flinched at their boss' sudden temper and one of them fished his phone to call the family doctor.
"Why did you do this, Ela?" Emma reprimanded. "Didn't I tell you that the kitchen is off limits if I'm not with you!"
"Papa and Giu hurt you, I want to hurt them. Pranks don't hurt but I know they love, they will be hurt if they see me hurt." Ela said with a tone and a look that no child should possess. It was of pure evil.
"My God, Sweetheart, don't ever do that again. You know papa and Giu would never hurt me, they were just helping me tending to the scratches on my neck." Emma said, hugging her daughter.
"Lying is bad, momma." Ela said as she patted her mother's back. The little girl was acting like a grown up.
"What?" Emma asked as she broke the hug.
"I saw papa attacking you." She glared at her father angrily. "I hate him!" She screamed at them. "I hate them both."
"Don't you trust me, baby girl?" She asked her.
"I do." Ela nodded her head furiously.
"Do you think I can hurt you?" She asked.
"No." Ela shook her head.
"Don't you trust your papa and Giu?" Emma asked again.
Ela didn't speak. "You know they love me and you so much, right?" Emma asked her.
Ela nodded. "I know."
"Then you must always be sure they can and will never hurt me because just like you were sure they will be hurt if they see you hurt, they will also be hurt if I am hurt, you know why?" Emma said.
Ela shook her head. "Because they love me just like they love you, you don't hurt the people you love. Ever. You understand, sweetie?" Emma explained gently to the stubborn child.
Ela nodded her head in understanding once again.
"Now, did you hurt them or not?" Emma asked.
"I did." She nodded in agreement.
"And what do you do when you hurt someone?" Emma asked.
"I apologise." The little one said, with her head hung low.
Emma took her chin between her index and middle finger and lifted it up to look at her, then she nodded towards the two men who were looking at her expectingly.
Ela held her uninjured hand for them, a gesture of hug.
Adam advanced towards her, and gave her a side hug because of her injury and gave her forehead a lingering kiss. "I'm sorry, papa." She pouted a bit, her tears still sliding down her rosy cheeks because of the pain of the pot that was still implanted in her arm. "I don't hate you." She added.
"It's okay, baby girl. I know, I love you too. Just don't ever do such thing again." He said hugging her once again, on the brink of tears before he left the kitchen. He didn't want anyone seen him in this state, especially his little one.
Giuseppe came after his father and did the same thing. "Don't ever do anything like this again, okay, angel?" He asked her while cupping her cheeks in his large hands.
Ela nodded. "I promise."
Giuseppe kissed both of her cheeks and forehead before standing aside when the doctor came rushing I side the kitchen.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Emma entered the office where Adam has isolated himself from them for the last couple of hours. "Hey, are you okay?" She said softly as she came from behind the chair he was siting on and started caressing his shoulders gently.
"I am." He replied.
"Are you sure?" She inquired.
"I'm trying to be." He admitted.
"I'm here if you want to talk about it?"
"It's just overwhelming seeing my five years old going this extreme to punish me, for a moment there I thought I'm dealing with a grown up woman and that frightened me." He said.
"What did?" She asked.
"The fact that she may take even more extreme measures to punish me if she witness something else she doesn't like in the future. I'm afraid she may do something to harm herself seriously the next time." He said.
"Don't worry about it, I gave her an earful and I'm planning on repeating it soon. I'll make sure nothing like this ever repeats itself, ever." She assured.
"I liked her pranking everything that moves more, at least the damage was repairable." Adam said.
"Yeah, tell that to Grata's hair. The poor lady still has to wear a wig to cover the damage the prank she did on her." Emma stated causing Adam to burst in a fit of laughter.
"She did go beyond borders with that one." He admitted, still laughing.
"Just that one?" Emma raised her eyebrow amused. "If I sit here counting how many times she crossed borders with her pranks all day, I wouldn't count half of them." She added, chuckling.
Adam chuckled, agreeing with his wife.
She was glad she could bring him out of his earlier mood even if it's for a while.
"The doctor's gone?" He asked after a while of silence.
"Yeah, he just left. He disinfected the wound after he separated the pot from her flesh and gave her some painkillers to ease the pain. He said it was nothing dangerous, but it would leave a scar." She informed.
"How is she?"
"She's asleep with Giuseppe in his bedroom." She told him.
"I'm glad it's nothing serious." He sighed relieved.
"Yeah." Emma said as she hugged him from behind.
"I'm sorry I hurt you. I wasn't thinking right then." Adam apologised for his earlier actions.
"And I'm sorry I bombed you five years back. I just realised I never apologised for it." She said.
"It's long forgiven." He told her.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Adam and Emma were basking into each other's comfort when his phone rung.
He ignored it for sometime, but it kept ringing so he had to take it.
"Adam Knights, speaking." He said after he accepted the call.
"Did you see the news? What happened? Where is Gisela? Please tell me it's not true." Rob's panicked voice came from the other side of the phone.
Emma had her ear next to Adam's with her chin on his shoulder, so she was able to hear it all which caused her to smirk.
She motioned to Adam to put the pass her the phone and he did.
"Hello, Papa Rob." She emphasised on his name.
"Em- Emma? You remember me?" Rob questioned, not believing his own ears.
"Slow your horses down, I only heard of you, and I must admit you surely are one shrewd old man." She chuckled at her own joke. "I mean for you to keep a sick person by your side to protect you, pretending to care for her and turning a blind eye on her illness, that, sir is just pure evil even to my standards." She added in the same tone.
"Emma, please, hear me out, I-"
"That's Mrs. Knights for you." She cut him off coldly.
"At least tell me what the thing that came out in the news is all about? Gisela can't just be dead like that, right?" He rushed out in the same panicked tone.
"That must have the same feeling Emma felt five years ago when she knew of your betrayal, refusing to believe the reality that just slapped you right in the face." She said.
"Emma, please-"
"Why don't you find out yourself, or get Max to find out for you. I'm sure he's pretty busy these days running around trying to figure out what his son's been up to." She said. "If only he was half decent Müller is, or is he? The father is loyal to you and the son is loyal to me." She laughed at her last statement.
"Gisela, please, is Gisela okay?" He asked again.
"Even if she's perfectly fine, you'll be the last person she meets." She stated. "Stay away from my kids, or trust me you won't like the consequences, and tell that cunning old man of mine, David to stay as far away from me and my family as possible. You're no longer dealing with the dense Emma/A.l you once knew. This new A.L is willing to bury you alive if it meant my family is safe." She threatened and handed the phone back to her husband.
"You sure know how to piss people off, Rob." Adam chuckled.
"Adam, please just tell me this one thing." He said.
"She is alive, but that must not be a known fact to outsiders." Adam felt bad for the old man, he knew he really cared for his little girl.
"Can I-"
"You heard my wife, stay away from us, both of you." He repeated Emma's warning as he caresses her hands that were circling his neck, with his free one.
"Adam-"
Adam cut off the call before Rob could finish his statement, and put his phone down.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"You're not travelling anymore?" Adam asked after a while.
"Nah, I postponed it until Gisela is well." She replied.
"I'm glad you did, we all need you here." He said.
"I'm not going anywhere until things come back to normal." She promised.
A/N
Hey, lovelies!
Yaaay! Here's the second update for the day!
Now you all know who Rob, David, and Max are, even though I already mentioned them in the first book except for Rob, I introduced him as papa and only mentioned his real name recently, but I'm sure you all forgot who they are by now.
Hope you enjoy it.
Don't forget to vote and comment.
Until next time, happy reading.