Nobody could tell Jessica loved Zachary
from how she treated him. Jessica was wide awake after hearing Steven's words.
Her eyes watered at him as she asked,
"Are you blaming me for falling asleep?"
"No." Steven seldom had a good temper
like this. Jessica could tell he genuinely
wasn't blaming her and sighed in relief.
That was when Steven cut to the chase.
"But—"
Jessica's heart raced at once
"You don't seem to care about Zachary at all," Steven calmly finished.
Jessica was quick to add, "I don't know why
either, but my pregnancy symptoms are
intense. I just felt so tired and needed to sleep right after you left."
Despite her reasons, Steven still gave her a
condescending stare. "But you still haven't
asked about Zachary even now that we've
returned."
It was only after hearing him say so that
Jessica realized she had made a grave
mistake. Jessica had successfully kicked
Annalise out of the picture and took the
latter's place.
However, she now realized Zachary was still
the most important thing in Steven's heart.
Jessica shouldn't have neglected Zachary
from the start. At the very least,
she should have treated Zachary better
around Steven.
Jessica inhaled deeply. The main problem at hand was she needed to appease Steven.
So, she said, "I'm sorry. I just woke up,
so everything's still a blur-"
While saying that, Jessica cried at will and allowed her teardrops to fall to the ground. "I'm so sorry for forgetting to ask about Zachary
Steven softened when he saw the former
crying. "Make sure to treat Zachary better
from now on, okay? Zachary sees you as his biological mom, so you shouldn't disappoint him."
He then hugged Jessica, who answered,
"Okay."
Just then, Jessica shot the briefest taunting
sneer at Zachary. Although she had agreed, it wasn't like anyone would know how she
treated Zachary whenever Steven wasn't
around.
Willow usually liked sleeping in on the
weekends, but she woke up early today. She stood outside Zane's door, knocked on it, and exclaimed, "Get up, Daddy
Let's go out for pizza!"
Zane had long gotten changed into fresh
clothes and was ready to head out,
"Don't you love your mom more?"
Since Annalise came to live with them,
he no longer held thetop spot in Willow's heart. He wondered,
"What's happening today?
Why did Willow come to my room first?"
Zane was confused as he asked,
"Aren't you going to wake your mom?"
"I wanted to let Mommy sleep in a little longer, "Willow answered matter–of–factly. That rendered Zane speechless,
and he felt like he shouldn't have bothered
asking her that.
I opened the door and immediately overbeard Zane and Willow's conversation.
With a smile, I greeted Willow,
"Good morning, Willow.
Willow no longer paid attention to Zane after
she heard my voice. She ran straight to me
instead. I squatted down and reached both
arms out, and Willow leaped into my
embrace.
"We'll go for pizza first. Then, we'll have fun at the amusement park!" she declared.
I hugged her tightly and answered, "Alright.
The housekeepers realized Willow had
become livelier and more chatty.
So, they came over to tease her.
Yet, Willow refused to say a single word to
them. She merely held my hand and walked
out of the living room in silence.
I stopped looking at Willow after that and fell into deep thought. I thought Willow was
getting better now that she seemed to
communicate normally in front of me and
Zane. Alas, I never imagined she would still
refuse to speak in front of strangers.
It seemed that using such a subtler method of improving her social skills wouldn't work.
I needed to think of other ways. There was a popular pizza place near Zane and Willow's
home, which was always full of customers.
Only one table was available when
passed the menu to me.
I pointed at the different types