What Claire had just said made absolutely no sense to Harvy. He was way too gobsmacked to find a perfect reaction to express his confusion.
"Marriage is not something so random and baseless that you can throw around." Harvy warned, trying to make her see the gravity of what she had just said.
Although, he wasn't thinking, in the slightest, of wanting to marry her or anything close to that. He didn't even know her, and all what she had been talking about were news to him.
He was just wondering how a random lady could just talk about marriage in such a manner as though it was some lucky draw.
Claire didn't utter a word. Instead, she signaled at the driver. The driver brought out a small black box and passed it to her.
Harvy's eyes scurried all over the box as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
Claire retrieved the black box and slowly opened it. The box opened to reveal a shining ring.
Harvy's eyes widened when he saw this. His gaze shifted to Claire's. Claire's eyes were really serious. She couldn't have meant her intentions more than her face was willing to flex.
"Take the ring from me. Marry me as a deal." Claire repeated, more boldly this time.
At this moment, Harvy realised that there was no joking around. He might have thought that Claire had had a slip of tongue earlier. But now it was quite unlikely. Her facial expression emphasized how serious she was.
She brought out a diamond ring. The manner at which the piece sparkled, Harvy could tell that it was pure diamond. He knew quite a lot about diamonds and few other natural stones.
"Help heal my grandfather, and this ring will be yours." Claire urged.
Harvy couldn't find his voice. Leaving the car was not even an option at that moment. A part of him could still recall that he had promised to go meet Ninna. At this rate, he didn't think it would be possible anymore.
"Take me to him." Harvy said all of a sudden.
Claire was rather stunned by the suddenness of his order. Although she had tried so hard to convince him, she didn't imagine that Harvy would accept her so easily. She had maxed out her tricks and was hoping that this would not fall through. At least she can be grateful that things worked out in her favor.
"Oh, yes. R-right." She stuttered, looking away from Harvy. "Drive! You heard him." She snapped at the driver.
"I'll love to stop somewhere, though. If you don't mind." Harvy asked out of the blue.
Claire picked an interest in him. Her eyes held a certain amount of sincerity and genuineness.
"Hope it won't take too long." She asked.
"It'll only be but for a while." Harvy answered.
After a couple minutes of driving, Harvy instructed that the car pulled over at the opening of a street. He got off the car.
"Please stay here. I won't take more than five minutes." He said.
"How about I---" Before Claire could complete her words, Harvy was already out of sight, walking away.
Harvy followed down the road and then stopped at the front of a building. He took a deep breath when he gazed at the structure.
DWINDLING HOPE ORPHANAGE HOME.
That was the inscription at the top of the building. If this building remains standing for another few years, it definitely would collapse. Harvy could tell that much.
He walked towards the large gate that connected the fences. Pushing the old gate open, he saw a midde-aged woman holding a long broom and standing under a tree.
The woman seemed to be staring at something. Harvy couldn't get a perfect sight of what she was staring at until he walked closer.
When he closed the pace, he noticed that she was staring at a body of snow that was made into a large ball and then connected to a long stick.
The tiny rays of the fierce sun stole through the openings of the trees, hitting mercilessly on the snow.
Harvy stopped two steps behind the woman.
"It's a little bigger than it used to be." Harvy said softly, announcing his presence.
The woman didn't act startled, nor did she make any significant reaction following the voice that came behind her.
"You came." The croaked voice of the woman broke.
When she turned around, the wrinkles in her face faltered, tears evident in her black pulpils. She was doing all her best to hold the tears back.
She walked into his arms and hugged him warmly. She held unto him as though she would dissolve into his body.
"I thought I would watch it all by myself again." She muttered weakly as the tears gushed out.
Harvy rubbed his palm on her back, patting her. She shouldn't be crying so hard. It would be detrimental to her health.
"Uncle!!!" "Uncle Harvy!!!" An outbreak of noise burst out of nowhere.
When Harvy lifted his gaze, he saw that the door of the main building had opened, and a flock of happy kids were seen running towards him. In short, dashing.
The woman realised what was coming her way. She quickly moved out of the way before the kids crashed into her and cause her even more pain.
Harvy tried to hug as many kids as possible. His arms became too full that he had to squat. He wanted to hold as many of them as possible in his arms.
No matter how much he did, it wasn't really enough. He had to resort to hugging the kids one after the other.
"Is this the stubborn Mira?" He asked, rumpling the hair of a little girl who looked to be six.
"Mira broke the flask today. Ninna could not take her drugs." A cute boy complained to Harvy.
"Oh, really, Mira? You shouldn't do that." Harvy corrected. "I'm sure it was a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes." He added.
Suddenly, something occurred to him. The kid had just talked about drugs. Drugs for who?
He turned away from the kids towards Ninna. When he turned, he was quite stunned to see Claire walking towards the scene.
"What the hell." He cursed, not sure if that was the right thing to do.
Ninna had noticed Harvy's reaction first before seeing Claire.
"Who are you looking for, Miss?" Ninna asked Claire politely.
"Good afternoon, ma. Actually, I'm Harvy's wife." Claire said.
When Harvy heard this, he almost lost his cool. He was going to react accordingly when Ninna suddenly felt dizzy and slumped.
Harvy moved like the wind in the blink of an eye and caught Ninna in his arms, helping her from falling to the hard floor...
She passed out.