Chapter 6

The twins watched Garrick's face rapidly turn a bluish-purple, his breath coming in short, strangled gasps. Only then did fear seem to strike them.

They yanked their hands back, dropped the handkerchief, and bolted out of the room in a panic.

Garrick coughed violently and gulped for air, but his airway had already swollen badly, and every breath came with a frightening wheeze.

'The medicine… The allergy spray…' He stumbled out of bed and fumbled blindly for the nightstand drawer, where he always kept an emergency allergy inhaler.

His hand shook as he pulled it out.

But the door suddenly slammed open again. Caleb and Ruby had returned.

The moment Caleb saw the spray in his hand, his eyes widened, and he lunged forward to snatch it away. "You're still going to use that? No way! You have to suffer for a while so you actually learn your lesson! So you stop bullying him!"

"Give it back... cough..." Garrick gripped the spray with all his remaining strength. It was the one thing that could keep him alive.

Ruby joined the struggle, and the twins pulled at the canister with all their might.

The small canister flew from his grip, arced through the air, and landed squarely in the open toilet bowl.

"No!" A cry of pure despair tore from his throat.

He lunged toward the toilet, but the lack of oxygen had already left black spots dancing across his vision, and his limbs had grown weak and useless.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the twins standing in the doorway, watching him with cold, expressionless eyes. Then they turned and ran off without looking back.

…

When Garrick regained consciousness, his throat and chest still burned like fire, but his breathing had eased considerably.

Nancy Miller, the housekeeper, stood beside his bed, her face etched with worry. "Sir! You're finally awake! You gave me such a scare!"

Her eyes were red-rimmed.

"There isn't even any flower pollen in this house. How did you suddenly have an allergic reaction to pollen? Thank goodness your wife came home early tonight and noticed something was wrong..."

Garrick closed his eyes and said nothing.

Josephine had found him? Did she know who was responsible?

"Nancy," he said, his voice ragged and hoarse. "Go get Caleb and Ruby."

Nancy hesitated for a moment before leaving to fetch them.

The twins shuffled in soon afterward and stopped a few steps from the bed, their heads bowed, neither daring to look at him.

Garrick studied them. They were his own flesh and blood, the children he had once devoted every ounce of love and effort to protecting.

Now, all he felt was a chill that reached his bones.

"Look at me." His voice was quiet, but it carried a cold, unyielding authority.

The twins slowly raised their heads, their gazes darting away before returning to his face.

"Do you have anything to say about what happened last night?" Garrick asked.

Caleb pressed his lips together and said nothing. Ruby began to cry softly.

Garrick's voice trembled. "W-Why? I am your father. I took care of every little detail of your lives. I taught you your first words and watched you take your first steps. I worked hard to give you the best life I could. What did I do wrong to make you hate me enough to try to kill me with pollen?"

His voice broke further with every word, and tears streamed down his face as heartbreak and despair overwhelmed him.

"It was an accident..." Caleb mumbled in a feeble attempt to defend himself.

"An accident?" Garrick's voice rose sharply, and the strain triggered another violent coughing fit.

"Pressing a pollen-covered handkerchief over my face was an accident? Snatching my medicine and throwing it into the toilet was an accident too? Caleb, Ruby, you're both five years old. Who taught you to do this? Was it Silas?" Garrick demanded.

"It wasn't him!" Caleb shot back immediately. "We wanted to do it ourselves! Because you were mean to him!"

"Yeah!" Ruby shouted through her tears. "We hate you! You're always so awful to him!"

As Garrick watched them defend that man so fiercely, even to the point of trying to kill their own father for his sake, the last thread of hope in his heart finally snapped.

He pushed himself upright in bed, his body swaying slightly from weakness and fury. "Fine. Since you both think so little of me, today I'm going to teach you a real lesson about discipline and respect for your father.

"Nancy, bring me the wooden ruler."

Nancy flinched. "Sir, are... are you sure?"

"Go."

Nancy had no choice but to fetch the wooden ruler, her hands trembling the entire time.

Garrick gripped the cold wooden ruler and looked at the twins before him. Their faces had gone pale with fear, and his heart twisted painfully at the sight.

Still, he forced himself to remain firm.

"Hold out your hands."

Caleb held his head high and stubbornly refused to move. Ruby shrank back in fear behind her brother.

Just as Garrick raised the ruler to strike, a voice cut through the room. "Stop!"

Silas burst in like a gust of wind, spread his arms wide, and shielded both children behind him. "Gary, if you want to hit someone, hit me! The kids already told me everything. It happened because of me... This is on me. If you're angry, take it out on me. Don't frighten the children like this!"

Garrick watched his performance of noble self-sacrifice with nothing but disgust. "Get out of the way."

"I will not!" Silas stood his ground and continued to shield the children. "They're still young. They don't know any better. You cannot treat them this way."

"I said get out of the way!"

Garrick's patience snapped, and he shoved Silas's arm aside with considerable force.

Silas cried out in surprise and stumbled backward, his back slamming into the corner of a table. The impact drained the color from his face.

"What is going on here?" Josephine thundered from the doorway.

She strode into the room. The first thing she saw was Silas clutching his reddened, swollen arm, his lips pale with pain. Behind him stood the twins, their bodies trembling and their faces streaked with tears.

Then she turned toward Garrick, who still held the ruler in his hand. His expression was thunderous, and his eyes were icy.

"Garrick Langdon." Josephine practically spat his full name through clenched teeth, her eyes ablaze with barely contained fury. "How much longer are you going to keep this up?"

Silas immediately grabbed her wrist. "Josie, this isn't Gary's fault. The kids did something wrong last night, and he wanted to punish them for it. I just... I just didn't stop him in time..."

Josephine pulled him close, her gaze growing even colder as she looked at Garrick. "The kids already told me everything! They only wanted to teach you a lesson because you hit him yesterday!

"This whole thing started with you! If you hadn't been so small-minded and so unwilling to tolerate another person, none of this would have happened!"

She pointed at the ruler in his hand, her voice icy. "And now look at you! You've brought out a wooden ruler, ready to hit the children, and you've already hurt Silas this badly too! Garrick, you've completely lost all sense of restraint!

"Fine. So you like disciplining people with corporal punishment, do you? Then you can spend some time in the punishment room reflecting on your actions.

"Someone, take him away! He's not to leave the punishment room without my express permission."