Brayden's widened eyes trailed from the beautiful lady's pair of amber eyes to her pointy nose then to her well-sculpted jawline and finally to her glossy pink lips.
While busy engraving every detail of the lady's face to heart, Brayden forgot that he was staring at a human being and not a statue.
"If you are done ogling, will you talk to her to let go? As you can see her injuries need to be treated immediately," The lady in a green short-sleeved shirt spoke up.
Although she tried not to let it show on her face, her irritated voice was evident that she wasn't pleased with how Brayden accessed her as if she was one of the commodities in the mall which was up for sale.
"Also, I am Jillian. Jillian Patrick to be precise and not Ashley," She corrected sternly.
She tried to stand up again but only for Marley to let out a painful groan which made Jillian return to her squatting position.
'I have seen people who look alike but definitely not ones who share such an uncanny resemblance like this. Her nose, lips, ears and entire face look exactly like Ashley's. I can't believe she is not Ashley,' Brayden got lost in his thoughts once again. His intense gaze made the already irritated lady furious.
How Jillian wished she was a customer like him then she would have given him a piece of her mind. Too bad as an employee of M & S mall she had to be polite to their customers.
"Do you perhaps wear contact lenses?" Brayden asked out of the blue. His unrelated question made the onlookers criticise him for neglecting the injured child.
If only they knew his reason for acting the way he did then they wouldn't have been so harsh on Brayden.
"Your child is injured and still bleeding, do you have to be so uncaring and rude?" Jillian scolded him fiercely.
Jillian's angry tone coupled with the onlookers scolding made Brayden momentarily compose himself.
"Mark, your leg is bleeding and needs to be treated immediately. Let's take you to the hospital…"
"No, no, no," Marley chanted as she beat Brayden's outstretched hands away.
He tried to coax her again and did everything possible to make Marley release Jillian but the stubborn girl refused to let go.
Even when her favourite dolls were presented to her, she didn't budge.
In the end, Jillian had no choice but to agree to follow them to the hospital to get Marley's wounds treated.
At the hospital, even when the doctor treated Marley's wounds the persistent little girl refused to let Jillian Out of her sight.
Fifteen minutes after arriving at the hospital, Jillian's cell phone rang just when the doctor finished dressing Marley's injuries.
When she tried to leave Marley and Monalisa held onto each of her legs, not willing to let go.
"I just want to answer the line. I am not running away like you think," Jillian muttered, waving her ringing cell phone at Monalisa's face.
But both Marley and Monalisa weren't convinced even when she gave them her word. Marley and Monalisa only allowed Jillian to leave the doctor's office after she gave them her handbag to hold onto.
At the long pathway close to the doctor's office Jillian was seen talking to someone on the phone.
Soon, her raised voice could be heard from the doctor's office.
"It hasn't been two minutes since I told you what happened to me that made me end up losing my job and all you could tell me was to meet a man friend of yours?" Jillian shouted forgetting that she was at the hospital.
"I have told you countless times that with your beauty and perfect figure, you can easily earn a living without having to lift a finger or serve anyone. All you have to do is listen to me…"
"Are you talking about the same face and body you ridiculed every day years ago?" Jillian interrupted rudely, balling her right hand into a fist.
"Jill, Mr Noah is an important figure…"
"Are you sure you are even my mother?" Jillian demanded in anger. She disconnected the call without waiting for her mother's response.
"I already had a lot to deal with already. It was my mistake for thinking that she had something important to say," Jillian growled.
Jillian turned to stomp away but only for a tiny little girl to run and hug her legs.
"Mom, please don't leave us again. I promise Marl and I will be good hmm," Monalisa begged. By this time tears had already welled up her eyes.
All it took was a drop of tear from Monalisa's eyes to melt Jillian's heart.
"I wasn't leaving. I just wanted to go out and get you and Merl…"
"Marley," Brayden carrying Marley on his body corrected upon coming out of the doctor.
"Yes, Marley," Jillian repeated.
"I wanted to go out and get two of you ice cream since she was really brave and well-behaved there earlier," Jillian lied. She didn't have the heart to tell the crying girl that she wanted to run away.
She bent and wiped the tears off Monalisa's face.
Jillian looked towards Brayden after she succeeded in getting Monalisa to stop crying.
"Can we go now?" She asked.
"I still have to get her medication so why don't you take them to the car first? I will join you soon," Brayden replied and moved closer to where Jillian stood.
Since Marley couldn't walk properly he carefully handed her over to Jillian.
"Be good girls OK. Don't give her a hard time," Brayden warned the girls hoping they would do as he said.
"Don't go yet," Brayden addressed the salesperson who was about to follow Jillain and the twins.
Despite that Jillian insisted that she didn't have to follow them to the hospital, the guilty lady who knew that she was partly responsible for Marley's situation still tagged along.
"Mr Brayden, I have told you everything that happened. It's ok if you want to punish me for the incident but please don't drag Miss Jillian or the management…"
"I understand the girls were too excited after seeing Jillian. I would be lying if I said I wasn't angry to see Marl hurt but I won't make things difficult for you because of that," Brayden gave the anxious lady his word.
"In exchange for overlooking what happened, can you tell me about Jillian?" Brayden, who never partakes in a losing deal, asked gazing at the salesperson's face.
"Hmm…" The salesperson hesitated.
Although she was grateful to Brayden for letting the incident slide she couldn't just divulge information about her superior to their customer.
"I have no bad intentions for asking. It's just that Marl and Lisa seem to like her a lot so I want to know the kind of person she is. I wouldn't want to leave the girls in the hands of a bad person," Brayden said and eagerly waited for the lady's reply.
"Miss Jillian is not a bad person. Although she has said a few times that she doesn't want to have kids, she is not the type who would harm children. She is a very sweet lady, to be honest," The lady defended Jillian.
"Is her name really Jillian? How old is she? Is she married? What is her family like? Which school did she go to? Does she have siblings?" The impatient guy bombarded the salesperson still in her uniform with questions.